Quote Originally Posted by Ludens View Post
And that's the third reason why elites aren't as useful in EB as they were in reality. In the R:TW engine, experience has a major effect. The stat difference between regulars and elites isn't that big in EB, so regulars with a few bars of experience are as good as elites. And because losses in a regular unit are easier to replace, a veteran regular is actually more useful than an elite unit. IIRC regulars also gain experience faster than elites.

(Personally, I think the R:TW XP mechanism is unbalanced. We should give all units two or three bars of experience straight out of training, and slash base stats accordingly. This will mean that units will gain experience more slowly, and the max. effect of experience is lower. IIRC this idea was considered for EB1 at some point, but the team decided not to go with it.)
I hadn't even considered experience, that's a good very point. It's trivially easy to get units you can recruit at one or even two chevrons at the beginning (using a Type II or Type IV government, combined with a Gymnasium/it's equivalent).

In all those migrated faction games I've played, I almost never had the option of building a Type I (Homeland) government, so as a side-effect I was always getting experienced troops (usually with a Blacksmith in the recruiting centre, too).

Quote Originally Posted by Ludens View Post
I am pretty sure that elites haven't been balanced on cost-effectiveness. I believe it's the reverse: you pay a premium for the extra ability - so it's only worthwhile to use them in critical positions or when you want maximum combat power in a 20-unit stack. In other words: they're only worth the premium in a one-on-one fight. If you're not fielding large (> 12 unit) armies, regulars are a better buy, since you you get twice as many men for only a ~20% reduction in survivability power. That's how it should be. Where it goes wrong is that, for a variety of reasons (poor A.I. tactics, the effect of XP), regulars will perform nearly as well as elites in critical positions, and are far easier and cheaper to replace.
Indeed, the most illustrative unit to demonstrate that they're not costed on the basis of effectiveness is the Hoplitai Haploi. A levy unit which is a lot better than many other levy spearman units (such as Pantodapoi, Pontic/Slavic Light Spearmen and others), yet is also cheaper. I try to avoid using them for anything but garrisons, because it feels like an exploit, but for some factions they're the most cost-effective line troops.