I sometimes have a second general in an attacking stack (besieged defender is another story). I give the second general the job of defending the gold general and breaking the enemy where it is too risky to lose the commander.
If you ever have a surplus of generals you can make an entire army of them...I did this once with the julii and steamrolled the brutii legionaries with 13 rejuvinating cavalry units :)

Got to be careful of autoresolve though...