Investigation of unit retraining

[Severous]

Hi

I did some retraining testing during my first Imperial Campaign

RTW V1.5 M/M (No Mods)

I posted it in the Total War forum but its going to be lost in a matter of days due to the volume of traffic in that unstructured site. Didnt want to loose all that work so thought I would link it here in this forum.

http://p223.ezboard.com/fshoguntotal...ID=33265.topic

http://p223.ezboard.com/fshoguntotal...ID=33188.topic

My conclusions:
- Soldiers carry their own experience and weapon/armour upgrades
- Unit exp is the average of its soldiers exp
- Unit card displays lowest weapon/armor upgrade present in the unit.
- Retraining adds replacements with weapon upgrades even if city couldnt produce that particular quality of weapon
- Replacements can be green (0 exp) or at the same as other troops in the unit.
- retraining costs reduce (per man) as the number of men increases. Its expensive to retrain one or two men.

My practice for maximum experience gain.
- merge depleted units so that the unit that needs retraining has the highest possible experience.
- Add it to the training queue.
- Just before end of turn, remove it from the retraining queue and add it back again.


EDIT: I am afraid the links above no longer work. The detailed research posted into the other forum has been lost. I posted some more comments in the other forum in response to another question. The following says much the same as I said above but maybe its clearer.
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Quote:
I proved that retraining can have two outcomes:
- Replacements come in with 0 experience
- Replacements come in with average of exiting men (lets say exp = 2)

In your 80 man 2exp unit there are an estimated 160 experience points among your 80 men. If 40 more arrive with 0 exp you now have 120 men with 160 exp between them. Average is probobly now 1exp.

Yet if the second outcome occurs you would gain 40men each with 2exp..thus now have a unit of 120 men with 240exp....ie 2exp unit still.

I can ensure the second outcome each time. Just before end of turn, clear the training queue, then put the units back in training again. Doesnt make sense but it works.

Merge troops. If you have two equite units in a stack just click and hold, drag the card of one onto the other, and release. The units merge. You dont change the underlying experience of the men but depending upon which unit gets the best men you can sometimes see experience change on the unit cards.

By mastering these two techniques you can develop well skilled troops quite quickly. Just merge so the units that enter training are highly experienced then ensure the replacements also come in at that skill.

Hope this helps.
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Good luck.