Looking at Caesar we should apply Aristotelian terms “actuality” and “potentiality” (that means in simple words an appraisal of a situation not only as it is now, but as it could be as well). That'll give us a chance to evaluate the situation and the potential of every general (in our case Caesar) before proceeding and making final judgments. In “actuality” Caesar is overpriced general with decent abilities. But potentially Caesar could be one of the best units in EW5.
1. Overall strength
Well… 650 attack points at lvl 6 – it is not bad, but not very impressive either. In fact Lionheart with his “Mass fire” and Alex with his “Attack master” have more than that. But this is not the whole story. Success in EW5 is a combination of attack, defense and survival ability. Let’s compare Caesar with probably the best general in EW5 Washington at lvl 6 (only default stats without skills and abilities):
Defense Caesar 341 Washington 241
Attack Caesar 651 Washington 832
HP Caesar 2927 Washington 2034
Movement Caesar 9 Washington 8
Of cause Washington’s attack is undeniably great! But he is IAP, and Caesar is better in all other parameters (definitely 100 points defense and 900 points HP count for something). So we can say, that Caesar is a general with decent attack and great defensive potential.
2. Skills and abilities
Let’s see what Caesar has at lvl 6
1. Cure master (max lvl gives 150 hp, duration 3, radius 2)
2. Braveness (attack without retaliation in player’s turn)
3. Defense master (max lvl gives Caesar 416 defense points in total)
4. Assault (+50% damage to infantry)
5. Armor (- 50% damage from archers)
Well, it is, of cause, debatable, but it is in my opinion one of the best sets of skills in the game. All 5 of them are not bad at all. Let us take Defense master closer… Is it expensive? Definitely! Is it overpriced? Absolutely! Is it bad? Not at all! At later stage it could be very useful indeed.
Cure master
There were some debates about this skill.
For a long time I had level 5 of this skill, and it was somewhat diappointing. But I remembered that in German there is a good saying: "Wer A gesagt hat, muss auch B sagen" (it is something like "Who said A, he should also say B"). And I've spent several days to upgrade this skill to max level. I do not regret.
Let’s compare it with similar skills and abilities. Cure master gives points restoration while Logistics and Plunder give percentage restoration. Of cause percentage restoration is better! But there is something, that changes situation completely. Logistics and Plunder are personal skills and Cure Master is a team skill (all members of the team and also common units built in barracks profit from it). In missions with 15 or more turns it could be triggered in the range between 3 times and almost indefinite. Let us look at the lowest boundary – 3 times. It means that all members of our team (without counting common units) will receive each 1350 additional HP points per mission. And that is the minimal estimation!
Ok. What’s about “Armor master”. Well, I think that Cure Master is another side of the coin of Armor Master. Let’s say our general takes 300 points damage (sometimes it is more than that sometimes less, but for the sake of argument let it be so). So Blucher decreases 150 points while Caesar restores 150 points. Both skills have weaknesses and strengths. Armor master is good only for frontline units – Cure master works well for rearguard as well. Armor master is great in hard-fought battles (when units will be attacked more than once in enemy’s turn) – Cure master is working well in quiet situation or while team is moving, or if there is a time to consolidate your strength before final assault.
So here we have screenshots from earlier thread
Take note of HP bar of all generals… Though it is turn 16, all are fit and healthy. And it is a rule, not an exception.
So, there is basically 3 ways (or 4 if we count items) to increase the overall defense of your team:
1. Generals (at least most of them) have Plunder or Logistics. It is a justifiable approach taken for example by forum member AAA.
2. Member of the team with Armor master skill (Blucher or Yi Sun-Sin).
3. Member of the team with Cure master (Caesar does his job well)
3. Price
Everybody knows that Caesar is expensive. That is definitely true. But is it somewhat exceptional in EW5? By no means! All gold Generals are golden (in all meanings of the word) indeed.
Washington 3020/3600/5520 - 12140
Li Shimin 3020/3600/5520 - 12140
Suleiman 3020/2110/5520 - 10650
Caeser 4750/1680/5520 – 11950
So Caesar is expensive, but almost all gold generals are expensive as well
And if we compare two main skills – Caesar and Blucher are within one price range (6430 vs. 5495. The difference could be easily explained by golden status of Caesar).
4. Potential development
Ok. The question is: could we increase the output of Caesar? The answer is – definitely!
In logic there is a concept “vicious circle” (one logical mistake leads to another and so on). But is it possible to create for Caesar “virtuous circle”? In theory if Caesar could deliver great damage with his braveness and trigger his Cure master once in three turns, he will be then one of the greatest in the game. And there is a clear way to do that. I mean “Commander” skills of other generals.
Here is Caesar using this skill (Barbarossa’s “Commander” skill at lvl 8 and Peter’s skill at lvl 6).
Taking into account that Caesar has 50% bonus against infantry, it is definitely impressive (in most instances it is one-shot kill). With high defense and his Armor (- 50% damage from archers) he is also immune to archers. He is not bad against cavalry either, but it is better to support infantry line with debuffing skills of archers (for example Nobunaga and Li Hongzhang).
Conclusion
With all this in mind I can say that Caesar is one of the best generals in the game with one important addition – when used properly (but it is the rule for all generals, of course).
But certainly there are other strategic approaches and I said long before that Lionheart is also a very capable general.
