what experience do your troops have in the end-game?

[Xipe Totec]

really? thats odd. even on VH ive never had that happen.

I was playing the initial version on Normal / Normal. I was attacking Mughal unfortified towns as the Marathas with mainly Hindu musketeers. On ordering some units into lightly defended buildings well away from the main Mughal rabble, there was a huge rush of peasant scum who swarmed around my units as they entered the buildings. Before I could send assistance my units routed and were massacred. It may have been partly due to the general - I'm sure that I remember one of the Maratha starting generals has a minus morale modifier, and Hindus aren't that great morale-wise.

Another time I was British making an early attack on the Pirate bases and I got caught attacking a Pirate scum unit in a house by some badass buccaneers. Nowadays I don't attack buildings unless I am more in control of the situation.

I did find native American melee units very handy in the caribbean for clearing buildings in my recent French campaign. Pirates, Dutch and Spaniards all lost their caribbean islands very quickly to chevron-gaining tomohawk-waving posh-jacket-and-apron-wearing feather-bearing cheap-but-daring totally-tropical garrison armies. Strange how they struggle to walk across an empty field though, they really look like they're totally drunk and can't walk in a straight line, just keep bumping into one another (peut-être ils ont été payés en eau-de-vie n'est pas?). At times they barely move at all which can be a real pain when you are moving a half-stack into position. I had to keep ordering units to run for a bit to unjam them.