See the power of the science!

[wataru14]

When you select the Strategists unit in the war battles, Mathiu displays a list of three units at the bottom of the screen when he says "Here's the plan and make sure you obey it." Is there any advantage to following his plan if you have a stronger Charge unit to use instead? He likes to use Commander's Team/Lepant Family/Humphrey's team, but doesn't include other strong units like Knights Party or Bandits. Do you suffer fewer casualties following Mathiu's plan or does it not matter?

[Sasarai10]

I don't think so...this the way the game it was fixed. The Knights party will still be the strongest Unit wether you use Strategist's ability or not.

The only possible explanation i can give about these 3 units is that these 3 commanders come first in SoD order,so that's why they used them. Tir comes 1st,Lepant comes 2nd and Humphrey comes 5th in the Stone Tamplet

[wataru14]

I don't think that's the case, Sasarai. I've used a few of those charge units before using strategists and it puts Former Imperial Team next (which supports your theory), but then it will skip Viktor's Team, Flik's Team, Wild Geese, Bandits, and Fishermen to put Knights' Party up there. Viktor, Flik, Kreutz, Varkas and Tai Ho all come before Max on the star chart.

I am replaying the game now and just finished the battle of Garan. When I get to Scarleticia and later battles I will test things out.

[Sasarai10]

No no,i mean Mathiu's choice (Tir,Lepant,Humphrey) comes with the SoD order..that's my guess anyway.

[wataru14]

Doing a little research at the Battle of Scarleticia, I did find something. The pattern goes: Tir, Humphrey, Lepant, Valeria, Viktor, Flik, Tai Ho. I couldn't go any father than that because I lost the battle if I charged one more time. In terms of the tablet, Lepant comes before Humphrey and Viktor comes before Valeria, so I don't think that has anything to do with it. It looks like the game just assigns a rank to people based on what their position in the Liberation Army's military structure would be (Humphrey is a former high-ranking officer, Lepant is a leader type, Valeria is a former military officer, etc.) I will have to see if this order is preserved once I have more people in my army. My only possible headscratcher on this is that Tai Ho ranks above Kwanda.

In any rate, using Strategists has no bearing on damage taken, only damage dealt. In a Charge vs. Charge on turn 1, Commander's Team had the same number of soldier casualties with and without the boost from Strategists. The Lepant Family unit also had the same solider casualties boosted and not boosted. And I didn't follow Mathiu's plan and used them out of order.

So my conclusion is that following Mathiu's "plan" means nothing. Continue to use your strongest Charge units, regardless of who Mathiu tells you to use. It may be that it has an effect on subsequent charges used during a boost that lasts multiple rounds, but I doubt that. I will test that out later.

[BrucePrintscreen]

You got it all wrong guys... When Mathiu says "here's the plan and make sure you follow it", the three faces below are NOT his plan... It's just an illustration, to show that Mathiu is talking to Tir, Humphrey, and Lepant. It's like they're sitting together around a table or something. It has nothing to do with the gameplay.

[Sasarai10]

You got it all wrong guys... When Mathiu says "here's the plan and make sure you follow it", the three faces below are NOT his plan... It's just an illustration, to show that Mathiu is talking to Tir, Humphrey, and Lepant. It's like they're sitting together around a table or something. It has nothing to do with the gameplay.

At least was i right about what i said that they appear according to SoD order?

In any rate, using Strategists has no bearing on damage taken, only damage dealt. In a Charge vs. Charge on turn 1, Commander's Team had the same number of soldier casualties with and without the boost from Strategists. The Lepant Family unit also had the same solider casualties boosted and not boosted. And I didn't follow Mathiu's plan and used them out of order.

Are you sure about this? I've got the impression that as stronger as your Unit is,you'll suffer more casualties. For example i remember clearly that when i use a strong Unit like Knights party i'll suffer much more casualties if use Tricksters for example.

[BrucePrintscreen]

You got it all wrong guys... When Mathiu says "here's the plan and make sure you follow it", the three faces below are NOT his plan... It's just an illustration, to show that Mathiu is talking to Tir, Humphrey, and Lepant. It's like they're sitting together around a table or something. It has nothing to do with the gameplay.

At least was i right about what i said that they appear according to SoD order?

I don't know about this... The only thing I know is that the three faces appearing below Mathiu have NOTHING to do with the gameplay and are NOT his plan. They are, story-wise, the three guys that are here from the first battle and are shown as leaders on the battlefield, so they are the three guys to whom Mathiu exposes his plan.

Using Mathiu and then playing Tir, Humphrey, and Lepant's team makes zero sense in terms of gameplay and is a complete misunderstanding: they are displayed below Mathiu solely as a poor attempt to illustrate the fact that Mathiu shows his plan to these three guys.

[wataru14]

My units took the same amount of damage boosted by Strategists and unboosted. They dealt higher damage, but the damage they took was the same. I had two Strategists in the unit (Mathiu and Apple) and it was a Charge attack vs. a Charge attack at the battle of Scarleticia. I have to test it against bow and Magic attacks to see if the damage taken is increased, but it is definitely not increased against enemy Charge attacks.

Using Mathiu and then playing Tir, Humphrey, and Lepant's team makes zero sense in terms of gameplay and is a complete misunderstanding: they are displayed below Mathiu solely as a poor attempt to illustrate the fact that Mathiu shows his plan to these three guys.

That's the conclusion I came to as well. Using them in that order adds nothing. I am curious about the order the game chooses to list them, and the order the game chooses to list their replacements if you use one of them before using Mathiu. How does it decide?

[Celes]

My units took the same amount of damage boosted by Strategists and unboosted. They dealt higher damage, but the damage they took was the same.

There is nothing like a defense value to check against. Both liberation army and enemy units have an attack type (Bow, Magic, Charge) and an attack value. Thats it. In some cases, they have special effects, like the Poisonous Pollen though. Details: http://www.suikosource.com/games/gs1/guides/war.php

Damage, more precisely the amount of soldiers lost, is based on the attack type and the number of soldiers left alone.

Strategist doubles the attack value for all charged units for the following turns. # strategists = # turns. Nothing else.

[wataru14]

So I guess that means the faces displayed on the bottom of the screen are just cosmetic after all. Thanks Celes.