Unit Experience

[Jaytee]

I have long wondered how even when I have conquered a third of the map using the same few stacks to do the job I will come across a stack owned by the AI which has units with 3 silver chevrons of experience despite their empire being small. I have fought countless battles and the AI units I swear have done hardly anything yet my infantry and missile units will be lucky to have three bronze chevrons. Cavalry seem to pick up experience pretty easily, but in my experiences infantry is a different matter.

Are there any people out there who can give me good advice on certain tactics or anything that will allow me to have elite units after a century of waging war with them?

[Iguanaonastick]

The answer to how the AI does is pretty easy. They get free XP from the script.

The way the game works, infantry units rarely get a lot of chevrons. I've reached silver with elite shock troops like Varangians, but most defensive line-infantry hardly gets any.

However, if you auto-calc battles, I have noted infantry gets more experience than they do in normal field battles. This probably is because auto-calc just divides experience fairly over all participating units rather than it all going to your cavalry mopping up routers. This probably is the second reason why the AI has more experienced infantry, as they obviously auto-calc all their battles.

[Jaytee]

Well that's annoying.

[Aemilius Paulus]

Yeah, in M2TW the infantry dies too fast to gain much experience. Even in BC. In RTW, on the other hand, especially EB, silver chevrons are quite common, and actually have a significant effect. Too bad the experience system was overhauled in MiNO. Veterans are supposed to fight much better.

[Jaytee]

Yeah, in M2TW the infantry dies too fast to gain much experience. Even in BC. In RTW, on the other hand, especially EB, silver chevrons are quite common, and actually have a significant effect. Too bad the experience system was overhauled in MiNO. Veterans are supposed to fight much better.

Yes, I do remember having very elite infantry in R:TW, it's a shame really. I would love to groom certain units to make them become very strong and use them in my different battles.