The 1st Edition has a section on P94 called Personal Qualities of Commanders… there were three qualities: Aggression, Decisiveness, and Independence. Each Commander was “rated” on all three of these qualities. Each quality had three possibilities. The high and low quality each came with rules modifying the command effect of a command die roll. But the middle possibility (and highest probability) did not confer any impact on the general.
So you would roll on the table for each one… and the “mix” determined your specific personal qualities for a given general.
I believe Clash of Eagles came out before the 2nd Edition so there are some things that do not translate perfectly in the 2nd Edition…
In the 2nd Edition, Randomly Generating Commanders on p. 108 replaces this section from the first edition. Comparing the rules for “A Marshal’s baton in every knapsack” on p 104 with the table on p 94 of the First Edition, the French army is given 2 chances instead of 1 of being Aggressive and Decisive but no improvement in Independence.
If I were to try to adapt this rule to the second edition of BP, it looks like the simplest way would be to simply deduct 1 from the die roll when rolling on the table on p. 108. I think that would be preferable or else develop your own House Rule for emulating the effect. I don’t know the reason why the rule was changed other than perhaps sometimes you got a strange mix of characteristics when you rolled for the three qualities instead of just one.
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