Experience Question

Another brief question, if I may. ~:)

This one is a bit more general, and applies to the entire series, but it's something I've never quite been sure of: It's pretty quickly apparent that experience (honour/valour/chevrons/whatever) gives morale and other statistical bonuses to units, but does experience affect the power and/or accuracy of a unit's ranged attacks, such as bows, javelins etc? Also, does experience affect the efficacy of artillery units?

From what I have observed I have a feeling the answer is "No" but I've also seen enough conflicting evidence to make me unsure. Any TW combat-system boffins know the answer?

Antagonist

The easiest way to test it is to do custom battles.

Even if their is a statistical difference it is always better to test drive units.

In some cases a 5% bonus makes a huge difference in outcome of performance, while with other units a 50% bonus has little effect.

Archers do get more deadly... but I prefer in the game to buy better versions with better upgrades. Valour goes up at about half the rate for archer kills compared with melee. The advantage tends to be that archers don't get killed off as quickly so they get more time to progress.

The best ones to use IMDHO are Horse Archers as they can quickly rack up the valour with routing units.

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Also, does experience affect the efficacy of artillery units?

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yes, IIRC the hit percentage increases with each chevron - don't hagve a clue how much- and thus the efficiancy of the artillery unit is increased, I have not tested this myself, but in my time here at the .org I have heard this ~:)

:balloon2:

It's also important to consider the cost increase of a unit (in Multiplayer, MP) with higher honor/valor etc., relative to the increase in performance.

My understanding is that ranged units do increase in effectiveness as they honor/valor up, but the improvement is marginal beyond a certain level, and the cost in multiplayer quickly exceeds the benefit of the improvement.

There are others here who are well-qualified to comment about this in much greater detail.

Thank you all for the information and advice. I've been trying out a few custom battles with various levels of experience to try and gauge the difference.

Cheers,

Antagonist

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Originally Posted by Antagonist

This one is a bit more general, and applies to the entire series, but it's something I've never quite been sure of: It's pretty quickly apparent that experience (honour/valour/chevrons/whatever) gives morale and other statistical bonuses to units, but does experience affect the power and/or accuracy of a unit's ranged attacks, such as bows, javelins etc? Also, does experience affect the efficacy of artillery units?

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I don't know the answer for R:TW, but for M:TW and S:TW, experience increased the accuracy by a set-percentage. This meant that low-accuracy troops (Arquebusiers) benefited more than high accuracy troops (archers). However, the improvement was not that big.

See also this thread: Relative Effectiveness of Missiles.

Thanks, Ludens. That thread answered several of my questions about projectiles in Medieval.

I'm kind of fond of the sniper catapult (with Baush & Lomb optics), myself. As they get up in valor, they seem to be able to drop a rock right on top of the enemy general. I'm not sure a catapult built in, say, an iron rich province will get a bonus with using their weapon (it's not like they're iron-shod rocks or anything). And... it's a rock. It either hits or it doesn't. So this probably doesn't answer the question very well, and I'll withdraw my answer. ~:)

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Originally Posted by Grond

I'm kind of fond of the sniper catapult (with Baush & Lomb optics), myself. As they get up in valor, they seem to be able to drop a rock right on top of the enemy general. I'm not sure a catapult built in, say, an iron rich province will get a bonus with using their weapon (it's not like they're iron-shod rocks or anything). And... it's a rock. It either hits or it doesn't. So this probably doesn't answer the question very well, and I'll withdraw my answer. ~:)

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Siege weapon accuracy is bugged, but I don't recall right now what the problem was. They get an accuracy bonus under some circumstances, for example when targetting a general. But they don't get a bonus from weapon upgrades. Weapon upgrades only influence melee attack (same for all missile units).