Unit Experiance

Hey everyone...Ive noticed unusual experience gains with my group of Gaesatae in Gergovia....Ive only fought a few battles with them and some Bataroes but they are all either 2-3 silver chevrons or 1 or more gold chevrons....they had the fastest experience gains of any unit Ive had...is there a reason for this or is it random and what are the criteria for experience gains...I would love more info so I could fine tune my legionares at some point

I guess it would simply be because they kill a lot of enemy soldiers, while having few losses themselves (2HP rocks).

Well, Gaesatae have 120/60 men, and the experience is awarded based on amount of men in a unit vs amount of non-routing men killed (routing units have a 1/4 chance of being counted AFAIK). Other Gallic units usually have 240/120 or 200/100 men, so they need to kill more men to gain the same points. That and the fact that Gaesatae take very little casualties themselves.

Speaking of Gaesatae, I was was just fighting them yesterday in Bononia as Eperios and I had two levy phalanxes blocking off a street, one unit on top of another to maximise the density of pikes. So anyway, it was just two levy phalanxes, 109 and 103 men each (Large Unit Size), with two experience and a Blacksmith upgrade. And 2/3 of the starting Eleutheroi garrison of Bononia pushing my poor pikes. However, I was barely taking any casualties, as only the Brinhetin could push through my pikes. Then the general died. Mass rout ensues, and all but the unit of Gaesatae keep on fighting. A minute later, with no routing units nearby the blokes rout, having lost only 4 men out of 60. I was speechless. I had no elephants, and all of my other troops were far away from the battle, ensuring that the Gaesatae were not spooked by anything.

Originally Posted by Aemilius Paulus

blokes

I beg your pardon?

A definition?

Informal (usually) British term for a person.

Originally Posted by A Very Super Market

A definition?

Informal (usually) British term for a person.

I know what "bloke" means, mate. I am, as a matter of fact, a native of this green and pleasant land.
Rather, I'm perplexed at the meaning AP is attempting to convey (more because of the sentence structure than of Aemilius' decision to substitute a more specific word for one whose use he may not be familiar with, although this is "cute", in its own way—I can't imagine trying to describe a unit of Gaesatae/Phalangitai (it wasn't clear which, you see) as, I don't know, messieurs, for example.


A tip for Americans (etc.) who want to attempt to use "bloke" in everyday conversation: consider it as roughly analogous to "guy"; you may say of someone that they are a "good bloke", etc. Note that "bloke" is typically gendered, and (at least in my experience) is more often only applied in the singular. A more appropriate plural noun for a group with whom you may enjoy a round or four at your local public house would be "lads" (i.e. "the lads (and I)").

Meh, I learned my English through reading, and I usually read five 250-900 page books a week, which is why I use outdated slang and British English expressions as well as spelling. I can also swear in eleven languages. Fluently. Thank heavens for Harry Turtledove!! His books are noted for frequent use of foreign languages, especially cursing.

It cant be about killing people.
I am playing Alexander right now, and his companions kill around 500 enemies in one battle, but still they have the same experience as one of the phalangist units, which never kills more than 80 per battle. I think its also about the own loss of man?

Units will also get a small boost for just being in a battle, I've seen units gain chevrons for doing nothing.

And I've had units lose chevrons in battles where they killed more men than they lost... I've never understood the system except that my cavalry always will be at gold when my infantry get their third bronze.

Routers must count. My Casse generals had gold chevrons and I never actually used them to do anything but stand behind my lines, chuck a few javelins into the masses of men, and then pursue routers after I was sure the battle was over. I hate chariot generals.

Elite units, who's small in numbers tend to get experiences fairly quickly... just look for my spartans...


Because all of us tend to use the elite units as the battle turning one... the real killing machine...

The Peltastai and hoplitai haploi get their experiences from chasing routers, mostly...

I find if a unit gets decimated and there is only a handful left (i fought the craziest forest battle as averni against the romans once, where it literally went down to 5 men left out of thousands, both generals were dead, and all were left were 1 or 2 men units. at the start of the battle none of my units had more than 2 bronze chevrons. At the end of the brutal battle my surviving lugoi had a gold chevron. Granted he was the sole survivor of a battle that had more than 3000 participants. but still.... I think experience has several algorithms at work. there are several ways to get experience. actual valour in battle or random event.

Originally Posted by bobbin

Units will also get a small boost for just being in a battle, I've seen units gain chevrons for doing nothing.

Impossible.

To read more about unit experience, I would refer you guys to Ludus Magna, where all of the RTW mechanics are investigated. Here is the thread on experience.

not impossible. I've had units gain experience for nothing too. All that happened was they took a couple of casualties and i noticed they had a chev on the campaign screen.

Originally Posted by Celtic_Punk

not impossible. I've had units gain experience for nothing too. All that happened was they took a couple of casualties and i noticed they had a chev on the campaign screen.

Then they probably lost some of the inexperienced men. From what I know the experience shown on the unit card is the average experience of all men in the unit.

yes this is true. you'll notice if you merge two units a bunch you can get back to the original experience values.