HAHA Thanks for the vote of confidence hoom.

If I can I'll try it today with my 4 chevron units. I read somewhere that there is a different calculation for units above 4 chevrons being replenished.

I find it takes more time to get units up in experience. I guess the main reason is the usually high rate of casualties in any open field battle where neither side has any major terrain or technological advantage. I'm still getting used to E:TW and I'm really not too sure I'm playing very well, though I have had many 'heroic' victories. IIRC in M2:TW I'd have gold chevron units by now.

In my current campaign, I've had a long war with France, the objective of which was to destroy their navy (hoping to give my navy lots of chevrons in the process) & to 'level up' my land army sitting outside Paris.

Some units have participated in a lot of battles and taken very few casualties but they're still only at 4 chevrons. In my first campaign I'd always use the replenish option but it took a lot longer to get a unit above 3 chevrons so I've quit using replenish until I figure out exactly what the exp loss is from replenishment. Instead I always merge higher exp units with lower exp units. It's working a lot better and in this campaign I have much better exp spread which yields very impressive results on the battlefield.