Building up unit experience

[Third spearman from the left]

Having played games on huge and small unit sizes I've noticed that the units in small, gained chevrons far quicker then those in huge.

I tried not replacing my losses on a huge units and fought at least two battles in a row and found that units had more chance of gaining chevrons.

So what methods do you use to gain experience for units and when do you replace your losses?

[Severous]

Hello third Spearman from the right (im facing the other way)

This is a dimension I enjoy about RTW and spend a lot of time micro managing. Gain much experience as I expand quickly and fight with small armies.

First off. Ive not played on scales except large and huge. Havnt noticed any difference in the rate of experience gain between the two scales. Occasionally units gain experience without fighting. Wonder if theres a gain for just turning up in battle?..and if thats the bit thats bugged/different between small and big scales? Do small scale units often gain experience without fighting?

My tips for experience gain
- careful merging and retraining
- kill the enemy..every last one
- Gradual death. So they dont rout. Routers worth 1/5th of a normal kill
- Its kills per soldier. Use units with few men to kill the enemy.
- Dont let the game automerge small units together

Main tip is the merge/retraining:
- Never merge two understrength units completely into one. Always have two units..one full strength and another of left overs
- Merge back and forward to ensure the leftovers are the highest experience
- Retrain those high experience leftovers. As they are retrained back to full strength the new recruits enter the unit with the same experience as the existing men..they do not dilute it*.

*They might dilute it. Dont know why they sometimes dilute and sometimes come in with the same experience. To avoid diluting I move troops in and out of the retraining slots as the last thing before hitting end of turn button.

Usually have silver chevron troops within 5 years and gold throughout if I play a long campaign (50years+)



Sev

[Caius]

I had 3 gold chevrons on a equite unit in huge.
They were 2, and they killed 100.

Interesting, huh?

[Third spearman from the left]

Wonder if theres a gain for just turning up in battle?..and if thats the bit thats bugged/different between small and big scales? Do small scale units often gain experience without fighting?

No the small units in my game only ever gained from battle action, just being there was not enough. Having read the rest of what you posted it would seem that experience gains would always be quicker when units are set on small.

I wonder if this would also apply to the AI? Maybe the hardest game you can play is with small units as when the AI auto merges or retrains less experience is loss?

[Severous]

On small scale, with fewer men per unit, you would need fewer kills to advance another experience level. But then there are fewer enemy to kill as they are also on smaller scale.

[Kralizec]

Originally Posted by Severous
Wonder if theres a gain for just turning up in battle?..and if thats the bit thats bugged/different between small and big scales? Do small scale units often gain experience without fighting?

I've seen units increas in experience once I clicked the "start battle" button. I think it happens when in the previous battle, some highly experienced men are "killed" but heal after the battle.

[Severous]

Interesting observation...increase as soon as you start a battle. I will have to watch for that.

I have notice units reduce experience as the battle ends. I assumed it was less experienced men healing at the end of battle.

Occasionally as I merge units I get what appears to be an overall increase. A unit without exp is topped up from a unit with one experience. Both end up with one experience.