I have been frustrated that my militia never gain any experience unless they are involved in a battle. That it was happening with the militia below. I put some merc's there to see if that would make a difference, and while the merc's gain the listed 1 XP/turnindicated on the mouse-over, the militia XP bar doesn't move.



I saw an older post about this from August but it only got one reply. Can you guys please fix this? There is no reason militia units that have been around since turn 1 should have 0 XP over a 100 turns later.



Here's a few screens just to show what I mean:



Turn 69:





Turn 71:

I'm not entirely sure that this is a bug. I mean, the display is wrong, sure - it shouldn't say Militia units gain +1XP/turn when they are not getting anything. But what I'm saying is I'm not certain it makes sense for Militia units to gain XP for standing around doing nothing inside a city at peace. I think a good set of rules would be: Get XP from fights? Sure. Get XP for every turn the city is under siege? That would make sense. Get XP if there is a Hero assigned to the city (thereby simulating training drills)? Sounds about right. The rest of the time, no XP growth, because there aren't really any events going on to justify it. Besides, in my last save, two level 1 Militia units held off 5 roaming armies of level 4 Bos for 3 whole turns - do they really need to be getting stronger for free?

If they need to be at 0/turn until there is a hero assigned or some other precondition must be met, then the display needs to be changed. Either way it is a bug. Requiring a hero to be assigned is reasonable but in my example above, there is a hero assigned.



However, I have several counterpoints:



1) Military improvements add to the bonus. These are specific improvements that involve garrisoned units.

City Improvements

Stronghold architecture +.05 XP/turn on unit in garrison

Imperial Kennels +1 XP/turn on unit in garrison

Hero Skill

No Idle Hands +1/+2/+3 XP per turn on units "Even off the battlefield, there hero keeps his army focused..."



2) They likely live in a barracks where they undergo training or would at least have regular training exercises (think national guard/reserves).



3) The other units that are also assigned to the garrison are also just sitting there but ARE gaining the experience listed.

All of which are valid points - except the hero skill No Idle Hands. I had thought about it, but before posting I double-checked in-game and it's an Army Assignment skill, meaning it wouldn't trigger if your hero is assigned to the city, it would only activate when out in the field.



I think the fact that other units gain experience but Militia doesn't can probably be explained away by a poor choice of label: the way I understand it, what the game calls "Militia" are in fact, as you pointed out, more like Reservists, i.e. civilians who would defend the city if attacked, but otherwise not part of the actual military. Sure they would have training drills, but not as frequently as career military. What it could translate to in terms of gameplay mechanics would be, at best, a much slower XP growth for Militia compared to army units.

In fact, that would make an excellent new "Technology" to research at some point in one era: implementing "Military Service" as an Empire policy to increase the combat readiness of your population (which would be modeled in-game by a multiplier of the Militia's XP/turn gain). Defensive and diplomatic players would surely appreciate not having to waste turns buidling an army just in case of attack, when they have no plans to start wars themselves.

It definitely is a bug. The experience gain for militia is specified in the SimulationDescriptors[Garrison].xml file but not actually applied - so you can't even mod it.



Due to the level having a huge impact on the combat stats, the militia is pretty useless in later eras if it doesn't level.

I hope this will get fixed since it's the main reason for the underwhelming city defence capabilities.