GROMs Units COMPARATOR - article

Dear GROMs blog readers!!!

It has been a while since I have last posted anything here. I apologise for that but I do not have much free time recently. Anyway, I think you will really like my newest creation.

Let me present you my Units COMPARATOR

What you can do with it?

To be able to discuss effectiveness of units, we need first to set some measurable criteria. I will base them on parameters like: price of the unit in resources you need to spend for its production, farm spaces (population) the unit consumes, mythical units favour points, but also battle parameters which reflect its effectiveness in combat such as attack value which has three types: blunt, sharp or ranged and corresponding three defensive types.

As explained in other guides population cap is the main limiting factor for an army, especially at later stages of the game when players can gather big armies and stack defensive units. Player should be interested to have maximal values of attack and defense per population used by their army. This is why all criteria in this table are calculated on basis of 1 Farm Space (1 population). For example high Attack/FS value basically means that a unit is good at offense, while a high Total Defense/FS value indicates that it is a good defensive unit etc.

With this calculator you can easily compare different types of nukes or check how their strength changes when you add to or deduct population from the wave, switch between regular Transport Ships and Fast Transport Ships or switch on and off Bunks technology. You can check the efficiency or effectiveness of selected units. You can check how many ships you will need to transport certain number of units etc. You can sort different types of units in each column. You can even use filter function! 

Below is a detailed description of every column so you could have a better understanding of the calculated fields. Many of these columns deserve a separate article and most of them I have mentioned already in my guides. If you don't fell like reading this now but want to start using the calculator, simply hover your mouse cursor over the titles to see a short description of each column.

Col 1 - FTS? (Fast Transport Ships)

Enter "Y" if you want to check stats when using Fast Transport Ships.

FTS can take on board 2 times less less units (10 without Bunks Tech. and 16 with Bunks discovered) but are much faster than regular Transport Ships (which can load 20 / 26 units).

TS speed is 8 and FTS is 15, so FTS are 1,875 faster than TS.

Col 2 - Bunks?

Enter "Y" if you want to check stats when using this technology.

When you discover Bunks, the difference between cargo capacity of FTS and TS gets smaller, making FTS a bit more attractive option. Before you discover Bunks the difference is 2:1 for TS, however with Bunks it decreases to 1,625:1.

Also notice that TS consumes 7 FS (Farm Spaces / Free population) while FTS only 5, so the more ships you build the smaller difference in cargo capacity gets. For example consider 2 scenarios when you use 35 population (FS) to build transport ships:

a) With 35 FS you can build 5 Transport Ships, which have total cargo capacity of 130 (5x26)

b) Or you can invest 35 FS to build 7 Fast Transport Ships, which have total cargo capacity of 112 (7x16)

So the difference in capacity is only 1,16:1...BUT the speed difference is still 1,9 in favor of FTS!!!

If you want to learn more about it please read my guide about FTS and Bunks.

Col 3 - Type of units.

Notice that you can sort them alphabetically.

Col 4 - Population used (Farm Spaces)

Please enter number of population you want to spend on your army (that includes your transport ships except flying units).

Col 5 & 6- Number of Ships & Units

These fields are calculated in such a way that allows you to pack the maximum amount of units on your ships (specified in cols 1 & 2). These fields are directly related to input cols: 1, 2 & 4.

Col 7 - Total Resources / Attack (TR/A)

Efficiency of your attacking forces (how much 1 Attack cost in resources).

The smaller the number the better.

Total resources represents a sum of all resources needed to produce units and ships divided by the Total Attack value of those units. This is a great way to see how much we pay for 1 unit of attack for each type of units. For example Slingers are so great because they provide 1 attack for the lowest price (except Manticores but for these you need also Favour Points).

 

Defensive units will have much higher TR/A than offensive units.

Naturally defending units are useless in offensive tasks and all resources spent on constructing them would be wasted if they were used in that role.

For example if you send 740 Slingers (input 1000 in col 4) you will pay 11,5 resources per 1 attack but if you send 740 Swordsmen you will pay 50 resources per 1 attack. Slingers are more suited for attacking because of their high attack value. 

You may also wonder what is more efficient - investing 1000 FS in Transport Ships and Slingers or  Erinyes? In this scenario Erinyes cost 12,6 resources per 1 attack, so are slightly more expensive than Slingers (not mentioning Favor Points).

How is it calculated?
Total Resources (Wood+Rock+Silver) used to construct ships and build units divided by the Total Attack value of units specified in col 3.

Notice that costs of transport ships are included so whenever you change type of ships or tick Bunks, you will get a different result.

Col 8 - Attack / FS

Effectiveness of your attacking forces. This ratio focus on the pure power of the units and disregard costs.

The bigger the number the better.

Because FS used for Transport Ships are included in this formula, the results will differ every time you change type of ships or tick Bunks or change number of invested population. 

This field is also very useful for comparing land vs flying units. In all my previous guides I have never included costs (resources and FS) of Transport Ships, as if all attacks were sent on the same island. This in result lowered a bit parameters of flying units. Transport Ships add extra costs and decrease amount of units you can send with them but do not worry, adding them to my calculations do not turn upside down everything that I have said in the past and all my previous recommendations stay valid.

How is it calculated:
Total Attack value of transported units divided by the Farm Spaces used to build ships and units specified in col 3.

Col 9 - Total Resources / Defense (TR/D)

Efficiency of your defensive forces (how much 1 defense cost in resources).

The smaller the number the better. Offensive units will have much higher TR/D than defensive units.

This col is very similar to col 7 (Total Resources / Attack) but takes into account the Total Defense value, which is simply a sum of all 3 types of defense, i.e. 1 Swordsman has 14 Blunt 8 Sharp & 30 Distance defense which all give 52 Total Defense.

For more comments please refer to col 7.

How is it calculated?
Total Resources (Wood+Rock+Silver) used to construct ships and build units divided by the Total Defense value of units specified in col 3.

Col 10 - Total Defense / FS

Effectiveness of your defensive forces. This ratio focus on the pure defensive strength of the units and disregard costs.

The bigger the number the better. Because FS used for Transport Ships are included in this formula, the results will differ every time you change type of ships or tick Bunks or change number of invested population.

This col is very similar to col 8 (Attack / FS) but takes into account the Total Defense value, which is simply a sum of all 3 types of defense, i.e. 1 Swordsman has 14 Blunt 8 Sharp & 30 Distance defense which all give 52 Total Defense.

How is it calculated:

Total Defense value of the transported units divided by the Farm Spaces used to build ships and units specified in col 3.

Cols 11, 12 & 13 - Blunt Defense / FS, Sharp Defense / FS & Distance Defense / FS

These columns again focus on effectiveness of your units. All comments made for col 10 applies here as well, except that each of these columns deal with a different type of defense.

Cols 14, 15 & 16 - Mythical Units (costs/efficiency)

The same idea as with the Total Resources / Attack (col 7) & Total Resources / Defense (col 9)

Efficiency: How many FPs cost 1 Attack or 1 Defense.

The smaller the number the better.

How is it calculated?
Favor Points used to build units divided by the Total Attack (col 15) or Defense (col 16) value of these units.

Col 17 - Total Attack & Defense

Total Attack & Defense value is an average of Attack and Total Defense values combined together.

This is not the most important criteria, however it can prove why Medusa is considered as one of the most powerful units in the game. Medusa has the highest overall value. It doesn't have the highest Attack / FS (col 8) nor Total Defense / FS (10) but in both rankings is located very high.

How is it calculated:
(Attack/FS + Total Defense/FS) / 2 = (col 8 + col 10) / 2

Col 18 - Attack to Defense Ratio

Total Attack to Defense Ratio will show if a unit has offensive, defensive or balanced character. For example a unit can have very strong offensive parameters, which makes it perfect for attacking but absolutely useless in defense (i.e. Harpy). The opposite is also true and a good example is a Swordsman - highly defensively oriented unit, great for defending but useless in attack.

The bigger the number the more offensive character of the unit.

The smallest numbers indicate the most defensive units.

Value "1" indicates very balanced units, which can be used as well in attacking as in defending.

How is it calculated:
Attack/FS / Total Defense/FS = col 8/col 10

Cols 19-30

The rest of the columns show values that are used in all presented above formulas. Some people might find them useful.

Even though I have made the best effort to avoid mistakes and tested a few calculations manually, I cannot guarantee that this calculator is free of bugs so please, if you spot anything wrong let me know so I could correct it.

More to come...

Stay tuned!

Yours GROM