Firstly that post is one scenario, using it to make an argument about the general ability of rams is a fallacy. Ram levels do have an effect, for that look at
cheeses's excellent guide on rams and read the various formulas (which whenever I've used them have been correct).
Not exactly just one scenario as that post mentioned 3 different sizes and stacks. But yeah it did not take into account a wall-breaker nuke in which the ram levels might make a more visible difference. (Or might not. Would be nice if someone could clarify. With evidence.)
As for Cheese's ram guide, while I greatly appreciate his efforts and hold a lot of respect for him, I don't think those formulas could help us much in determining the usefulness of ram levels; I made an spreadsheet using his formulas and tested a few scenarios. In many cases, the calculated 'levels downgraded' value was negative which made me doubt the formulas. For example 400 rams, 100 of them remain alive, attacker wins, wall level 20. Formula says rams at level 1 will downgrade the wall by -4 levels. And by -5 levels with rams level 2.
It can be concluded that upgrading rams from level 1 to 2 is more important than upgrading them from level 2 to 3. But how exactly and to what extend ram levels matter is not exactly that clear to me. I do however agree that it will probably make a more impressing impact in wall-breaker nukes where there are significantly more rams present than in normal attacking cases.
---------------------------------
Personally I do use HC instead of swords unless my tribe is against it. Much much faster build time and travels much faster which usually results in bigger stacks from multiple villages -> on par with swords in strength -> tends to spread the losses across more D villages -> it'll be faster to recover from. Also sometimes makes it possible to support a tribemate where swords might not have been able to make it in time.
Speed 1.2, max rax and stable lvls, you can make a:
Code:
Full Sp/Sw defense 1:1 ratio in ~39 days. (~1.9 mil total defense strength. Balanced.)
Full Sp/Sw defense 1:3 ratio in ~43 days. (~2.0 mil total defense strength. Twice as much general defense as cav defense.)
Full Sp/Sw defense 3:1 ratio in ~35 days. (~1.7 mil total defense strength. Twice as much cav defense as general defense.)
Full Sp/Hc defense 24/7 busy in ~14 days. (~1.6 mil total defense strength. Balanced.)
In the time it takes to make a Sp/Sw defense once, you can make a little less than 3 full Sp/Hc defenses.
The small loss in strength can easily be neglected in my opinion because of the ability to draft more support from further D villages or tribemates to the front lines in time.
Thus my preference for tech levels are something like this unless I am obliged to go swords too because everyone in the tribe is doing so:
[spoil]
Defense:
3 Spear
1 Sword
3 HCav
3 Scout
3 Cat
2 Ram
Offense:
3 Spears
1 Swords
3 HCav
3 LCav
3 Axe
2 Ram
Feel the need for cats/scouts? -> level 1 -> make some -> level 0[/spoil]
Its worked for me in the past, so I dont see a reason to change it. Most will know, but I still keep spear and swords up in off so if Im supported I can get the max out of my support troops. (correct me if Im wrong, the only number that matters for support is the level of the tech in the village being supported)
