Weird behavioir of "character" general stars?

I've noticed this playing england, Wellington's stars went up and down suddenly for no apparent reason, but i thought i was somehow hallucinating, so I ignored it.

Now I'm playing prussia. Blucher starts with a puny 3 stars (ok, he was kinda unruly, but come on, 3 stars?), now I'm attacking a stack led by napoleon. As blucher was walking up to him he still had 3 stars, as soon as they made contact, he suddenly changed to five. What on earth determines how stars change for "legendary" generals?

Well there are some traits like +1 command when defending/attacking/besieging.

Ah right, I always forget that

Hi there.
There are many traits that affect the number of stars. Even the composition can affect this; a cavalry general leading infantry, or the other way around, lowers the number of stars too. Also fighting different opponents, or if you are Russia, out side your original provinces, affects the number of stars. I believe that there is a list of traits and ancillaries some where around, I will get back if I find it.
M. Jessen

Originally Posted by MortenJessen

Hi there.
There are many traits that affect the number of stars. Even the composition can affect this; a cavalry general leading infantry, or the other way around, lowers the number of stars too. Also fighting different opponents, or if you are Russia, out side your original provinces, affects the number of stars. I believe that there is a list of traits and ancillaries some where around, I will get back if I find it.
M. Jessen

Yes ancillaries and traits change command stars among other things, but I had no idea of the Russian part.

Yea if generals get more command leading cavalry, they only need one more regiment of cavalry to other regiments to get the bonus (vice versa with infantry generals) so when adding and removing regiments from the army can change the command stars instantly.