Academy of War -- Enter for Training ?!?!

[Epaminondas]

Arralen,

Is 5 stars the most you can get beyond which you cannot advance any more in stars?

Also, I wish there were hit points increases with each star. It would help out human thugs immensely.

[Epaminondas]

Also, if the experience increase that Arralen quoted when entering the Academy of War (and when fighting a battle) correct, then it seems almost useless. That is, if the Academy of War only gives you 4 experience points, it almost always makes sense to fight a battle instead, because 4 experience points are the minimum you are guaranteed if you win.

[Taqwus]

There's no experience level above that.

Mind you, if you're a non-pretender commander in the HoF, you benefit from maintaining enough kills, experience and/or deaths to remain there -- your heroic ability gets stronger so long as you're in the HoF. It stops improving if you no longer qualify.

[Epaminondas]

Taqwus,

Thanks for the clarification. It's been aeons since I last played Dom II, and the Demo of Dom III doesn't last long enough for me to easily catch those factors!

[Cainehill]

Epaminondas said:
Also, if the experience increase that Arralen quoted when entering the Academy of War (and when fighting a battle) correct, then it seems almost useless. That is, if the Academy of War only gives you 4 experience points, it almost always makes sense to fight a battle instead, because 4 experience points are the minimum you are guaranteed if you win.

Except that usually when you fight a battle you take casualties. With the Academy you can park a commander with 120 (or more) units in the province until all 120 have 2 or 3 experience stars before ever going into battle.

Of course, I don't think that experience does enough to make worrying about it worthwhile. Increases in attack/defense are marginal at best - the only things that really seem to benefit is morale and possibly missile troops that start with at least average accuracy.

[Epaminondas]

Arralen,

Level 3 is 25 turns! That's a long time to park your commander and troops.

As for the casualty issue, I guess I tend to take less casualties since I tend to build prefer elite, durable units. (My favorite nation in Dom II was Jotunheim with the Niefel giants theme.) Also, I am concerned more for the experience acquisition for commanders than the regular units--who are ultimately all fodder. And commanders, esp. AoE spammers, will benefit far more from fighting battles.