Why do generals lose ALL their traits upon promotion to FM?

[uglyduckling81]

I disagree. A general with the right traits will still be better in some cases.

Example: 12 armored divisions led by a general with fortress buster and armor traits attacking a fortress. The army will get the skill bonus+double trait bonus in this particular case.

Looks like FMs will be needed for the masses and generals needed for the small special stuff.

Promoting everyone to FM also sounds like a bad idea because all your leaders will start at one skill level less.

Obviously you will still be able to have Generals along with Field Marshals but it will make sense to make all the Field Marshals day one.
What there probably needs to be is a limit of one FM for every 10 Generals or something like that, but then people will just assign one general per division so they can still have heaps of FM's at the start for the free Poland XP. As far as starting with lower XP I don't think it makes any difference. As Germany for instance you are going to walk over Poland no matter what and get upgrades on the way.

 

[fabius]

I disagree. A general with the right traits will still be better in some cases.

Example: 12 armored divisions led by a general with fortress buster and armor traits attacking a fortress. The army will get the skill bonus+double trait bonus in this particular case.

Looks like FMs will be needed for the masses and generals needed for the small special stuff.

Promoting everyone to FM also sounds like a bad idea because all your leaders will start at one skill level less.

I read his idea differently. He said promote a heap of generals to start- not all of them.
So I will choose nearly all of my FMs from day 1. I still have a heap of good generals gaining their traits too.

 

[Zaku]

Just promote a heap of generals as field marshals at the start of the game. Let them gain XP and skills as field marshals and don't worry about ever losing skills later on. I don't really understand why there is even a limit on generals when everyone is just going to promote everyone before they unpause the game at the start.

I won't. I will use my generals to lead my shock troops, and I will assign FMs only for the meat shield divisions.

 

[Ksyr]

I misunderstood the earlier post. I agree that FMs should be promoted at the start of the game under the following conditions:

1. You have to know that you are going to need one more FM
2. You have to start with a high skilled general that can be promoted
3. You have to know that you will not need that general later

I still think "a heap or nearly all of them" is too many. I don't want to start the game by making sure "a heap or nearly all" of my troops have 10% less combat bonus.

This makes me wonder about something else as well. Do FMs and generals gain skill at equal speed? Is it easier to got from skill 1 to skill 2 than from skill 2 to skill 3? Lordofwar did such an excellent job finding information earlier

 

[Gethsemani]

I won't. I will use my generals to lead my shock troops, and I will assign FMs only for the meat shield divisions.

I imagine that this is how the design is meant to play out. You assign your elite divisions, like armor, mech, paras etc., to Generals to get the most out of their combat performance at all times and then you keep large formations of infantry under FMs to get all those sweet logistics and organization bonuses for all those divisions that are meant to make up the bulk of your defense or offense.

 

[Secret Master]

I can't remember any single situation in the period (at all?) when that happened. FMs get killed, retired or captured but not demoted.

The US fired leaders from command positions, and then put them in staff and training positions stateside at some points throughout the war.

Lloyd Fredendall was fired after Kasserine Pass and spent the rest of the war running training units. He was not retired in any sense of the term and could have been given another combat command.