Defensive Units and Their Cost
Every unit has a cost and a defensive value but which unit is worth making? Which one will actually save you from losing your castle? That is the question I will try to answer as many want to know which unit is best vs which attacker.
Lord of Ultima is a game about building and training efficiency as well as strategy and tactics used to maintain score. In order to be the most efficient player, you must play efficiently. Whoever produces the most resources, should win, and troops are basically resources that have been converted into a unit that is able to destroy enemy resources/units. I have compiled a table to help understand the cost efficiency for each troop so that you may defend and hopefully kill off more 'resources' than you lose.
Understanding the Table:
The cost for a particular unit is calculated by the (Wood + Stone + Iron) + (Gold x 1.75). The gold is multiplied by 1.75 because gold is worth 1.75 x one unit of resource.
For example: A guardian costs 140 iron and 40 gold. The total cost for the guardian is 140 + (40 x 1.75) = 210 'cost'.
Given that formula, the table shows that rangers rank best vs infantry, guardians rank best vs cavalry, and ballistas rank best vs artillary AND magic. I know, you're thinking what about Templars?! They're great vs magic, too, but ballistas perform slightly better than them, stat-wise. Include training speed into the mix and you can argue that templars are better.
Anyway, take a look at "Ballista WT". These are the stats for Ballistas in a tower and with a wall level 10. Assuming such, it costs 1 resource per 1 artillary defense point. The 0.44 is the Total Cost for each Defense point. This is important because incoming attacks are unknown and stationing units that have a good (low) cost per defense point will ensure that you are defending your castle with the best units possible. All the units in deep red are not to be used for defense as they offer very little defensive value for whatever it cost to produce. You'll want to keep defensive units defending and only offensive units on the prowl to assault and siege others.
Take a look at the Ranking section on the right. The ranks are shown with #1 being the best. If you are being attacked by:
Infantry - Defend with Rangers #1, Ballistas #2, Guardians #3
Cavalry - Defend with Guardian #1, Crossbowman #2, Sloop #3
Magic - Defend with Ballista #1, Templar #2, Ranger #3
Artillary - Defend with Ballista #1, Sloop #2, Ranger #3
I hope this table has helped you understand the defensive cost efficiency per unit. It may seem that ballistas are the best but there are other factors that should be taken into account when determining the best defensive troop as this table only rates by the defense stat. Other factors are training speed, march speed, food consumption, and the ability to use a frigate for continental defense, which I will talk about next time. Coming up soon, I will talk about the Offensive Units and Their Cost. Rate, comment, and subscribe. Thank you! :]