It has become rediculously difficult to earn command stars. I've reverted to playing RTW lately, with the 1.3 updates that came with bi, and it feels like christmas when I win battles because I actually gain command stars!

Whereas I find myself regularly turning down marriage proposals so I don't have to pay for the salaries of a useless general. I like it.

It really makes those scriptoriums or what ever important huh? and also makes it worth it to march that one general across your empire too...

Four things important:
1) If having odds better then 1.2:1 in your favour, there is 0% Chance to get any command stars
2) Chances to win stars is higher if battle is won more decisevly
3) The exeption to rule 1 are seige battles with stone wall cities, when you need to have odds lower then 2:1 as attacker or 1.7:1 as defender to gain any command stars.

it probably makes it more realistic, great military commanders had to win many battles before being considered "10 star"

I don't see how you could possibly be expected to ever get ten command stars in bi. The most I've had so far is six, IIRC. And even then it was dependant upon my army's composition and I had to swap retinue to do it.

Maybe if you have a general that is always fighting and winning while badly outnumbered. Or at least outnumbered.

If facing the roman empire, you can destroy one unit of thier Eagle Legions and u gain 1+ command star, kill 2 then 2 star kill 3 then 3 star

Oh you are preaching to the choir about command stars.

The emperor of the ERE at the time of his death, after 50 years of campaigning had 3 command stars.

Also what sucks is as my generals get more command stars, their loyalty goes down. I really hope Creative assembly or modders release some patch/mod ANYTHING to alter this.

You're right. It is harder to get command stars for a BI general. There are a couple of reasons for that.

Firstly, there were a lot of 10-star generals around in the original game was due to a nasty little bug in the way post-battle procedures worked that has now been fixed.

Secondly, we did dial back the probabilities of dishing out command stars to generals. It makes obtaining them much more of an achievement. However, they can still be 'played for' by using a general and his army aggressively in the right battles - and by winning, of course.

Someone posted that you couldn't be higher than 1.2:1 and gain command traits. Is this true?

Why is it only more difficult in bi and not in RTW? (once bi or patch is installed) I have played RTW sine installing bi and still get trait increases and retinue like crazy.

You can still indirectly gain command at higher strength ratios through retinue in bi. Just yesterday I fought a battle with 2:1 odds (which meant I did it myself, you need at least 4:1 to win through auto resolve on h or vh....) and recieved a runner for +1 command when attacking.

In my campaign as Huns, I have a family member Mundzuk with 10 stars. Of course he wiped out Slavs, Lombards and Burgundi while all of them were hording, but what I think is interesting is he is the only commander in my faction who has the ability of 'night' battle.

I have only played 2 turns on bi, but I still fought 1 heroic victory, and guess what? no command stars...(one of the easters empire units that is suposed to garrison border towns, held off a unit of cataphracts and horse archers, and was beating them by the time my calvery got there...)

Like I said, my general, the Emperor of the Eastern Roman Emperor, destroyed the huns, wiped out the sassanids, took Ctesiphon the capitol, captured Rome and Carthage, took out the Goths, Vandals, and Sarmations, and conquered half of Gaul. He also captured several smaller provinces along the way. Does that justify more than 3 command stars?

my first game in bi i played with the saxons. with one of my generals i got also 7 stars by taking out a lot of rebels!

CaptainFishpants,
I noticed that sally and non-stone wall assaults give much less command stars then standard field battles (only base trigger is used).

Probably becuse most of important triggers only work for
"nomal" battles.

Bug, oversight or maybe a feature?

This is rediculous. I am going to attempt to use any cheat I can get my hands on to increase the traits of some generals.

I have one guy who won three incredibly outnumbered back to back to back battles vs goth and ostrogoth hordes. Two of them heroic....he didn't get crap. Those weren't his first wins either. Still a ONE STAR commander.

Does it matter ? You're clearly capable of winning all those battles without command stars so why do you care ?

Getting stars is not 100% deal.

Also, some battle types are "gimped" like non-wall assaults or sallies and give comand stars less often.

Field battles are best for command stars, but only if having no more thne 20% strengnt then your enemy.

Assaulting and defending stone walls is good to since it can be 2:1 ratio when attacking and 1.7:1 when defending (even better). Still such battles give are better in giving goodsiegeattacker/defender traits.

For some reason, in my second ERE campaign in which I've been simming lots of battles I've been able to gain command stars with some frequency (certainly not as often as in the original game, but still at a relatively reasonably rate).

I get the feeling that part of the problem is the ease of getting negative traits that cancel out good commander traits.

Porphrygenitus said it...

bad traits are earned like water.....put 3 cities to the sword and you havwe the bad bloodthirsty trait on you. And god forbid you have the lover of beauty line, that ends up in disaster.

If anyone finds a trait cheat, please share it.

I havent really noticed about command stars but assasins are hell to get good subterfuge

Quote:

Yes, I was able to win those battles. Can't win them all. I also had two spectacular losses, one of which was with that very general. I forgot to mention that. I had been on the offensive, but failed dramatically in an assault on an ERE settlement. I also had a horrible defeat of a strong full stack vs the Franks, because my men routed before taking a lot of casualties...because my general wasn't good...because bi absolutely SUCKS when it comes to general's traits.

I only won the battles I spoke of before because I had comitatenses fighting on the walls vs a few gothic chosen warriors and a whole hell of a lot of spearmen.

I also despise the fact that you need a huge city with a circus maximus or equal, over 2,000 denarii and a three turn wait to recruit a general and he appears with ONE command star and nothing else at all. Even if I let him sit for a little while in a settlement with a ludus magna....still nothing.

[This message has been edited by Themistocles472 (edited 10-21-2005 @ 05:27 PM).]

I do not let any general I plan to campaign with even near an academy, scriptorium, Ludus Magna. I find that the generals I leave their ahve so many domestic traits, getting battle traits are insane.

I fought 4500 huns with 2300 ERE soldiers and I did not get a single trait.

At least generals can't lose stars. My assassins keep losing every trait they chance to gain.

In my experience, the key to getting stars was to fight hordes full of petty horde units. But it seems like not everyone's getting the results.

-Yaramir.