The True Value of Boosting Attack and Defense

[wriggz]

Or Auras, Spirits and Glyphs... Oh my.

It is an old question, do you boost weakness or augment strenght. While every unit could use a boost to attack and defense (see gaining height) choosing your army before hand or positing your cheerleader in game is not always a simple task. There are many ways to boost a figures attack and defense: Viking spirits, height, glyphs, terrian enhancements, etc. For our study we will focus on the two most infamous auras: Raelin and Taelord.

Defending with Raelin (Defense Boost):

Defending Against an Attack of 3
Defens:     0       1       2       3       4       5       6       7       8       9 
Damage: 1.500   1.208   0.958   0.750   0.580   0.444   0.337   0.254   0.190   0.141 
Wounds: 0.875   0.750   0.625   0.509   0.407   0.321   0.250   0.192   0.146   0.111 

Alright so how good is Raelin? Boosting a stinger from def 3 to def 5 gives us 18.8% greater chance of survival. At the other extreme Q9 gets a 8.1% boost when defending with 7 dice from 3 atk. At the base number level one would expect protecting stingers an extra 10% would be more effeienct. However consider what the boost means. The stinger survives 67.9% of the time while a boosted Q9 is up to 88.9%. In a game where each loss has the potenital to reduce your overall attack potential ensuring a key unit survives longer is often the best stratgy.

When boosting Defence it is all about the strategy you are running. Boosting the Defense of 9 stingers to every one Q9 clearly deminstrates this distinction. Mathmaticlly boosting the stingers is better since the bonus is greater and their lower survival rate is weathered by greater numbers. On the other hand if you need a figure to hold a location or attack at a required time the increased survival of Q9 is a greater benifit.

In an average 7 round match it is possible to attack 21 times with single attack heroes, 63 times with a squad of 3 and 84 times with a squad of 4, assuming no losses and you are able to attack every turn.

Number of attacks:     21      63      84 
# of stingers killed:  10.67   32.07   42.75
Stingers w/ +2 def:     6.74   20.22   26.96
# of Wounds on Q9:      4.32   12.10   16.13
Major Q9 w/ +2 def:     2.96    7.00    9.32

This graph shows that boosting the stingers really helps them survive in the long haul, whereas boosting Q9 only adds a moderate increase to his overall survivablity. The bottom line is that the boosting of defense on high defense figures can keep them alive for a limited time, however they will eventually fall regardless. It is more mathmatically sound to boost lots of low defense figures as they gain far more benifit over a greater duration of time.

Attacking with Taelord (Attack Boost).

Attacking a Defense of 3 
attack:   1       2       3       4       5       6       7       8       9 
Damage:   0.148   0.407   0.750   1.150   1.589   2.052   2.530   3.017   3.510 
Wounds:   0.148   0.333   0.509   0.655   0.766   0.846   0.901   0.938   0.961 

Alright Taelord costs too much, but perhaps if we look closer it will be revealed just how valuable adding a single attack dice can be. Taelord boosting stingers grants a 14.6% boost when attacking a def 3 figure. At the other extreme Su-Bak-Na get a 3.7% boost. However if you really need to kill something the 93.8% chance of the Hivelord is much better than the 65.5% of the boosted stingers. You are also looking at putting 3.017 wounds on the poor victum of Su-Bak-Na's wrath compared to the 0.750 wounds of the stingers.

Again it seems overal strategy is key here. When assassinating a figure (like the dreaded Raelin) you want to better your odds on a high attack figure especailly when taking out a hero where you can elimnate multiple life. There is a point of diminishing returns as increase Su-Bak-Na's attack is a mere 3.7% and only decrease from there, although the oddes of landing a extra wound increase by 0.51 wounds per attack going up by a whole wound with 2 extra attack.

Our squad of stingers fairs better with the additional attack dice. An increase of 14.6% per stinger and an increase of 0.4 wounds is considerable. It may take a few extra turns to captialize on the increase but after attacking multiple times the gains will become realized. There are also the "Deathwalker" rolls where a single attack will sneak through and inflict multiple wounds. Although the same could be said with the augmented high attacker, it is more effeienct when the attacker is rolling fewer dice, and more likely to happen the more attacks are made.

Consider the Powers.
This is the well duh, part of the write-up but is worth noting nevertheless. The big winners are Deadly strike and Sheilds of Jandar since each dice counts as doulbe. Also worth noting is counterstrike, Double attack, One sheild Defense and Stealth dodge. Each extra dice benifits these units greatly since they augment base stats and special ablities.

Before boosting a figure with a specail ablity consider if it is worth boosting. Sure DW7000 has stealth dogde, but adding and extra defense die may not be the wisest corse of action prior to a sucide run. Zetacron's Deadly strike may give a double boost, but the Marro Warriors gain greater statistical advantge as well as overall effentcy when attacking 3-4 defence figures. Again avoiding overkill is key to maintaining effenctcy. Don't forget specail attacks are never modified.

Bottom Line:
Comparing high defense/attack heroes to an average squad may seem unbalaced since squads have the ablity to attack multiple times per turn and can only take one wound at time. While this is true clearly the benifit of adding dice dimishes over time so from an effecticy perspective boosting weakness is mathmaticlly sound. The fact that squads have additional benifits only further solidifs the arguement that they benifit more from boosting.

One may ask if beefing up low stat heroes like Syvarris's Defense or Sharwin's Attack would be worth while compaired to thier stronger cousins. Since the boost is higher and in the metagame most attacks/defense will fall in the magic 3 dice range, you would definitally be getting more bang for your buck. With smart play these heroes can be around for enought turns to fully utilize the power they gain from rolling addtional dice. By avoiding overkill in adding dice to high stat figures, it is possible to enhance effeitcy of lower priced heroes and defeat stonger opponets.

There are a few guidelines that can help when deciding how and when to boost your units. Remember, Cannon foder should remain Cannon foder since these units are drafted to die. When drafting unless you have a specific purpose in mind like assassinating a key figure or holding a glyph high stat heroes don't need the help. Importantly, mid range hero with low-mid stats benifit the most from boosting, combining staying power and avoiding deminishing returns. Also the more figures that gain the boost the better effectcy, explaining why squads armies almost always include Raelin and why Taelord is almost only useful with Ranged squads (in a tower, heh heh).

[airdroppers]

In other words, Stingers rule.

63 times with a squad of 3 and 84 times with a squad of 4

With these statistics I think it's safe to say 10th Foote would be better backed by Raelin then Stingers. Keeping the 10th alive makes your attacks more consistent.

Or you can go 4th mass with Raelin. Raelin dies, you only drop one defense die. Keeping it more consistent.

[Sarpedon]

Good post, Wriggz. Nicely done.

I would hasten to add, however, that some heroes (especially Major Q9), add benefits that common squads (such as the Stingers) can never hope to match. For example, if you were up against 4 squads of the Warriors of Arseface, I wouldn't like the Stingers' chances. Major Q9's special attacks, however, would chop them up (especially if he were supported by Raelin).

Also, heroes get defensive and offensive bonuses/immunities as well as being more order-marker efficient if they bond. Nevertheless, you're right, very few heroes can stack up against most common squads. The ones that do, however, are trully stellar.

[wriggz]

I was surprised to see just how much the auras boost a swarm. Even a viking spirit on a unique squad can be very useful.

This explains why glyphs are so game changing (not to mention the +1 atk, +1def "glyph" of hight. By the logic presented here, having Q9 on height is not a critical as the stingers or 10th.

At the end of the day it really comes down to effeiency.

[Bahde]

The other issue to consider is how many turns you will miss out on the aura because of a shorter ranged figure needing to move in order to attack and thus be too far from the aura figure. Raelin helps long range figure more consistently than she helps short range.

Likewise, in set ups where you measure out the number of attacks in comparison for squads & heroes....the number of attacks lost in the turns where Rae or Tae were moved in order take advantage of them....can cost a significant number of attack opportunities.

[Kaiser Cat]

All statistics aside, I prefer to give defense bonuses to units with low defense.

The 10th regiment, for instance. Or Isamu. There is nothing more satisfying than being able to say, "Well, I failed to vanish. But that's okay because I blocked your attack anyway."

[wriggz]

Originally Posted by Kaiser Cat

All statistics aside, I prefer to give defense bonuses to units with low defense.

The 10th regiment, for instance. Or Isamu. There is nothing more satisfying than being able to say, "Well, I failed to vanish. But that's okay because I blocked your attack anyway."

Actually The thrust of the OP is that figures with lower stats benifit more from boost than ones with higher stats. Boosting your 10th is a really good idea, infact it is better to boost 2 squads of 10th (150 points, 8figs) than one Q10 (150 points 4 life)

[Simpsons Scaper]

Wow!! That's a great article!