Making leadership matter

[sourdust]

Been thinking about the role of leaders and leadership in this game. It's curious - lack of leaders is almost never a real constraint on the ability to move troops around, and with a few limited exceptions the leaders have no effect on the troops they lead. Funny how giants consent to be led by paltry human independent commanders, etc. Further, most leaders (even those with battle skills) usually tend to hang back, rather than being in the thick of the fray, leading their troops!

In short, leadership is there as a concept, but has very little impact on the game play itself.

Here's an idea to make leadership important: have all leaders grant bonuses / penalties to the troops they are in charge of. In this way, a powerful general could take mediocre troops and make them do great things - and on the flip side, powerful troops would not reach their full potential if ineptly led.

Example: I'm playing Atlantis LA. Normally, there is no reason to recruit snow captain or ice captains. Human independents or Angakoks can led your troops just as well, and why waste time recruiting an ice captain when you could recruit a mage instead? But now suppose that a snow captain grants a +2 morale and +2 attack to all Atlantian troops under his leadership? And suppose that human independent commanders grant only a +1 morale to humans ... and a -2 morale and -1 defense to any non-humans they command? Now there is a real reason to use snow commanders and ice commanders, and the decision about which commander to recruit each turn at each fortress is more complex.

This also opens up possibilities for truly legendary generals, and even greater differentiation among nations. I'm thinking of heroes here that have average abilities for themselves, but extraordinary leadership bonuses - how about hero of Man that grants +5 accuracy, +5 range and +1 damage to all troops under his command? Or a hero of Ulm granting +3 defence and +3 reinvig? Or a hero of Pangaea which automatically barkskins all troops under her command?

Finally, commanders should be in there with their troops fighting, not hanging back! This is a fantasy game, not WW2. Not sure of the best mechanism to achieve that...