Yeah, and you can lose your fresh recruits so easily, even with low level enemies, that it makes whole cycle a bit pointless.
For me this is a big downgrade from Warband, but not upgrading your own skill is even worse. I played for 8 hours, and in the end, I was surprised why I I'm still on the same level, and have low level weapon proficiency, despite the fact that I fought in the arena, many, many times, and won at least a 10 tournaments - which by the way, is now way harder than just fighting with looters or bandits, especially if you fight in finale against legionary or cataphract.
Seriously, I hope it is an EA thing. Or a bug. I think we can all agree that we need a campsite, and upgrading troops and our main characters' skills not only in battles.