Combat - The Gory Details

by Vincent Wong

The combat explainations in the rulebook does quite a good job, in fact, I reread it so many times I believe it couldn't be better written. It does away with a lot of dry explanations and stuff like that. It also leaves a lot to the imagination. I believe that was the intention. Today, I will attempt extrapolate from the rulebook as to my interpretation on what exactly goes on. This article may contain a lot of dry information that the rule book has avoided; nevertheless, some of us are just too curious and inquisitive enough to want to know what are the numbers involved.

How combat is started?

As we read in another article on who moves first in A Matter of Speed; we don't have to delve into the matter of who moves first and gets to attack first. As explained in the rulebook if there are a few party's in the same hex the hostile group that moves in initiates combat and will continue fighting until it is defeated or defeated all opposition. The interesting part is that the rule book did not state if the friendly party's in the same hex who fights first - will it be the ally or the hex owner? I believe it is the hex owner who fights first, if the hex owner is defeated then only the ally fights. I have also seen that if you are an ally to both parties that are hostile to each other then you just sit there and watch the battle.

In some cases you will be surprised why your unit that is under EXPLORE mode, enters into combat. It is because of two factors; firstly, your unit has runned out of MP - it can't pay the 10MP penalty for the encounter. Secondly, it didn't accumulate enough impulse to move away when the enemy entered it's hex.

Combat Phases

As stated very clearly in the rulebook, that the progression of combat begins with the Magic Combat, Missile Combat and finally Melee Combat. There will be at least 2 to 4 rounds of Magic Combat, followed by 3 to 5 rounds of Missile Combat, then Melee Combat will continue until one side breaks morale. Please note that in each round of combat from Magic to Melee, morale test will be taken for which ever sides that takes the most damage; that is why sometimes the battle is over at the Missile Phase before the Melee, or even at Magic Phase.

Combat Factors

In combat the following factors are taken into consideration, its base ability, bonuses, terrain modifiers, and unit experience. With regards to unit experience, if a unit engages in battle (doesn't matter how many times) in a game turn as long as it wins a battle it is awarded 2 xp, and if it did not win any battles but survives a battle it is awarded 1 xp; if it figths 2 battle winning one and surviving the other it will get 2 xp.

The table above is a representation of how the base value is modified. Just add up all relevant bonuses into the Group Bonuses, use it to modify the base value of each individual unit, then apply its XP, then finally the terrain modification. In a situation where the defender has a community, then there will be a defensive value for the defender just by adding another column to the end of the table. One can try using the same values as the community summoning strength modifiers. That I believe is quite accurate. There will be others that content that communities will provide hits bonuses instead.

Now that we have put all these numbers together, we can see that it is a pretty even fight for both. The columns for attack and resist will represent the percentage of success for a combat round. Each combat unit must make an attack roll and a resist roll. In order for a point of damage to be generated, the attacker must first be successful to hit the defender, and the defender must fail to resist the hit to suffer damage.

If there were a situation, where the attacker is successful in hitting the defender but the defender shrugs off the hit; it will mean that the defender lives to fight a second round and vice versa. Should one of them die, a new line-up will be rearrange and fought again as the above.

In this example it will be a pretty even fight, with likely result that states: "Though we had hoped to inflict significant harm, from afar, our attempts to bring to bear the powers arcane showed no appreciable effects." Story would have been different had either side had an additional strong magic wielding unit like a wizard or priest. The balance of power will be tipped, as the additional character will begin to cause hits to the normal troops, with 4 rounds, giving a possibility of causing 4 hits, it could mean the demise of 2 archers or 1 pike unit before entering missile phase. Lets assume that if Player B did not have any wizards, the result could be devastating for 4 rounds, you would see that a possible of 12 hits of damage from Player A characters; and that could mean Player B would enter missile phase without any archers, and the scale of battle has been tipped at the Magic Phase, and Player B will hope that his group breaks morale in Magic and flee or be slaughtered in Missile Phase.

Now that you understand, how the process works, it is the same with Missile Phase, and Melee. The intention of this exercise is that you will appreciate how to balance your army with Magic, Missile, and Melee units. I am not encouraging you to work out the nitty gritty details of every single battle. Indeed, looking at such numbers is a bore. But still a fundamental understanding how to balance your army by understanding the impact of combat rounds in each phase can and will affect your army.

Good Gaming.