Level of Difficulty in Samurai Wars Multiplayer

[Puzz3D]

This issue was raised by a player who said that Samurai Wars didn't require very much skill. The way I see it is that the level of skill required to win depends upon the level of skill exhibited by your opponent. Also, it is possible to come back from a lost position and win a battle if the player with the winning advantage doesn't use use his advantage properly. This isn't due to luck as the combat system actually has a rather small level of uncertainty. However, it does have uncertainty, and therefore, if two units of the same type engage frontally with no other combat modifiers in efffect then the outcome of that matchup is determined by luck. I think some uncertainty enhances the gameplay because it means you have to try for an advantage large enough to overcome the intrinsic uncertainty of the combat system. However, if there is too much uncertainty then luck will play a larger role than skill in determing the outcome. With this game engine using 60 man units you need +2 combat point advantage to win 9 out of 10 matchups. That's a 40% advantage in combat power required when both units have 60 men. If the units are equal in combat power, but one unit has less men this same 9/10 ratio of wins is reached approximately when one unit has 25% less men (15/60 = 25%). The required advantage is less than that for combat power because the unit with more men can get doubleteam attacks on individual men. Almost all of the tactics you can try in the game will give you the necessary advantage to overcome the uncertainty 9/10, so that means these tactics can't be ignored by the other player. He has to make a move to counter the tactic being used on him.

Using units in combination both from a combined arms standpoint and from a flanking standpoint is very important in Samurai Wars. In this sense, you only have to counter what your opponent tries to do, so this determines the level of skill required to win. If your opponent uses units singlely, then you can gain a winning advantage by using two units in combination. If he uses two, you can use three, etc. You can carry this to a very complex level if both opponents are highly skilled at coordinating their units in space and time. Right now most of the battles in Samurai wars are being fought at a fairly simplistic level compared to what the game system is capable of providing or the level that I observed during the height of popularity of original STW.

We could increase an easily accessible difficulty by making the units move faster, but this would reduce the attack/defend dynamic playbalance. The objective of Samurai Wars is to emhasize playbalance and offer a gameplay as near to original STW gameplay as possible.