A small adjustment that could be nice for units like Chariots and Hydra Riders is treat their initial charge attack as a melee attack instead of a ranged one. While it’s fairly minor it’d be nice to get Combat Experience for it. Additionally, if Ranged attacks are changed at all in the future (such as the no valor model being tested) it would be awesome to still get rewarded for using these units in melee, because they are functionally more of a melee unit than a ranged one.
I don’t think you actually want that because then first strikes would be subject to the squared damage rule and in general would be much less effective (a 300 strength first strike against a 600 strength unit would only kill 25% of the enemy instead of 50%). Also seems like we’re moving away from the no valour for ranged attacks concept and unless the size of the enemy is less than the first strike you’ll still get experience from the combat. Plus most first strike cards only have a small number of units so they do t benefit much from experience right now.
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Good point on the combat formula. Nice to hear we’re moving away from the no valour for ranged rule, but I guess the high level design question still stands. These charge style attacks feel like a unique mechanic and interaction. It would be nice to treat them as such so they can inherent the specific properties desired. Combat experience for me still makes sense of these guys. Thematically, having a band of Chariots that have been around through many battles being as tough as the fresh recruits made me 
, As for what formula the damage should use, I think if you treat these attacks as their own entities you can get the best desired effect for this attack type - wether that’s the ranged formula, melee etc (personally I feel the squared formula for melee fights is too extreme atm). And it can be a hook used for other mechanics etc. There is an argument to made for simplicity of mechanics I can buy by not adding a new attack type in, but it also opens up new design space for future interactions or mechanics.
Again this is a pretty minor issue, but seeming as it’s a mechanic that I can easily see being used on new or updated units it made sense to talk about it.
perhaps we need to think about experience points for wizards to use thier magic as well. Not sure what it could do, but perhaps make spells cheaper to cast or more powerfull. ?
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I really like that idea as well. The same issue kind of applies to heroes where as you noted your dragon that has won ten battles isn’t materially more powerful and to archers who could kill a ton of enemies with ranged attacks and not get any better. I like the idea of some improvement, either in terms of reduced mana cost or greater effect.
That makes a lot of sense. Essentially grant XP for more types of actions and let each unit handle experience in the way they best deem fit (which is already sort of a precedent in place due to units having varying levels of strength per experience point). Systemically that’s pretty awesome and gives you a lot of space to play in as a designer.