Comparitive Military Strength: Infantry

Credit to NPC200 for the idea.

Each chart below lists the different infantry types for all races. The Chart has the following selections.

Durability : a measure of how much punishment the unit can take once both armor and shields are depleted. The higher the number, the more incidental damage a unit can take. Keep in mind that in the Premiseverse there are no hitpoints, just grazes, failed armor saves and hospital time, or the chunky salsa rule.

Armor: a measure of how good the unit’s armor is. A higher number not only stops more damage but protects against more types of damage. Some armor is more or less effective against different kinds of weapons — for example, asari armor (which they buy from salarians) tends towards good resistance to plasma and impact rounds, but not so good tolerance to flame, while turian armor is vulnerable to ion blasts.

Shields: a rough measure of the sophistication and power of the shields used by the unit. Higher means it can take more of a beating before dropping and tends to gate more damage when it does drop. Biotic units will not have a rating as they rely on their barrier.

Firepower:  a measure of how much damage the unit’s weapons can do to an average enemy.

Range: a measure of how far the EFFECTIVE range of the unit’s weapons are. An assault rifle might shoot as far as 2000m, but can only be aimed and expected to do damage within 500m.

Accuracy: a measure of how accurate the unit is and it’s ability to move enemies out of cover. Units with low accuracy must close range to effectively hit.

Info-War: How powerful the unit’s omni-tool and related attacks are (grenades, flashpaks, tech mines) and it’s hacking/decryption defenses.

Medical: How good the unit is at healing itself or providing healing to other units.

Cyber: a measure that roughly show how cybernetically enhanced members of the unit tend to be. Higher ratings typically translate into higher durability, armor, and info-war scores.

Power: a rating of how powerful the biotic is, offensively and in utility.  Blank for non-biotics.

Defense: similar to shield strength, how strong the biotic defenses are.

Anti-Biotic: how good the unit’s anti-biotic equipment and training is. Higher scores help nullify enemy biotics.

Morale: How likely units are to resist being forced into shock and retreat or rout. Please note that morale is only their willingness to stay in the fight, not their ability to actually engage or do damage.

Cohesion:  how well a unit can absorb losses and casualties without losing effective fighting power.

Training: How well drilled and trained the unit is.

Generally speaking, Each race will have a certain focus that is easily picked up on, in one of the five broad catagories of defense, offense, technicals, biotics, or intangibles. The one they favor will be highlighted in green, their weakness in red.

Ratings are from 1 to 10 — one being very bad, 10 being highly elite. The mark of  ” — ” indicates the unit has no capacities whatsoever in that condition, while a ” ++ ” indicates a 10-plus ranking that can only be countered by another unit with a ++ rank.

Some sample people are included as a comparison to the average soldiers.

You’ll have to click on each chart to read it clearly.

HUMANS

Human Military Lineup - Ground

ASARI

Asari Military Lineup - Ground

SALARIAN

Salarian Military Lineup - Ground

TURIAN

Turian Ground

BATARIAN

Batarian Ground

ELCOR

Elcor Ground

QUARIAN

Quarian Ground

OTHER

everybody else

3 thoughts on “Comparitive Military Strength: Infantry”

  1. Don’t know if you did this on purpose or not, but the all volus units have more range than almost everything else, even the salarian sniper units.

    Also, shouldn’t the Nightwind have a cyber value? I thought I remembered you describing the blueware as cyberware specifically geared towards biotics, and the Nightwind were stuffed full of blueware and brainwashed.

    Cool comparison sheet though.

    1. Volus units tend to incorporate missiles into their attacks, particularly long-range drone bombardment platforms that do not expose them to direct attack, and extremely long range, laser-assisted mass accelerators.

      The Nightwind are indeed somewhat cybernetic, but the purpose of said cyber doesn’t really enhance their combat abilities so much as provide regulation, spying capacity and other features, so it isn’t included.

  2. Nice comparison between units and races, but I have three questions:
    1. Should ME2 Shepard not have a kinetic shield and biotic barrier stat? I believe to remember that her armor is specifically designed to incoporate both, though
    they can’t be employed at the same time.
    2. I have a hard time picturing how the Training stat directly translates into battle efficiency. The other intangibles (Morale, Cohesion) are easy enough to understand given your concise explanation, but Training seems more like a Meta-stat that affects almost every other stat, albeit pre-battle. So, to ask the question a different way: Given two units with the exact same stats except Training (let’s say one has 5 and the other 9), how would a battle between them pan out?
    3. Are there any stats that reflect a units ability to evade? I refer specifically to a units capability to move properly, dodge and use cover efficiently.

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