Put the two characters you want together in an army or settlement. Bring up the character scroll with the retinue you want to transfer on it, then simply drag it onto the face of the character you want to give the retinue to.

Thanks, it sounds simple but I could never work it out. That will be a big help.

Each named character must be of the same type, e.g., a general and a general, not a spy and a general. Also, they can have a max of 8 ancillaries... you cannot add a 9th, but you can get rid of one, and leave an 'open' spot to receive another. Also, you can't do it with Admirals. One other restriction is that some ancillaries cannot be paired with certain others... when that happens, you know it because the retinue never changes to the target character when you drag and drop it.

you can shift retinue to make characters have different traits that you want them to have.

Hey . . . wait a minute . . . I can't see! AAAHHHH!!
(blindingly obvious)
jk

Seriously, though. That is a good way to be sure that really good traits survive. In one of my campaigns, this one retinue person has been passed down for five generations.

Excellent point, RuthlessGeneral5... about helping Ancillaries survive. To take it further... if a named character dies, any retinue (the ancillaries) area also gone. If a named character (geners, spy, diplomat) is getting old & might die anytime, then it might be wise to transfer the retinue to another.

However, traits are not ancillaries... they can be passed down in children, though. Traits cannot be swapped, like ancillaries can. Traits can develop/change with time though.

When I said "traits" I meant "the traits that are caused by having the ancillary"

Sorry for any confusion

I see I forgot to mention the antithesis of survival... destruction. Some ancillaries, like Drunken Uncle, might be best disposed of, but you can't just delete them... so those can be added to suicide generals and old family members, and when the named character with the Dunken Uncle dies, the undesired ancillary is gone too .

Are anchillairies cumulative? (so 8 drillmasters give +200% movement bonus )

And BTW, how they swap personal anchillairies like uncles? ''Father, my uncle in now your uncle.''

Quote:

You can do it when they are on the same fleet too.

Quote:

A single general can't have more than one of each type of ancillary.

Quote:

Actually, it just says that the ancillary is a drunken uncle, not whos uncle he is. Good question though.

Quote:

Steace43 is right... however the full answer to the Pjoo Berg question is yes, as long as the actual ancillary is not duplicated, only the effect. With the right combination of traits and ancillaries, you can get dirt cheap buildings, and phenomenal movement rates. You can also get cheap units, but that cost has a floor of 60%. The floor of building cost seems to be 1 denarii. You can test this by assigning ancillaries to units in the descr_strat.txt at the beginning of a campaign.

Here is an example, which I will not go into in great detail, but should provided a lot of information for those interested:

GOOD TRAITS (and limits popularity!):
; -------------- Faction Leader North of Arretium -------------
characterFlavius Julius, named character, leader, command 0, influence 0, management 0, subterfuge 0, age 47, , x 89, y 82 
traits ArchitectSkill 3, AssassinCatcher 3, AssassinMaster 3, Brave 3, CounterSpy 3, DeceiverVirtue 3, Despoiler 3, Disciplinarian 1, Energetic 2, Fertile 3, GamesFanRomanVice 1, Genocide 3, GoodAdministrator 3, GoodBuilder 3, GoodCommander 5, GoodEngineer 3, GoodFarmer 3, GoodMiner 3, GoodTaxman 3, GoodTrader 3, Handsome 3, InspiringSpeaker 2, Intelligent 3, Just 3, KindRuler 3, LogisticalSkill 3, MathematicsSkill 3, NaturalMilitarySkill 4, NaturalPhilosophySkill 3, PhilosophySkill 3, PhlegmHumour 3, PlainRomanVirtue 3, PoliticsSkill 3, Pragmatic 1, PublicFaith 3, Rabblerouser 1, RhetoricSkill 3, RomanHero 1, Scout 3, Secretive 3, SmoothTalker 3, SpyMaster 3, StrategicSkill 3, TacticalSkill 3, Upright 4, WellConnectedWife 3, Xenophobia 3
ancillaries bodyguard, priest_of_Juno, drillmaster, priest_of_Artemis, scout, intrepid_explorer, priest_of_Asklepios, strato
army

Command    +12DeceiverVirtue +1, GoodCommander +5, Intelligent +3, StrategicSkill +3, 
Influence+26AssassinMaster +1, DeceiverVirtue +1, GoodBuilder +1, Handsome +6, InspiringSpeaker +1, Intelligent +3, KindRuler +3, PhlegmHumour -1, PlainRomanVirtue +3, PoliticsSkill +3, PublicFaith +3, RabbleRouser +1, RhetoricSkill +2
Management+25Austere +3, Energetic +2, GoodAdministrator +3, Intelligent +3, MathematicsSkill +3, NaturalPhilosophySkill +3, PhilosophySkill +3, PhlegmHumour +3, Pragmatic +1, RhetoricSkill +1, 
Attack0
Defense    0
Morale+7Brave +1, Disciplinarian +1, LogisticalSkill +4, RomanHero +1
Ambush+4TacticalSkill +4
Inf0
Cav0
SiegeAtt+2GoodEngineer +2
SiegeDef0
SiegeEngine+60GoodEngineer +60
Movement+7Disciplinarian +2, Energetic +2, LogisticalSkill +3, 
LOS+5Scout +3, TacticalSkill +2
HitPoints+6HaleAndHearty +6
Trade+45GoodTrader +30, MathematicsSkill +15
Farm+3GoodFarmer +3
Mine+30GoodMiner +30
Tax+30GoodTaxman +30
Loot-60Despoiler -30, Genocide -30
Squalor    -9GoodBuilder -3, KindRuler -3, NaturalPhilosophySkill -3
Construct +65ArchitectSkill +30, Energetic +20, GoodBuilder +15
Electability+45DeceiverVirtue +9, PlainRomanVirtue +9, PoliticsSkill +9, RhetoricSkill +3, WellConnectedWife +9
Senate+75DeceiverVirtue +15, PlainRomanVirtue +15, PoliticsSkill +15, RhetoricSkill +15, Secretive +3, WellConnectedWife +15
Popular***+85Brave +10, GamesFanRomanVice +20, InspiringSpeaker +15, Rabblerouser +20, RomanHero +20
Popular+35Brave +5, GamesFanRomanVice +10, InspiringSpeaker +10, Rabblerouser +5, RomanHero +5
Law+12GoodAdministrator +3, Just +3, Upright +6, 
Unrest+1GamesFanRomanVice -1, Taxman+2, 
PubsSec   +7CounterSpy +4, Xenophobia +3
PersSec   +6AssassinCatcher +4, AssassinMaster +2
BribeResist+80Austere +30, PhilosophySkill +20, Upright +30
Bribery   +30SmoothTalker +30
TrainAgents+11AssassinMaster +5, SpyCatcher +6
Fertility+3Fertility +3

This makes a strong leader, but I had deliberately to tone down his popularity, as this had certain implications in the timing of the civil war .

If there is more interest in this sort of topic, I will post more, and in a broader context across all named charaters, at a later time, and explain it it words in more detail.