How to XP up units?

**Warhammer3025** · 03-20-2009, 08:07

Also does anyone know how a unit places it individual soldiers? Like do the most experienced go in the frotn rank and teh newbs in teh backrow? Cuz if the vets are in the front that means they're the ones to die when a unit gets into a firefight. Also if you replenish while losing only 20-50 men per unit they wont lose xp? I mean raw recruits will bring down xp quite a bit otherwise.

The AI definitely gets bonus on H in battle. A militia can still shoot up a line inf unit with fire by rank, sure militia willl lose, by for all practical purposes getting into a firefight is still gonna cause some hurt.

**al Roumi** · 03-20-2009, 11:22

I'm guessing the mechanic that attributes xp is still based on a kills per casualty ratio for each unit?

In that case, the best way to XP line inf (for example) is to kill as many enemies without losing men. This is hard to do 1 on 1 unless you are using (buggy) "garden wall" cover or better: the defense "trenches".

It's clearly not as easy to xp up units in ETW as it was in MTW2. To my mind for 2 reasons:

1. The lack of campaign/battle map strategy (i.e. no river crossing or mountain side defenses to exploit) and the debatable uselessness of forts. I've found it very hard to put my troops in a very advantageous situation, from which they can maximise enemy casualties whilst remaining more or less unhurt.

2. There's also the uniformity of troops in ETW -gone are the days of faction specific tactics i.e high xp genoese militia decimating the enemy from behind a protective screen of spear militia. ETW just doesn't seem to have as many advantageous troops (units with an edge over the enemy's) -or even opportunities to exploit them!

In my games, this means the success of an even battle (numbers wise) hangs on how adaptable my troops are in deployment on the (apparently random) battle map and tactics.

**MadKow** · 03-20-2009, 15:19

As for battle situations, i had some success defending a bridge in a repeatable manner, while play the ottomans. There is this bridge south of Bagdhad i was defending with 2 Kurdish Skirmisher units and a Camel unit (the one with 90 range). And was attacked by 3 units of Persian troops (desert warriors i believe, and a melée camel unit).

The bridge was there and the troops were in the expected places, so it all went as in other TW bridge battles, only this one was a shoot out, not a melée (sp?) blood fest. The AI behaved properly bad too, sending one unit at a time and standing in the middle of the bridge shooting... (if only i had grenadiers there....)

On the other hand i remember defending a river crossing, somewhere in Europe, not at a road bridge but at one of those "land bridges" and when the battle started i was on top of a hill with no river in sight...

**Elmar Bijlsma** · 03-20-2009, 16:16

In grossly uneven fights (in your favour) auto-calc is your friend. Unlike in previous titles, the auto-calc result will in all likelihood be better then what you will manage. More kills for significantly fewer casualties. And for some reason the XP given seems much better too.
So auto-calc to save yourself the boring one sided fights and get bonus XP to boot!

As for tactical advice: If attacking, have your most treasured units on the flanks. They'll flank and fight already engaged opponents and should get kills at little cost while your fresh recruits take most of the heat by fixing the enemy in place by frontal attack.
On the defence it's the opposite, especially when outnumbered. Your recruits will be left on the vulnerable flanks while your treasured units should be given the centre position. With better then average XP they should do well enough in a stand up fight. Add to that having the advantage of shooting first on any approaching enemy and they'll more then likely give out more then they receive, thus giving you yummy XP.

**Warhammer3025** · 03-20-2009, 17:16

Yea, i've noticed that auto calc does tend to be generous with the xp (at least it seems that way). My fleets tend to xp up pretty high using solely autocalc (i have a few 4 xp brigs!), cuz i'm just absolutely putrid at naval battles. However alot of times during land battles i find my treasured vet units taking more losses than they should in the lopsided battles in my favor auto calc so i tend not to use it.

Elmar i generally use the tactics you just said, but alot of times the computer will just start pivoting to shoot my veteran flankers even while my newbs were engaging them from the front. Its annyoing as hell since it defeats the whole purpose of me wanting my vets to not get hurt and get some free kills.

Also i've noticed a coupla things that are pretty significant bugs. While my trooops take cover behind a wall, i've noticed a bunch of times that they wont fire at an enemy even with fire at will on. Half are crouched and another half is just standing there and they're eating fire without responding. Another massive bug is that when the AI brings in reinforcements that have fixed artillery in them they wont spawn on the battlemap (since they cant move i guess). However since i cant kill them and despite not being on the map at all i cant win the battle since i didnt "defeat" everyone. Dude this a massive bug, i mean in M2:TW fixed arty wont spawn and wont count for victory conditions, i've lost a bunch of early battles this way. The only workaround to this is to retreat everyone and lose the battle but at least killing everyone that i could get my hands on. However i've noticed that whenever my arty glitches and refuses to limber and i cant withdraw them and i quit the battle the casualty resolution screen acts as if i didnt withdraw ANYONE (even though i did withdraw 95% of my army) and kills the majority of my army when techinically they werent even on the field except teh for the glitched arty.

These are some pretty damning bugs that are pissing me off to no end right now. They better patch stuff like this up soon otherwise i might just pass on the expansion.

A quick question how come when the AI cav charges over a wall to engage my crouched infantry they cream my boys, but whenever i charge over a wall i slow down get stuck and my heavies get bayoneted down like pansies.

I just hate having massive armies, i like to use the same army group and fight a massive number of battles building up high battle xp forming an elite army. The battles in this game are just too sparse and bloody to allow it though

**Marquis of Roland** · 03-20-2009, 19:50

I found that, ironically, the more advanced my troops get, the more meleeing they do. My platoon firing guard units take considerable casualties against even AI militia in a shootout, yet with the Black Watch I routed 6 French line infantry units, all meleeing at the same time, in a epic fort siege. You'd still take a good number of casualties, but I think in melee the AI's stat bonus advantages are not as potent as they are shooting, so it might be best just to charge in after a volley or 2 if you're facing militia type units, it might help in keeping the xp you already gained. Otherwise autocalc till you're 5 chevrons

As for naval battles, I guess I'm one of the few that does better at sea than on land. After I lost 1 3rd rate in a autocalc battle with 18 frigates and brigs (rated as a "decisive victory"), I never autocalc again for naval battle. The last ship I lost in a battle I played myself was 2 sloops, against that insane pirate stack in the caribbean, way back in 1701 or 1702. Now it is the 1750's and even with not being able to use 2 stacks of ships of the line due to CTD, all my admirals are turning alcoholic because there are no more enemy fleets left to fight

**Warhammer3025** · 03-20-2009, 20:46

Would be nice if i could fight worth a damn in a naval battle. I usually end up losing 3rd raters to fluyts somehow and lord help me if a galley is nearby, talk about one shot central on my expensive fleet ships. I only wish the damn pirates would hit the AI fleets half as much as mine.

So on H and VH, dont bother firing my muskets and just bayonet charge to reduce casualties? Geeze, if thats the case why the hell did i bother to buy this game, i would be having more fun with my late era pike and shot armies in M2:TW if i'm forced to do that in ETW.