Martian training: Very high-EXP soldiers right off the recruitment center

Disclaimer: This is not my original idea - the credit goes to 別勒古台 (Eng. Belgutei), who famously termed it Martian training. IMO it is absolutely brilliant. Here is the original if you can read Chinese: http://www.clanlong.com/forum/thread-176166-1-1.html.

We all love to recruit fancy upgrade units for late game battles, such as +5 armor Naginata Samurai and +25% accuracy Bow Warrrior monks. However, one large draw back of these soldiers is that they start with low experience levels. Other than the nice armor that cannot be equalled, they probably can't do much better compared to veterans of the same kind, who have been fighting bloody battles since the beginning of the campaigns.

But there is one solution (or an exploit if you want to call it) that utilizes the game's rule on unit combination. In very old TW games such as STW1, individual soldiers actually have their own experience saved in the save file. But now in STW2 only the unit experience is tracked. The experience of the units follow the regular "round up/off" principle but with two oddities - (1) no decimal places in EXP are kept during unit combination, (2) the upgrade qualities only stick with the unit that is combined into. For example, we have a Yari Ashigaru unit:

CASE I

150 (0) = 1 unit of Yari Ashigaru with EXP 0, and we add half of that stack into:
75 (4) = half-depleted unit of Yari Ashigaru with EXP 4.

Then you get:

75 (0) = half-depleted unit of Yari Ashigaru with EXP 0, and
150 (2) = 1 unit of Yari Ashigaru with EXP 2.

Nothing special in this, right? The EXP gets averaged. Let's make the next case more interesting.

Case II

UNIT#1: 150 (0, +++++) = 1 unit of Yari Ashigaru with EXP 0 and +5 armor
UNIT#2: 75 (4) = 1 unit of Yari Ashigaru with EXP 4.
UNIT#3: 150 (4) = 1 unit of Yari Ashigaru with EXP 4.

First, we mix Unit#1 into Unit #2.

UNIT#1: 75 (0, +++++)
UNIT#2: 150 (2)
UNIT#3: 150 (4)

Now this sucks because we just lost 75 guys with +5 armor! Let's combine unit #3 into unit #1.

UNIT#1: 150 (2, +++++)
UNIT#2: 150 (2)
UNIT#3: 75 (4)

Good, so we have the armored unit back to full strength. And did you notice a difference from the original state? Your armored unit has gained 2 EXP by sacrificing an vanilla unit's strength. That's neat, but not spectacular. Let's go one step further and combine Unit #2 into Unit #3.

UNIT#1: 150 (2, +++++)
UNIT#2: 75 (2)
UNIT#3: 150 (3)

We kinda returned to where we were at the beginning, while losing EXP on the higher EXP unit. That also sucks. Here is where things can get very interesting. Let's see the next case.

Case III

UNIT#1: 150 (0, +++++) = full unit of Yari Ashigaru with EXP 0 and +5 armor
UNIT#2: 80 (3) = half unit of Yari Ashigaru with EXP 3.
UNIT#2: 150 (3) = full unit of Yari Ashigaru with EXP 3.
UNIT#3: 150 (4) = full unit of Yari Ashigaru with EXP 4.

Still, let's first merge Unit #1 with with Unit #2.

UNIT#1: 80 (0, +++++)
UNIT#2: 150 (2)
UNIT#2: 150 (3)
UNIT#3: 150 (4)

Note that we are only merging 70 of EXP 0 into 80 of EXP 3. So we get the combined average EXP of (70*0+80*3)/150 = 1.6. BUT the game rounds the EXP up to 2. This is critically important - I am not sure why the game does not track it as EXP 1 + 60% of the EXP bar to the next level. It simply rounds it to the next level. This forms the base of our Martian training.

Next let's merge Unit #4 into Unit #1.

UNIT#1: 150 (2, +++++)
UNIT#2: 150 (2)
UNIT#3: 150 (3)
UNIT#4: 80 (4)

Level 2! But we can do better. Next let's merge Unit #3 into Unit #4.

UNIT#1: 150 (2, +++++)
UNIT#2: 150 (2)
UNIT#3: 80 (3)
UNIT#4: 150 (4)

Unit #4 did not lose a level! That's another free EXP event. Let's continue by merging Unit #1 into Unit #3.

UNIT#1: 80 (2, +++++)
UNIT#2: 150 (2)
UNIT#3: 150 (3)
UNIT#4: 150 (4)

Again, we gained free EXP here as Unit #3's EXP is not dragged down by the merge. Next let's merge Unit #4 into Unit #1.

UNIT#1: 150 (3, +++++)
UNIT#2: 150 (2)
UNIT#3: 150 (3)
UNIT#4: 80 (4)

Ah, EXP 3 for our golden armor Yari Ashigaru, that's better. Then, let's merge Unit #3 into Unit #4.

UNIT#1: 150 (3, +++++)
UNIT#2: 150 (2)
UNIT#3: 80 (3)
UNIT#4: 150 (4)

Again, we did not lose any EXP! Next, let's merge Unit #2 into Unit #3.

UNIT#1: 150 (3, +++++)
UNIT#2: 80 (2)
UNIT#3: 150 (3)
UNIT#4: 150 (4)

Once more, no loss of EXP! As long as we keep the level difference at 1 and the lower level unit has less than half of the units to be combined into the higher level unit, we are happy. But we are not done yet. We have to return the seeds to their original states. Let's merge Unit #4 into Unit #2.

UNIT#1: 150 (3, +++++)
UNIT#2: 150 (3)
UNIT#3: 150 (3)
UNIT#4: 80 (4)

And finally, Unit #2 into Unit #4.

UNIT#1: 150 (3, +++++)
UNIT#2: 80 (3)
UNIT#3: 150 (3)
UNIT#4: 150 (4)

TAH DAH! Let's compare this to our original state:

UNIT#1: 150 (0, +++++)
UNIT#2: 80 (3)
UNIT#2: 150 (3)
UNIT#3: 150 (4)

We leveled up Unit #1 from level 0 to level 3 - absolutely free! Magic, right?

So we can make some general requirement of the case:

(1) A high-level unit, no upgrade is fine. Best is level 9, of course.
(2) A bunch of next-high level units.

- At least one unit has to be highest-level minus 1. For example, if you have a level-9 unit, you need a level 8 unit here. You need at least 2 next-high level seeds. But you need at most 3.
- ONE of the seeds has to be damaged - but NEVER OVER HALF OF ITS MEN. For example, if you have a samurai unit of 120 max, look for a damaged high-EXP unit above 60. But too high is not good either. (To be exact, 60 to 90 only. 60 is the grand prize as you will be able to train up to the same level as the Top EXP seed). When you have this unit, remove it from a general so it does not get healed any further.

The above will be our seeds. Park them beside your recruitment center.

(3) Units with good upgrades but low EXP. Those are the supersoldiers you want to train.

And start merging! The general steps of merging:

(Step 1) Merge your best upgrade into your damaged seed.
(Step 2) Merge your best EXP into your high-upgrade.
(Step 3) Merge your next best EXP into your best EXP ONLY IF this results in no loss of EXP of your best EXP unit. And slowly move up the ladder to get all the high-EXP seeds to full strength with no loss of EXP. A rule of thumb: always merge into a unit that is 1 EXP above. When you are done with all that, repeat Step 1 to start the next cycle.

The highest level you can reach for the high-upgrade units are the highest-EXP level minus 1. For example, if your seed is at level 9, the most you can go is level 8.

You can repeat this process for all new recruits, one by one. All you need are a bunch of seeds with high EXP, and one damaged unit. (plus some patience) For example, if you want to train very good Naginata Samurai late game, get a few units of Naginata Samurai early game and train them to the highest level you can. Then train all your best +5 armor Naginata Samurai all to that highest level -1!

p.s. And don't bother building advanced Naginata buildings. Those fancy Bushido techs are also therefore completely useless. We can go way over that.

p.s. You can easily prepare the seeds (no upgrade, high EXP) with the same principle. Let's see you start with these:

1 unit of less-than-half damaged level-5, written as 5*
1 unit of full level-0, written as 6
1 unit of full level-8, written as 8
1 unit of full level-9, written as 9

(1) 5*, 6, 8, 9
(2) 7, 6, 8, 9*
(3) 7, 6, 8*, 9
(4) 7*, 6, 8, 9
(5) 7, 6*, 8, 9
(6) 7, 7, 8, 9*
(7) 7, 7, 8*, 9
(8) 7, 7* 8, 9
(9) 7, 8, 8, 9*
(10) 7, 8, 8*, 9
(11) 7*, 8, 8, 9
(12) 8, 8, 8, 9*
(13) 8*, 8, 8, 9

So after 13 steps they are all optimized, ready to Martian train.

Finally, one practical example:
1. You reached the pause of Realm Divide.
2. Pull 4 of your best EXP units of Bow Ashigaru, one unit is damaged, and keeps them just outside your choice of craftsman province (Buzen, Hoki, Hitachi, etc.).
3. Build the +25% accuracy upgrade in that province.
4. Prepare your 4 seeds so they are max level, and the rest max level -1.
5. Train all your new +25% accuracy Bow Ashigaru recruits to max level -1!

p.s. To accelerate with the EXP gaining, do some merging after every battle (where you get hurt and the highest-leveled unit gains a level), so all your units level up according to the best units' EXP.

Here is a graphic explanation if you like to see things in pictures:
https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/attac...9&d=1331769702

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/attac...3&d=1331868317

Huh... while this is indeed a very nice find it reeks of lazy coding and should definitely be patched out to accomodate the mentioned x rank + % of next rank-system if they insist on unit-wide XP ranks (and I greatly appreciate that they use this system). They can't expect that players need to mod the game to be able to stack units together properly. I am of course hopelessly optimistic so I never combine units as I can easily delay the enemy advance 5-6 turns to await replenishments, but even if I wanted to I'd have to be careful to do it properly as to avoid upgrading (or downgrading) my units?

Looking forward to test results to see this in effect!

Done. It works perfectly. Please see the above picture.

This is so wrong. This is more wrong than selling map information in Rome. This is more wrong than going Christian as Chosokabe. Whoever decided to code the xp system like that must have left early that day :p

While I merge units to gain high experiece units, I wouldn't do it like explained above.
Just a tad to much powergaming for my taste.

However, it's still a nice find for those who do want to use it.

Nice find :)

I usually combine units anyhow to preserve exp and get a lil boost; I did not realize that it could be used so systematically.

As usual, you are just more observant than most; thank you for sharing :bow:

The credit does not go to me! But I guess I deserved something for typing it up (pat self in the back).

Just wonder - maybe a damaged seed of "60" (exactly half of the stack) could create the best effect, as 0.5 should be always rounded up, given the benefit of the doubt! So it is possible to level up all units to the Top exp seed (everybody level 9)! Gotta test this!

I sort of was doing this by trial and error - good to see that there is some logic behind and you can predict the results.

Of course the problem is getting units that are exactly damaged enough and shuttling them to your recruitment centres (IIRC this was much easier in STW1 as you could move armies between any two ports you held in one turn - which given the distances involved would make much more sense for STW2) and although I am tempted to set up a constantly rebelling province next door to keep my units continually under strength this sounds like a lot of hard work and an exploit too far for me.

Plus I tend to turtle in the early game to build up my infrastructure and so in middle and late game am generally fighting more against the clock to get those 60 provinces than against the AI - if there was no campaign deadline I'd do all sorts of weird experimental stuff....

Verified: 50% strength seed enables all units to be trained to the Top EXP. Picture updated in the original post.

I am relieved to say that the Martian training exploit has officially become obsolete by the latest patch (build 5346)! Apparently CA now allows decimal points of ranks to be carried along with each unit during mergers.