What's everyones experience with ... experience?

[rezaf]

First of all, sorry for starting all these threads. I'm trying to keep evenual discussions seperate so people wanting to chime in on a particular issue will later be able to find these discussions easier.

So, this one is about XP. What's everyone's take on the issue?
With elite reinforcements gone, your influence as a player about the development of any unit has been ruduced to insignificance.
The old problem from Panzer Corps with XP gains of actual fighting units vs. that of support units, especially artillery in Armageddon, which is ideally almost never subject to return fire (and thus losses) is back, only it is MUCH more severe than ever, since the only tool to combat this - elite reinforcements - has been taken out of our hands.

What does this mean in practice?
Well, maybe I'm a particularly bad player, but I have just finished act 1, and for me, it means practically all my fighting units can almost be considered rookies. I have a single Salamander that somehow managed to amass a whopping four XP skulls, another Salamander with three and two Leman Russ and a Sentinel with two skulls. Everybody else has at the very best one XP skull or less. In other words, almost my entire fighting force might as well have come fresh out of the academy. I only lost two units in the campaign, both in the first three missions or so, thus a majority of my troops have been with me for quite some time. And yet everyone is still wet behind his ears.

Now, contrast this with my artillery. I have a bombard with MAXIMUM XP - that's ten skulls. I have a Basilisk Armageddon Pattern with 7 skulls.
And then I have two more with about thee skulls and one with a single, but that one I only purchased the before the last mission, and the three skulls ones are maybe three missions "old".

Has anyone been able to actually amass an elite force of tanks with 10 skulls at this point? If so, how did you do it?
Does anyone feel some changes to the reinforcements are in order? If so, what shape or form are you envisioning?

I'm looking forward to reading about other people's reports / opinions on the matter.
_____
rezaf

[Maler]

Well I have only played four or five missions of Act 1 but it seems I am having similar issues. I have two artillery units on 4 ish skulls and the fighting units struggling for xp due to me reinforcing them quite often. Also they all get reinforced at the end of a mission and loose xp there as well. I had an upgraded leman russ at 4 stars but I lost it The attachment to your units is definately real in this game and I love that. I was upset I lost that unit. Anyway to sum up I do have the same problems.

I also have an xp question. What effect do these skulls have? What bonuses do they apply to a unit?

[Rudankort]

I also have an xp question. What effect do these skulls have? What bonuses do they apply to a unit?

For each skull:
+5 or +5% (whichever is smaller) to unit's accuracy
-2 or -2% (whichever is smaller) from accuracy of other units shooting this unit

[Razz1]

Thanks Rudankort.

I think experience gain can be a little more. Let me finish ACT I then I'll post my experienced units.

[Maler]

I also have an xp question. What effect do these skulls have? What bonuses do they apply to a unit?

For each skull:
+5 or +5% (whichever is smaller) to unit's accuracy
-2 or -2% (whichever is smaller) from accuracy of other units shooting this unit

I did see that mentioned elsewhere as well a few days ago. Thanks Rudankort much appreciated.

[Horst]

I’ve got similar few experienced units after battling through eight missions.
The Salamander Command is the best with 6 skulls, the Sentinel walker 4, while the rest all has 1-3. Especially infantry really sucks at gaining experience against the too-numerous Ork infantry. I wasn't very lucky with my artillery so far as I've lost one or two too so far against these fast outmaneuvering Ork vehicles.
I guess I should have used more often the Rest & Refit option to heal scratched hitpoints and keep infantry in line. My two command units aren’t enough to keep morale high on every unit as you also need to place other support units like artillery and HW-teams nearby, so a slower advance and less counterattacking defense is maybe in order.
I’m going to restart the campaign with the alternative path, better unit picks from beginning and use more refits to see if it works better then.

[larryed112]

Ive had similar issues, played about 10 missions kept my frontline men and tanks from being completley destroyed but they still had only 1 or 2 skulls, whereas my salamander scout had max skulls for a while. My scout was racking up the xp blasting enemies with no return fire while my 2 leman russ were punisher variant with a firing range of 2 so they always took damage from orc infantry. I find a lot of my tanks and vehicles being damaged just from big shoota infantry. So this must keep their xp low with end of battle replacements.

[soldatmesteren]

My units have fairly high experience, they seem to work quite will.

[Kerensky]

I wish experience did more, having a stronger impact.
I wish experience would slow down as you got more of it. For example, going from 0 Skulls to 1 Skulls takes a fraction of the time it takes compared to going from 9 skulls to 10 Skulls.
I wish units that regularly suffer combat casualties like Assault Infantry could get some protection for the long term preservation of their experience levels.
I wish I could have an option to spend extra points to buy units with experience levels that aren't always set to 0.

Just my wishlist.

[Kathapalt]

My units have fairly high experience, they seem to work quite will.

This is exactly the problem i think.
as units lose EXP when you replenish and use requisition points to replenish.
the game drives you to get units with low count and high survivability like titans, its hard to lose them= you dont lose xp or points to repair them.
This leads to unit composition where low strenght high damage units are the most effective(titans) and every thing else sucks, too bad 100% titan army is just plaing boring.

[larryed112]

Played a few more missions and my gut feeling is that the exp system does need a little tweaking. Units that ive kept alive since the first battle still only have 1 or 2 skulls.

Possible solutions?

Bring back elite replacements option.

Reduce exp in battle if you get replacements as normal. When the end of battle automatic replacements happen these don't effect exp of the unit.

For units that get shredded frequently and easily like infantry reduce the exp loss from replacements.

[sdeix75]

firstly guys you lose xp when replenishing troops but

xp doesn't work. I would love some one to explain it I have max skulls on some units and there stats are exactly the same as a basic unit. there is no option for them upgrade to lvl 2. if you change the unit ( conscipts to steel legion infantry) up or down you still keep this xp its not related to xp and you can do the same for any unit

could the Devs please explain XP system

[Plaid]

Panzer Korps was broken because of elite replacements and overstrength, it's only good that they are not in this game.

Men die, experience goes away, working as intended.

And yes, my core units have 3-5 skulls. If you struggle to reach 2 you are doing something wrong.

[imperialus]

Just a thought, but what if instead of granting combat bonus' XP allowed for the upgrading of units?

For example, you hire an infantry unit. You can get "Steel Legion PDF infantry" Basically the conscripts/militia/ect. After it has earned X amount of XP you can upgrade it to Steel Legion Imperial Guard infantry, Flame Infantry, Rough Riders, ect.

Similar idea with tanks and the like. The easiest one to do this with would be the Leman Russ's, but even things that have a limited upgrade tree like say the sentinels could have varying degrees of veterancy that affect their actual stats.

[Razz1]

firstly guys you lose xp when replenishing troops but

xp doesn't work. I would love some one to explain it I have max skulls on some units and there stats are exactly the same as a basic unit. there is no option for them upgrade to lvl 2. if you change the unit ( conscipts to steel legion infantry) up or down you still keep this xp its not related to xp and you can do the same for any unit

could the Devs please explain XP system

This is the same problem with Panzer Corps. You get a hero with defense initiative or other bonus the the menu statistics don't change.

Here we have the same thing. The menu bar does not show the effects of experience.

here they are:

Experience
For each skull:
+5 or +5% (whichever is smaller) to unit's accuracy
-2 or -2% (whichever is smaller) from accuracy of other units shooting this unit

[sdeix75]

firstly guys you lose xp when replenishing troops but

xp doesn't work. I would love some one to explain it I have max skulls on some units and there stats are exactly the same as a basic unit. there is no option for them upgrade to lvl 2. if you change the unit ( conscipts to steel legion infantry) up or down you still keep this xp its not related to xp and you can do the same for any unit

could the Devs please explain XP system

This is the same problem with Panzer Corps. You get a hero with defense initiative or other bonus the the menu statistics don't change.

Here we have the same thing. The menu bar does not show the effects of experience.

here they are:

Experience
For each skull:
+5 or +5% (whichever is smaller) to unit's accuracy
-2 or -2% (whichever is smaller) from accuracy of other units shooting this unit

Cheers couldn't figure it out

I thought that there was supposed to be a special upgrade option different to the normal upgrade option for attaining a certain rank, something like ( for level 1 +5 armour or gun strength) would be nicer. a choice of 2

[FroBodine]

Thank you for explaining what the experience skulls do. This should be explained in the manual, or even better, as a tooltip in the game when you hover over the skulls.

Please fix the game so you see the adjusted stats due to experience. This was annoying to not see it displayed in Panzer Corps with heroes, and it is annoying here too.

Thank you!