Cultivating Family Members

Hey, first of all wanted to say that Europa Barbarorum basically saved RTW for me. It's gotten me back into this game in a major way. However, I have a few questions about family members and how to get extra stats.

Basically, it seems harder to earn extra command chevrons than in regular Rome. This isn't a bad thing, but I'm just curious how people go about gaining them. Do you sit your FMs in a city with a school for a few years? That seems to add extra management and influence, but I haven't noticed significant command gain. Fighting battles sometimes works, but it seems like you have to fight a lot with one FM to earn any points. All the AIs seem to have much better family members than me, I cry out for joy if I get a FM with one command point! Is there some strategy for doing this that I'm missing?

Secondly, does it increase the chances of a FM producing a child if they stay in a city and don't fight? I'm playing a Carthage game, trying to advance Mago's bloodline at the expense of Hasdrubal's. But since I use Mago's kids as my main generals and let Hasdrubal's rot in Sicily or Iberia, it seems like Hasdrubal's descendants marriages are much more... productive. if I want someone to have kids should I let them stay in a city for a while?

Yeah, FMs on the average breed a lot more readily when not on the road. Though I've still had my main generals - who tend to basically live on horseback, off on one campaign or another - produce several heirs, but that was when territorial expansion had clearly exceeded the number of "operational" FMs...

Anyway, as for command stars, get a bright brave lad, put him in school for a couple of years (preferably in a city with a major war-god temple), and then have him campaign. A lot. Wiping out random domestic bandit and rebel stats is often a good warm-up, especially as you can normally pick the odds and fight deliberately at slight disadvantage without real risk. On the whole command stars don't mean much in practice anyway (except in autocalc, which is why they're vital for AI characters and admirals); much more important are traits and ancillaries that give straight morale bonuses to troops under the character's command.

Dont accept candidates for addoption, dont accept marriage proposals. that way you'l get more FM born. As for command stars in my experience my current best is Lucius Scipio of the Romani, at age 47 with currently 8 command stars after some 30+ battles(a majority of them HUGE battles) Just fight battles with the odds against you like 2:5 or 2:4.

Also, stock up on desirable ancillaries. There are a number of them which provide command or morale bonuses that become obvious only before a battle (a one star general jumps to four stars when attacking barbarians for example). Personally I try to stack all of the ancillaries that provide recruitment bonuses (10% off, 15% of animal units, etc) on my capital city governor. That is presuming that your capital is the major recruiting center. Also, trade and tax bonus ancillaries can be placed on some trade hub governors as well. It isn't the exact same thing as developing traits in your FM's but by swapping ancillaries around your family you can have some control over their bonuses. Also, you can give the useful ancillaries to the next governor/general who you want in control of the region. Seriously though, Mercenary Captain, war hero (not the actual name) beastmaster - when those are stacked on a governor, you can save at least 35% off of recruiting and retraining your units. Stacking morale bonuses on your generals will help them win against the odds as well, and the distance to the capital penalty can be mitigated by a governor with poet, historian, playwrite, priest - etc.