why is it so hard to get battle stars for my generals?

[econ21]

I'm not so sure if the number of command stars has any affect on the AI's aggressiveness. Was this tested? Actually, I'm not even sure if what Jerome posted is correct either, maybe therother knows more about it. They used to do a lot of testing when the game was released.

Well, from what therother has posted, he tested it and could not find any empirical evidence for Jerome's claim. I've taken therother's word for it, as he's a pretty rigorous empiricist and on reflection, his conclusion does fit my casual observation (unlike STW/MTW where high star command generals were monsters).

It would be very easy to test - just mod the stars of a starting general in the descr_strat and see how the outcome of a small fight varies with his command stars. You could mod his units' attack stats if you want a benchmark for comparison.

[Thaatu]

If the AI was to be given a boost to make battles harder, then why not do it with the morale bonus? Why should there be a different set of "rules" for AI and human generals? To me command stars have one thing that really breaks the system: Eleutheroi garrison commanders. Battles fought against them in autobattle are most likely to go down in defeat, but as the player battles them manually, it only affects the AI expansion.

[Redmeth]

The Eleutheroi part is intended to stop AI steamrolling, the problem is that sometimes a faction gets lucky and gets a many-starred general(this is damaging in the early game mostly).
I saw an Epeiros general (the guy that starts in Taras) beat a lot of Romans and gaining many stars also with the help of the many mercs in southerm Italy (especially the very strong Saminticii Milites) he took out Rhegion (rebel city) and then methodically defeated the Romans until he took Arpi, Capua and Rome.

I mean he just obliterated some strong armies led by young generals or captains.

Granted. the Romans kept trying to take the strong Eleutheroi cities to the north and losing many men there (I agree with the strong Eleutheroi BTW)

EDIT: On second thought sometimes Hannibal happens, so to speak.