Great men

[I of the Storm]

I try to spread it and have a couple of generals with good abilities and 4-6 stars. Since the AI doesn't have that many 9ers either it works well. Should I happen to have a handful of former princes with many stars (Byz e.g.), I try to cultivate them further, of course. Same goes for recruited heroes. I clearly remember an Albrecht der Bär who appeared almost maxed out in every ability once...

[Jxrc]

Really depends which faction I am playing as.

For some factions you can easily get a just a few provinces to guard (Spain, Elmo, Aragon, Sicily, Denmark) so you can max out just a few generals. For others it's much more complicated to get short land borders (HRE, Poland, Hungary, Italy ...) so you're probably better off with several general wityh a few stars than with one uber-general.

Whom you face is also quite revelant. IF you're up against a faction with great generals (byz, eggies) it might be wise to try to have one very good general with a chance to win one decisive battle rather than having all your 4-5 stars general beaten one after the other ...

Finally it goes without saying that it all depends on what kind of heir or historical generals your get ... Some faction are blessed with nice heirs (Spain, Byz, Elmo) while other gets loads of nice historical general (England, France, Egypt) rather early. With any of those factions you usually end up with enough decent generals to be able to max out some of them with titles.

"an Albrecht der Bär who appeared almost maxed out in every ability once" .... Lucky you. He has normally just four stars and get pride or chinless wonder one year after I get it ....

[drone]

I probably spread it out more than I should, but that's mainly because I don't really plan out my invasions and armies, I just look at what I'm up against and adjust accordingly. In my current campaign, I've got a couple of 6-7 star generals, but I use others in smaller battles. My style is strategic mobility and opportunism, if I see a weakness I jump on it with whatever I have available.

I do tend to use my heir a lot, I like to get him experienced and leveled up before he takes over the kingdom.

[Ironsword]

Well, usually, at the beginning of a campaign I have a just a couple of warmasters, (6+) and use them in a remorseless advance across the map.

Later, when the marshals palace and admirality are built I spread out my generals, as the AI can stab you in the back over multiple territories. But by then with a few victories under my belt I can usually get a few 4* generals generated randomly.

[Timsup2nothin]

I think I don't fight enough, from what I see here.

Maybe my background in economics is the problem. I seem to generate pretty overwhelming odds, and usually take territory by retreat far more often than battle. Other than the occasional 'born with five stars' heir I seldom get anyone past four, and consider myself lucky when I can field more than one of those.

[seireikhaan]

Generally depends a bit, but I try to get a few really good generals whom will fight the vast majority of my battles, especially when I'm not planning to make major colonization efforts.

Of course, this has backfired in the past when a Papal inquisitor decided to "purify" one of my 8 star generals while playing as France once, and I ended up getting invaded and trounced in that province the next year...

[Ironside]

I breed.

In other terms, that means that every front got at least 6+ star generals and to reinforce a new front I'll simply go to the capital province and get my best ex-hier still there to lead the new army front. Should I lack hiers, my king's high influence and command will give me access to 4-star generals fairly easy as well.
I rarely specifically train those generals afterwards though, but some will still gain stars, seen both the 8-star promotion message and 9-star one.

Early in the game it's not as prounounced, exept that the strong generals usually leads the major offensives and that I try to keep the stars within a 2-star range. That is, an 8-star is countered by atleast a 6-star if possible.