Why are generals important? What happens when in war, a general is killed?
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They are like mathematicians for the pew-pew.
They study a lot, do experiments by using own troops to simulate actions. They make theories and plans.
When war comes, a good general can do 2+2 and see an opportunity, they can see the enemy moves and come up with a trap or counter to them.
Example: WW2 Yamashita set up the Japanese army to go very fast in jungle terrain, engaged the British on the coast while a second section would go super fast in the jungle, go around the entire British line using terrains the other generals considered “unusable” and hit the rear of the British, cutting all the supplies and forcing them to surrender. It worked so well he was able to repeat it few times and the British couldn’t find a counter to that, as they never planned so never prepared to counter such move. Even understanding the move, they didn’t have the training or tested tactics to deploy; they did improvise but, the enemy was simply more prepared than them for that territory.
Seems simple, but there’s a lot of math to make it work, takes years to invent and train a battalion that can go in the jungle and still carry some sort of artillery, supplies, etc. Then you have to do tests to see if it practically work or if it works only on paper, then you have to drill until every soldiers knows what to do by memory.
Imagine if a general does all of that preparation for the wrong scenario. That’s 5-10 years of wasted resources, plus now you have a weaker army.
One good general can outplay another general and win a war by himself.
A bad decision can lose a war in an afternoon.
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