Army size graph

[Dragar]

What exactly does the army size graph indicate? Is it based on number of units, hitpoints, gold cost value?

When I look at those graphs and how diverse they are in the early game I can only assume that they aren't a good judge of army power, adn one has to weigh in what each nation's army is likely to be composed of to get a fair sense of relative strength? My initial guess is that nations with high resource troops are underrepresented, and therefore guess it goes on gold or hitpoitns, but that's only a guess

[ano]

It's number of units only. It doesn't show the power of those units in any way.

[Omnirizon]

rote number of units, IIRC.

its worth ignoring that graph. some nations use a few high powered units, and will look weak on the army graph.

others use chaff, and will look strong; though they aren't necessarily.

provinces, gems, dominion, forts, and research are the important graphs. army is virtually worthless IMO.

this is all assuming army is absolute numbers, but I'm pretty sure it is.

[Micah]

I'm actually pretty sure it measures size in the literal sense, so big units count more.

[Dragar]

thanks, feel much better about my abyssian army now

[Ironhawk]

Omnirizon said:
its worth ignoring that graph.

Definitely do not ignore the army strength charts. It is, in fact, the most important chart to look at.

It cant be denied that the chart only shows the raw number of units - and so can easily be skewed by large numbers of chaff or undead. But if you consider it with a critical eye, it will tell you a great deal about another nation. Of particular importance is the dip in the graph due to battles. If two nations fight and one's graph drops FAR faster than the other, then you know there was a clear winner. Additionally, if you fight with an enemy nation and inflict serious casualties on them, but thier graph does not drop significantly then you know that the damage you did has not outpaced thier production of new troops.

[Saxon]

There are uses for this data, usually in combination with other data you have. Spikes and dips indicate some activity, which is can be useful to know about. Changes in recruiting patterns, build ups and beat downs, all give you information you can use.

Comparing nation to nation may not be useful for the reasons discussed, but comparing a nation to itself can be more directly useful. If you destroy 100 enemy units in an army that is typical of your experience with that nation, then look at the graph. Did they lose a third of their army? How fast do they re-build? How can you use that?

You see a spike in unit production, then face an army of milita. What does that say about their ability to produce good units? How can you take advantage of this?

Never ignore intelligence on the enemy, even if it is not the best or easiest to use.

[Gandalf Parker]

Agreed. The graphs in the game are more useful for watching the changes. The sudden climbs and dips.

But if you turn on scores.html then you get a file which shows things in hard numbers. It only shows the one turn and not the changes from turn to turn. Like this one...
http://old.dom3minions.com/~domgames/scores.html

And of course scouts are useful, spies are more specific, some spells are great, and an attack with some throw-away unit on retreat orders is the best.

[Saxon]

Gandalf,

That is a neat feature. Can you advise how to get that file? Also, is it avalible in MP games or only if we chose it as an option?

Many thanks!

[lch]

Any game host can create those, with the --scoredump option. I've parsed the files and then generated 2D graphs from them.