Tavern Generals: the Why, Where, Who and How.

The medals needed to buy generals in the academy can be quite steep, but what’s a new player to do while they play enough conquests or campaigns to grind those medals out? At least in conquests, Tavern generals can be the answer. They can be found in numerous cities scattered around each conquest map, each marked by a beer mug, and can be had either by playing for the nation in which a particular tavern is located, or by capturing (or stealing) that city. My research indicates that the same generals are always to be found in a particular city in a particular conquest map.


The upside of a tavern general is that they are cheap in medal terms. They can be quite pricey in terms of gold and wrenches, but because they are not obtainable until a certain turn limit (displayed alongside each general) has been reached, you have usually obtained enough gold and wrenches to buy them (and if not, you are in deep trouble on the battlefield).


The downside is that you only get them for one conquest, so you have to make their use worthwhile, and if you are playing one of the more vulnerable nations (e.g. Poland), you might well be overrun before you can deploy them all to your advantage. Players rushing the game for one or more of the princesses generally do not benefit, because the game has to be in the bag by the time the better generals deploy, but if you are simply playing with the aim of either winning eventually or (in the case of minor nations on some platforms with the old 99 turn limit) merely surviving to the end, they can be of great help.


Another downside is that unlike academy generals, they cannot be issued items that you buy in the HQ store, and the trainers cannot be regrouped into another general to boost their stars. Nor can they level up in terms of their HP (rank) and nobility (health regeneration potential). So any tavern general with a training skill has in effect one skill fewer, and those with skills that depend on items carried can have their usefulness much reduced.

In addition, using them freely in every conquest you play can quickly add up in medal terms, and beginning players are cautioned to keep an eye on the medal count and use them wisely. You are advised to consult various threads on how to set up and save a medals grind, with which they can be replenished in useful numbers whenever you need them, and by means of this, a couple of well-chosen tavern generals can prove extremely useful and make their cost back very easily. (In short, completely surround but DO NOT conquer a city – or preferably several cities - and keep on killing the defenders whenever they respawn. Keep this up until the turn limit ends, you get bored, or you have enough medals for the next thing you wish to buy. Save the game just before you start the repeated killing. Then you can load it up again whenever you need more medals and continue the slaughter.)


Because they have to be deployed onto a unit in the city/base where their tavern is, tavern generals cannot be deployed to fortresses. Therefore, the number of fortress stars they possess is irrelevant. Sometimes it is necessary to spawn a unit in another place and move them to the tavern in order to deploy a general on the unit to which he is best suited (and it is always “he” – there are no Tavern Princesses, alas!). Sometimes, annoyingly, a TG who is strongest in naval combat will be found in a city far inland (case in point: Fischer, in Warsaw, playing as Russia in 1815). Then there is no way to deploy him onto a ship to make best use of him, and you have to work with what you are given.


Although it doesn’t show when they are still in the tavern, many (but not all) Tavern Generals deploy with one item. Experimentation suggests that this is the same item always, and it may be suited to his purposes (and yours) and his talents, or it may not. Sometimes it is completely useless to him; sometimes it only benefits a unit type on which the general is less than optimal, and you have to decide whether the benefits it brings are worth the loss of capability that obtains from putting him on that unit.


It should be noted that a nation whose taverns have not been conquered by the time a Tavern General is ready to deploy will almost invariably deploy him on the first available turn. So if you can get in there quick and take it from them before that turn, those resources are open to you. Consider how this might affect your strategy if an enemy tavern adjoins your territory and you yourself do not have the strongest generals, or very many of them.


Tactical analyses in this series are based on theoretical considerations calculated from first principles, reinforced in some cases by limited game-play with those generals once I deployed them, and are my opinions and responsibility alone. You may find differently in your own gameplay, and you are welcome to tell what you found. 

Costs are given in terms of medals/gold/wrenches; HP is the number he brings to the unit he’s deployed on; N is Nobility (the number of HP he regenerates per turn). Skills and stars in [square brackets] are either nonfunctional full stop, or nonfunctional/irrelevant to Tavern generals. I have left off bracketing [fort] in most cases since, as I have already described, they cannot be deployed there, but have left the information in for reference's sake.


So let us begin with... 




Taverns in this scenario are located in London (Great Britain), Portsmouth (Great Britain, naval base, south coast), Paris (France), Weilburg and Clujnapoca (Holy Roman Empire), Warsaw (Poland), Berlin (Prussia), and Karlskrona (naval base, Sweden).


LONDON (Great Britain)

Mercer: available at turn 16, costs 6/240/110. 44HP, 2N. 2 cav, 2 art, 1 econ, 1 mov, 1 retrain. [Disguise.] A very ho-hum general. His deployment item is Gaiters, +1 infantry movement. With no infantry stars and no hope of ever getting any as a tavern general, this item is useless. Decide whether you need a cavalry general or an artillery general the most. Given that you start off with one cavalry general already, he may be better employed on artillery.


Wellesley (i.e. Wellington): available at turn 26, costs 9, 590, 290. 86HP, 5N. 4 inf, 3 cav, 2 art, 2 navy, 2 fort, 4 econ, 2 mov, 3 retrain. Leadership, Bugle, Economic Master, [Banner]. His deployment item is the Royal Staff, which enables rapid gaining of Nobility. Unfortunately, these items seem not to work on Tavern Generals, who do not measurably gain nobility or HP in combat.


PORTSMOUTH (Great Britain, naval base, south coast/English Channel):


Sidney: available at turn 12, costs 6/260/110. 64HP, 3 N. 3 inf, 1 cav, 4 nav, 2 fort, 2 econ, 2 mov, 2 retrain. Navigation, Steersman, [Sailor]. His deployment items are oak wheel (+1 artillery) and green jacket (+2 infantry defence), only the latter of which makes any sense in a general with no artillery stars. To use it you must first create an infantry unit, give it Transport and THEN deploy it to Portsmouth, thus invalidating the one-time usefulness of his Sailor skill. Because Britain’s best moat has always been the English Channel/North Sea, his skills as an admiral are far more valuable to you (especially since he has Steersman, which enables him to steer around the shell splashes, as it were, and take less damage). So his deployed items are essentially useless.


Brueys: available at turn 36. Costs 6/360/120. 44HP, 3N. 4 navy, 1 fort, 2 mov. Navigation, [Transport]. I have bracketed Transport as a useless skill in his case because he has no stars in any land unit except fort (to which Tavern generals cannot be deployed). He deploys with the item “On War”, the rapid rank booster, which is useless on TG’s. His sole use is therefore as an admiral. Put him on the best ship you can afford, because as with Sidney, any ship he goes on gets an extra movement hex.


PARIS (France):



Junot: available after turn 8, costs 5/150/80. He comes with 36HP, 2 nobility. 3 cavalry stars and Strike (negates terrain penalties for killing). Paris cannot create cavalry units, so in order to properly use Junot, you need to create a cavalry unit somewhere else and move it into Paris, deploy him onto it, and then set him moving wherever you want him to go. The defender already in Paris will have to move out for this to happen. Junot deploys with the PUMPER, equivalent to the skill FIREPROOF; if hit by artillery (naval, fortress or mobile), the square in which he is standing will not catch fire and any burning square he moves into is extinguished next turn. This might make him a good choice to use against fortresses, for which you should mount him on Guards cavalry (which have grenades, and are proportionally more useful than other types against forts and ships in their ports/on coastlines).


MacDonald: available after turn 20, costs 6/290/100, deploys with 64HP, 3 N. 2 infantry, 3 cavalry, 2 artillery stars, 2 econ, 2 movement stars, 1 retraining star. His skill is surprise (increase cav max hit +1). He is also a War Expert (gains rank faster) and a cavalry trainer, but trainer skills are nonfunctional on a tavern general and even if War Expert works, there’s no point to it on a general who literally doesn’t last past this one conquest. Where this occurs, I will name the skills in [square brackets]. Like Junot, he is best on cavalry and his useful skill is in that area, so he will have to have a unit created for him elsewhere.

MacDonald deploys with the Figurehead, a completely useless item for him as its property is +2 defence for a navy commander on a ship.


Lannes: available after turn 35, costs 9/660/220 74HP and 4N, 5 inf, 3 cav, 2 art. He has Mass Fire (damage dealt when commanding infantry is not reduced by poor health), Assault Art (10% chance of doing maximum damage on any shot, and VERY useful when combined with Mass Fire), leadership (his morale does not drop when surrounded), and geography (all ground is treated as flat ground). Geography is innate to infantry, so this skill is wasted on them, while Mass Fire doesn’t function on cavalry or artillery (for which Geography is very useful in mountain country). So while he is best on infantry by far, he can be a very useful second choice for artillery or cavalry if you feel the need for it. Because he is not disadvantaged when surrounded, he is a good choice to put in a city and defend it against all comers, or to slip between fortresses if the enemy is spamming them and retaliate against them both in the AI phase. If the AI deploys him and you have to fight him, attack him from a distance with artillery then move in for the kill when he is in very low health and one or two strong hits will do the job.


Lannes deploys with a horseshoe; +1 cavalry movement. This will give guards cav and armoured cars nine movement points, which with his geography skill gives them three hexes. He may thus be well worth giving to a cavalry unit from time to time, depending on the circumstances.


Drouot: available turn 55, costs 7/590/190. 44HP, 2N. 3 art, [2 fort], 1 econ, 2 regen/training. Engineering, [artillery training, fence]. A competent artillery general (3 stars), but with only one useful skill, and even that is worth only 2/3 of a hex movement on flat ground and requires at least a +1 movement item. Unfortunately, Drouot gets “The Art of War” (the big thick grey book), which assists academy generals in powering up their health pools but is not useful for a tavern general.


WEILBURG (Holy Roman Empire, Western border near France):



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, eastern aspects, near the border with the Ottoman Empire)



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, which can be quite substantial, so he is good when firing into mountain country. 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, and which can give them an additional hex of movement (5 movement points to 6).


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 +2 defence capability for infantry NO, it's for artillery, my apologies. There is a similar item for infantry and I mistook this one for it. As things stand, the item is useless for him; with five stars in infantry, putting him on a unit for which he has only one star, just to get a plus-two defence bonus, is pointless.

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.



WARSAW (Poland):

Poniatowski: 8/190/60, available turn 9. 44HP 3N, 3 inf 3 cav 2 artillery, [1 fort], 2 econ, 2 movement, 3 retraining. Skills are assault art, geography, leadership, fireproof. Deploys with ram stem, a useless item for a land general (who has no naval skills anyway), so what you see is what you get, but that’s actually quite a lot. Putting him on a cavalry unit makes the best use of his skills, as assault art helps all units, geography is present on infantry anyway, and Leadership is an outstanding skill for cavalry because they are able to keep on hitting so long as each unit they hit is wiped out. He’s perfect for ducking in between weak units, annihilating the weakest, and then (with save-load) delivering a maximum-effort hit to the stronger ones in turn, without taking the morale drop that being surrounded usually confers. Fireproof is more of a naval skill, but is also useful against land units when one or more of them are artillery or forts that might set your hex on fire. Those three retraining stars can be used to boost his health if he takes damage early in his run. His two movement stars will nudge light cavalry, guards cav and armoured cars over the requisite cutoffs to move an extra hex on flat, bare ground, but are not quite enough to do the same for heavy cav, so think about that before you decide what unit to put him on.



Bennigsen: 6/250/100, available turn 29, 64HP 4N 2 inf 3 cav 1 art, [1 naval, 2 fort,] 2 econ, 3 move, 3 retraining. Assault art, mobility, economic expert. Receives no items. As with Poniatowski, Bennigsen’s Assault Art requires the save-load technique to make best use of him. Mobility is at best a minimallu useful cavalry skill, but he is strongest on cavalry anyway so give him a good, strong horse (e.g. double guards cav or double armoured car). With 3 mobility points to hand, he lifts guards cav and armoured cars to three hexes on bare ground (8 intrinsic movement points, raised to 11), and light and heavy cav to four (10 and 9 points, lifted to 13 and 12; 3 points per bare hex).



Raevsky: 7,330,120. Available turn 44, 64HP/4N. 3 inf, 3 cav, 1 art, 4 move, 2 retrain. Skills: [Fence,] Surprise, Defence art,

No item. He’s an interesting one. What I have said about cavalry movement above needs to be borne in mind, and with an extra movement star he can get armoured cars and guards cav moving four hexes on flat ground. On top of that, Surprise adds +1 to the maximum hit a unit can deliver, a big bonus for the save-load players. Defence Art isn’t as flexible as Assault Art from the save-load perspective unless you’re only facing one enemy; but if you have the patience for it and the positioning is right, you can take on a heavy hitter (e.g. some OP French general or fortress) and whittle them down, receiving much less damage in return than you ordinarily would.

If you choose to use him on infantry his four movement stars push a machine gun up to 9 movement points and most infantry up to 10, which is three hexes, and light infantry up to 12, which is FOUR hexes, on any ground (since infantry units have geography built in). If you’re trying to get somewhere with heavy anti-personnel firepower in a hurry and you can’t quite afford a double armoured car right then and there, he may be a consideration for an infantry machine gun command.


Godebski: 6/360/125, Available round 66, 36HP/3N, 3 cav, [1 fort], 1 movement, 1 retrain. Skill: Architecture. No items granted. Godebski is the crumbs at the bottom of the barrel, and truth be known his one skill would be of much more use at the start of the battle where you’re trying to boost your cities up at low cost. But if you’re playing on an open-ended (999 turn) platform and taking it slowly (which as Poland you must if you have no powerful academy generals), he’s available at the right time to come in behind the main wave and upgrade all those enemy cities you captured. His one movement star will make three-hex movers out of guards cav, armoured cars, and light infantry – but he’s wasted on the latter as he has no infantry stars (ditto machine guns, which he will move two hexes). Get him a horse and put it in Warsaw just ahead of time if you want to use him.


BERLIN (Prussia):

Yorck: available round 19, costs 6/290/80. 44HP, 3N. 3 inf, 2 cav, 1 art, 3 econ, 2 mov, 1 retrain. Skills: Assault art, Infantry tactics, [Infantry trainer]. Items: Artillery Defence helmet. While his item offers +4 defence when he is on artillery, this is his weakest point; he is much stronger as an infantry general. His movement stars will boost a machine-gun unit to 2 hexes of movement, which is definitely worth having, but he doesn’t supply enough movement points to get regular, grenadier or guards units up to three. Infantry tactics slightly strengthens (+1 minimum) the hit points of any unit he’s on, but his real benefit is Assault Art; save-load is a must here.


Scharnhorst: available round 56, costs 7/395/155. 44HP, 3N. 4 art, 3 ec, 1 mov, 3 retrain. Skills: Accurate, Engineering, [Artillery trainer]. No item granted. Trainer skills are no good on a tavern general, but his other two skills are pitched strongly at his artillery stars, and his one movement star is enough to enable heavy and siege artillery to move 2 hexes instead of 1 on flat bare ground.


KARLSKRONA (Naval base, Sweden, southeastern edge):


Cronstedt: Costs 5/220/80 Available turn 33, 74HP/3N. 2 art, 3 naval, [1 fort], 1 econ; Skills are sailor, banner. If you choose to use him as an artillery general, you have to give the artillery a boat (40 gold) and move it to Cronstedt. In a supreme irony, his deployment item is the armoured carrier, which while useful in its own right, duplicates his sailor skill and is thus wasted on him.


Falsen: costs 5/260/90, available round 47. 36HP, 2N. 1 art, 3 naval. Skills: [Navy trainer, disguise.] Both his skills are useless as a tavern general BUT he deploys with the propeller, which gives an extra hex of naval movement. An entirely appropriate item, which significantly increases his usefulness; to make best use of it, put him on a battleship or ironclad to increase their slow speed to that of a frigate or privateer.



This concludes the Tavern General post for Europe in 1798. I will start work on the other maps as soon as I am able, but this may take some time as my life is very busy right now.