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Thread: Weapon/Armor vs. Experience

  1. #1

    Default Weapon/Armor vs. Experience

    Hi, new MP player here.

    I've played about 20 so far, lost about half, won a few, the rest were incomplete. As far as I could tell, giving a unit gold/gold upgrades is exactly the same as giving it 3 bronze chevrons in terms of cost and effect. Aside from the fact the you could adjust the upgrades according to the situation (for example I would probably always give Spartans gold armor but no weapon upgrades), and the small chance that your units will gain exp in battle, is there any difference between the two? Say if I want to give a Companion 3 upgrades, is there different between giving it gold/gold weapon/armor and 3 exp?

    Thanks!
    .\/ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
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    Proud Member of TWC since 2007

  2. #2
    Senator
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    Default Re: Weapon/Armor vs. Experience

    I have a few questions about this myself and please correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe it works something like this:

    Experience adds 1 point to total defense, and 1 point to attack. However, this defense point is added to the unit's defense skill factor. Three factors make up total defense - Armor, shield, and defense skill. The defense skill factor is used and calculated in melee and under cavalry charges, but negated when a unit is under arrow fire. Armor, I believe, is used and calculated under all forms of attack. Shield is only used when under attack from the front or left. Note that you cannot add a shield point.

    The problem is, the army selection screen does not show you a breakdown of each unit's defense stats. It only shows you total defense.

    Normally, the best thing to do is to spend your money on attack/armor upgrades first, then spend whatever money you have left on experience points. Why? Because armor counts (is calculated) in all situations if I'm not mistaken. Or is it negated in cav charges? Maybe someone can confirm this.

    However, one scenario where experience might be more useful than the attack/armor combo is when fighting cataphracts, since cataphracts have the armor piercing mace. I think the armor piercing mace does something like negate 50% of their enemy's armor stat..I'm not sure. Given that, it makes more sense to buy experience, since defense skill is not negated against the cataphracts.


    Try a head on 1v1 with praetorian cav (11 attack, 22 defense) against cataphracts (7 attack, 23 defense). According to the stats, the praetorian cav should whoop the cataphracts. But no. Cataphracts have 2 big advantages - their total defense comes from armor + defense skill (which won't be negated in this battle) rather than the praetorian cav's, which comes from shield, armor, and defense skill. As mentioned, their shield is negated when a soldier is under attack from his right or rear. And the armor is partly negated due to the mace.

    I've been searching for a sheet that has a breakdown of each unit's defense stats on these forums but haven't found anything.

    If anyone has a link plz post.

  3. #3
    Xavier Dragnesi's Avatar Esse quam videre
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    Default Re: Weapon/Armor vs. Experience

    I'm not sure about how the experience and weapons things work exactly, but I found from many battles and games online that weapon bonuses are worth more than the same amount of experience in terms of money. I used to think that experience would be more helpful cos the units are less likely to run away (that's true) but it turned out that for the same price as the experience, I can use a lot more weapon upgrades that seem to make my units stronger than the chevrons. So now I have resorted to using more unit upgrades than experience, and I find I can now win a lot more battles with weapon-upgraded units than experience-upgraded units.

    But's that's just what I've found. I can see how the upgrades effect the units' stats, but I have no idea how the upgrades effect the units in game.

  4. #4
    Mr Longbowman's Avatar Campidoctor
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    Default Re: Weapon/Armor vs. Experience

    Quote Originally Posted by avesta View Post

    I've been searching for a sheet that has a breakdown of each unit's defense stats on these forums but haven't found anything.

    If anyone has a link plz post.
    I downloaded one of those a year ago I belive and do not remember its name but here is a thing I think contains it: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/downl...do=file&id=108


  5. #5
    Civis
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    Default Re: Weapon/Armor vs. Experience

    For some reason, experience seems to work better with Chariots than adding def/att. not sure why. Its the only unit that i have ever used ex over the others.

  6. #6
    Decanus
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    Default Re: Weapon/Armor vs. Experience

    Use defence and attack mainly before going onto EXP. As Avesta pointed out correctly the chevs add skill rather than armour.

    For Omans question, never put sheilds on chariots, they have a 1 defence point so once hit lose a HP. British Warlords and Egyptian Generals have to be killed 5 times to die, Scythies need to be killed 4 times, Egyptian Chariots and British Heavy Chariots need to killed 3 times, and CA's all have to be killed 2 times.

    When you take into accout there HP, so when it comes to chariots you need to keep them moving else they get bogged down and start losing HP from every side. So when it comes to the sheilds, you are adding 1 shield to a unit with effectively no shield so 3 shields give them 4 defence(chariots have 1 defence skill to start with).

    Now almost all units that they will encounter has a greater attack than 4 so there is no point spending a load on sheilds. Chariots also have AP carriage wheels, thats why they rip up heavy units when they keep moving. So just add Attack or EXP, NEVER EVER defence...

  7. #7

    Default Re: Weapon/Armor vs. Experience

    As a general rule this is what I do.

    Upgrade all my units' weapons(especially missile units), if I have money left I upgrade my unit's armour, then if I still have money left I go into exp. Note that this is just a basic system. In different situation I will obviously upgrade my units differently.

    Weapons/armour upgrades are usually better then exp upgrades as exp is more expensive.

    As people said above the exp upgrade adds defense skill to defense, and the armour upgrade adds armour to defense.
    Exp upgrade also adds a little morale (but its very little).

    Armour is counted for everything but suffers from attacks from ap weapons.

    Defense skill is counted only for melee attack from the front and the right (not the back and the left) if you are facing ap weapons then this type of defense upgrade is better.

    Shield is counted for all attacks from the front and the left, and it counts twice for missile attack from the front (you can't upgrade shield).
    Last edited by atraps; March 03, 2009 at 09:34 AM.


  8. #8
    Xavier Dragnesi's Avatar Esse quam videre
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    Default Re: Weapon/Armor vs. Experience

    It seems the place where xp comes into the best effect is when used on things that can run amok, e.g. elephants and chariots. Otherwise, it's not very helpful.

  9. #9
    Decanus
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    Default Re: Weapon/Armor vs. Experience

    Chariots and Ele's are too costly to upgrade really, just learn to prioritise getting their troops which will send them amok rather than spending a fortune on upgrades on them.

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