I think the general serves a vital role in the game. It and the admiral are the only specialists that encourages a wide strategy as opposed to the tall stacks of doom you see everywhere. It's best at taking several outposts that are lightly defended quickly, with a few small forces.
Now, whether or not the general needs a buff, I'm not sure. I just thought I'd point that out.

I think the general could use a buff, I very rarely use him and when I do there's certainly a specialist that would have done what I wanted better.. I am not quite sure what an effective buff that wouldn't over power him would be though.

Perhaps if his local speed up was a global for all subs with a specialists. Giving him an admiral like ability with a small offensive ability since your going to be transporting specialists less often then subs with just drillers.

My understanding is that originally he took out 10 drillers for every specialist but that made him over powered.

The general is perfect.

I really disagree with everyone saying it doesnt need a buff. I would like to see what the frequency of use stats are for generals vs other offensive specialists. The king by far does everything better than a general does from an offensive standpoint. This is especially true late game and with stacks. If you have a 100 driller sub and two kings it is essentially like attacking with 167 subs. Furthermore, you get the SAME and BETTER effect a general has as far as deterring smaller attack forces. You cannot even touch the original defending or attacking force if you have less than 67 subs. This is just ridiculous! You also dont have to use any funky combos to get your specialists back, or send them as separate subs and risk their capture...its pure destruction. King also combos well with other specialists (thief, tycoon, tinkerer).

The above argument may actually be why the King needs a nerf.

Id also take two tycoons, two engineers, two admirals over two generals...everything else is just better. Id even take two thiefs in certain late game situations where larger amounts of drillers are going around.

Generals aren't too bad once you get 7 of them lol. Right now I have five but there are two that I am shooting for capturing and converting. Me and my ally are also thinking about sharing specialists which would make 8 generals. I have a infiltrator, helmsman, hypnotist sub zipping around capturing bases. I really want a pirate navigator infiltrator combo which would be devastating with the amount of generals I have.