Experience benefits..?

[David_VI]

Hi,
I did a search about experience and could only find things about gaining and losing it.. so hope this thread is fine.

I've played RTW/EB on/off since it came out and i've never known what experience does. Is it just for looks or does it improve stats?

For example if you have units with no chevrons and then some with many silver ones. Are the experienced ones akin to having your elite trusted troops?

David

[Aemilius Paulus]

Experience improves two things, and two things only, AFAIK. (actually, that would be more like three things, but for the sake of brevity...)

Attack/Defence skill and morale are basically it. I forgot in which increments though. Go to Ludus Magna (https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/forumdisplay.php?88-Ludus-Magna) for that, where you can find everything about RTW internal mechanics

[Blxz]

I don't know about the moral. But each experience chevron up to a total of 9 (3 gold) gives you 1 extra point in attack and 1 in defence skill. So your slingers with a crappy 2 attack and armour piercing become juggernaughts of doom with 11 attack. Meanwhile most close combat troops become virtually invincible in a frontal assault with an extra 9 defense skill. This is useless against ranged attacks and attacks from the left and rear of the unit though.

Definately worthwhile training your best/most important units up and preserving them to get those valuable chevrons.

Although M2TW is different. The bonus is only one point every 3 levels to a total max of 3. Much less effective, but it does make things slightly more realistic, at least in regards to units with very low natural attack values like slingers and archers.

[Aemilius Paulus]

I don't know about the moral. But each experience chevron up to a total of 9 (3 gold) gives you 1 extra point in attack and 1 in defence skill. So your slingers with a crappy 2 attack and armour piercing become juggernaughts of doom with 11 attack.
Mmm, true not quite so. Roman Accensi slingers do not gain a visible attack bonus 'till the second chevron, for instance. And the experience chevrons in missile units cause an accuracy bonus instead of the attack bonus - or so Ludus Magna and the EB Team says. But accuracy still matters quite a lot, as the more hits, the more kills you get. This also makes sense, since experience usually meant better accuracy, not necessarily damage - unless you got a better bow or a longer sling. Being able to string a bow far does not have such an effect as accuracy does - hopefully you were a strong fellow by the time you were in the army.

[David_VI]

Thanks, makes a bit more sense now.

I couldn't find what I was after in that other sub forum.. maybe I wasn't looking properly!

So basically everything improves overall, morale, attack and defence?

Change of subject.. is there any threads about battle tactics and formations? I find myself forming armies in the same way regardless of faction and troops and I feel theres more to it than that!

[antisocialmunky]

I believe its +2 Morale each level.

[Blxz]

Mmm, true not quite so. Roman Accensi slingers do not gain a visible attack bonus 'till the second chevron, for instance. And the experience chevrons in missile units cause an accuracy bonus instead of the attack bonus - or so Ludus Magna and the EB Team says. But accuracy still matters quite a lot, as the more hits, the more kills you get. This also makes sense, since experience usually meant better accuracy, not necessarily damage - unless you got a better bow or a longer sling. Being able to string a bow far does not have such an effect as accuracy does - hopefully you were a strong fellow by the time you were in the army.

Are you sure about this? I can compare experienced units in my army with units before they are recruited. My theory works perfectly for every unit i have bothered to check. I am using BI.exe so maybe that could be the difference, otherwise one of us is wrong, and for the units I have bothered checking (most horse archer type units, a varied factions line troops and most hellenic and eastern slingers) I am 'apparently' not wrong.

[Macilrille]

The AAR section has lots of threads on tactics, and there are occasionally some in this part of the forum as well. I know that I have started a thread on archery tactics that turned out quite well in the AAR section and three here on Hellenic, Nomad and Barbarian tactics as well. The "Search" function should yield some results for your perusal.

Enjoy.

[Dyabedes of Aphrodisias]

Mmm, true not quite so. Roman Accensi slingers do not gain a visible attack bonus 'till the second chevron, for instance. And the experience chevrons in missile units cause an accuracy bonus instead of the attack bonus - or so Ludus Magna and the EB Team says. But accuracy still matters quite a lot, as the more hits, the more kills you get. This also makes sense, since experience usually meant better accuracy, not necessarily damage - unless you got a better bow or a longer sling. Being able to string a bow far does not have such an effect as accuracy does - hopefully you were a strong fellow by the time you were in the army.
This sounds off to me. Every unit I've used in campaigns (including several varieties of slingers) gain exactly 1 attack and defense point for every chevron. But I can't say for sure because I've never used accensi.

[bobbin]

AP is right about the accuracy thing, the game shows a +1 increase in missile attack on the unit cards but this is incorrect. If you modify a unit to increase its missle attack up to what it is shown as being for 9 chevrons it is far more deadly than it would be if it was an unmodified unit with 9 chevrons.