Questionable feature [replacements from retraining are experienced]

[Blackboots]

I consider this an exploit, so I try to avoid it. After a battle, I merge what troops I can into the best units, leaving less experienced units to be retrained. Plus, this keeps my experienced troops in the front line while the n00bs run back and forth to the castle.

I'm no Latin expert, but I don't think 'boni' is a word. Anyone?

[Barry Fitzgerald]

Pros and cons on this one IMO. On the pro side...experience doesnt bolster the stats so much..meaning more balance. On the downside, you can go into battle with newbie units and not be at a significant disadvantage..also gone are the mega hard units that could turn the battle in themselves.

Not mad my mind up on this one....

I did like the experience of having a couple of hard as nails Carthaginian Sacred band units....that could just fight down to the last man...and give em hell!

Less incined about babysitting veteran units now..in MTW2..

Jury is out on this...guess it is down to taste.

[Kraxis]

I'm with Blackboots, however it is impossible to really get away from it, as often you will merge and have a few men left in a unit to be retrained. Unfortunately the merging take the least experienced men first, so if you have a few men left they are likely to be considerably more experienced. And as such, you are 'forced' to retrain a very experienced unit. And the end result is that this unit is then the strongest you might have, which seems odd, when the others have been fighting much more and more effectively. The retrained unit can easily be seveal silver chevrons, while the units that did better might not be more than two bronze.

So getting units to level up through combat is thus made redundant, as it is much better, and easier, to just retrain.

Not only does it away with careful usage of units, it removes the feel of elite units. There is no special feeling of a unit that has been carefully kept and 'trained' in combat so that now it is what you can consider the best your army has to offer. Right now such a unit is likely to be several levels lower than many others that have just been retrained. Seems counterproductive to me.
To me it is like going to the troops "Hey you seven othere there... you are the most decorated in your unit? Good. Now will you come with me. No, don't worry about the others, they are going to fill the ranks of other units while we get back to the castle so I can clone you for my superarmy."

And while this might help the AI to even the score a bit, it was never a problem when you had what amounted to elites, that were just two levels up from green. They were definately better, but not so much that it became a serious handicap for the AI.

I despise this feature severely, mostly because I can't really avoid it (I really don't like to disband units and such). Had it just transferred the most experienced troops during merges, then it would be much much much better.