Archer Accuracy Experiment

[Old Geezer]

I have heard and believed that archers do not gain accuracy from experience. Having run some tests I am convinced that increased experience does result in more kills.

I tested levels 0, 1, 4, and 9 longbowmen against highland pikemen on very hard setting on the Spanish plains (only clear weather was used as rain made the attacking longbows do strange things). The pikemen were defenders and controlled by me. The AI had the longbowmen. For the analysis I used only the first 5 volleys, because after that the AI advanced to point blank range at different times. I used at least 3 different custom battle loads for each level tested (except the level 1 which was one custom battle run 10 times) and ran 12 tests for the level 9 and level 4 longbowmen, 10 trials for the level 1, and 13 for the 0 level.

The level 0 left an average of 64 pikemen standing.
The level 1 left an average of 61.5 pikemen standing.
The level 4 left an average of 59 pikemen standing.
The level 9 left an average of 54 pikemen standing.

These results have convinced me that level of experience does count. There is enough spread that this might not be noticeable during game play. The spread for the level 0 longbowmen ranged from 67 to 60; the level 1 ranged from56 to 65; the level 4 ranged from 62 to 52; and the level 9 ranged from 61 to 47. So during any particular battle you could have all three levels getting close enough results that you might, as I did, assume that experience doesn't help accuracy.

I don't think that the level 9 has any better accuracy than the level 7, but I have not tested it yet.

I tried testing ballista but had problems because they will advance to point blank range in fearless disregard of my defending peasants (probably due to securerom ).

So, I advise not taking level 0 archers up against the Mongols level 6 archers in a shoot-out.

[Ratwar]

Very interesting, though I'm gonna have to disagree with you about level 9 having the same as 7. From level 1 to 4, there is a 2.5 increase, so if it is a linear function, it would make sense for level 7 to have the same 2.5-3 difference, but level 9 is roughly twice that.

Still, although interesting, looks almost useless. A difference on average of 2.5 after 5 volleys against something with no armor is small enough already, but if you take armored units, the difference will be even smaller. Plus, the standard deviation appears to be quite large. The level 9 longbows were actually worse than one group of level 0...

[rossahh]

Do archers get the same damage bonus (for their arrows) with experience like the melee infantry get with their weapons?

[Dead Guy]

Run a repeated measures ANOVA. Your null hypothesis would be that archers of varying experience don't differ in the amount of men they kill with their ranged attack under the same conditions, I presume. Then, if p<0.05 there is a statistically significant difference between the groups of archers and experience probably effects the accuracy of archers :p But there is always the chance that you made a type 1 error, the difference you detect is a coinceidence, and the null hypothesis is actually true.

I hate statistics... =)

[Old Geezer]

I just ran 10 trials with level 7 longbowmen and had an average of 56.1 men standing after the 5 volleys. So, it looks like every chevron may give some benefit, probably at least 1.

[hellenes]

This is one of the bizzare no brainers from CA....WHY REMOVE ARCHER EXPERIENCE BONUS? The more guys this men kill the better they become....
A big step back from RTW....