Strategic Unit Analysis:SI
Strategic Units: Analysis and Comparison
Contents
An In-Depth look at Plarium’s Strategic Units for the Soldiers Inc game
Best Bang for the Buck
When you hear the term, “Best bang for the buck” you should be thinking about the best Return on Investment. (ROI) ROI is something you often hear about in business and investors that want to put money into a project or company and get the greatest amount of money or product at the finish.
For players who like to buy diamonds, Plarium’s Soldiers Inc can be a confusing and convoluted candy store of goodies when it comes to investing your real-world currency in premium-virtual content. Should a defensive player buy nothing but Firedrakes? Should an offensive player buy nothing but Za’am tanks? Should they forego buying raw units and simply buy Strategic Units (SU)? Perhaps this article may shed some light into the realm of premium content and the best ROI.
But for the players who don’t wish to pay for premium content, is there a way to simulate the advantage in regular, free-to-build units from the barracks or air field? How many Recon Operators will it take to duplicate 1 Ghost?
I’ll be comparing the capabilities of each of the Strategic Units, followed by the analysis for ROI of all Strategic Units to the black market direct buy regular units.
IE: Cardinal vs. Mortar Infantry, Samson vs. Za’am, etc.
Methods
Throughout the Article the following methods are used:
- SU and their qualifying units ‘bonus’ are applied to the SU only, not individual units
- Attack Points (AP) are the sum of all units’ individual attack points on offense
- Defensive Points (DP) are the sum of all units’ individual defensive points from all categories and then divided by 4 (DP/4 method)
- Having the maximum and correct units under the SU is assumed in all scenarios
- All units are considered L1 Contract (No Bonus) unless specified (Best Scenario, L2 Bonus)
Let's have a look at how they play out on the battlefield...
Strategic Units
‘Terminator’
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Designation: Light Infantry Role: Defense Max Capacity: 100 Units Priority Unit: Light Sniper Secondary: Sapper Unit Cost: 225 Diamonds |
SCENARIOS
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Ghost Corps
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Designation: Light Infantry Role: Offense Max Capacity: 50 Units Priority Unit: Recon Operator Secondary: Rifleman Unit Cost: 230 Diamonds |
SCENARIOS
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HSIG ‘Cardinal’
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Designation: Heavy Infantry Role: Defense Max Capacity: 25 Units Priority Unit: Mortar Infantry Secondary: Heavy Sniper Unit Cost: 255 Diamonds |
SCENARIOS
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A13 ‘Reilly’ IFV
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Designation: Heavy Infantry Role: Offense Max Capacity: 25 Units Priority Unit: Heavy Infantry Support Secondary: Assault Infantry Unit Cost: 518 Diamonds |
SCENARIOS
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TASV ‘Typhoon’
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SCENARIOS Designation: Armor Role: Defense Max Capacity: 20 Units Priority Unit: Mauler AFV Secondary: M22043 Creighton Unit Cost: 535 Diamonds |
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v195 ‘Samson’ MBT
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Designation: Armor Role: Offense Max Capacity: 20 Units Priority Unit: Za’am Mk VI Secondary: M167A2 Vindicator Unit Cost: 1070 Diamonds |
SCENARIOS
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RSL-150 ‘Harpy’
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Designation: Combat Aviation Role: Defense Max Capacity: 20 Units Priority Unit: Mz-29 Firedrake Secondary: None Unit Cost: 758 Diamonds |
SCENARIOS
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F-32 ‘Excalibur’
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Designation: Combat Aviation Role: Offense Max Capacity: 20 Units Priority Unit: AH-72 Thunderhead Secondary: AH-24 Mowhawk Unit Cost: 1950 Diamonds |
''''SCENARIOS
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QR-14 ‘Big Brother’
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Unit Type: Combat Aviation Designation: Recon Max Capacity: 20 Units Priority Unit: MQ-11B Secondary: None Unit Cost: 250 Diamonds |
SCENARIOS
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<center>315 |
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Matching with Regular Units
What about non-paying players? How can they compete with or duplicate them?
Good Question. Let’s take a close look at the cost of the Strategic Unit at its best Regular Unit bonus (Priority Unit max at Level 1 contract, no base unit bonus) and how much it costs in diamonds. We’ll compare this directly to the equivalent in free regular units to reach the same bonus power of the 1 strategic unit in this scenario, and the value of that quantity of regular base units (Level 1 contract, no base bonus) and how much power per diamond it breaks down to: (to keep a fair comparison in case you simply bought the units outright)
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Battlefield Analysis
Now that you've seen just what some of these Strategic Units can do, let's analyze them.
Defensive Standpoint
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- Interesting enough, the most efficient ‘Bang for your buck’ is the Cardinal. The Cardinal on defense boosts your heavy infantry, and in a best case scenario of 25 Mortar Infantry, even at L1 Contract (no bonus) and non-vet status, you’re looking at the Cardinal being worth 5880 Defensive Points, and with the 25 troops a total of 7005 each complete set.
- The Typhoon is your second best choice for defensive bonuses. Even without veteran units, a bonus of 7545 DP can save you 18 additional Maulers and saves time and resources.
- When you consider the Harpy, it will run you the equivalent of having an additional 13 Firedrakes instead; saving you 112,500 total resources and 18.5 hours build time, while providing a solid bonus of 8704 DP.
- The Terminator is a bit less dramatic, netting 1894 DP with 100 Light Snipers. If you can get the Syndicate Cash, having 100 Veteran Light Snipers with 1 Terminator will provide you with an impressive 4110 DP total.
- The Big Brother rating is for Anti-Recon Points, and while it does provide a nice bonus, it would be easier to simply manufacture your own 13 UAV and use the diamonds to purchase a Cardinal with more effect.
Offensive Standpoint
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- As expected, the Excalibur is the best offensive augment out of the bunch. Each Excalibur with 20 Thunderheads, even if they are not veteran units, take the place of 16 additional AH-72 Thunderheads. This group combo dishes a massive 59600 AP alone.
- The Reilly and Samson are both decent augments, however relatively nominal gains. Each ‘group’ of the Samson or Reilly and their qualifying units give you just over 7 AP per diamond spent, the Samson giving the clear edge when deployed with Veteran Units.
- The Ghost Corps is a bit trickier. Just like the QR-14 UAV, the ROI is not as great as the others. Considering the amount of loss that the light infantry often suffers in the battle, you may want to consider manufacturing 49 Recon Operators instead and save the diamonds for a Reilly, Samson or Excalibur.
Bottom Line
You may be expecting much more from the Strategic Units. These units are not simply the solo Game Breakers they appear to be. They must be used correctly and with the right ratios before they become effective. Note that in all scenarios above, all units shown are based on a Level 1 entry contract. Yes they are nice to have, if you acquire them, but non-paying players can also simulate the augment by simply producing the troops shown in the “regular units to match” column of the analysis charts above.
