What do the little flags above units in battle represent?

**rainbowevil** · January 16, 2012, 10:37 AM

Hi, I've played Rome TW for a while, but one question has always bothered me - on the battle map, what do the smaller faction flags above some men in a unit represent? I counted them above a general's unit and there were 7, when I looked again at the same general after a few battles there were 8! I hope someone can shed some light on this question

**Hopit** · January 16, 2012, 11:44 AM

experience

**Bringer Of Storms** · January 16, 2012, 05:08 PM

Experience and equipment.

**XxAndrewxX2525** · January 16, 2012, 08:21 PM

the upgrades on that unit .. the more flags, the more upgraded they are.

**Genius of the Restoration** · January 16, 2012, 08:27 PM

^ This one. You can test it in a custom battle. Each chevron, weapon upgrade or armour upgrade adds an additional flag.

**rainbowevil** · January 17, 2012, 12:01 PM

thank you to all the replies, what happens if you have a unit with fewer men than upgrades + experience? and does the big flag count or is it only the little ones?

**Posantio of Umbria** · January 17, 2012, 12:53 PM

I'm not sure about what happens if the number of men falls below the number of upgrades but I am sure that the big flag does not count as any unit has such a flag whether it has been upgraded or not.

**caesar_37th** · January 17, 2012, 01:56 PM

It shows upgrades for defense, attack, and experience. There is no way to tell between the two.

**loseless** · January 17, 2012, 03:16 PM

Every chevron (^) is worth 1 point to attack and one point to defense skill.

With 3 gold chevrons, the maximum, a unit has +9 attack and +9 defense.

The weapon and armor upgrades also boost the attack and the armor by one point. The maximum level is the gold upgrade.

Meaning that a unit with gold equipment upgrade and 3 golden chevrons has +12 attack and +12 defense.

**Genius of the Restoration** · January 17, 2012, 06:54 PM

Originally Posted by loseless

Meaning that a unit with gold equipment upgrade and 3 golden chevrons has +12 attack and +12 defense.

More accurately, +12 attack, +9 defence skill and +3 armour. For those who aren't aware, defence skill doesn't count versus missiles, while armour does, making a defence and weapon upgrade more valuable than a level of experience.

**caesar_37th** · January 17, 2012, 10:37 PM

Originally Posted by Genius of the Restoration

More accurately, +12 attack, +9 defence skill and +3 armour. For those who aren't aware, defence skill doesn't count versus missiles, while armour does, making a defence and weapon upgrade more valuable than a level of experience.

Thank you for posting the reason why attack and defense upgrades are better than expirience... Sooo many people don't know that.

**detat88** · January 17, 2012, 11:54 PM

On the other hand defence skill isn't taken into account when adding an armor piercing weapons bonus damage. So say you give 2 chevrons to one unit and 2 armor upgrades to another. In this scenario, the unit that got the armor upgrades would only get a +1 defence bonus against the armor piercing unit while the unit that got the chevrons would get the full +2 increase because the armor piercing attack adds half of the opposing units armor value to its attack. Correct me if I got the formula on armor piercing wrong.

**Genius of the Restoration** · January 18, 2012, 06:27 AM

A good point, and while it's undoubtedly true, it's far less likely to matter as much as the lowered defence versus missiles. You're generally safer to just go with the armour and weapon upgrades. You might be able to choose chevrons in a very specific scenarios, such as on your Triarii against the Seleucids (because you should win any archer war and the armour-piercing Cataphracts would be slightly less effective), but I'm not sure how much worth the MP guys would put in that. Cost is also a minor factor, with the common gold a/d option on Triarii, for example, costing 10dn less than three chevrons. Switch to an Urban Cohort and it'd be 20. Interestingly, it's cheaper to upgrade the experience once or twice than pursue armour and weapon upgrades of the same level, so if you really wanted to use experience rather than upgrades, doing it on lower levels is more cost-effective when compared to upgrades.

**detat88** · January 18, 2012, 02:54 PM

Agreed, chevrons are highly situational. On another note on missles, for anyone new and not willing to figure this out by themselves, shooting a unit from the right ignores their shield and shooting them from behind not only ignores their shield but also ignores half of their armor. And since i'm on the subject of armor piercing, roman pila are armor piercing for those who didn't know.