Alright folks, after some more play i found the best way to xp my units with a little effort. Dont blitz and let a nearby 1 city minor spam units to his hearts content. Then when the little blighter declares war on you and sends small raiding stacks, eat them alive and xp to your hearts content. This only works on ultra size units since it gives you the best bang per fight. Ideally let em camp out behind some cover, march the troops you want to xp behind him (DO NOT use arty to pound them or else they'll shift) and keep a sacrificial unit to their front to keep them pinned (i prefer militia since i dont give a rats ass if they die) and let them be shot at too if you want ot be sure the AI wont shoot the xping units.

Using this cheesy strategy as France on Bavaria i was able to build up 4 line infantry units to 4 chevrons, 3 Cheveux Legers to 3 chevrons, and a Cour de Blois to 4. Sadly the AI is starting to become more clever and will prioritize shooting my elite troopers instead of green line or my throwaway militia (they WILL pivot their line to go after my elites even whiling eating raking fire from my lesser units). Sometimes i'm forced to charge my suicide militia and go Longshanks Braveheart style shooting at the melee mass with my militia stuck in the middle (use up the Irish! heh).

I coulda blitzed Bavaria early and take the place (i usually do) but i realized that Austria sometimes gets sidetracked by wars in the east so i dont get as many gimme fights as i would if i let the Bavarians spam line inf.

Pity the Genoans werent so agreeable with my strategy. Once they're done spamming their capital full they dont build extras for me to pick off. I guess they're ieither spamming Corsica, or they're building up a fleet.