Combat.

In this section, various combat issues are discussed.  If you need help or information
about seemingly impossible battles, emergency situations or combat tips, this is the
spot where you can find an answer.  I used all of these techniques and they saved me
plenty of times. (they can't perform impossible tasks though)


Combat strategies.

     Scorched earth:

Situation: A more powerful enemy is coming closer and there is no way you can beat
him/her.  Solution: Buy all available creatures in any town that will be attacked, then
leave the town with this army.  The enemy hero will take over the town and will have no
troops to defend the town with.  This will slow him/her down and makes it easier to
take those towns back after the enemy hero leaves.  This strategy very often results in
the Divide and conquer strategy.

     Divide and conquer:

Situation: A more powerful enemy is coming closer and there is no way you can beat
him/her.  Solution: Start attacking weakly defended towns owned by that player to
piss him/her off.  If the enemy hero doesn't split his/her army, he/she risks losing a
lot of towns including those that were just conquered.  In the mean time try to keep
the losses in your main army to a minimum.  When the hero's army does split up and
your main army has become of equal or greater strength, attack the hero (preferably
in the open or when you are defending a town) and take back any lost towns as soon
as possible.

     Trade or die:

Situation: One of your important towns is going to be under siege soon and your main
armies are too far away to come to aid.  To make matters worse, you are very low on
cash.  Solution: Trade any resources you can spare for gold, trade artifacts for gold
(if possible) and build some marketplaces first if you really have a lot of resources you
can trade.  This extra cash allows you to buy things that can allow your town to hold
out.  The next step is to choose what to buy.  First and for all purchase a hero to
defend the town.  Buy a spellbook and a first aid tent when available. (actually you
should buy these things immediately when you acquire a new town) If you can't afford
all that, then don't buy those things. (this greatly decreases your chance of winning)
Now you should have about 2000 goldpieces left. (minimum) Buy creatures with many
healthpoints. (usually level 6/7 creatures with 100 health or more, or other creatures
with a lot of health but not less than 40) With the last of your gold, recruit some level
1-3 creatures that are quite fast.  Then split those up in as many stacks as you
possibly can.  The combat resolves as described in the Impossible siege combat
technique.

     Reinforcements (day 7):

Situation: One of your important towns is going to be under siege soon and your main
armies are too far away to come to aid.  To make matters worse, there are no/almost
no creatures available for sale but it is day 7.  Solution: Purchase a hero to defend the
town with a spellbook and a first aid tent. (normally you have already bought these
when you obtained the town) Buy any creatures that would still be for sale, then place
the hero in the garrison and recruit another hero.  If that newly recruited hero has some
creatures, give them to the garrison hero.  Move the new hero out of the town to block
the path of the attacker.  Continue to do this until you think the enemy hero won't get
through in one turn anymore.  Do keep some money to be able to buy fresh troops on
day 1 (or use the Trade or die strategy).  Now two things can happen.  The enemy hero
may still get to your town, this means a battle as described in the Impossible siege
combat technique.  Or the hero doesn't get through, in this case you get to buy fresh
creatures on day 1 and then you see what to do.


Combat techniques.

     Impossible siege combat:

Situation: An enemy army stands at the gates and you have to defend your town with
a far inferior army.  Solution: Your chances of winning this battle are obviously not that
high, but it is possible. (sometimes) Don't rush into the fight, keep your creatures
within your walls.  If you have ranged attackers or magic, then target the most
dangerous ranged attackers and flying creatures. (if you have the Artillery secondary
skill (very nice for garrison heroes) then target those creatures as well) Your arrow
towers should decimate the enemy army.  Attack creatures that are in the moat
without putting your own creatures at risk of attack from multiple enemy troops.
(creatures in the moat have their Defense skill halved!!!) The next three techniques are
also very useful in this situation.

     Hit'n run:

Situation: Your town is under siege by a more powerful army.  You control the fastest
troop (or one of the fastest or a troop enchanted with Haste) on the battlefield and the
enemy army contains little flying creatures.  Solution: Suspend the action of the fast
troop until the end of the turn, then move out of the castle walls and attack a hostile
target with them.  At the beginning of the new turn, your fast troop will be able to act
again.  Move them back between the protection of the walls and do the same again
during the next turn.  This technique can also be combined with Wack the catapult
when you posses really fast creatures.

     Whack the catapult:

Situation: One of your towns is under siege by a much larger army, but with few flying
creatures and ranged attackers.  You have a small army but one or two stacks of fast,
powerful higher level creatures in reasonable amounts that preferably fly.  Solution: Aim
all the firepower you have (magic, ranged attackers, arrow towers) at the catapult.  Use
the Hit'n run technique and let the enemy troops come closer, then go for the catapult
with your powerful stack(s).  It is crucial that the catapult goes down as fast as
possible, so it may be necessary to abandon the Hit'n run technique and sacrifice your
fast creatures in order to destroy the catapult. (only do this if you still have some sturdy
creatures left behind your walls) Then there are two things you can do.  Rapidly retreat
your remaining creatures behind your walls or reduce the amounts of ranged attackers
if there are too many of them.  At the point where the enemy hero has no ranged
attackers or flying creatures left, there is nothing he/she can do but retreat or be shot
down by your arrow towers.  This technique may require spells like Haste, Slow (or
Blind if you have the Artillery secondary skill) to allow your creatures to attack the
catapult or enemy ranged attackers without being attacked themselves.  Powerful
offensive magics and Clone may also be very useful.  This technique becomes even
more difficult if the enemy hero is a powerful spellcaster and may even be impossible
when that spellcasting hero has lots of spellpoints.  In that case Anti Magic (or even
Protection From ...) could do a good job but it will still be very hard.  When you couldn't
whack the catapult before castle walls got breached, you can use the Cowardice
technique.

     Cowardice:

Situation: You are defending a town during a siege combat, the catapult has been
destroyed but there are breaches in the walls and the remaining enemy army is too
strong/large to handle.  Start running around with your fastest/most powerful stack of
creatures making sure no one can hit them.  Try to lure enemy troops into the moat so
they are stuck one turn and get extra damage by the arrow towers.  Use Haste and
Slow to avoid being hit.  Force Field may also be a good idea to temporalily close
breaches in the wall.  Continue to do this until you are convinced you can eliminate the
remaining forces by yourself and let the arrow towers do their job in the mean time.
Then finish the remaining creatures.  This technique works extremely well with fast
flying creatures.

     Ranged runner:

The Ranged runner technique is only useful in one very specific situation: You have a
considerable amount of ranged attackers left with many shots remaining, some
spellpoints and Slow/Haste/Blind as spells.  Possibly you have negligible amounts of
other troops left but they do not really matter.  The enemy army consists of relatively
slow creatures.  Solution: Run around in circles or in and out of a castle with breached
walls. (when you are involved in siege combat) Slow or Blind enemy troops or Haste
your own creatures and use the Hit'n run technique to damage them every 2 turns.
This is a very slow but usually very effective technique that can only work if you have
enough ranged attackers with enough shots remaining.


Tips and tricks.

     Tactics (protect your ranged attackers):

Ranged attackers are a very valuable part of your army, they deserve special care.
Many ranged attackers suffer a melee penalty (they defend themselves miserably
with low damage weapons when an enemy creature stands next to them so they
can't use their ranged attack) and many have a low health.  Thus, you can't allow
enemy creatures to come close to them.  Here follows a set of rules that make it
easier to protect your ranged attackers:
  - Select loose in stead of tight formation (or tactics if available) to place your ranged
  attackers a bit further away from each other.  Why you should do this is discussed
  in the next point.
  - Never position a stack of ranged attackers directly next to another group of ranged
  attackers.  If the enemy hero would place a troop between them, they both can't
  shoot, this is also the reason why never to use tight formation.
  - Place your ranged attackers on the edges of the battlescreen.  This way enemy
  creatures have fewer sides to attack them from and you have fewer sides to protect.
  - Place slower creatures in the neighbourhood of your ranged attackers and your
  fastest creatures further away. (preferably more in the middle) This way, your faster
  creatures can come to protect your ranged attackers at any time.
  - Position your ranged attackers in such a way that your best/most powerful stack
  gets to act first.  Do the same for all your other creatures to plan your combat
  strategy. (left=upper gets to act first when there are creatures with equal speed)
  - Try to wait until enemy creatures come closer to maximize the amount of damage
  they do. (damage decreases greatly at long distance shots)

     War machines:



Picture
Name
Cost
Damage
Shots
Attack
Defense
Health


Ammo cart
1000 gold
0
none
0
5
100


Ballista
2500 gold
2-3 x (the hero's Attack skill +1)
24
10
10
250


Catapult
nothing
0
none
10
10
1000


First aid tent
750 gold
0
none
0
0
75



- The ammo cart: Always buy this, itt doesn't happen that often, but I have been in the
  situation where my ranged attackers had no shots left. (that really sucks) Another
  nice thing about the ammo cart is that it usually covers one hex next to your top
  ranged attacker. (one spot less where they can be attacked)
- The ballista: If you don't have thhe secondary skill Artillery, don't take along a ballista.
  It can ruin your strategy during combat. (by attacking blinded creatures and so) When
  your hero has Artillery as a secondary skill, be sure to buy him/her a ballista.  For
  one thing it is an extra object the enemy must consider.  You can cast a last spell
  and then flee with just a ballista left and no army.  In addition to that, it deals some
  damage (not much) and you choose the target.  In small maps or during the early
  game the ballista is quite useful for all heroes.
- The catapult: Every hero has one oof these and it is only used during siege combat by
  the attacking hero.  It is a very important War Machine and losing it during an attack
  can mean immediate defeat.  Always provide it with some backup so you can prevent
  enemy troops from destroying it before it is too late.
- The first aid tent: Always buy thiis, it doesn't heal many healthpoints (25 normally),
  but it does help.  Especially with the First Aid secondary skill where you get to
  choose the target and heal more damage.  This allows you to heal otherwise
  magically resistant/immune creatures like Black Dragons.

     Luck and Morale:

- Luck: Though there are indicationss in the game that there would exist something
  like negative Luck (that makes your troops perform weaker attacks in combat) in
  texts of certain events, I have never seen it happen (so it must be a VERY rare
  phenomenon, if it even exists) so it won't be discussed here.  Luck is really great,
  a troop that is blessed with Luck will deal double damage when it strikes.
  Unfortunately, the effect of Luck is very random and it happens not very often.  At
  Luck +1 there is a 4,2% chance, at Luck +2 a 8,3% and at Luck +3 a 12,5% chance
  per troop.  This means that it happens less than once per turn on average.  Luck
  is nice as a bonus of a temporary effect but not good enough to cast (Mis-)
  Fortune or to learn the secondary skill Luck.
- Morale: The impact of negative Morrale is much bigger than with Luck, but so is the
  impact of good Morale.  Always make sure your Morale is neutral or positive when
  you start a battle.  It is too risky if one of your troops could freeze in panic at a critical
  moment because of low Morale.  When you start mixing your army with other creature
  types it is truly important to keep an eye on your Morale.  The effect of Morale is as
  random as the effect of Luck but good Morale allows a troop to act again. (normally
  much better than dealing double damage) Morale is a part of combat that should
  never be neglected.

     Damage Calculation:

Though you can know beforehand what the damage range is when one of your troops
will attack a hostile troop when one of the 'Creature Info' checkboxes is checked in the
'Combat Options', it is sometimes very useful to know what the retaliation damage will
be.  When a troop attacks (or retaliates), a random number is chosen within their
damage range.  This number is then multiplied by the number of creatures in the troop.
This is the potential damage.  Now the attacking troop's Attack skill is compared to the
defending troop's Defense skill and the damage is adjusted accordingly.  If the Attack
skill of the attacking troop is higher than the Defense skill of the defending troop, then
the potential damage is increased by 5% per point of difference. (up to a maximum of
400%) If the Attack skill of the attacking troop is lower, then the potential damage is
reduced by 2% per point of difference. (to a minimum of 30%) The resulting number is
the amount of inflicted damage.  The calculation above would seem to render Defense
skill less important than Attack skill since a difference of more than 35 in Defense skill
would not matter anymore as for Attack skill a difference of 80 would still make a
difference.  This idea is completely flawed when you look at it in the opposite way.
A low Attack skill would make it harder for your troops to eliminate an enemy army by
not-magical means, which is bad but not impossible.  A low Defense skill however
allows enemy troops to crush yours by dealing them an incredible amount of additional
damage, leaving your hero with no army left in just a matter of turns.