Evony Guide: Assistant General Pairing and Dragon Deployment

To maximize march power in Evony, place your most invested leader in the main general slot and attach an assistant general whose main skill and skill books do not conflict with the leader. A sacred dragon or spiritual beast must be assigned directly to your main general; dragons assigned to assistant generals or left on city walls will not fly out on offensive map attacks.

Differences Between Main and Assistant Generals

The game engine applies gear and cultivation bonuses strictly to the main general. An assistant general provides utility only through unlocked skills and specialties. Never use a heavily geared, fully cultivated general as an assistant to a weaker commander.

Because equipment refines, monarch gear synergy, and raw cultivation stats are ignored on the assistant, select your assistant solely for their innate skill, compatible added skill books, and active specialty trees.

How to Prevent Skill Conflicts

When an assistant general shares an identical primary buff category or matching mechanics with the main general, the engine deactivates the assistant's skill. A deactivated skill turns gray on the troop setup screen and provides no combat value.

Use these rules to build a working pair:

• Inspect skill icons in the march interface: Before confirming a march or saving a preset in the Rally Spot, inspect the assistant's primary skill icon. If it appears grayed out or muted, the game has disabled it due to an overlap.
• Match troop types without duplicating condition tags: Pair generals that focus on the same troop type through different mechanic conditions. For example, combine a general offering unconditional mounted attack with an assistant whose skill activates specifically when leading an attack or attacking monsters.
• Avoid redundant skill books: Do not teach an assistant general a skill book that matches the innate skill of the main general, and do not teach the main general a book that duplicates the assistant's innate skill. If an innate skill provides troop speed, adding a troop speed book to the pair will disable that book.
• Select utility books when conflicts arise: If the ideal stat book conflicts with your main general, equip the assistant with secondary utility options such as march size, march speed, or complementary defensive stats.

Dragon Assignment and Map Animation Rules

A sacred dragon visibly flies across the world map only when it is bound directly to the main general leading that march.

To ensure your dragon deploys on an offensive strike:

1. Open the Pasture and confirm your dragon is leveled, fed, and assigned to your intended primary general.
2. Assign that general to the Main General slot in your march preset or rally selection.
3. Align the dragon's combat buffs with your march's primary troop type (such as assigning the Celtic Demon to an ranged march or Fafnir to a siege or mounted march).
4. Recheck the dragon assignment after troop healing cycles or equipment adjustments to ensure it did not unbind.

If a dragon is stationed on the city wall, it provides defense for your keep but cannot fly out on offensive marches. Deploying a dragon on an attack temporarily removes its garrison presence from the wall until the march returns.

Server vs. Server March Considerations

During Server vs. Server (SvS) combat, unoptimized marches result in severe point losses and hospital costs:

• Verify Rally Spot presets: Set and lock your march presets before SvS begins to avoid accidentally deploying default, incompatible general pairs during fast rallies.
• Track Truce Agreements: Confirm your 24-hour or 3-day shield duration before initiating an offensive dragon march. Flying dragons create noticeable map animations that opposing players can trace back to an unshielded keep.
• Scout targets before deploying: Check enemy defenses and reinforcement levels. Sending an expensive dragon rally against high-tier traps or deep troop layers without sufficient debuff support will yield negative point exchanges.
• Secure troops immediately upon return: Recall or ghost exposed troops immediately after your march hits to prevent counter-attacks while your defensive dragon is returning to the keep.