[attachment=16437]Any of my files before january 18 am had a major flaw that overrated/underrating units badly. Fixed now
In case you are curious, a spreadsheet I have to analyze relative [combat-only] strength of each unit is attached.
Based on the unit data information (assuming magic weapons and 'regular' experience), complex formulas were developed (based on numerous stats and abilities) for the 5 subcomponents that ultimately make up the overall unit score.
The subcomponents and their variables interact with each other for values and weights: and may be weighted differently for values and weights:
Melee Score
Ranged Score
Other Score (e.g. spellcasting,holy bonus)
Tactical Score (mobility, flight, and abilities to outmaneuver opponents)
Defense Score (the most complex formula)
The scores tends to be high when Melee, range/other, hardinessand tactical are all high, with examples such as Efreet/Djinn, Angels and those all-around mobile melee-ranged units. These are often targets of direct damage and curse spells for that reason
Not all units are equal and I agree this is intentional and for a good reason. Looking at the bigger picture (entire race, or entire magic realm), the units are surprisingly well balanced! For example, the mid-tier high men units are outstanding and used to compensate early weaknesses. Efreet showing up with a very high value confirms my thoughts, but chaos wizards probably need this unit to catch up to others. Spreadsheet also helps identify weak units: Minotaurs are underwhelming for the cost and lack of buff potential
Multi-figure units with fairly low values are not a problem given their potential for unit enchantments, adamantium, etc.
Overland-potential of abilities ignored, which may mean lower than expected scores for 1hp regeneration or no impact from things like pathfinding or wind walking
Interesting, but it misses a lot of nuance. Trolls, for example, have extra value in battle, because you don't care if some of them die, as long as you win. In strategic value, they don't waste time healing. Gargoyles have one value when fighting normal units, but a much higher value when fighting poisonous or stoning units. Lots of other situational factors.
When the 9 unit limit comes into play, rating becomes much more important than value.
The ratings for life summons contradicts that 'Life is weak at summoning'.
I agree about regeneration and failed to take player behavior flexibility into account, thus reuploaded with higher upfront benefit but more substantial diminishing returns (especially if armor is low). As far as gargoyles are concerned, their immunities get treated as extra resistance. Their defense rating is very good
Shadow demons, trolls, etc have major boosts in scores, with war trolls now being race's best unit.
Multi-figure units, if with more experience, better weapons, or buffs, they would in theory get really high scores.
Life ended up with pretty decent ratings because:
*Compared to most uncommons in score/cost, unicorns are among the worst. Unicorns have a good score helped by its 'tactics' rating.
*Angels are a good all-around unit that hit hard, are surprisingly durable, cast useful spells, other abilities, and have excellent tactics score. I'd easily argue these against 3-4 other rare summons, if not more.
*Archangel is not the highest in top-tier scores, some other units do better. However, how can you argue against this game-changing summon?
Fixed
While statistical analyses aren't perfect, this one can be useful for pointing out possible flaws. For example, Giant Spiders seem really cost effective, and possibly overpowered. I don't like spells that are automatic choices every game (when using 8 nature). It would be nice if, depending on race, land size, etc, that cockatrices or great lizards might be better choices. I wouldn't want to see spiders increased in cost, but rather lose some strengths or add some weaknesses.
I vaguely recall that Momtweaker has a tactical battle option (haven't tried it). If so, I suggest testing your spreadsheet with that, to see if battle results confirm the numbers.
Spiders have been tested and this much is the bare minimal stats necessary for them to work at their intended roles (survive one turn against ranged units and/or survive fighting a low resistance melee unit like halberdier). Any less armor or hit points and you lose way too many in combat.
Spiders are an automatic choice for another reason though - it's the only one cheap enough to research and cast to be viable as a 8 book strategy. The others are proper uncommons you research and use later. Spiders compete with the common summons : War Bears and Sprites, as you don't need to research those at all, they are available starting spells. Spiders also compete with other spells you might want to research early, like Change Terrain and Land Linking. 8 books don't necessarily mean you must pick a summon for your early uncommon spell(s).
From Jan 19 spreadsheet version. Uncommon + Beyond Summon analysis:
Highest Rating for Cost: Giant Spiders. Attack score only around the halberdier level, but tactically even superior to cavalry and its impressive 20hp with 9 resist helps defense rating be not much below gargoyles. Balancing factor: melee units with high resistance or poison immunity.
High Rating for Cost and Rarity::
*Djinn - Tactically impressive, you can easily have it fire its 8 shots, help u with powerful spells. Balancing factor: I was going to say direct damage spells, but djinns self-cast invisibility. Similar to giant spiders, it is hard to stop such a well rounded unit.
*Fire Giant - They are very effective jack-of-all-trade units, but hardly overpowered. *Death Knights - Situationally much hardier than even a great drake and hits very hard. Balancing factor: a few selection of
Medium High Rating for Cost and Rarity: resistance-spells are devastating to it. *Angel - Hardy support unit. Its mobility helps it pick best units to fight (melee capabilities depend on opponent)
*Efreet - Tremendous damage potential with spells and 8 shots. Balancing factor: many spells stop it from being able to achieve its potential.
*Demon - Rating driven by spellcasting
*Cockatrices - Beats many rare summons or a handful of stag beetles in hand to hand combat. Balancing factor: ranged and magic.
*Great Drake - Focuses on damage (#1 on my spreadsheet), but quite well rounded elsewhere
*Behemoth - Opposite to Great Wyrm - lopsided towards durability - the highest defense rating in my spreadsheet
*Great Wyrm - lopsided towards damage (close #2 on my spreadsheet) and maneuverability rather than hardiness
Typical Rating for Cost and Rarity:
*Sky Drake - Less durable and hard hitting than great drake, but situationally better at survival.
*Demon Lord - A one-unit army basically, capable of up to 120mp. Balancing factor: struggles against spells and some advanced summons.
*Gargoyle - Excellent defense rating for a 100cost unit. Immolation later in game adds new life to it. Balancing factor: terrible against single-figure units
*Werewolves - Early regeneration. Balancing factor: a few selection of resistance-spells are devastating. Also fireball and fire giants generally beat these.
*Archangel - The ultimate support unit. However, its high cost almost dropped it to 'medium-low' rating
*Chaos Spawn - This and Gorgons hit the hardest among rare units, but this one is near-unstoppable against melee. Balancing factor: ranged units and direct damage.
*Shadow Demons - Gets obsolete when the 2.5dmg shots can't penetrate armor.
Medium-low rating for cost and rarity:
*Colossus - Their highest potential is in groups, but too expensive to make that work. Mobility of 3 for very rare hurts
*Unicorns - High cost, but nice support ability on top of decent tactical unit (take out ranged units). Pretty good survival odds due to high hp and getting itself away from trouble. Weak melee attack lowers its rating
*Chimera - Hits hard and has no major weaknesses other than somewhat low resistance
*Hydra - What good is extreme (#2 highest) durability if you can't reach anything and can't penetrate high armor? Durability score lowered by resistance of just 12
*Water Elemental - Comparable in ranged to Fire Giant + fireball. A bit more durable as well. Much more expensive
*Great Lizard - Would be higher if it had reasonable resistance. Against opposing wizards it is rather mediocre *Doom Bat - Unless going against archangels, behemoth, superheros or anything with extreme armor, doom bats are rather poor units, not that much better than chimeras which costs almost half and are uncommon. Balancing factor: heroes and iron-skinned behemoths
Low rating for cost and rarity *Night Stalkers - Their upfront cost is very high, but formula fails to consider low upkeep. Their low durability once detected drives score down. Balancing factor: black prayer
*Stone Giants - Not that durable if the opponent exploits its rather low hp. What really brings the rating down is the very weak damage output. Balancing factor: survival instinct
*Storm Giant - Also a bit surprised here as I find these terrifying in sorcery notes. However, compared to efreet, they find it harder to avoid damage and don't have the spellcasting advantage. Balancing factor: army of storm giants
*Wraiths - Pretty good unit and hard to stop in certain circumstances, but considering a 350 cost, they can get wiped out too easily with certain spells. *Gorgons - Was a bit surprised with this one given how hard hitting it is. Nonetheless, many competitors have tactical advantages and higher armor and resistance Balancing factor: unit buffs
Not low outliers. Also the ones marked as low rating are not that low.
Regular Units (work in progress)
*Cavalry has consistently some of the best ratings for the cost and could easily cost 50 and players would still recruit them.
*Crusaders are the best mid-tier arcanus unit and may remain so even if cost boosted to 70-75
Halberdiers shouldn't be better - at least not faster. Maybe cheaper. But they only should roughly match common summons - unless buffed when they can shine.
Gorgons are absolutely amazing. Ton of HP and hit hard. Even without Survival Instinct. Even superheroes have to stretch it to have enough armor against their attack, and against anything but very rares their attack that targets both resistance and armor means they wipe most things off the board with little damage. Add in a cheap land linking, and cheaper resist elements, and it is very durable against the usual ranged.
Spiders are good, but their main weakness is poor penetration for their attacks: Later in the game 10 to 11 resistance is common, as is armor that spiders cannot effectively chew through. In the early game, where they are supposed to shine, they really do. With resist elements (and land link) they can also take magicians, which keeps them situationally useful even later.
Night stalker situationally allows to use combat casting by hiding with the seeker. A handy tool, particularly for a death channeler.
Lizards and cockatrices are gold for nature/sorcery. Cockatrices also cover other niches.
Still, the downright best unit is the ghoul: The ability to create free units in the early game is simply game-changing.
Reuploaded with the bottom of spreadsheet calculating score for summons that have commonly used unit enchantment buffs, mostly within the same realm but occasionally not (e.g. focus magic wraiths or cockatrices)
(January 16th, 2020, 15:20)JustOneMoreTurn Wrote: Interesting, but it misses a lot of nuance. Trolls, for example, have extra value in battle, because you don't care if some of them die, as long as you win. In strategic value, they don't waste time healing. Gargoyles have one value when fighting normal units, but a much higher value when fighting poisonous or stoning units. Lots of other situational factors.
I think that's inevitable in any widespread analysis, and not even necessarily a bad thing. It's just important to bear in mind that it's a rough assessment of strengths rather than an exhaustive assessment. General game knowledge is all it takes to fill in the details.
Also I feel like it's a principle of 4X and really strategy games in general that overall strength is the biggest factor to consider, not just in spite of the fact that there are so many variables but often because of it - they'll often be better able to roll with the punches of whatever gets thrown at you than more specialized units.
