CQB Squad Analysis Part 2: Aarrgghh my brain is melting!

There might be some kind of Shaltari gate shenanigans going on here!

Welcome to the mind melting! 
If you haven't read part 1 it might be worth doing - here

I part 1 we looked at the effectiveness of CQB against different squads and how survivable they were (not only in CQB but in a building after a CQB). You may have noticed that I didn't rank the squads, this is because you can't just rank them on how good they are at taking a hit on 1 man/woman/thing. 


I think you need to factor in how many points a squad costs and how many attacks it takes to wipe out a whole base. What's the point in being able to stand up to tons of damage, if the squad costs far too many points to be viable, especially for the job they need to do. Or similarly, you can take a hit but there are only 3 damage points on the base. If you remember the last part, we notice that you have the same chance of hurting MFR as you do Braves, but that doesn't factor in that there are 5 MFR on a base and only 3 Braves. You actually need 30 CQB attacks to wipe a base of MFR and 18 attacks to wipe a base of Braves. This is also reflected in the cost of each unit. 
The table below factors all of these in, and gives a. This number is dimensionless and the lower the better. 
Basically, it's just a way to rank the squads based around how much they cost in comparison to how many attacks they can take in CQB and also how survivable they are to Falling Masonry (FM).   

To get a good result you need to be cheap, be able to stand up to CQB and not be hurt too badly by FM. The top 4 all have a way to combat FM (surprise surprise), in fact there are no real shocks, Braves are easily the best of the basic infantry by a long way. What surprised me was Praetorians being exactly the same as Immortals and Resistance Fighters when it comes to survivability.  

Now, we can't call this post CQB analysis if we don't talk about what each squad gives out, as this is a huge part of the cost of the squad. The amount of attacks each squad has is the difference between a good squad and a great squad. 

Again we need to factor the cost and also how many attacks to remove a base. I have included Bezerkers 3 times as they have D3+1 for their CQB. As you can see it makes a fair amount of difference.  

I don't think there are any surprises here either. Firstborns, Sirens and MFR topping the chart, even though they cost the most per base, the shear amount of hurt they cause is worth it, if you compare to many of the basic infantry the exotics are around twice the price, but have more than double the attacks and are normally more survivable. 

Bezerkers when they roll 3 for their D3 also make the top 5; realistically this will only happen 1/3 of the time though, so I think taking the Bezerker 2 as the average is the best bet.

At the other end of the scale there is one squad that you will never want to get caught in CQB and that is freeriders not many on a base, barely any attacks - I would suggest keeping them out of buildings unless you are extremely desperate!

The final chart is an amalgamation of the 2, this shows us the combination of survivability and CQB efficiency to give a reasonable order in which to rank all the games infantry squads. 

I think the main thing to see in this table is that there are 2 Shaltari squads in the top 4; easily having the best infantry in the game. Immortals and Sirens are both high up the table too making the PHR quite potent when it comes to CQB. The rest of us, well we have to deal with mastering activation to get the most out of CQB. 

Fight when it is right for you, make sure you don't get caught out and always have a plan B  

Hope you enjoyed this 2 parter, any comments or questions pop them below

My next post will be a lot easier to digest and be hobby related

Edit: 20/11/2014 

In response to some comments here is a table which includes multiple squad sizes and transport costs. 

I have slightly altered the way it is calculated, using total cost of squad and transport as a total cost. This then gives you points per attack and points per attack to kill you - I then added it together. 

Again it is still the lower the better. I actually think this is a better way to rank the CQB effectiveness of each squad. 

So thanks for the comments.  

As this is CQB analysis - it doesn't take into account any shooting abilities, of which some units are far better than others.