Experiance

[Autumn]

So. Anyone know how the experiance system ACTUALLY works?

I know the number of chevrons (0-9) give morale and accuracy, whilst the colour (bronze - gold) denotes the +1/+1 bonus to stats.

But how does the game figure out who gets what? I can't remember how many times I've seen spearmen who've not even moved for the entire battle get exp. whilst heavy cavalry with 200+ kills get none!

It seems totally random!

Pete

[PBI]

Don't know the exact mechanics, but I'm almost certain experience is based on the number of battles a unit has been in as well as how many kills it gets, hence why some units can get a promotion without doing any fighting. I don't think you'll ever see a unit fighting its first battle that doesn't get any kills get promoted.

Also, I know for a fact that kills of routers net less experience than kills of non-routing troops. Hence why cavalry can get hundreds of kills and get relatively little experience (although I still find they get way more than anyone else).

I must say, I've always thought experience for missile units should be based on how many times they fire, not just how many kills they get. You'd think that just firing a lot of arrows would make you better at aiming whether you can penetrate the target's armour or not. Plus it seems silly that artillery get no experience for knocking down walls & towers.

Then again, experience for missile units is pretty much meaningless anyway since it only affects morale and melee damage, not missile damage or accuracy.

[G^2]

I don't know too much about the mechanics of experience, but I know form game play observations that, as PBI stated, chasing routers is the best way to gain experience. Thus, I always have my general and Hoarse Archers chase routers along with other calvary to get those gold chevrons. As for infantry, defending in sieges seems to give them allot of exp. probably because of the funneling effect of Gate houses which allows them to kill large numbers of enemy units before they get can run away.

Just checked the M2TW FAQ which stated that experience raises attack and defense values. 1exp no effect: 2-3 exp plus 1: 4-6 exp plus 2: 7+ plus 3. Also someone called CaptianSolo did an experiment with Longbows and Genoese Xbows against Scottish Noble Pikemen and determined that gold chevron bows kill about twice as many units as bows without chevrons. There was however no information on how experience is accumulated.
Check out FAQ if your interested.

[FactionHeir]

Experience is accumulated by kills. The game tracks the xp for each individual soldier, which is why smaller units (depleted) tend to gain xp a lot faster than full strength units.
This also means that your front usually is more experienced than your back for infantry, but the change in a battle is small because the front 2 ranks are few compared to the total ranks. Also, the front rank tends to die a lot faster due to doing all the fighting, thus reducing the total xp again.

XP is gained from participating in battles (the don't even have to fight at all, but helps) and from killing. There is little distinction between killing a peasant and a swordsman. But I think cavalry killing gives a bit more xp than infantry and routers give a bit less than holders.

[glyphz]

Got my self a Q?
Do the mods (i.e.BC, SS) have a different experience system to vanilla M2TW. Something like, say missile troops exp. does raise missile damage (similar to RTW's experience system)

[FactionHeir]

Its hardcoded

[Autumn]

I think I understand. Is that why when you combine units they sometimes lose chevrons because the unit is no longer depleted?

've never noticed the same happen when retraining units, but maybe that's just tardy observation...

I also remember in RTW that when you got units down to 10 men or so they started "levelling up" like crazy. Ahh, those twinkly lights of impending doom

[Old Geezer]

Because I can never tell what will happen, I always save the game in case the donor unit drops chevron level after donating. Once I get a high unit (especially a level 9) I use it as often as possible to raise other units. I had a level 3 unit go gold after one donation last night. Instead of retraining all of the units I can at once, I now just retrain the hightest of a type and use it as the donor. This takes more turns but if you can wait to retrain your units it pays off very well. (A level 9 Border Horse with armor and weapon upgrades can do some serious damage to Mongol and Timurid HAs or other HAs for that matter.) (I have a SS Leon campaign started and am anticipating using upgraded level 9 Jinetes against the Mongols.) Level 9 Hospitaler Knights with upgraded armor and weapons are very very effective against the Mongols heavy cavalry and can even hurt elephants if they get a charge to the posterior of said pachyderms.