battle calculations?

[Darth Sidious]

how do they axactly work.
though the units have specific attack and defence, the attack seems to matter when being attacked as well.
I think i have yet to attack an archer with a warrior and win (while it should be equal)

Also, does defence seem to matter when attacking since it seems to me that attacking a city from out of a mountain works better than from a grassland.

Can someone explain me this in more detail?

[homegrown]

The basic combat formula is

A/(A+D)=chance of attacker winning

A is the attack value of the attacking unit.
D is the defense value of the defending unit modified by any fortification or other defensive bonuses.

Terrain bonuses for the defender include being on hills, mountains, forest, jungle, or the attacker having to cross a river on it's way to the defender's tile. Fortification bonuses are provided by towns with walls, cities, metropolises, fortresses, and being 'fortified'.

Each round, one of units wins and does 1 HP of damage on the losing unit. Battle continues until 1 unit is dead or the attacker retreats.

On the Warrior vs. Archer, while both have 1 Defense values, remember the defender gets the bonuses, so the archer should probably win quite often.

[Darth Sidious]

is it not so that they altenately get a shot at eachother where the attack counts for the one who has to try and damage the other guy, even though the other guy was the attacker?

example:

unit A (1/1) attacks unit B (2/1)

B has tries to hit A, with 2a vs 1d, he has 66% to hit or something
A tries to hit B, with 1a ns 1d, he has 50% to hit
B tries to hit A, with 2a vs 1d.......
etc..

cuz then it would actually matter what ground you are on when you attack something.

[Jaybe]

No, Darth. Homegrown has it right.
Also, remember that even grassland gives the defender a 10% advantage, and if it's fortified, another 50%. The only way you KNOW it's not fortified is if it's a 1-movement unit and hasn't moved.

Exceptions include accounting for ZOC's. Then, of course, the 'defender' is using its attack/bombardment strength vs. DOUBLE your defense strength.

[Murtin]

Something I've always wondered, but never actually got around to finding out is how defensive bonuses add up. A unit with raw defence value 2 that gets 50% for terrain and another 50% for being fortified, will that compute as

2 x 1.5 x 1.5 = 4.5,

or as

2 + 2 x 0.5 + 2 x 0.5 = 4 ?

[homegrown]

I read somewhere that the bonuses are added together, then applied to the defense value, so it's more like 2*(1+50%+50%) = 2*2 = 4.