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So take Battlefield Commissions, build a war college, build a veterens home etc. I think there's also a decision that gives some yearly tradition too, but I forget the name.
I don't find it that bad. Quite often while at peace a military will end up with "management" types running everything. It's not until they get into a war that the "warrior" types are suddenly needed and get the chance to show their colours and earn promotions. Translated into EUIII terms your early battles will be fought will fairly poor generals until you earn enough tradition to "discover" the good fighting generals. For really good leaders you can just assume that the countries had some tradition already and so went from something like 60 to 90 then got Napoleons rather than 0 to 30.