I am against wasting any council positions, I think 1 or 2 official titles with no button pushing pore should be allowed.
The general has more advantages than just communication to message groups. He receives an overview of the armies, can disband militia, transfer militia to nobles, and most importantly is his authority.
Official power over the armies allows the general to create strategies for wars with armies doing different things, working towards that strategy if there are enough nobles for two offensive armies. Still the general can do strategy with one army but it's less complex. The marshals job is to take care of the details with things like line settings and formations.
As to the military performance not increasing if there is a general vs just the marshals, I need to go to bed so I am going to keep it short and say I am in both D'hara's military council and Carelia's, as well as in the realm of Arcaea so I know that general makes a big difference.
Overview of the armies: we never had more than 1 army attacking, our second army was always destined for homeland defense, mostly against rogues (no need for coordination), and mostly (historically) filled with slackers. The marshal of the main army had all that he needed.
disband militia: That can be done upon request, and can also be done by the lord. It's rarely a thing that needs to be done, and it's rarely anyone else than an overburdened lord who will do it.
assign militia: that can also be done upon request, but doing so cost money (therefore not really any more effective than recruiting) and the units we want are often not available for assignment.
official power over the armies: none has it more than the marshal. If there's just one army going abroad, then there's really no point in having someone tell the marshal what to do and making him a rubber-stamper.
The only times where the general powers can really be useful are in the case of a rebellion. Kinda makes sense that the monarch gets a special loyalty bonus when civil war strikes, no?
As for military performance, it's all about involvement. You need someone to involve himself fully. Maybe in Carelia, that's the general. In Enweil, for a long time (and successful enough streak), that was me as marshal (before I went on vacation and then everything went irreparably downhill). It's all about the dynamics of the realm. In Enweil, Nicolas didn't care one bit for the general, they were outright hostile to each other, and so he assumed full sovereignty over the forces he commanded. He basically was the general. In D'Hara, the dynamics aren't the same. The main marshal is reluctant to do so. He wants the comfort of the title or of someone assuming the title. Maybe it would help D'Hara's military performances if we were to have an active general. But that's just player dynamics. It's not necessary in all realms. And would D'Hara's republican nature even support the traditional authoritative general type? Everyone always wants to have their say in everything. Too much initiative, by anyone over anything, is usually frowned at by someone somewhere. If we had a general who cared more to involve himself, but would still be accountable either to the military table, the house of lords, and/or the prime minister, are we really any better off?
