Quote Originally Posted by Digital
I had a 6 stars general having the field defense specialist(+3 command stars while defending) together with the specialist attacker(+3 command stars while attacking). When attacking or defending, the virtues cancel each other out and my general ends up as a 6 stars general in both cases.
Digital, I am afraid you are mistaking a 3 star general with a 6 star one. When your general simply sits in one of your provinces, he has 6 stars on the campaign map, because he is a 3 star general plus the 3 star bonus, or a 6 star general altogether. When he attacks, he is a 3 star general with a +3 attacking bonus, thus 6 again.
Now instead of looking at the Byzantine factions leader, take a look at the screenshots of the Pecheneg faction leade. He starts the game by being a skilled attacker (+1 command bonus when attacking) by default. He is a 4 star general too. You can see him on tha strategic map, sitting in Bulgaria, with 4 stars, which is the same number of stars when he defends two years later (he did not get any stars in the meantime). Now here is a screenshot of him attacking in Bulgaria on the first turn, and he has 5 stars because of his attacking bonus:



So, as you can see, he gets his bonus for attacker when he attacks, and gets no penalty at all when he defends.