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, terrain, and support/surround 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 combat, the BuA and BuD are modified in four steps, which ultimately causes the Attack Power and Defense Ability settle on a final value.

During the animated combat sequence, the combat calculator flashes four numbers. These steps represent the recalculation of Attack Power and Defense Ability according to all combat modifiers.
 * 1) Displays Attack Power and Defense Ability that has been modified for experience; passes experience-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, 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.

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.