Experienced Player, General Promotion Question

[tribeticus]

I have had this happen with Sumner several times, and Curtis & McPherson. Seems even after they reach seniority of 1 the promote box doesn't light up. I'm in October 1862 and Sumner is a two star with 1 seniority. I check every turn to try to promote him to three star but nothing. I've removed him from stacks, move him around, but nothing.

Any ideas why this is happening? Now he is getting pissed off if I want to promote any other two star to three star because he has most seniority. Drives me nuts, let me know what you think.

[Cardinal Ape]

Sumner can not be promoted to 3 stars. Most generals cannot be promoted. There are some lists of generals in the forums that might help.

You can find out who is eligible in game by viewing the generals info panel:
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If the general can not be promoted it will have --- in the field.

As far as Sumner getting mad - he may be lying. Try promoting over him, I don't think you will receive the penalties since Sumner can not actually be promoted.

[tribeticus]

Thank you so much for you response. I see what you are saying. I have been referring to old PDF that I found in the forums that was actually from AACW but has been pretty accurate so far. It was really well made so I look at it a lot.

I did end up promoting Thomas over Sumner and Sumner got upset and lost 4 seniority points. I didn't see anything on the loss of the victory points, I'm still checking on that.

I did notice that Curtis would not promote in the past as with seniority of one, but I can't remember if that was for two star or three star. I know he goes up to two star.

[tribeticus]

I just looked again and promoting Thomas over Sumner cost 34 victory points. I like that even though he is not promotable, it makes it more realistic.

A lot of Generals were passed over, screwed over, and even shot by other Generals (J. Davis killed Bull Nelson). So promotions are not always fair and they should get angry.....

Thanks again for your response!

[Cardinal Ape]

Sadly, due to a game engine limitation only stack leaders can be promoted.

Those general lists are pretty good, but yes, they are outdated. Compared to the first CW game, CW2 has far fewer generals able to make it to 3 stars.

[tribeticus]

Yeah I've been working around the stack leader issue which is no biggie, but I have been relying in the old PDF's too much rather than looking at the Generals info.

I never realized that the up-gradable info in the General info tab was where you showed me, I kept missing it since it doesn't say anything about rank, just "Update To:"

[Cromagnonman]

Curtis should be able to make 3-star, as he historically commanded an army. It's really too bad that you are forced to use a seniority system that causes you lose points when promoting past an unpromotable officer... You can always send Sumner into suddent death.

[tribeticus]

Yeah I figured Curtis would be able to make 3 star. It was strange when I got him to seniority 1 and he wouldn't promote. Wonder if anyone else has that issue. I know it wasn't an issue with the stack, he had his own stack and had just upgraded his seniority to 1 but unable to promote. ..

[Cardinal Ape]

Are these generals also corps commanders? Maybe that is causing problems, I'm not sure. Curtis definitely should be able to get 3 stars.

[tribeticus]

I always mess with division and corps buttons just in case. Honestly I think I tried everything and I was even trying different regions to see if loyalty made a difference. It has happened to me with McPherson and Curtis.

[Cardinal Ape]

Do you have a screenshot? That might help someone figure out what is happening.

[Captain_Orso]

Sumner is promotable. In fact, he gets promoted per event in Spring of '62 and will have seniority of about 6(!!) as a Maj.Gen., which can screw you up pretty drastically if he's in Lyon's stack, even if Lyon is already at Maj.Gen., and especially if Lyon is Corps Commander.

Leaders only gain seniority through combat successes. You should see any gain in seniority in the leader's element detain window; something like 'Seniority: 4(5)', where 5 is the starting seniority of the leader, and 4 is the current seniority.

Once a leader has gained enough seniority to be promoted--two above his starting seniority--you will be given the ability to promote him, and have until, IIRC, early June or early January, which ever comes first, to do so. After that the promotion opportunity is lost. So you have some time to promote leaders without losing the opportunity.

To promote a leader he must be in command of the stack he is in. If a promotable leader is in a corps stack, but not in command of the corps, you must drag-n-drop him into his own stack so that he is commanding it, click the promotion SO button, and execute the turn. During turn-execution he will be promoted. You do not have to relieve him of division or corps command to do this.

The penalty for promoting a leader with less seniority than the leader with the highest seniority of the same rank is dependent on the differences in seniority and political level of these 2 leaders.

BTW leaders with high political levels are generally promoted per event at some time, if they had not already been promoted, as this is historical. But generally, these leaders are also not the best in the field, which of course leads to some difficult decision for the player.

[tribeticus]

My question was about Sumner going to 3 star which he can't do.

My other issue was Curtis and McPherson being unable to promote even with 1 seniority and at top of their stack. It looks like I must have waited too long to promote, but I didn't think I waited much.

Thanks for clarifying.

[Captain_Orso]

Sorry, I think I got hung up on the Kearney illustration.

As you are experiencing, the game doesn't look at whether a leader can be promoted, but his seniority. Just bad luck for this situation.

I know I've forgotten to promote a leader a few times, but I can't remember having noted anything which seemed wrong. I'd probably have remembered that, because I'd have complained about it.

[tribeticus]

Yeah I hear you. I think I must have waited too long to promote them, but I'm a bit obsessive about promoting generals so it seemed unlikely I waited too long. I'll keep an eye out to see if it happens again.

At this point I want to try to add some portraits to some of the clone generals but it looks like I have a lot to learn. I saw a post about a portrait mof but it seems it is still being worked out I guess...