General

Generals are the promoted versions of Knights and Armors. They have excellent defense, good attack, surprising evasive ability for their size and bad resistance. They are quite slow, but what they lack in maneuverability they make for with defensive and offensive ability.

Combat
Generals can be used like "walls" to block enemy forces and are quite useful in survival and defense objective battles. They can be used to block small entrances to prevent opposing units from getting past them, this is very useful if you wish to stop theives from escaping. A General's weaknesses are magic and anti-armor weapons, as well as fast moving durable and powerful characters like Heroes, experienced Paladins and Warriors. The rarity of a general ever being out matched on the field through sheer brute force is high, which means they very valuable to any team and their durability is very helpful to weaker units as they can hide behind them.

Weapon Usage
Generals have been in every Fire Emblem game to date, and have had varying weapons available for them. This chart shows the differences.

Skills
In Seisen no Keifu, Thracia 776, and Sacred Stones, Generals have the skill Great Shield.

In Path of Radiance, generals can learn Luna as their Occult skill.