What doe Retrain troop do for them?

[hocha1]

What does retrain troop do for them in a city? increase the numbeR?

[abandit99]

if the unit was originally trained in a city, retraining brings that unit up to its original number.
retraining can also add armour upgrades to the unit if u have a armoursmith that provides the right armour.
it can also give an attack bonus if a swordsmen guild is present in that city.

[HighLord z0b]

Retraining a unit replaces any lost men in a unit, but only up to it's original amount. So if you had a unit of 75 men and lost 20 in battle, then retraining them would bring it back up to 75 men. It can also add an armor upgrade if their available (if the city has a leather tanner/blacksmith etc.)

[D.B. Cooper]

Replenishes a unit's numbers to the amount of men when they were first recruited. It also lowers their experience, because you're mixing in the seasoned fighters with the raw recruits. You can do this in settlements with the buildings needed to train said unit.

[HighLord z0b]

Actually, I don't think it does lower the experience. So if you have a unit that only has 5 people left after a battle but they're all gold chevrons, then the retrained unit will be all gold chevrons as well.

[Surgeon]

No experience is lost when retraining. In fact, my usual procedure is to retrain the most experienced unit, then merge it with a less experienced unit to give them more experience, then retrain the first unit again, etc.

[Silent Assassin]

No experience is lost when retraining. In fact, my usual procedure is to retrain the most experienced unit, then merge it with a less experienced unit to give them more experience, then retrain the first unit again, etc.

Are you sure that units retrained don't loses they're experience:hmmm:

[touchmaster]

Yeah it replaces men, it's also good to retrain all your men after each city you take, that way you are always at the top of your game.

[Surgeon]

Yep. As I said what I usually do is only retrain the highest exp unit and merge it with others instead of retraining all of them individually. So e.g.
You have 2 units after a battle: 20 men with 9exp & 30 men with 3exp
Retrain the 20 men -> 60 men with 9exp
Merge with 30 men with 3exp = 30 men with 9 exp and 60 men with 5exp
Retrain 30 men -> You now have 2 full units, one with 9exp and one with 5exp

[Silent Assassin]

Yep. As I said what I usually do is only retrain the highest exp unit and merge it with others instead of retraining all of them individually. So e.g.
You have 2 units after a battle: 20 men with 9exp & 30 men with 3exp
Retrain the 20 men -> 60 men with 9exp
Merge with 30 men with 3exp = 30 men with 9 exp and 60 men with 5exp
Retrain 30 men -> You now have 2 full units, one with 9exp and one with 5exp

Great thx , I tought that when retraining units you would loose their experince

[HighLord z0b]

There has been some confusion about retraining but yes they don't loose experience. In fact it means that a unit that was in the front lines and was almost annihilated when retrained will have much more experience than the unit that charged in and routed the unit quickly.

I've also see people state that you cannot gain experience from archer fire, this is also incorrect. I've watched a ballista crew go from no experience to two chevrons whilst in battle, just from firing into an enemy. The enemy were standing on top of a hill with archers waiting for me to attack, I set my ballista crew on a ridge and they kept shooting until they used up all of their ammo. They must have killed 75-100+ men by themselves.

[Surgeon]

The part about the archer fire comes from the fact that archers usually gain exp very slowly if they do nothing but shoot arrows. A unit's exp is divided among all the men in the unit (not counting retraining), thus e.g. if exp were counted by kills, if a unit of 60 archers kill 120 men from a distance, they've got 120 kills/60 men = 2 exp each. But if a unit of 60 spearmen kill 120 men and half die in the process, they've got 120/30 = 4 exp each, effectively twice the amount as the archers gained.

I'm not sure if exp gain is determined by other factors such as how tough the enemy is. I've had DFKs kill another unit of DFKs and not gain a single chevron, however when my DFKs slaughtered two units of peasants they soared by 2 chevrons.

[HighLord z0b]

I think another thing that stops archers gaining experience is that they are rarely used to chase down routers, which although I think is only half experience, it still counts. Especially with horse archers, I've seen units gain massive experience chasing down routers. Sometimes almost an entire will rout and you can send virtually all of your units to chase them down and end up with a big chunk of experience.