However, to do this would be to lose his potential impact on your success.

These Shogun 2: Total War tips focus on generals and how best to use them.

Since they lead your armies and have a vital impact on your empires growth generals must be used correctly.

Some clans start with brothers, in others youll need to wait until your children come of age or you get the option to commission a general (this will cost 1,000).

Your children become full-fledged generals at different ages so you cant accurately predict when this will happen (apparently its random).

They can develop skills, hire retainers, and you can bestow commissions on them.

Any army with a general will always be harder to beat and they have a range of special battlefield abilities.

This swings both ways so always take the chance to kill an enemy general, even if it sacrifices some troops, because the benefits outweigh the cost.

There is a big skills tree and each skill has three levels so theres plenty of room to improve them.

Some of the skills will improve their ability to command specific unit types, some will offer clan wide bonuses and some will improve their own personal martial prowess in battle.

Whatever you choose make sure they are in a position to take advantage (for example if you improve their skills at commanding cavalry make sure they have plenty of cavalry in their army).

In addition your generals will develop their own character traits and some of these can be quite damaging.

It all depends on their behaviour and the influence of their retainers so be careful how you handle generals.

If a general becomes disloyal he will be more susceptible to bribes and if things get really bad youll have to command him to commit seppuku (suicide).

It can be horribly disappointing to have to command seppuku for a tough general but be warned if you turn a blind eye to disloyalty your relationship with the other clans will be damaged.

You can improve loyalty by researching arts such as Noh, improving your overall honour, marriage to a family member, a glorious victory in battle and making the right decision with dilemmas.

Some apply to the general and the men under his command, others are more general.

There are four commissions in all, warfare and supply are the military options, development and finance are the civic options.

The bonus skills you can develop and his improved standing will increase honour and provide a boost to the loyalty of your generals.

Your troops will have higher morale and are more likely to stand and fight if they are within the generals field of influence (you can see this by selecting your general).

If you see a unit, or a number of units, wavering then get over there and rally them.

One of your units routing can spark a chain effect that leads to your whole army running off.

Everyone under his influence gets a boost to morale, attack and defence.

Theyll get attack and defence bonuses and should perform considerably better for a short period of time.

Shogun Total War 2 Units