Generals

Version 5.0

Swordsmen, spearmen, archers and horsemen are each led by their own general in an army.
Similar to the entire army and the heroes, generals gain experience (= XP) in every battle and are promoted when they have reached the experience required for the next rank. You can see the current experience of a general by moving the mouse pointer over the rank badge in the army view (1):

The higher the rank of the general, the higher his value for the combat value calculation.
Generals of newly trained armies initially have the rank of a youth. Through research you can increase the starting rank of the generals up to the rank of senior.
When splitting an army, the existing generals remain with the main army, the newly formed army receives generals corresponding to the research level of the field owner. This means that if you split in the castle, city or harbor of an ally, you may receive different generals than on your own land.
When merging armies, the highest general of each unit "survives". The other generals are lost forever.
Generals can be assassinated by spies. The assassinated general is replaced by a general 3 levels lower in rank. This general is protected from further attacks for the next 5 turns.

General level

Below you can see the individual general levels, from the lowest to the highest general rank:

Especially at the beginning of the game use as many small armies as possible when conquering neutral fields so you will get many generaly with high experience. The closer the outcome of a battle is, the more experince your generals will gain. Use the battle calculator to calculate, how large your army has to be to get a close victory.
Always protect armies with experienced generals with spies (use the "shadow" function) - they are a prime target for your enemies.