"The Scum of the Earth, enlisted for drink."

Marshal Ney , thanks. I hardly use them any more either, but then I have five princesses and a five star cavalryman. Newcomers to the game will find them useful, though (e.g. getting Sophia and possibly Fatimah), and I thought it was worth creating a guide for them so they don't blow a whole heap of their first medals trying out generals who are unsuitable.

Plus I figure if you're going for the HRE speed-run and you have plenty of resources, you may want to unlock one or two to help clear out the back areas of France once you have beaten Paris; the HRE generals you start with are normally quite depleted by that time, and they need all the help they can get. MacDonald, for instance, is a 3-star cavalry general and that's not to be sneezed at, even if you can't give him items (for the record he deploys with the Figurehead; 2+ SHIP DEFENCE, which is the most useless item ever for a land general, but that's the chance you take).

ETA: I have completed stats for the Holy Roman Empire tavern generals in 1798, so here's a foretaste of what you can expect. There is a long intro I have written, which I think still needs some work, and I need to grind through about 30 more turns playing France 1798 until I can unlock all their tavern commanders and see the items they get. This is vital to this series, as some of those items significantly impact the generals' usefulness on various units.


DRAFT SAMPLE (SUBJECT TO EDITS/REFORMATTING):
(Costs are in medals/gold/wrenches; HP is health points, i.e. Rank; N is Nobility; skills in brackets are IMO inapplicable to tavern generals as they cannot be carried beyond that game/save. The intro, when refined, explains and will expand on that.)

Weilburg (Holy Roman Empire, 1798):


Archduke J: available turn 8, costs 6/120/20. 54HP, 3N. 3 inf, 2 cav, 2 art, 2 econ, 1 mov, 2 retrain. [Nobleman, Infantry Trainer]. Deploys with no item. If you need an extra infantry general in the early part of the game he’s there, but that’s all you can say about him. The training stars are useful to regenerate his health a little and keep him in the fight, an important consideration if you’re trying to take the offensive against the elite French generals that gather on your western border.


Bubna: available turn 10, costs 6/195/25. 36HP, 2 N. 2 inf, 3 cav, 2 econ. Mobility (+1 min attack), [trench] Deploys with spike bayonet (+1 infantry attack). According to what is known about the damage output formula, a 2-star infantry general with this item will not hit as hard as a 3-star cavalry general with no items, so unless different information comes to light, this might be considered a useless item unless you REALLY want him on infantry (remember, he is deploying in a stable, so the infantry unit has to be moved in to deploy him).


Kollowrat: available turn 20, costs 5/310/40. 36HP, 3N. 2 inf, 2 artillery, 1 econ. Geography. Deploys with gaiters (+1 infantry movement). Now here is the dilemma. Geography (all land is treated as flat land) doesn’t count for infantry units, which have it automatically, but there is one particular infantry unit which has eight movement points (light infantry), and with three points equalling one hex of territory, Kollowrat with the gaiters makes it nine. So Kollowrat on a full strength light infantry unit actually moves faster than any infantry without a general, and that potentially makes him useful enough that putting him on Artillery (where the Geography skill really shines) may not be as worthwhile.


Clujnapoca (Holy Roman Empire, 1798)

Sokolnicki: available turn 27, costs 6/240/160. 54HP, 3N. 1 cav, 2 art, [1 fort], 2 econ, 1 mov. Engineering, Accurate. A very clear choice for artillery general, with his best stars and his skills aligned. 1 movement star plus engineering gives him a whole extra hex with artillery on flat ground, Accurate negates damage penalties from terrain. As a tavern general he deploys with the oak wheel, which is worth yet another movement point for artillery, an extremely useful item to have especially for the heavy units.

Wittgenstein: available turn 42. Costs 8/530/220. 64HP, 4 N. 5 inf, 4 cav, 1 art, 1 econ, 2 mov, 2 retrain. [War expert, fence], mobility (+1 minimum cavalry strike; functional but not so hot in practice). His skills are worth nothing, but the stars are impressive. Even without items or added skills, a 5-star infantry or 4-star cavalry general is not to be sneezed at, especially when he’s levelled up by experience and used in a grind save. Wittgenstein deploys with the green jacket, which provides defence capability for infantry. Given that Mobility doesn’t really cut it as a cavalry skill, he’s best made an infantryman and put on high-level Grenadiers or Guards (for attacking fortresses) or a double Machine Gun (against inf/cav). If you want to use him and can afford it, plan ahead: spawn a triple Guards formation out of Vienna and set it moving an appropriate number of turns beforehand so it has time to get there by his deployment date. If used on light infantry, his movement stars will give it enough points to carry it an extra hex.

Also,before you get far into it.
Shouldn't you just start another thread stating what its about?
That quote from Wellington is not going to get the people you want to see it.

Good thought; I probably will rename it or start a fresh thread when I've got a little more "meat" to pad it out with and when I have revised the intro.

The fact that these generals cannot take on items except what they come out with, or be trained higher than they are in anything at all (except retraining stars in the field) puts a very different spin on how useful each one of them is, plus it gives access to a lot of generals that free-to-play gamers or newbies would ordinarily never dream of having. So the conclusions I come to are likely to differ from those in the Who's in my Academy analysis, and will likely be very different from those Marshal Ney comes to in his own thread or Picard reached when he was doing them. And neither of them is necessarily wrong.

No pubs in campaigns, only in conquests AFAIK. Your willingness to help is, however, noted and appreciated.

Progress report: I have played conquests of sufficient length to unlock all the British and French tavern generals for 1798 and determine their items. I now have to play a serious conquest with each, getting a feel for what they can do, and I had better accomplish that on the Android platform so I have 999 turns in which to play to a victory (and grind more medals in the process).

This isn't going to happen overnight.

Do you think it is fair to use save/load in this process, or should I play as a complete noob, since that's the sort of player who would most commonly use TG's in the first place? On the other hand, anyone who comes here and reads my advice post, when it's eventually done, will probably be determined enough to have read around and will know what save/load is about anyway.

You are gathering data,not appraising skills or usefulness of a paticular general right??stay with that,let those who want to use them decide for themselves.
JMO.