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. In a given combat scenario, Strength-level remains constant, whereas a unit's intrinsic combat power is modified by experience, terrain, and support/surround modifiers. The final output is applied during the animated combat sequence and the units clash. Most units may become damaged, others may be destroyed, and yet a few may remain unscathed.


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

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, whereas Level-8 represents a unit at full strength.

BuA and BuD represent combat power per unit of strength. The initial value is specific to each unit. The BuA and BuD are modified in four steps, which causes the Attack Power and Defense Ability to recalculate until all modifiers are taken into account.

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

Combat calculation
During gameplay, the combat calculator flashes four numbers.
 * 1) Displays Attack Power and Defense Ability that has been modified for experience; passes modified BuA & BuD to step 2.
 * 2) Further adjusts BuA & BuD for surround effects and recalculates combat values; passes cumulatively modified BuA & BuD to step 3.
 * 3) Further adjusts BuA & BuD for support effects and recalculates combat values; passes cumulatively modified BuA & BuD to step 4.
 * 4) 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. BuA & BuD must always be whole numbers, i.e. no decimals. This is especially important because some modifications may be so slight, that they never influence the Attack Power or the Defensive Ability.


 * Zone of control never extends beyond the edge of the map
 * Support values range from 0-5.
 * Surround values range from 0-6. For nearly all short range combat, Surround is typically a minimum of 3

Experience effect
Surviving units that inflict damage are typically promoted by one experience level. However, if an attacking unit fails to inflict any damage, that unit 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.

Support effects
Supporting units have the effect of adding to your combat values.

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.