Larian Studios Forums Dragon Commander Dragon Commander - General Not a lot of reason to use Generals in battle.

There are a lot of problems with auto-resolve, and generals are just one of them. At their current pricing (I'm seeing a whopping 30 gold at the start of act 3; that's more than a turn's income for me!) they're just never worth using. You're better off losing the battle and saving the money to reinforce next turn. Maybe after finishing their arcs they get stronger, but right now I'm seeing very marginal improvements (usually around 5%).

Agreed in full. Even when fully maxed out, they only make about a 10-15% difference. For the price of 5 Hunters/Armors or 3 Ironclads, I expect more. Also, what's the deal with only being able to use one general per turn, regardless of funds? Why do I have four generals if I can only use one a turn?! Simple solution- keep General pay constant at 10/7 gold throughout the campaign. Then, when you're expanding and are fighting on more fronts, you'll have the resources to deploy more generals. I'm also in favor of a mode where you can just fly around and be the dragon, but the dragon would need a lot more HP for it to be worthwhile. It's sort of ridiculous how easy even basic AA units can handle any dragon that doesn't have full mastery skills.

Well, if they increase the winning chances more than what is displayed, the calculation for the percentages is wrong and has to be fixed.
If the percentages are right, then the bonus is too small - a few percent in most situations just isn't worth the expense, which would usually result in higher chances if I had invested it into units.

In principle it would be ok if I got a slightly higher percentage from investing the gold into units, since a general might be more flexible than buying a unit which still has to be in the right country.
Still, it should feel worthwile to use a general and pay the fee, which isn't the case now, most of the time.
That they get better by completing their storylines is nice, but it would be even better if I could use them somewhat efficiently right from the start.

I don't even know why the Generals are payed per battle. It punishes players for using them and it makes absolutely zero sense in lore.

A suggestion:

Deploying Generals has no cost but you cannot engage in battle without the Dragon or a General leading your troops. Either the troops auto retreat, or they suffer severe penalties.

As it is right now the Generals are basically useless freeloaders who are apparently never getting payed. That undead bar wench has more use for my forces than my generals, and is likely getting payed more regularly too.

Did you forget to deck out your dragon or something? By the end of Chapter II your dragon should be able to take on almost anything, except maybe a pack of Imp Fighters.

No, I was updating them regularly, but by the end of Act II, I had unlocked all of them. Part of my problem was play style (i.e. it turns out there is a max range on fireballs), but having skills like Acid Breath, Devastation, Pillar of Fire, & Eye of the Patriarch really helped. When I hit smaller units then, the Acid DoT would finish them off for sure. Near the end of Act II, I am proud to say there was a battle that hinged on me using the Dragon well. But before then, a combination of human error & really low Dragon HP really made the Dragon more of a liability than an asset.

More to the point, the Dragon never had very much HP. Even all the talents related to survivability are just heals, resists and regens. It's been a few days, but I think the Dragon has like 2000 HP and a Juggernaut has nearly 4 times as many hit points at 7500.

But all this is side chatter. The generals are a good idea. I love the idea of specialized Corps Commanders whose talents are molded by your influence but they should be cheaper and more effective and you should be able to use more than 1 a turn.