Red Rampage 16

Red Rampage 16 will come out on May 1, 2012.  The new units are:

Tier	Unit	Strength	Code
5	Elite Gyrfalcon 02 VTOL	320	UB28
5	Elite Scorpion Artillery	360	UM54
6	Elite Moray Submarine	530	UT26
6	Elite Fox Tank	660	UM53
7	Elite Locust Bomber	780	UB29

Red Rampage 15

Red Rampage 15 will be released tomorrow, April 24, 2012.  The new units are:

• Elite Snakehead Submarine (Tier 5, 240 Strength) UT23
• Elite Shirike Fighter (Tier 5, 360 Strength) UB25
• Elite Leatherback Carrier (Tier 6, 530 Strength) UT22
• Elite Gyrfalcon 01 VTOL (Tier 6 Bomber, 600 Strength) UB24
• Elite Wombat Tank (Tier 7, 810 Strength) UM50

Red Rampage 14

Red Rampage 14 will be released on April 17, 2012.  The five new units are:

• Elite Viperfish Submarine (280), UT18
• Elite Armadillo Artillery (400), UM44
• Elite Terrier Infantry (480), UM45
• Elite Flying Fox Fighter (530), UB20
• Elite Hammerhead Battleship (820), UT17

Red Rampage 13

Red Rampage 13 will be released on April 10, 2012.

Tier	Unit	Strength	Code
5	Elite Goshawk Fighter	290	UB17
6	Elite Bull Tank	450	UM40
6	Elite Pterosaur Bomber	580	UB18
6	Elite Twin Orca Battleship	670	UT13
7	Elite Stonefish Carrier	730	UT12

Red Rampage 12

Red Rampage 12 will be released on April 3, 2012.  The new units released are listed here:

Tier	Unit	Strength	Code
6	Elite Sea Dragon Submarine	380	UT11
6	Elite Flying Squirrel VTOL	510	UB16
6	Elite Toad Artillery	530	UM37
7	Elite Sky Whale Bomber	700	UB15
7	Elite Flea Infantry	740	UM38

The Elite Flying Squirrel VTOL is a Fighter.

The Elite Flea Infantry will be the new strongest Infantry, beating out the Elite Mantis Infantry by 15 Strength.

Red Rampage 11

Red Rampage 11 will be released on March 27, 2012.

The 5 new units are:

• Elite Gator Patrol Boat (Tier 6 Gunboat, 545 Strength) UT06
• Elite Sand Shark Hovercraft (Tier 7 Gunboat, 860 Strength) UT07
• Elite Ghost Bat Fighter (Tier 6, 490 Strength) UB08
• Elite Buzzard Autogyro (Tier 7 Fighter*, 760 Strength) UB10
• Elite Phoenix Bomber (Tier 7, 820 Strength) UB09

Like for the Elite Sea Hive Carrier from Red Rampage 11, two of these new units are Tier 6 instead of the expected Tier 7.  The other 3 units have only 10-20 Strength more than their regular counterparts.  I think Zynga did this in order to have offerings for both high- and mid-level players.  The mid-level offerings also have lower price points.  This splitting might avoid saturation at the higher end.

*I think Zynga recently fixed the Sand Shark Hovercraft by changing it from a Battleship to a Gunboat. But it looks like they mistakenly classified the Elite Buzzard Autogyro as a Fighter instead of an Airship. They'll probably fix this sometime in the future.

I've updated the page "Codes: Tier 7 and Tier 8 Units" with these new units.

Red Rampage 10 - Weak Units

Since when does Elite = Weak?

Why are some of the new Elite units weaker than their regular counterparts?

Red Rampage 10 was just released on March 19-20, 2012 (depends on your time zone).  It introduced 5 new units:

• Elite Mantis Infantry (720 Strength)
• Elite Tarantula Artillery (760)
• Elite Badger Tank (720)
• Elite Sea Hive Carrier (645)
• Elite Yamato III (780)

These are the corresponding regular units:

• Mantis Infantry (700 Strength) (unlocked at Domination Rank 44)
• Tarantula Artillery (750) (DR 59)
• Badger Tank (800) (DR 74)
• Sea Hive Carrier (750) (DR 64)
• Yamato III (800) (DR 79)

The Elite Mantis Infantry has 20 more Strength than its regular counterpart, and the Elite Tarantula Artillery has 10 more Strength than its regular counterpart.  These are meager improvements, but improvements nonetheless.

On the other hand, the other 3 Elite units actually have lower strength than their regular counterparts.  Even more perplexing, the Elite Sea Hive Carrier is 1 Tier lower than the regular Sea Hive Carrier.

What's going on!?

There are several factors at play here:

1. You can purchase these Elite units, while the regular ones need to be unlocked by gaining sufficiently high Dominance Rank in World Domination.  (Let's ignore hacking.)  The Elite units that are stronger than their regular versions are the two with the lowest Domination Rank requirements.  If you could purchase the Elite versions and they were stronger than the ones unlocked by World Domination, then World Domination would lose much of its appeal.
2. There's not much wiggle room between the Strengths of the existing Tier 7 units and the Tier 8 units (the Chimera and its ilk).
3. These Elite units are buildable, while Tier 8 units are not.  (Ignoring hacking again.)
4. Tier 8 units are much more expensive than Tier 7 units.  (Ignoring hacking again.)

Tier 7 vs. Tier 8 Units

Let's take a closer look at the second factor.  Consider the Elite Badger Tank.  The regular Badger Tank has a base Strength of 800, while the Cerberus has a base Strength of 850.  When fully upgraded, these two units have Strengths of 960 and 1020, respectively.  There's not much wiggle room in between these two tanks.  If the Elite Badger Tank came with a base Strength between 800-800, then when fully upgraded, it would rival the Cerberus in Strength.  Even then, the Elite Badger Tank would be one tier lower, but most players notice Strength, not Tier.  Players who had bought the Cerberus would not be too happy about their purchases if the Elite Badger Tank came out too strong.

Similarly, the Yamato III has a base strength of 800, while the Poseidon USV has a base Strength of 850. So the same lack of wiggle room between 800 and 850 exists here.

What about the Elite Sea Hive Carrier?  No Tier 8 Carrier has been released yet, but we can expect one soon.  The regular Sea Hive Carrier has only 750 Strength.  We can expect the Tier 8 Carrier to have base Strength of 800 (more likely) or 850.   The same restrictive Strength range exists here.  It wouldn't be good for the sales of this future Tier 8 Carrier if the Elite Sea Hive Carrier already existed with nearly the same Strength.  Perhaps this explains why the Elite Sea Hive Carrier is the weakest of the Red Rampage 10 bunch in terms of Strength and the is only one that's a lower Tier than its regular counterpart.

Why does the Elite Sea Hive Carrier have to be so weak when:

• It matches the existing Elite Sea Horse Carrier (which just came out) in Tier and Strength;
• It Is outmatched by the existing Elite Leviathan Carrier, which is Tier 7, has base Strength of 675, and has a level requirement of only 50;
• The Albatross Carrier is Tier 7, has base Strength of 700, and has a level requirement of 70?

The Elite Sea Hive Carrier doesn't have to be so especially weak!  It would be a bit more reasonable for it to be Tier 7 and have base Strength around 700, making it a bit stronger than the recently released Elite Sea Horse Carrier--even if that doesn't make it stronger than the regular Sea Hive Carrier, which after all needs to be unlocked through World Domination.

Conclusion

Ultimately, this whole mess stems from greed and poor planning.  This resulted in the introduction of too many units and thus conflicts between:

• The strengths of the Tier 8 units being set around 1000--probably related to Tactical Nuke I dealing 1000 damage per unit.
• The release of the Tier 7 units with most base Strengths around 700-800 and upgraded Strengths around 840-960, which comes close to the Tier 8 units.
• The units unlocked by World Domination.
• The regularly timed release of Elite units, which are usually slightly stronger than their regular counterparts.

Red Rampage 10

Red Rampage 10 will be released on March 20, 2012.  The information below is subject to change!

The units are:

• Elite Badger Tank (720) UM31
• Elite Mantis Infantry (725) UM30
• Elite Tarantula Artillery (760) UM32
• Elite Yamato III (780) UT01
• Elite Sea Hive Carrier (645, Tier 6) UT02

The Elite Mantis Infantry and Elite Tarantula Artillery have slightly higher Strength than their non-elite counterparts.  However, the other 3 units actually have lower strength than their non-elite counterparts!  Furthermore, the Elite Sea Hive Carrier is Tier 6 rather than Tier 7!  The reason for this is probably because these units can be bought for a limited time, while the regular units have to be unlocked by gaining high Domination Rank.

We'll have to wait for the elite versions of:

• Gator Patrol Boat
• Albatross Carrier
• Man O' War Battleship
• Sand Shark Hovercraft
• Ghost Bat Fighter
• Owl Fighter
• Gemini Helicopter
• Buzzard Autogyro
• Sparrowhawk Bomber
• Phoenix Bomber