[ks] A Novel Skills and General Analysis: 2024

To make this, I used this output calculator that I made (please let me know if there are any mistakes in it) and conducted some original research, which I will outline below. I recommend reading it to understand some of the justifications I make for skills and generals.

To better understand evasion and movement, I went through every hex in 1798 HRE+Prussia+Poland and logged what type of terrain it was (including cities and trenches/fences/bunkers). This is a fairly large central area that includes various terrain types and city sizes.

Here are the results of those 451 hexes:



average infantry evasion = 1.32%
average cavalry evasion = 7.62%
average artillery evasion = 5.36%

Note: City evasions are based on averages of all cities recorded.

This is at the very beginning of the conquest, where cities are not upgraded and fewer defense buildings (trenches etc.) exist, so it can be used as a minimum average evasion. Defense buildings do proliferate throughout the game, but more so in conquests than campaigns due to their length and infantry spam in conquests.

Here is the same area with double the amount of defense buildings and cities upgraded to an average of 12% evasion (level 4):



average infantry evasion = 2.40%
average cavalry evasion = 8.46%
average artillery evasion = 6.04%

Not too big of a difference. However, when you are attacking a hex, it’s not as if you’re choosing one randomly. The hex you’re attacking is more likely to be a city or have a defense building than the map as a whole, for obvious reasons. The likelihood of attacking a given terrain type is probably similar to the overall map, though.

It’s impossible to know the exact average evasion of real-game combat without an extremely tedious logging of every attack throughout a mission or conquest (maybe I’ll do it eventually or someone else can). For right now, I’m going to do some pseudoscience and make an estimation:

Average infantry evasion is 4.5%
Average cavalry evasion is 9.3%
Average artillery evasion is 7.4%

Methodology:


We can use this to explore the effects of accurate vs. explosive, siege master, etc.

Here’s the findings for terrain movement:



So the average hex takes 3.83 movement points to move over. This will really only affect our understanding of geography, but is still useful.

Analysis

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There are a lot of analyses out there, but they are naturally inconsistent since each author values different things. Every player will inevitably have biases, but my goal is to make my criteria clear so each reader can know what perspective my thoughts are from. In my opinion, the most fun way to play the game is without S&L and with minimal item switching, and I think that’s the way the majority of viewers of this board prefer to play, including me. However, if I feel a skill or general would be massively different if one uses S&L, I’ll mention it in the review.

Skill Analysis

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Here are some important notes about the criteria I’m using for skills:

1. No save & load (S&L)
2. Minimal item switching – only switching around snare drums among low health generals, since that’s almost a necessity for many missions, and sometimes warhorses if you need to rush. What I won’t consider is switching to movement items before moving, then to attack items, then to defense items to end the turn. That’s way too much.

S Tier

Leadership – Morale can’t drop. Great on any unit for both offense and defense. In the not uncommon situation of being flanked or charged at by cavalry, leadership conserves health and increases output. On double formation, that’s 6 more damage dished out per hit and 6 or 12 less damage taken per hit. Perfect!

Assault Art – 10% chance to deal maximum damage. Obviously ideal for S&L players, but even without S&L, this is the best offensive skill in the game. On average, it adds around 2–3 damage to a general’s attack on all units, which is around the same formation/surprise/explosive, but on all units. However, consistency is key, and for strategy’s sake I’d much rather have a general that does 50 damage all of the time than one that does 40 most of the time and 80 on occasion, even if they average to be the same. You don’t want to waste your AAs on militias and then have a dud against a powerful general. But unfortunately, that’s how AA often is without S&L. However, +2–3 damage on average is enough to be an S tier skill even without consistency.

Mass Fire – Infantry damage stays consistent regardless of health. The best infantry skill by miles. Replaceable by snare drum, and even though I’m allowing the switching of snare drums, it’s nice to have an infantry general that doesn’t need to share a snare drum since it’s hard to get more than two. In addition, it allows you to equip a Ferguson Rifle (+6 average damage) in its spot, which is better than any other skill.

A Tier

(A+) Geography – Makes all hexes cost 3 movement points to cross. As calculated above, the average hex takes roughly 3.83 movement points to cross without geography .That means that a non-geography unit will need, on average, 3.83*3=11.49 movement points to cross 3 hexes, while a geography general can always do that with 9 movement points. Thus, at 3 hex speed, it effectively gives 2.49 extra movement points, which is better than any item. At 4 hex speed it’s even more valuable, at 3.32 extra points. As with snare drums, it’s hard to get more than two war horses so it’s nice to have a general that doesn’t rely on them. Even if you wanted to be switching your war horses all the time, at minimum you get an extra +2 movement with this skill. Great for artillery and cavalry gens.

Strike – Deprive evasion to cavalry. Adds an average of 4 damage per hit.

Accurate – Deprive evasion to artillery. Adds an average of 3.5 damage per hit, since artillery evasion is lower than cavalry evasion.

Spy – 50% more damage to forts. Great for artillery gens, good for cav and navy, and decent for infantry. Nice universal skill.

Siege Master – eliminate evasion when attacking cities. Only adds 1-2 damage on average (including when not attacking a city), but great when attacking cities. Probably the most useful on artillery, but it's useful on all units, including ships. 

Engineering – +2 artillery movement. More movement is always good—less movement stars needed and more slots for attack items.

Steersman – reduces damage taken on ships by 10%. The best navy skill, a 10% damage reduction is extremely valuable in naval battles where it’s hard for any ship to hold a huge advantage over others.

B Tier

(B+) Formation/Explosive/Surprise – Increase maximum base output by 1. In effect, this raises damage by an average of 2.5-3. Not as good as strike or accurate, but formation is roughly equal to bugle.

(B+) Bugle – Deprive evasion to infantry. Due to low average infantry evasion, this adds only around 2 damage on average. Still a good skill to have, though on a hybrid gen Siege Master can take its place decently well, since half of all infantry evasion comes from cities (like Kutuzov or Ney).

Defense Art – 10% chance for an enemy attack (not retaliation) to deal 1 damage. Great for defending cities, but most of the time you aren’t using your generals for that. Good for generals who are getting attacked multiple times each round, if less than that, it’s alright. You can use S&L with this, but that just sounds like a nightmare. If you like item switching, you’re better off putting two +4 defenses on after every turn, but for everyone else, this is a pretty good defensive skill.

Fireproof (navy) – Unit can’t catch fire. Fire deals damage equivalent to 4/6/8% of a general’s current health, and usually lasts multiple rounds. Not as good as Steersman’s reduction, but still useful and a better navy skill than navigation imo. Replaceable by firetruck, but still nice to have to allow for ship attack items that can’t be replaced by skills.

Navigation – +1 hex movement on ships. Replaceable by propeller, but frees up spots for attack items. However, you don’t always need super high movement speed on navy as the general can get separated from the rest of the fleet.

Architecture – Reduce cost of city upgrades by 40%. The best econ skill in that it can’t be replaced by items. Very powerful on a fast general in certain situations, but those situations are not too common. An econ general really just needs 5* trading and then you can give him a Napoleonic Code.

D Tier

I’m skipping C tier because these skills are all a big step down from the B tier skills.

(D+) Banner – allows general to equip flags. Better than people say it is. One flag provides up to an average of 2 extra attack/defense/regen for units directly adjacent to the general. Flags are very expensive, but, at a great cost to your medals and your general (since they will have no items that benefit themselves), you can give units around you +4 average attack, which is actually pretty good. Still, it doesn’t make sense for the vast majority of players, which is why it’s down here.

(D+) Sailor – no attack damage reduction for land units when at sea (usually 20%). There are a few campaigns where this is very useful, but most of the time it is completely useless.

(D+) Economic Master – 80% production boost for city/farm the general’s in. Replaceable by Napoleonic Code which has a 100% boost. Having this skill means you can free up an item slot for a small production decrease, but there’s no other item an econ gen really needs, so that’s not super beneficial.

(D+) War Master – 80% increase in rank xp. Replaceable by On War, but if you don’t want to grind, this will increase your general’s rank quite fast in normal battle with regular useful items equipped. However, once maxed it is useless so I’m putting it in D tier.

War Expert – 40% increase in rank xp. Replaceable by On War again; just a worse version of War Master.

Nobility – 50%(?) increase in nobility xp. Replaceable by Crown. Again, if you don’t want to grind it’s an okay skill until maxed. But, unlike rank, nobility is very easy to grind for, so this is a worse skill.

Logistics – General consumes no resources. Useful on low food missions to conserve food, or if you’re dumb and let a famine happen, in which case your general will not lose morale or become confused. Otherwise, useless.

Fireproof (land) – Unit can’t catch fire. Usually useless as land units can just move out of fire. However, there may be occasions where the hex you need to/really want to go to is on fire, and this helps save health in those cases.

Economic Expert – 40% production boost for city/farm the general’s in. Replaceable by Napoleonic Code. A worse version of Economic Master.

F Tier

Transport – Reduces transport cost from 40 gold to 20 gold. The best skill of F tier, this skill will save you 20 gold one time. That’s how bad this tier is.

Mobility/Infantry Tactics/Ballistics – Increases minimum base output by 1. If you’re using Franquemont or Fontanelli on Prussian or Austrian guards cavalry, there is a 1 in 2000 chance that mobility will actually do something! That something is to increase your output from 5 damage to 6 damage. Otherwise, useless.

Trench/Fence/Disguise – These are supposed to decrease the costs of building each fortification, which would put them at the top of F tier, except for the fact that they don’t actually work. Thus, these are the only skills in the game that do absolutely nothing 100% of the time. Congrats!

General Analysis

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Coming soon. I have a lot of them written but I am going to do it Friedrich “Fried Rice” Paulus and John Marston style and have each general in a separate post because it encourages discussion. Stay tuned.

Again, every ranking will have biases, so my goal is to lay out mine beforehand so you can manually adjust the ratings yourself if your playing style differs from any of mine below:

Criteria for IAPs and princesses:

1. No S&L — same as for skill analysis
2. Minimal item switching — I am assuming they will have two items at all times. They will NOT switch from move→attack→defense; only snare drum and war horse when necessary.
3. Stars will matter very little (aside from training stars), and I will focus mainly on skills. However, I recognize that being less expensive to max out is a benefit and will incorporate that accordingly (i.e. a little bit)
4. Prices – I will not be considering prices of IAPs for my ratings, since you’re already paying real money.
5. Since infantry and navy are weaker units, that will be reflected in the general ratings. Their respective skills were not nerfed above though as that is more of a reference than a buying guide.
6. I’m assuming anyone buying an IAP will have more than 4 slots.
7. Slight preference for hybrids because I think they're way more fun to play with.

Criteria for Tier 1/2 generals:

1. No S&L – same as for skill analysis
2. Minimal item switching — However, I won’t assume every general has two items since at the stage of the game where you have tier 1/2 generals, you won’t have two items for each of them.
3. Stars for generals who will not make your final team are very important. Since you should not be regrouping trainers into a temporary general, stars and skills are both important in these generals’ capabilities.
4. Prices — I will consider prices for medal-bought generals, although, in my opinion, it is not very difficult to get medals so I won’t put too much weight into it.
5. Since infantry and navy are weaker units, that will be reflected in the general ratings. Their respective skills were not nerfed above though as that is more of a reference than a buying guide.
6. No preference for hybrids because you don't need that in the early/mid-game

Princesses

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(S) Lan

(S) Sophia

(S) Isabela

(S) Sakurako

(S) Victoria

(A) Kate

(D) Fatimah

(D) Maria

IAPs/Tier 3

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S Tier

Highly recommended.

Davout

Lannes

Poniatowski

A Tier

They may not beat out princesses, but these generals are powerful and fun to use. Recommended.

Nelson

Murat

Radetzky

Dombrowski

Soult

Moreau

Kutuzov

B Tier

Decent to pretty good generals. There are better options, but if you really like them in history or their portrait or something, go ahead and buy them.

Massena

Jervis

Washington

Paget

Dearborn

Suvorov