Military Madness/Combat

Combat is resolved by comparing the attack rating of one unit and the defensive rating of the other. The higher the number, the greater chance of success. The units clash in an animated combat sequence. Most of them may become damaged, other units may be destroyed, and yet a few may remain unscathed.

Following the application of combat, units are awarded the appropriate experience, and some (like the Rabbit) may have additional movement.

Combat calculation
A unit's Attack Power and Defense Ability are generated by multiplying the intrinsic combat power (Base-unit-Attack or Base-unit-Defense) by the relative health of the unit (Strength-level).


 * Attack Power   = Strength-level x Base-unit-Attack  (BuA)
 * Defense Ability = Strength-level x Base-unit-Defense (BuD)

Throughout the game, Strength-level will change as units sustain damage or regain strength from factory visits. For the purpose of calculating combat values however, strength-level is a given value and BuA and BuD are modified by experience, support/surround, and terrain modifiers.

Strength-level is a whole-number anywhere between 1 through 8. Level-1 represents a severely weakened unit that is very close to being destroyed. Level-8 represents a unit at full strength.

BuA and BuD can also be described as combat power per unit of strength. The initial value is specific to each unit.

During the animated combat sequence, the BuA and BuD are modified in four steps, which ultimately generates the final Attack Power and Defense Ability values. The combat calculator flashes four numbers, one for each step in the BuA and BuD modification scheme.
 * 1) The calculator initially displays Attack Power and Defense Ability that has been modified for experience.  It then passes experience-modified BuA & BuD to step 2.
 * 2) The calculator further adjusts BuA & BuD for surround effects and recalculates combat values.  It then passes cumulatively modified BuA & BuD to step 3.
 * 3) The calculator further adjusts BuA & BuD for support effects and recalculates combat values.  It then passes cumulatively modified BuA & BuD to step 4.
 * 4) The calculator further adjusts BuD for terrain effect and recalculates Defense Ability.  The output of this calculation equals the final combat values.

All modified values are rounded down prior to being passed from one step to the next. BuA & BuD must always be whole numbers, i.e. no decimals. This is especially important because some modifications may be so slight, that they fail to influence either the Attack Power or the Defensive Ability at all.

Experience effect
Surviving units that inflict damage are typically promoted by one experience level. However, an attacking unit that fails to inflict any damage receives no promotion.

In specific cases, units may receive two promotions for exemplary service. They include:
 * A defending unit that survives combat without sustaining any damage.
 * An attacking unit that destroys an enemy unit.

Surround effects
Surrounding units have the effect of subtracting from the opponent's combat values. Surround values range from 0-6. For nearly all short range combat, Surround is typically a minimum of 3.

Surround of 6 reduces the defender's defensive power by 50%.

Support effects

 * Supporting units have the effect of adding to your total combat strength.
 * You get a support effect of 50% of the total combat strength of any allied units who are adjacent to your opponent. Allied supporting units do not have to be adjacent to you.
 * Both sides get offensive and defensive support during each battle.
 * Thus, if you have your opponent completely surrounded, you can get support from all 5 allied units.
 * Conversely, if you are attacking while you are surrounded, your opponent would get defensive support from all 5 units.
 * The cumulative effects of support can be very large.

Terrain effect

 * Terrain of 5% = + 5% BuD
 * Terrain of 20% = +20% BuD
 * Terrain of 30% = +30% BuD
 * Terrain of 40% = +40% BuD

Note: if terrain effect does not move the BuD by minimum of one whole number, the defender gains no defensive bonus.