Home Grown Officers

[Sykes]

Has anyone played the campaign without recruiting any Generals; either in the barracks or via Government reputation? 

I think my next play through I'm only going to recruit Colonels, Lieutenant Colonels, and Majors. Save the reputation for extra money & weapons.

[william1993]

I have.  The trick is to rotate brigades through divisions to allow each brigade to get work and to get their officers promoted, or you'll end up with a few brigade full of veterans and some brigades full of untested men

[veji1]

This doesn't work that well : If you don't want to recruit any officer manually, when you create a division the game will "autorecruit" a colonel with the most basic experience which will cost you exactly 3000. For brigades you will automatically recruit shittier leaders (majors or captains) that will cost you minimal money, but still money. Add to that that you will have shitty command stats for many units until you get enough promotions, and it's not a winning proposition imho.

[Fred Sanford]

I use the majors and captains for artillery batteries and skirmishers, and let them get experience and promotions there.  Then move them into brigade command when they get colonel.

I'm also a stickler for seniority/experience, so I try to bring my character up to Lt Gen as fast as I can, and have Lt Gens/MG's for my other Corps commanders.  This means I follow a "best-with-the-best" command rule: My most senior MG commands my division of best veterans, 2nd most experienced MG the 2nd most veteran division, and on down until all MG's are assigned or used.  Then the same with my BG's, the best brigade gets the best brigadier general available, 2nd best brigade gets the 2nd best BG, etc.  So I reshuffle commanders regularly (I'm a Camp freak when it comes to optimizing).  I've seen some YouTubes (players shall remain nameless) that make my OCD crazy because they have a Major General commanding an artillery battery.

[Andre Bolkonsky]

I buy officers. 

Lots of officers. 

High ranking officers. 

Big brigades are happy brigades! And nothing makes me unhappier than having a stack of recruits and no officer who can keep their efficiency efficiently efficient.