Samurai Wars Unit vs Unit Chart

[Puzz3D]

The matrix above is quite a piece of work. I studied it for over an hour last night and will continue. Though I am sure it will improve my game some, I honestly have been considering taking an observers seat, just monitoring events. Getting older and slower, and more easily confused. We’ll see how it goes [/COLOR]

While the matchups seem intuitive to me, I realized after watching some replays that they aren't necessarily intuitive to everyone. Since we are playing without upgrades, a unit's performance remains constant, so the chart is valid for every battle. No upgrades also means that the only way to get an advantage is to make better matchups or make flank attacks. The five A, B, C, D, E categories work well enough to indicate the effectiveness of the melee matchups. Approximately:

A is 90/10 chance to win/loose
B is 70/30 chance to win/loose
C is 50/50 chance to win/loose
D is 30/70 chance to win/loose
E is 10/90 chance to win/loose

A flank attack gives the attacking unit a two letter increase in effectiveness for a couple of combat cycles. A rear attack is slightly better than a side attack. The + sign is there to indicate units which can shift a 50/50 chance to a 60/40 by charging.

For the ranged chart, the + sign is there because I needed more than 5 steps to convey the differences in effectiveness. It indicates an effectiveness about 1/2 way to the next letter level. Cavalry is at a disadvantage against shooters because it is a larger target than infantry, but it's not a full step disadvantage so I've used the + to indicate that. That's why, for instance, SA gets a C+ vs CA even though they have the same bow and ammo. There are probably some errors in the chart, but roughly:

A is 3 kills per volley on average at max range.
B is 2 kills per volley on average at max range.
C is 1 kill per volley on average at max range.
D is 1/2 kill per volley on average at max range.
E is less than 1/2 kill per volley at max range.

So, a 60 man SA gets about 3 kills per volley on a WM. The SA has 36 ammo which means it has the potential to kill 108 WM. At 1000 koku for a 60 man WM, just killing 1/2 of a WM with 10 volleys more than pays for the 400 koku SA.

One interesting thing to explore in the stat is whether or not it's cost effective to use a SA to help win an otherwise equal gun battle. To be effective, the guns have to inflict some casualties on enemy melee units after winning the gun battle.

Basically, each unit has a proper way it should be used. If some of your units get into a disadvantageous situation, the only way to compensate for that is to gain an advantageous situation somewhere else. The morale level has been chosen so that units typically hold at least down to 30 men unless they are seeing friendly units rout. Outnumbering by itself will not cause the enemy to run away. So when the battlelines close for melee, individual matchups are still important. If you are at a disadvantage on the battleline, there is time to execute flanking moves even with infantry. However, if the flanking path is obstructed by enemy units, you won't get there in time to save your battleline.

I don't think quickness is the key in Samurai Wars. You can't really do anything that the enemy can't respond to. The key is working the enemy into an untenable postition by maneuvering and by the accumulation of small advantages. You have to be careful not to overestimate the value of advantages gained which is something I have a tendency to do. Also, since the game uses an RPS combat system, the ranged, sword, spear and cavalry components have to be combined for the best results. For instance, it would be better to have a YS + ND in a two unit group operating away from the main army than either a YS + YS or ND + ND. The problem with having 2 YS is that cavalry will simply avoid it, and with having 2 ND is that cavalry will jump on it. There is an RPS system within the cavalry types, so you can have interesting cavalry engagements, but these have to take place away from spear infantry.

I'd like to see the tactics become second nature so that players can think at a strategic level during the battles which is why I made the charts. For instance, in the last 3v3 on Sunday, replay STW_3v3_57, we were initially very successful in repelling Tosa's cav attacks on our right flank, but he persisted with support from CBR cav and they succeeded in drawing some of our infantry units off the hill down into the valley on the right. However, almost all of our cavalry was on the left preparing for an assault to gain the high ground there which, if successful, would have given us complete control of all the high ground on the map. So, the action on the right was not compatible with the strategic plan, and tactically our units in the valley were lacking cavalry support.

So, keep playing and we'll work harder on team coordination.