User:Corwyn/Battle Mechanics

Observations

• Archer units just don't have the same "punch" as infantry/cavalry units.
  • They don't "hit" as often as infantry/cavalry units, even when you add in the fact that they do so over several turns, hence don't cause as many casualties. They're terrible in close combat.
  • It strongly looks like if you had two equal forces against each other at a distance of 4, one archer and the other infantry, the infantry would win every time. ^{(Need to confirm)}
  • In large scale engagements, when archers don't often get a chance to shoot at a foe because they're in close combat, their usefulness drops precipitously.
  • In situations when you have a clear Combat Strength superiority versus the enemy then they're useful. It allows you to kill off the foe without taking any lose in CS yourself. Hence, they're useful (in small numbers) in armies for that purpose: it's not uncommon for a large army to get attacked by a couple of units just due to bad organization by the foe. Without archers, those small units would still inflict some damage to the army.
• Mixed Infantry (MI) seem useful as "solo" units, but in large engagements their usefulness seems to be substantially reduced.
  • Generally you want your units to coordinate, for example such that your infantry units reach the front line at the same time. You also want your units to specialize -- archery units should be shooting the whole time. MI break this up. They either shoot from range the whole time, essentially acting as a comparatively weak archery unit, or they eventually get involved in close combat but after the main infantry line did.
  • It could be argued that they could be useful as a way to stagger your forces, so as to reduce overkill. But cavalry seem more useful in this regard.
  • Addendum: It seems the worst thing about mixed unit forces is their unpredictability. Sometimes they'll charge for no apparent reason, when it might have been better to hold back and keep firing from range. This breaks ranks and can lead to a single MI unit charging an entire advancing enemy line, thus denying your archers the opportunity to fire at that advancing line. In short, MI forces are really poor.
• I suspect that archer units with a range of 2 are just not as useful on the battlefield, generally speaking, as other types of units.
  • In certain situations, archer units with a range of 2 can be useful (compared to an infantry unit for example). This is undeniable.
  • However, when looking at their value from a general perspective we cannot ignore that weather can reduce their effectiveness. If a percentage of time X the weather is poor such that it reduces their effectiveness to Y percentage, then we must treat their actual strength as CS * X% * Y%.
  • We must also consider that their placement will, in general, not always be ideal. A range of X is often times reduced to a range of X-1 due to the archer unit having to move forward (due to no one in range) while at the same time the opposing units move forward.
  • Nonetheless, despite these drawbacks compared to infantry units, being able to attack from range without retaliation is a definite benefit.
  • But how much so? Need to run numbers to determine when archery units "break even". But it seems like more than a range of 2.
  • A battle report showing the use of range 4 archers over range 3.
  • A battle report showing the use of a forward infantry unit to break up the enemy's formation.
    • Note: this only occurs if a unit is ahead of the main army and it moves forward. I have another battle report where instead it was two archer units in front of the main army, and the enemy formation was not broken up.
• Does "Org" refer to the Leadership skills?
  • Answer: 'Org' refers to the army's organization rather than your units. It was used at one point to randomly place units on the battlefield. Due to feedback, it was for the most part removed.

Equipment Armor

The "equipment armor" percentage does seem to have a direct effect on how often your men fall in battle.

Some examples:

• Sir Dabrun's cavalry unit (with high armor) gets roughly 1 casualty per 45 hits or so.
• Sir Corwyn Ni'Tessine's archer unit (with 47% armor) gets roughly 1 casualty per 30 hits or so.

The above numbers were drawn from some recent combat reports:

• ~†RD†~ Cataphracts of Elmbar (74) take 325 hits in close combat, which cause 7 casualties. So 46 hits = 1 casualty
• ~†RD†~ Cataphracts of Elmbar (74) take 217 hits in close combat, which cause 5 casualties. So 43 hits = 1 casualty
• Ni'Tessine's Marksmen (17) take 548 hits in close combat, which cause 17 casualties. So 32 hits = 1 casualty
• Ni'Tessine's Marksmen (17) take 143 hits in close combat, which cause 5 casualties. So 28 hits = 1 casualty

As to whether the armor percentage makes a difference between whether your men end up wounded or killed, I don't have enough data yet to know. I do know that in this last battle I had 23 "casualties", of which 18 were killed and 5 were wounded (and may yet die). As noted, I have around 47% armor.

Archery Notes

Calm Winds

• A unit of 22 Archers (16% org) and a CS of 301 (13.7/archer) inflicted:
  • 11.3 hits per archer at a range of 3, in calm winds.
  • small battle (301 vs 389)

• A unit of 28 Archers (89% org) and a CS of 356 (12.7/archer) inflicted:
  • 7.5 hits per archer at a range of 2, in calm winds.
  • Note: Clearly, "org" doesn't affect hit rate much, if at all. Must be used for other things.
  • large battle (7k vs 4k)

• A unit of 32 Archers (89% org) and a CS of 351 (11/archer) inflicted:
  • 8.2 hits per archer at a range of 2, in calm winds.
  • large battle (7k vs 4k)

• A unit of 23 Archers (90% org) and a CS of 316 (13.7/archer) inflicted:
  • 8.5 hits per archer at a range of 2, in calm winds.
  • large battle (7k vs 4k)

• A unit of 28 Archers and a CS of 300 (10.7/archer) inflicted 140 hits.
  • 5 hits per archer at a range of 3, in calm winds. (large battle)

Quite Windy

• A unit of 33 Archers and a CS of 416 (12.6/archer) inflicted 143 hits.
  • 4.3 hits per archer at a range of 3, in quite windy weather. (small battle)

• A unit of 33 Archers and a CS of 413 (12.5/archer) inflicted 185 hits.
  • 5.6 hits per archer at a range of 3, in quite windy weather. (small battle)

• A unit of 34 Archers and a CS of 343 (10/archer) inflicted 151 hits.
  • 4.4 hits per archer at a range of 4, in quite windy weather. (large battle)

Strong Winds

• A unit of 37 Archers and a CS of 475 (12.8/archer) and 67% training inflicted:
  • 3.5 hits per archer, from a range of 2. (75% weapons, 25% damage, large battle)

• Despite strong winds, my archer unit with only 32% training (6% org) hit 3 times per archer, from a range of 2.
  • 255 CS, with a 8.8 CS rating per archer. Weapons were at 50%. Small battle (255 vs 115)
  • Does this imply a unit at 100% training would have hit 9 or 10 times per archer?

Storm

• A unit of 30 Archers (16% org) and a CS of 414 (13.8/archer) inflicted:
  • 7.1 hits per archer at a range of 2, in a storm. (small battle)