I think this is why not many people want to become a general. They get burned out after a war or two.
This is due to a change in philosophy by the players. Perhaps this was caused by a change in philosophy in council positions, and the orders experiment that went through a few iterations. (The thing about who is allowed to send orders, limitations on who could use red paper, etc. ...) I think that all this has resulted in the players current philosophy that only one or two people are allowed to ever send orders. Three, tops. (General, Marshal, and Vice Marshal) This is a 100% guaranteed recipe for player burnout, and causing people to not want any of these three positions. Only the hyper-active people volunteer. I've been asked many times, in several realms, to be a general or marshal. I have to refuse every time, because I just can't dedicate the time, especially in the turn change hours, to do it.
It used to be that in almost every realm, there was a war council, or a military council that cooperated to send orders. Anyone in that council was authorized to send orders. The generals usually kept a list in their bulletin that provided the chain of command. In Perdan back in '06/'07 time frame, our military council had ~20 players in it, spread across time zones to cover both turn changes. Not all of them could make every turn change, and some couldn't do turn changes at all. But they all contributed to strategy. And anyone in there who was on at turn change could send orders. The result of this was that Perdan could rapidly respond, and orders were always sent within 1 hour of turn change, every turn. Other realms were the same way. And this is how the massive war machines that marched hundreds of nobles across islands was handled.
This camaraderie and cooperation of players to accomplish goals like this is something that is missing now. Back then, if one person couldn't handle something, it was no big deal. There were other players that could do it. People probably wouldn't even remark on the fact that one particular person wasn't helping with orders for any one turn. The way it is now, if your marshal or general isn't there for a turn change, no one gets orders. That's way too much pressure for a fun/casual game, for most people.
