So Econ21 based on CaptainSolo's results it is very much to your advantage to have archer units accrue experience. He was describing two to three times the kill rate with experienced units. All the more reason to figure out whether the AI is responding appropriately under missile fire as these units become more deadly with time.

I just fought another battle tonight that bothered me. I (Rus) was being seiged by the Danes at Thorn and I sallied to attack. Both armies were full stacks with Generals of similar rank, and the game offered me autoresolve at 1:1 odds. The seige army had only two militia (spear) units. The rest were 2 Norse Archers, dismounted knights, huscarls, axemen, and some light viking infantry. They had two units of scout cavalry and the General's Heavy Cav Unit. They deployed in front of the gates with spears on the flanks, archers lined in front, then a line of heavy infantry, then scouts and light infantry and General in the rear. I sallied with 5 Kazak HA (all exp 3), 3 Merc Crossbows (exp 1), 2 Merc Spears, 3 Boyars (exp 2), and 5 Heavy Cav Units (2 Generals, 3 Druz). Pretty good odds IMO in my favor if it was an open field of battle. However here I'm thinking this is viable only IF I can get the cavalry out into the field, maneuver and charge weaker units and their General. (If I was seiging the AI I would never have let my army sally and deploy at their leisure but rather would have jammed them up at the gates with spearmen and my cav while I missiled them and charged the heavy infantry into the sides of exiting units if possible. Fighting at the gates is a whole lot more effective now with no boiling oil I think)

However they let me sally and deploy. The Danish army continued to sit still while I placed the crossbows and spears facing their front, and posted missile cav units on their flanks and then brought my heavy cav units all the way around behind them waiting to charge their rear. Since they are not moving I thought I will see if I can use the missile units to pick off the spearmen and their best heavy infantry first. I proceeded to exhaust all my missiles and again they did nothing. Each of my crossbow units notched up 200 kills alone - standing right in front of ranks of dismounted knights, axemen, and fast cav units all of which could have caught them in no time. By the time I charged the remnants of their units after the missiles they routed easily and I destroyed every last man. My casualties were 56 total. So I'm worried that a fairly decent seige army with strong units sat and took 600 casualties from 3 merc Crossbow units (exp 1) and did nothing. Do people think that is appropriate or problematic?