How to XP up units?

**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.

**Marquis of Roland** · 03-21-2009, 00:37

Originally Posted by Warhammer3025

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.

Yea that blows. Definitely need to increase damage by musketry, and also make a bigger difference between a ragged volley and a well-timed volley. Militia volleys should be ragged and not cause as many casualties as they do. line infantry does have everyone firing at the same time, this needs to cause more damage.

Way things are now, there is no way for infantry in line formation to stop a column marching at it and then charging from short distance. Your guard types are pretty much melee infantry that happens to have a limited ranged attack; some battles its almost like i'm playing the Roman civil war in RTW all over again

I think I'm gonna just go ahead and play on medium, where there is no stat bonuses. As long as the AI is the same, I really don't see the point of playing the AI with stat bonuses anymore. I can still win on hard, but having to treat the AI militia as elite light/line infantry against my guard units and line infantry, that is depressing the hell out of me

On the other hand, the AI needs as much help as it can get on campaign mode, so that stays at VH

**antisocialmunky** · 03-21-2009, 01:27

I wouldn't blame anyone at using the 'volley' and charge strategy especially if your melee tech is better.

**Warhammer3025** · 03-21-2009, 09:28

I think muskets need to do LESS damage. It's crazy seeing so many guys drop per volley that forcing a melee is the best way to minimize damage.

Its so hard to xp units without using exploits (unlimited town citizen spawn) that it kills a large part of the game for me

**Dayve** · 03-21-2009, 11:32

Would somebody tell me what XP even does?

I noticed today that i have a unit of line infantry with 2 chevrons of XP, and they have exactly the same stats as one with no chevrons at all. Not even better morale...

**Sir Beane** · 03-21-2009, 11:53

Originally Posted by Dayve

Would somebody tell me what XP even does?

I noticed today that i have a unit of line infantry with 2 chevrons of XP, and they have exactly the same stats as one with no chevrons at all. Not even better morale...

At full XP (it goes up to 9) units are much, much tougher than the standard version. As far as I have been able to tell every experience chevron gives stat boosts to accuracy and reloading and morale, and possibly to melee and defense as well. Maybe the fact there is no difference is a bug? I'm sure my units all got better with more chevrons.

Do some tests on a custom battle to really see the full effect of the experience bonus.

Also experienced units seems to fire a more well-timed volley, and they also perform certain firing drills more professionally than raw recruits.

**Marquis of Roland** · 03-21-2009, 21:02

Originally Posted by Warhammer3025

I think muskets need to do LESS damage. It's crazy seeing so many guys drop per volley that forcing a melee is the best way to minimize damage.

Its so hard to xp units without using exploits (unlimited town citizen spawn) that it kills a large part of the game for me

I meant there should be a bigger difference in accuracy and damage between militia volleys and line infantry volleys, because militia were causing too many casualties to my line infantry. I am all for line infantry outgunning militia lol. I was going to drop the difficulty down to medium to see if it helps, which i haven't done yet

**Chimpyang** · 03-21-2009, 22:48

Originally Posted by antisocialmunky

I wouldn't blame anyone at using the 'volley' and charge strategy especially if your melee tech is better.

That indeed is what you are supposed to do, if you follow the French doctrine towards the end of the era. Column up slightly, find a weak point and charge!

Warning - may be even better to use a mixed line...have your recruits take the hits in a line fending off a flanking whilst your finest melee units ploughs in. Usually try and aim them at the "join" between 2 eney units, with enough momentum you can split the line and push outwards.

**Warhammer3025** · 03-25-2009, 21:29

I'm still having a helluva hard time exping my troops. I seem to be able to get to 2 chevrons without too much hassle but the hump to get to 3 is just maddening. I'm carefully husbanding my high xp troops and letting my green recruits do the majority of the dying for the most part using melee tactics stated above (units tend to suffer less damage in melee oddly enough). For the most part the AI fights me smart, rarely doing the retarded lone cavalry unit suicide charge and their infantry advance in formation hold their ground to trade volleys with me not mill about and get shot in the flanks as people usually complain about. I'm playing on VH/H, since on VH battles it just gets ridiculous how hard the AI is to kill and their hitting power. Despite 90 turns of hard fighting the best i can do is 2 chevrons for my line inf, lancers, and cuirassiers... and now with the newly built Arc De Triumph i can now train 2 chevron inf... *sighs*

I'm starting to wonder whether its the unit sizes that might be why folks are able to xp up faster. I'm using normal unit sizes so that my comp wont lag too much (especially for the full stack on full stack battles), but if i have huge units that means waaay more potential kills and xp, but i'm sure my losses will also go up accordingly to negate the xp gain via replenishment. Are the faster xp gainers using huge unit sizes then? I prefer huge units and played that way in M2:TW and xped up pretty quickly, so that may be the case. Also does the AI fight differently with larger unit sizes or something?

Nothing ticks me off more than having a 30 man cav unit with 150 kill and not gain xp (at 2 chevrons)

**anweRU** · 03-25-2009, 22:18

I do most of my battles with autocalc (the battles usually take too much time, I have a finite time to play!), and have several 3 chevron line infantry which got there after 4-5 major battles. Autocalc does seem to give more XP to units than manual battle.

I'm still puzzled about this reinforcement bug that you are talking about though. I replenish my units, and they keep their chevrons just fine. Heck, they better do that, replenishing a 3 chevron unit is 2x or 3x more expensive than replenishing a similarly depleted no-chevron unit!