Gold chevrons of experience

**Boriak** · November 09, 2009, 04:49 AM

I seem to be unable to get my units to the upper class of experience. Very rarely I've seen units that had silver chevrons and not once have I seen a golden one. Whenever I check a battle's aftermath I see one, maybe two experience points being granted, no more.

In my current Macedonian campaign, the best I have are three bronze chevrons.

How can I make my units become true veterans?

**DimeBagHo** · November 09, 2009, 05:13 AM

It gets harder to gain more chevrons because whether you get chevrons depends partly on the experience of the units that your units fight against. In other words if you have a 4 exp unit fighting against a 0 exp unit you probably won't get any exp even if you do well. In fact if the 0 exp unit does significant damage to your 4 exp unit you might even lose exp.

That's why ranged units get high exp. It is relatively easy for them to inflict casualties on high exp units without getting touched themselves. Cavalry can do OK by killing high level routers. But infantry will always have a tough time getting to the highest levels.

**Diomede** · November 09, 2009, 05:46 AM

Slghtly cheap tactic, but I've found autoresolving battles you know you'll win is more likely to grant XP increases.

Whether that's actually the case or coincidence I don't know, but it's certainly a loose trend.

**AchillesXX** · November 10, 2009, 02:41 AM

I have found the same thing regarding auto-resolving battles. My favorite part of the game is the turn based part. I only really like playing the battles in the beginning of a game, when it is do or die time, or the battles that are not in my favor. I don't like the countless battles that strongly favor my army. So, I usually auto-resolve those. The thing is, that is also how I get massive chevron bonuses for my men. Go figure. In my current Syracuse campaign I have a fleet of 5 ships all with gold chevrons. Tough little triremes indeed. I also find it is helpful to retrain your important armies in stat giving cities. That way they lose less experience through casualties.

**Grimbold** · November 10, 2009, 06:38 AM

Ye right...auto resolve agaisnt romans in late campaign is dangerous. Even if you win, you'll end up with loads of casualties you wouldnt get if u'd resolve that battle urself.

**Diomede** · November 13, 2009, 08:29 AM

Well, later in the game is slightly different.

The main time I autoresolve battles is early-midgame and only if my economy is good. Alternatively, if it's bad and I want to lower my army upkeep.

**Tartaros** · November 13, 2009, 02:31 PM

I agree that auto-resolving is the easiest way to gain experience too.

After observing countless siege autoresolving I would add that experience gaining is not even, in that the units in the initial slots of your stack gain it faster (they also tend to get more casualties) than those in the final slots (more or less). Therefore rearranging the units in your stack will also help.

**Stoneface** · November 18, 2009, 04:46 AM

Different units gain experience at different rates. Phalanx are especially slow. Gold missile troops are not so hard to get over a longer campaign. The game seem to track the kill-count for each individual soldier, assign him an experience level according to that number and displays the average level on the unit card. Actual combat performance might be tracked by individual soldier or only for the entire unit so it is equal to the chevrons displayed. Phalanx units have almost always the same soldiers in the front row doing the killing so your first line soldiers are a lot more experienced than your last line and they also die a lot more. On the other hans they might fight a lot better than their chevron number suggests.