Questions

[caudata]

1) is jo shelby not eligible for promotion? He's got 2 stars of experience, is up to 6-5-5, and has increased his seniority by 16 points so far, but I've never had the message that I could promote him. I think I read not all generals are open to promotion.

2) is there a guide for reading the unit detail?

[Rod Smart]

1- It is impossible to get some generals promoted.
I just finished my first game with randomized generals, and while I found it extremely fun, I also found it frustrating to not be able to get a 6-6-6 noname general promoted, no matter how many victories they had.


2- there is a guide. I'm too lazy to find it and link it, but its around the forums somewhere.

[Durk]

All generals have a rating based upon whether or not they were promoted historically. You will find if a general is promotable when you select the individual view.

[ArmChairGeneral]

Also, sometimes generals who can be promoted actually decline in stats as they go up (Thomas Jackson for example is a worse 3* than he is a 2*). Their special abilities can change as well. If you want to know more, you can see what they will become in the model files. Open them in a text editor like Notepad or Wordpad, they are pretty easy to decipher. (You may decide not to peek: some find that too much looking behind the curtain reduces their enjoyment of the game.) If there is only one model file for the general in question, then he can't be promoted. It used to be that the leader details did not specify whether they could be promoted and you had to look it up manually.

Not 100% sure, but I think that some of their experience (and thus increased stats) are lost on promotion.

[caudata]

I noticed the decline in ability when I promoted Longstreet to 3 star. Extra disappointing since I didn't actually have any need for him to be a 3 star.

I guess I can live with shelby staying as 1 star (historically his promotion to 2 stars was one of the late ones that was never confirmed). Was hoping he would be a Corp commander, but with his ever increasing seniority, he can basically command an army stack anyway, given enough spare generals for command point support.

[Merlin]

If you call up the unit info box by clicking on the general's stars and click the far right tab, you can determine in-game if he can be promoted by the existence of an entry in the "upgrades to" line.

[Mickey3D]

Attached below is an old document listing officers and their stats at each level. It is related to the first version of AACW but I think it is still pretty accurate.

[ATTACH]32778[/ATTACH]


You can also look in your "CW2\GameData\Models" directory for the "*.mdl" files with the name of the leader you are interested in. At the top of the file you'll find something like :

Code: Select all

UID = 260
NationTag = CSA
Name = James Longstreet
Alias = ldr_CSA_Longstreet2
ShortName = J. Longstreet

In this case the "2" at the end of the Alias line means it is the 2* version of the leader ("3" for the 3* and nothing for 1*).

Edit :

the stats of the leader are at the end of the file :

Code: Select all

Strategic = 5
Offensive = 3
Defensive = 6

and special abilities start with "ability" :

Code: Select all

Ability0 = $abiEntrencher

[caudata]

Thank you mickey and merlin.

I also found the aje manual that more completely described the unit detail info.