So many suggestions of alternative methods to train troops involve passive features such as training in cities or improvements to leadership training perks. To put it simply, that is boring. Right now, the only real way to train troops is bandit hunting, and depending on your army setup, you either have to chase them down for days before you catch them, making leveling extremely difficult, or you are fast enough to catch them and eventually clear the map of bandits, again making leveling extremely difficult afterwards.
I love quests like Extortion by Deserters, because it create an easy-to-encounter party of reasonable size with higher tier troops that can be used for leveling (I check every village I pass to see if it has the quest). There needs to be more methods to train troops that involve active gameplay, not just passive features. This is why I am suggestion field drills.
Field Drills
Drills work the same way as actual combat. When on the map, you can open you party menu and talk to one of your named companions (whether wanderer, spouse, or child) and say you want to start a field drill. That companion will then be your opponent. You then have the opportunity to select what troops take part in the drill. The selection menu could look exactly like the discarding troops party menu, except there will be two categories on the left side, your team and your opponent's team. Any troops you drag into your team will be on your side, and those you drag onto the opposing team will be on your companion's side.
Once finished, the map changes to the same as if you intercepted an enemy on the map, giving you the option to fight or send troops (creating an auto-battle for those who want to make it passive). If you fight, you and your companion control opposing sides. Your companion can earn leadership and tactics experience for controlling their troops, this way there are more leveling options for companions. Your medic also can receive experience for all injuries sustained on both sides of the battle.
Because drills can be risky, anyone who is "killed" in the battle is injured at the end, and those who are "injured" are fine at the end. This is because they are not fighting to kill, just practice. This allows you to level you medic actively instead of the only way being sacrificing your troops in a real battle. You have to be careful, though. This can potentially create a lot of injured troops in your army, leaving you vulnerable, so you will likely have to rest a bit after a few field drills, again leveling your medic's skills further.
The experience gained should be either equivalent or slightly less than an actual battle because they are not fighting for their lives. @MisterDanny8 also brought up the idea of diminishing returns depending on the tier, that way you don't have an easy path to max tier troops, because realistically there is only so much you can learn from drills, and the experienced troops can only really get better by being battle-hardened.
I love quests like Extortion by Deserters, because it create an easy-to-encounter party of reasonable size with higher tier troops that can be used for leveling (I check every village I pass to see if it has the quest). There needs to be more methods to train troops that involve active gameplay, not just passive features. This is why I am suggestion field drills.
Field Drills
Drills work the same way as actual combat. When on the map, you can open you party menu and talk to one of your named companions (whether wanderer, spouse, or child) and say you want to start a field drill. That companion will then be your opponent. You then have the opportunity to select what troops take part in the drill. The selection menu could look exactly like the discarding troops party menu, except there will be two categories on the left side, your team and your opponent's team. Any troops you drag into your team will be on your side, and those you drag onto the opposing team will be on your companion's side.
Once finished, the map changes to the same as if you intercepted an enemy on the map, giving you the option to fight or send troops (creating an auto-battle for those who want to make it passive). If you fight, you and your companion control opposing sides. Your companion can earn leadership and tactics experience for controlling their troops, this way there are more leveling options for companions. Your medic also can receive experience for all injuries sustained on both sides of the battle.
Because drills can be risky, anyone who is "killed" in the battle is injured at the end, and those who are "injured" are fine at the end. This is because they are not fighting to kill, just practice. This allows you to level you medic actively instead of the only way being sacrificing your troops in a real battle. You have to be careful, though. This can potentially create a lot of injured troops in your army, leaving you vulnerable, so you will likely have to rest a bit after a few field drills, again leveling your medic's skills further.
The experience gained should be either equivalent or slightly less than an actual battle because they are not fighting for their lives. @MisterDanny8 also brought up the idea of diminishing returns depending on the tier, that way you don't have an easy path to max tier troops, because realistically there is only so much you can learn from drills, and the experienced troops can only really get better by being battle-hardened.
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