How big is the experience buff, actually?

[FlyingMoses]

The manual only says:

"Experienced units perform better in combat and
are more difficult to destroy"

and

"Highly experienced units also suffer
less efficiency and strength loss when retreating"

and

"Experience slightly improves a units
offensive and defensive capabilities,
but mostly impacts unit efficiency and
survivability. Veteran units will suffer less
efficiency loss from combat and movement,
and will take fewer casualties when forced
to retreat."

with the additional note that

"The amount of experience gained in a
single attack depends on the amount of damage done and taken"

... but does anyone have any actual numbers or guesses as to how much this "slight" direct combat buff is? For example, I'm finding it hard to know mid-battle if it's worth spending RP repairing my veterans, or the weaklings.

[vtweatherman]

The guidelines that I use are to try & not "lose" core units (the ones with the yellow outlines/names, as opposed to the auxiliary units [black outlines & white names] that are assigned to you in each scenario) and repair them with elite repair (vs. normal repair for aux. units), if available. If you "lose" a core unit, you can reform it but apparently at only 5% of its former experience. I haven't seen an extensive hard numbers on any of this though.

Building up your core units, which are available for you to deploy from scenario to scenario, is one of the many keys to doing well in the game.

[bobster66]

The mechanics of the game have never been shared by the developers and there has been much discussion about them over the years on the Slitherine forums.

One thing that we know is that although the strength values are shown only as whole numbers (1, 2, 3 and so on), the actual values used by the game are decimal numbers. That's why you sometimes see projected damage with a plus sign, it represents fractional damage.

Another thing we know is that there are actually 10 experience levels, not five. When you see a unit with a half star of experience, that actually represents the first level of experience.

The performance difference from level to level is small but adds up. You can test this by creating a custom scenario with similar units facing each other head to head. For instance with two similar '41 infantry units with no experience facing off with each other the expected outcome would be an even 3/3 damage exchange. Giving one side a half star of experience would change that to 3/2+. Now instead of half a star you give that unit a full 5 stars and the expected damage is now 3+/2. So a full veteran unit against an unexperienced unit will only inflict an additional fraction of a point of damage but will avoid a full point of damage.

So experience is nice to have, and you want to build it up with your core units, but far more important in combat is reducing efficiency and entrenchment, and flanking enemy units.

[Ya Estherrko]

There was decent guide about experience a while ago... on Slitherine forums I believe, using two Yamato BBs with different experience levels. Long story short - experience makes exactly what it says - increase damage dealt and decrease damage taken.

Effect is not that great, unlike in PzC, but noticeable. Especially when you compare 0 stars vs 5 stars and 5 stars vs 0 stars.

[hardy_conrad]

Precise details would be helpful but I guess they aren't available. While it depends on context of course, overall I don't find it worthwhile to repair damaged units with the more expensive veteran reinforcements. I speak primarily in terms of multiplayer mind you.

[Ya Estherrko]

Originally posted by hardy_conrad:

Precise details would be helpful but I guess they aren't available. While it depends on context of course, overall I don't find it worthwhile to repair damaged units with the more expensive veteran reinforcements. I speak primarily in terms of multiplayer mind you.

It took a while, but I managed to find few threads on this topic:
https://www.slitherine.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=65075
https://www.slitherine.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=264
https://www.slitherine.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=91429

Thing I totally forgot is that experience also affect efficiency fall off in combat (except for artillery always loosing 1 efficiency per shot). And attack/defence bonus very much depends on unit base values. I.e. battleship affected more than puny recon unit.

[FlyingMoses]

Hmm, some good finds and interesting advice!

Food for thought for sure. I feel like I'm always bankrupting myself with elite tanks and planes. Maybe I should focus on keeping it for infantry units or something. Though maybe it's worth having one or two only as an investment for units that lose efficiency quickly otherwise?

Some aspects of the resource economy seem a little head-scratching. I'm partway through playing the first Red Star atm (or whatever it's called) and an engineer costs 25 and can come new with a star from specialization plus does fine anti-infantry, but laying a single tile of mines costs 20. You can get a simple 2-CP antitank with the 2CP engineer and do just as well as the 75 cost 4-RP heavy infantry, 4 and 5-star tank repairs cost approximately 1 million dollars, the free heal on upgrade encourages some weird strats, though maybe some of it is deliberately unique to the scenario/USSR?

[Ya Estherrko]

From my experience (I only play single player though) - it's barely worth elite replacing tanks at all. Difference is not that big, but RP expenses growing exponentially.

With planes it's more viable at low experience levels, 1-2 stars max. Plus there's specialization making both elite and regular repair more efficient.

Heavy infantry is more versatile, plus they can play as pocket artillery units to an extent thus justifying the cost imo. I usually have 1 HI per 2-3 regular infantry + engineer unit. Light towed AT in the mix to handle tank attacks.

As for weird strats there's Burma and British part of Allied campaign - UK have terrible tactical bombers BUT have great Typhoon fighter-bomber able to outdamage available tactical planes and to reasonably well handle enemy fighters at the same time. And also have great strategic bombers line-up with Lancaster on top. While being expensive, Strats have hidden benefit of being almost entirely ignored by AI fighters if escorted. Thus they ramp up experience like crazy, easily hitting 5 stars, killing enemy efficiency and dealing reasonable direct damage aswell and barely ever require replacements.

[hardy_conrad]

Yeah even the "cheap" repair costs for tanks can add up pretty quickly, they're good units for sure but you have to pay for it. On my favourite multiplayer map, The Russian Campaign, I generally find it worthwhile to just endlessly poop out cheap conscript infantry and overwhelm the enemy. Get enough and even if they still can't actually damage tougher units they can cut them off and bog them down.

[Sloan]

Originally posted by FlyingMoses:

I feel like I'm always bankrupting myself with elite tanks and planes.

Specializations are opening up making “elite replenishment” a little cheaper. Strategic bombers reduce the supply of the enemy army, if you bomb flagged cities, you can then engineer a recovery. Supply points, requisition points. Pressing the space bar you can see supply points, points to capture. Or by completing objectives (or secondary objectives) you get “gold”. If you go for an assault, it is advisable to shell with artillery, bombard with strategic/tactical bombers.