All EW4 rankings

Nelson is the better choice, don't trust Davout.

On Artillery:

Nelson has Accurate for more consistent output (ignoring evasion such as 30% on bunker. Without accuracy, damage would be dropped by 30%), and Davout has Explosive which only adds 2~3 damage (not much difference)

Nelson has Leadership, which is extremely good on Artillery because it's the most vulnerable unit to cavalry (cavalry attack can reduce morales)

And Davout? He has Geography. That is replaceable with War Horse. He also has Assault Art, but not a very high chance of triggering unless you save and load.

Nelson starts at 4 movement stars and 4 training stars. That is great- he is fast and sturdy!

His 5 navy stars will also be greatly helpful on navy missions.

Please refer to my newest general guide to consider buying any generals. It's not fully complete, but the recommendation of good generals in your headquarters is already finished.

IAPs are not bad to start off, but remember that princesses have the most potential.

He's only great in the right hands. Too specialized to be a beginner's choice I'd say.

If you tell me your budget (how many medals you have) alongside campaign progress, I will teach you more specifically.

BTW, having a 5-star business star general is great, as you can reduce the item costs by 20%! You can also sell the item back at the same price, conserving medals with no loss.

Napoleon's first law: If you trade using a 5-star Business trader, there will be no loss in resources whether it be medals or in-game resources.

I'll just pretend you don't have a 5-star business general, also that you have infinite medals.

The very basic 2 items you must own are a Snare Drum (635) and a War Horse (815).

Afterwards, you should aim to get Horse Artillery for +2 movement on Artillery. Then, you can also buy 2x Potent Gunpowder (695) for more damage output on Artillery.

For Navy, you just need 2 propellers. (250 medals) That's pretty much it. If you want overkill on Navy, buy 2x Bow Chaser. (150)

All information on items could be found here.

There is a better cavalry gen, AKA Lan. Radetzky offers Defense Art, but Lan offers Assault Art AND Leadership.

For Artillery, there is the fast Isabella, fort destroyer Sophia... but Nelson offers an alternative of Leadership and also has great Naval abilities.

Besides, they asked between Davout and Nelson. Perhaps they didn't have anymore refreshes.

Interesting. On my iPhone, Brock still had sailor instead of formation, in the general shop. He has formation in scenarios though.

BTW, Just to clarify, Bugle is existent on Brock regardless of any version.

This is also the case on mac version too. Brock has sailor in the shop but formation elsewhere, including in the America 1812 conquest