Admiral
An Admiral, in a Total War game, is the character who leads a fleet. He is similar to a captain in that he is seemingly faceless, identical to other admirals. Unlike a captain, however, an admiral may not be adopted into your family, however high his rating becomes.
Only 3 attributes have an effect on an admiral: NavalCommand, LineOfSight and MovementPoints. NavalCommand effects his fighting ability, LineOfSight affects how far the fleet can see and MovementPoints affects how far a fleet can move.
Note: In RTW if an admiral has acquired any ancillaries (retinue members) or any points towards a trait (not necessarily a full level) the admiral cannot be merged with another admiral that also has ancillaries or trait points. The same applies for M2TW, except that admirals can only gain traits.
An Admiral, unlike a captain can gain command stars. They always start with 0 command.