Quote Originally Posted by Orvis Tertia
Pushing an enemy back who chooses not to engage you can give you a command star, but not every time, and it seems to grow less likely as your general gets more powerful. I have found that it's not possible, or at least not easy, to abuse this mechanism.
I think so too. In my current Brutii campaign, I send a young family member (only 2-stars) around to find and destroy some rebels. I managed to get him 3 additional stars. Now he doesn't gain stars that easily anymore, even when rebels retreat without putting a fight. Another family member who's leading my main army (who's campaigning against the Greeks and Macedonians) got some trait increases (Good commander - superb commander and so on) up to 8 stars I believe, because I managed to defeat a few Greek/Macedon armies against the odds. So in my opinion this system works well.