what experience do your troops have in the end-game?

[FactionHeir]

The only mod I run with ETW currently is the realitic flags one. I don't like the other mods which change way more than I want to have changed or which only decrease performance for visuals.

I'd kill for a VnV mod though In fact, I was thinking of making one, but then ETW modding seems rather complicated and I don't have that much time on my hands anymore.

[Peasant Phill]

Nobody seems to have mentioned unit size as a contributing factor. I first started playing with small units which needed a lot of battles to earn even one chevron (unless the unit was almost completly depleted). Now i play with large units and I have a 2 chevron unit (half depleted though) already after only 3 battles. Almost every unit that goes one-on-one with a enemy unit until it (enemy unit) routs seems to earn there first chevron.

[resonantblue]

Nobody seems to have mentioned unit size as a contributing factor. I first started playing with small units which needed a lot of battles to earn even one chevron (unless the unit was almost completly depleted). Now i play with large units and I have a 2 chevron unit (half depleted though) already after only 3 battles. Almost every unit that goes one-on-one with a enemy unit until it (enemy unit) routs seems to earn there first chevron.

This is true. When you mod the unit experience requirements you will notice that it's based on the number of kills the unit gets.

So if it requires 40 kills to get your first chevron, you can get that much easier on huge than normal.

[Prussian to the Iron]

well maybe thats it; i have ultra settings :P

[Slaists]

Nobody seems to have mentioned unit size as a contributing factor. I first started playing with small units which needed a lot of battles to earn even one chevron (unless the unit was almost completly depleted). Now i play with large units and I have a 2 chevron unit (half depleted though) already after only 3 battles. Almost every unit that goes one-on-one with a enemy unit until it (enemy unit) routs seems to earn there first chevron.

But I suppose there must be some scaling built in. The fact that depleated units gain experience faster suggests that. I suspect, on larger unit sizes it's simply easier to get higher average kills for "each bullet fired" since the troops are firing into denser crowds.

[Peasant Phill]

It doesn't prove that depleted units gain experience faster as fact. I don't have the exact numbers but i've seen full unit earn a chevron after a one-on-one just as easily as units that took casaulties before or during the one-on-one.

BUT I do think that your theory about more targets holds water.

[Xipe Totec]

Unless I am much mistaken I am seeing my infantry units chevron-up more rapidly since the last patch. Anyone else think this, or is it just that the constant raiding by neighbours (recently played Prussia, Austria and France) means my units have done more fighting by a certain date?

Since the last patch I have found bayoneting militia and firelockies inside buildings seems to lead to rapid level ups with much fewer casualties than before. Even taking on hardcore line infantry in a town hall is no problem now for a couple of line infantry. They seem to break sooner now and get slaughtered easily. Before the patch my infantry became exhausted after about 10 seconds and died in droves even attacking 3:1. A couple of times I was attacked by other units (armed populace and suchlike) whilst going into buildings and had a couple of decent units wiped out in seconds.

I'm quite keen to finish off occupied buildings with bayonets now instead of artillery just to get the extra chevrons. Then again I used to love the levelling up in RTW, especially with arrow firing units, and how it translated into extra killing power. In M2TW I really missed that. Units were all just so much expendable garbage. I want to nurture them, and see them grow and blossom over the decades into psychotic killing machines!

[Prussian to the Iron]

A couple of times I was attacked by other units (armed populace and suchlike) whilst going into buildings and had a couple of decent units wiped out in seconds.

really? thats odd. even on VH ive never had that happen.

[Xipe Totec]

really? thats odd. even on VH ive never had that happen.

I was playing the initial version on Normal / Normal. I was attacking Mughal unfortified towns as the Marathas with mainly Hindu musketeers. On ordering some units into lightly defended buildings well away from the main Mughal rabble, there was a huge rush of peasant scum who swarmed around my units as they entered the buildings. Before I could send assistance my units routed and were massacred. It may have been partly due to the general - I'm sure that I remember one of the Maratha starting generals has a minus morale modifier, and Hindus aren't that great morale-wise.

Another time I was British making an early attack on the Pirate bases and I got caught attacking a Pirate scum unit in a house by some badass buccaneers. Nowadays I don't attack buildings unless I am more in control of the situation.

I did find native American melee units very handy in the caribbean for clearing buildings in my recent French campaign. Pirates, Dutch and Spaniards all lost their caribbean islands very quickly to chevron-gaining tomohawk-waving posh-jacket-and-apron-wearing feather-bearing cheap-but-daring totally-tropical garrison armies. Strange how they struggle to walk across an empty field though, they really look like they're totally drunk and can't walk in a straight line, just keep bumping into one another (peut-être ils ont été payés en eau-de-vie n'est pas?). At times they barely move at all which can be a real pain when you are moving a half-stack into position. I had to keep ordering units to run for a bit to unjam them.

[Slaists]

It doesn't prove that depleted units gain experience faster as fact. I don't have the exact numbers but i've seen full unit earn a chevron after a one-on-one just as easily as units that took casaulties before or during the one-on-one.

BUT I do think that your theory about more targets holds water.

Several people have suggested that depleted units gain experience faster. It wasn't my observation actually since I usually replenish them asap.

As to scaling: in MTW 1 CA had a system where experience of each soldier was kept track of, actually all kills were kept track of. There were huge text files doing the accounting... The experience displayed for the unit as a whole was the average of the individuals in the unit. I do no know if CA has simplified that system in ETW. From the sound of it, they have.

[FactionHeir]

Same with RTW and M2TW. In ETW it just goes by fraction it seems. If you merge units and one is 39 the other 41, it takes the xp of the 41 even if the 39 was borderline next level even. It seems to work slightly differently with retraining, where even having 8 xp1 units left would result in a full xp1 unit afterwards (does not apply to higher xp, just xp1) which is odd.

[Slaists]

Same with RTW and M2TW. In ETW it just goes by fraction it seems. If you merge units and one is 39 the other 41, it takes the xp of the 41 even if the 39 was borderline next level even. It seems to work slightly differently with retraining, where even having 8 xp1 units left would result in a full xp1 unit afterwards (does not apply to higher xp, just xp1) which is odd.

Well, in RTW and MTW2 there was one HUGE difference relative to MTW1. Retraining the troops allowed them to keep the average experience of the unit. The "new recruits" were brought in as veterans. In MTW1 retraining was done much the same way as it is in ETW. "New recruits" were just that: "new recruits" with experience 0. I feel, this is actually more realistic and helps to keep the game unit balance (one does not want experienced line infantry to have superior stats than elite guards).

If I understand it correctly, MTW1 and ETW were both designed by practically the same team (the one residing in the UK). RTW and MTW2 were designed by the Australian team. Troop retraining is just one of the features of the game that remind me more of the MTW1 'signature' than the one of RTW and MTW2.

In several cases, it seems we've 'rolled back' to MTW1 in several valuable game developments that came with RTW/MTW2:

1. troops do not know how to retreat (it was the case in MTW1; it was not a problem in RTW and MTW2)
2. the reinforcement system is EXACTLY the same as it was in MTW1; all advances of RTW/MTW2 have been lost
3. control of reinforcements is the same as it was in MTW1; MTW2 was way more advanced in that aspect
4. AI control of (your own troops) is gone; it was a feature of both RTW and MTW2 *
5. siege (when fortifications are involved) AI in ETW is very reminiscent of MTW1; in RTW/MTW2 it was not ideal, but it was way better than in ETW and MTW1

Probably there are more, but these are the ones that have "jumped at me".

Bottom line: unfortunately, it seems there is a "glass wall" between the two studios. One does not learn from the other.

--

* I know the "AI control" (of the player's troops) was as dumb as brick wall. But still, if assigned to simplest configurations of units in MTW2, it worked 'reasonably' well to let me zoom in on action to admire the mayhem. Also, cavalry units grouped together knew well how to chase down routers if left under AI control. The way it's done in ETW and MTW1, the player is forced to keep the 'zoom' way out at all times in order to comprehend what's going on. Individual units or groups of units have no "intelligence" whatsoever (such as to turn, if faced by charging cavalry).