Experience for Siege Weapons

[Kahn]

1) Do experience chevrons make them more accurate?

2) How do they get chevrons? I've had siege engines go battle after battle, killing many, without earning chevrons.

[Captain Spanky]

That first question is one I really want answered. I find particularly gunpowder artillery to have horrible accuracy, does experience this? Otherwise, I really dont see point in experience for artillery... since I wont use them in melee anyway.

[Swordboy]

Hey guys,

I thought I'd chime in here. Given my recent EXTENSIVE use of artillery in repelling the Mongols, I can tell you emphatically that at least in my experience, artillery do get kill chevrons. I had two culverins go from nothing, to 2 silver chevrons during six Mongol siege attempts. In addition to having impressive kill ratios, these guys also shot down five Mongol full star overlords. They do seem to be more effective as they get used.

I'm don't konw why you're not getting the exp chevrons for your artillery if their taking out a lot of the enemy, unless it's yet another of the MANY, MANY bugs I've come across...

[Captain Spanky]

My artillery gets experience alright, though kinda slowly. I just wasnt sure if the experience meant better accuracy. Thanks for the info.

[NobleNick]

I could be that the experience is just for kills; so if you use artillery to just take out buildings and don't get many kills, experience will come slowly.

[Kahn]

I wonder if they'd gain exp faster if you had them drop the artillery and go duke it out with some line-men once the battle turned in your favor.

Sure you'd have to retrain them to get a full headcount, but hell, if it works, the accuracy is worth the cash.

What do you guys think?

[Swordboy]

Ummm, I don't know about that. Last night I had 2 catapult crews get 2 chevrons each in just one battle, admittedly because the AI made some stupid mistakes, but there you go.

Another curious observation; did you know that a stupid trebuchet can operate with just one man, and fire just as fast? Apparently this is so because in the same battle I referred to above, I had a unit of mailed knights attack the treb and kill all but one fellow, who must have been superman's great, great...great grandfather, and the lil' bastardo just kept blasting away. I had to retreat my knights before the entire Polish infantry was upon them or I'd have killed his rock shlepping ass as well...

Go figure.

[Gothic Revenge]

1) Do experience chevrons make them more accurate?
2) How do they get chevrons? I've had siege engines go battle after battle, killing many, without earning chevrons.

Yes, they do get more accurate. It works like with archers. The more they kill the more chevrons they get and the more chevrons they have the more accuracy. I have had two culverin units go up to 2 golden chevrons and then they start to become really effective, instead of shooting all their ammo and miissing all the time.
On the contrary I have also experienced that even though they have 2 golden chevrons they sometimes behave and shoot like idiots. Anybody else experienced this???

[Cataclysm]

Yes, they do get more accurate. It works like with archers. The more they kill the more chevrons they get and the more chevrons they have the more accuracy. I have had two culverin units go up to 2 golden chevrons and then they start to become really effective, instead of shooting all their ammo and miissing all the time.
On the contrary I have also experienced that even though they have 2 golden chevrons they sometimes behave and shoot like idiots. Anybody else experienced this???

They're gettin' cocky.

[pwijnands]

I also seem to get experience fairly easily with siege equipment, except for catapults. Catapults should in a fairly straight trajectory so can't really target units behind walls.

I wish fire rate would go up as well as they would gain more experience.