Quote Originally Posted by Silencer
adoptation is not random, here is how to do it:

do a battle together with an AI reinforment army. make sure the army doesn't have a general and fit's into your slots.

when the battle starts, you'll see a captain under your troops (silver star)
let him do a good battle, to gain exp, and after the battle you'll be promted to adopt him (IIRC, he needs to be 2 stars at least)

Had this happen today. Had some hastati and velites attack some Macedonian cav, assisted by equites as reinforcements. The battle began, I started marching towards the Macedonians, and they ran off before I even got close enough to see them. Result was a narrow victory with no loss of life on either side (the Macedonians ran back to Larissa, so they apparently had plenty of movement points left), and the captain was eligible for adoption as a 3-star, 1 scroll general with good commander, drillmaster and bureaucrat traits.