Quote Originally Posted by Poor Bloody Infantry
...experience doesn't affect the effectiveness of missile units, either in terms of accuracy or attack strength....This means experience is almost useless for missiles and artillery....
That may not be entirely true.

I suggest the following simple experiment :
Custom battle, grassy plain, 1vs.1 peasant archers, one unit 9 exp, the other 0 exp.
Order your archers to attack, hit "C" when in range (AI will do the same), then hit "CTRL-T" to speed it up.
Run it ten times, it will only take you 5 min.

My results : the gold unit won each time, average losses 35%. So, there must be some advantage for ranged units in those chevrons. (M2TW 1.02)