Cobra or Warhawks or Hellfires? Hellstorm, Laser Tanks...

Replied to a question in this thread about the Cobras. Sharing here.

Question:
Hi, I need some counsel.  I've got level 12 cobras and level 7 EHFs.   EHF is great, but i grow a beard by the time they are in place + they can be vulnerable even w cobras present.   My question is this:  I've got 25K points on the current event.   I'm thinking of Hellstorm, or i can buy a few other things -- Warkawk (but that seems somewhat redundant with cobras) or elete laser tank to compliment my ground (EHF +  level 8 hercs + lvl8 paladins).  FYI -- Im level 28 but really still a nube.  Any advice from the experts?

My answer:
Despite all the wuss from many here and around who just look at bare stats without weighting them to others, HS can often be useless alone cause their missiles get destroyed before they ever hit anything. Add them to HF yes maybe sometimes but very rare. HF are very slow, very weak health, and take ages to use and upgrade and repair. takes 30 minutes to fully use them on a base!! I have lvl 10-11 of all and switched back to all Cobra+Havoc or Cobra+2HS and EMT. I really only found the HS+EHF very useful in a wave 34 of last event against the yellow clowns. it was the only way to pass the wave and the only time they all were truly necessary. razorbacks were much more fun cause they stayed out of range at some level (15-25). around 29 and up, all is red (Lvl5) and your HF are always in range of something so you need a tank to protect and then their use still is slow but sometimes fun if you like to use the splash effect. just way too long. I prefer to waste a toon of EMT and move on with my life.

Laser Tanks are good for base defense against Elite Mega Tanks because of their higher range (400/390) except for their gun trail that makes them easy to spot.

Warhawks/Elite are indeed redundant with Cobra with same range (360) but have much weaker, almost half, Health/Space (17 vs. 36 @Lvl13) but their speed of 2.2 vs 1.6 can be very helping. I don't know, I chose to never take them because of these facts and cause I needed other stuff before.

My Maths on War Commander Units Stats

How do I determine the value of a War Commander Unit? Only by statistics? No, more than metrics, it is personal experience that determines the qualities of a unit. And everyone has his personal way of playing and then his opinion, depending on many personal factors and preferences. So I will only focus here on unquestionable maths and not on discussions or preferences. Then each can makes his choice with those given data.

In order to determine the maths qualities of a unit, I watch all statistics data given for Non-Customized Units where DPS is Damage Per Second, not per shot. I keep the

Range

and I derive 4 personal metrics from the ones given by Kixeye :

Health/Space,

DPS/Space and

Total Upgrade Time (TUT)

TUT adds all times needed to reach a unit level except the ones needed to build all buildings and/or other units needed to build that unit up to this level. So, as an indication of the prerequisite, I include the

Building Level (BLDG LVL)

Health/Space and DPS/Space are derived because Health and DPS have barely no meaning alone in my opinion if they are not compared to the amount of Space a unit occupies in a platoon or to defend the base. Maths proves it. The sudden appearance of Elite Riflemen proved it harshly. Their DPS/Space is quite higher than many other units with much higher absolute DPS or Health and that's how these little Riflemen could and can wipe out full fleet of helicopters Cobra level 10 or platoons of other apparently stronger vehicles.

I derived a 4^th personal metric that is less relevant but that combines Range with all other metrics in a single big equation and result : Health x Range x DPS/Space /1000 =

HRDPS

HRDPS becomes a usefull indicator revealing overall values and advantages of a unit when you are torn between similar ratios but antagonistic in Health vs. DPS.

Finally, so far, I chose to not include Repair Time here. First because it's still way too complicated to compute and then because its importance is ultimately your choice depending on how intensive you play. I personally find it essential if you play continuously but much less if you can just play an hour or two every 6 or 8 or 24 or more or if you coin. That leaves time to repair and come back.

Thorium or no Thorium?

That is the question. The highest possible stats with and without thorium are highlighted in yellow and they are the ones to watch and aim for.

So here is one sample of the dirty secret in War Commander Units stats I will share with you :

Level 12 Custom Hercules vs. Various Air + Spectre

Attacking a Giant Thorium Deposit