Battle Mechanics

Accurate as of 10th July, 2012.

There’s an enormous amount of information, mechanics, and mathematics that goes into every single battle. Which units will hit which? How much damage will they do? Did that spell pass barriers? If so, did the units resist it? And so on, and so forth. Here I will explain some of the mechanics that come into play for battles, so you can have a better understanding of your Battle Reports and make adjustments to your kingdom/army based on them.

Stacks and Stacking

Before one can understand how battles work, one needs to understand the basics. When viewing your army, each group of units is called a "stack." For example, 1,000 archers would be referred to as "a stack of archers". A player's complete army is also sometimes referred to as their "stack," which will undoubtedly cause some confusion. It is best to assume that, unless a specific unit is being spoken of, then the term "stack" will apply to the entire army. The maximum number of stacks a player can have in a battle is 10, if a player has more than 10 stacks in their army, only the top 10 stacks based on stack power will participate in battle (unless the player manually changes the participating stacks). Each stack will hold a position in the army based on the percentage of power that stack in particular contributes to the total power of the army. However, some units can hold a higher position in the army due to the Stack Multiplier.

The Stack Multiplier

The Stack Multiplier is a mathematical adjustment made to each stack in your army to adjust their placement within the army based on their unit type. There are three unit types, and each has its own multiplier:

• Ranged Units – 1.0x Multiplier
• Melee Units – 1.5x Multiplier
• Flying Units – 2.25x Multiplier

The resulting updated power of each stack is called their stack power, and is the value used to determine the stack's placement in the army for the purpose of battle. For example, a stack of Flying units with 400,000 net power will “multiply” up to a stack power of 900,000 (400,000 * 2.25). This means that if you have a Flying stack with 400,000 net power, it will stack above a Ranged stack with 800,000 net power, even though the Ranged stack is clearly the stronger of the two. A Melee stack of 400,000 net power, however, would “multiply” up to 600,000 stack power (400,000 * 1.5), and would sit below them both. Let’s have a look at a sample stack:

Leviathan	19	9.7%
Ice Elemental	63	14.2%
Shadow Elemental	2047	9.4%
Dark Elf Magician	2041	14.0%
Naga Queen	322	9.0%
Minor Elemental	10543	12.3%
Astral Magician	6874	12.0%
Mind Ripper	867	10.3%
Archangel	584	4.5%
Zombie	29838	4.6%

The Leviathans are a Melee Unit. Their net power per unit is 49,500. So the full stack has a net power value of 940,500; however, because they’re a Melee unit, their net power is multiplied up to 1,410,750 stack power. The Ice Elementals are a Ranged unit. Their net power per unit is 21,800, so the full stack has a net power value of 1,373,400. Being a Ranged unit, their multiplier is 1.0, so their stack power remains at base. This is why the Leviathans, though lower in actual power, stack above the Ice Elementals. In fact, it would only take 814 Archangels to stack above the Ice Elementals, even though their combined actual power rating would only be 610,500; the 2.25x Flying multiplier would bump their stack power up to 1,373,625.

Knowing the Stack Multiplier can seriously assist you in building a stack to counter your target’s stack. You will always know where your stacks are going to sit, and why.

Stack Pairing

Stack Pairing is the method of determining which units will hit which during combat. Again, this is based on the three unit types: Ranged, Melee, and Flying. This process is completed in the pre-battle phase of battle, and can be altered based on spells/items used in combat. The determination of which unit will hit which begins with knowing the following:

• Flying Units are Air-based and can hit anything.
• Ranged Units are Ground-Based and can hit anything.
• Melee Units are Ground-Based and can only hit other Ground-Based Units.
• There is technically a fourth Unit type, which I will call the Hybrid Unit. These are Ground-Based units with one close-quarters (read: not ranged) attack and one ranged attack. They are technically Melee Units and will prefer to target Ground-Based Units, which is why I hesitate to put them in their own group; however, failing to find a Ground-Based Unit to hit with both of their attacks, they will still hit a Flying Unit with their one Ranged attack. Unholy Reavers, Leviathans, and Medusas fall into this group.
  • This unit type is considered Melee for the Stack Multiplier.

The second thing you need to know to determine Stack Pairing is that units will always attack the first unpaired stack that they can hit. If all stacks they can hit have already been paired, they will cycle back to the top and go down the list again. In practice, this is how it would work:

Attacking Army							Defending Army
Leviathan	H						Air Elemental	F
Ice Elemental	R						Archangel	F
Shadow Elemental	H						Lich	R
Dark Elf Magician	R						Mind Ripper	R
Naga Queen	M						Efreeti	R
Minor Elemental	R						Shadow Elemental	H
Astral Magician	R						Water Elemental	R
Mind Ripper	R						Yeti	M
Archangel	F						Medusa	H
Zombie	M						Squirrel	F

The letter next to each unit signifies their Unit Type. F for Flying, R for Ranged, H for Hybrid, and M for Melee. Based on these data, we can determine the following pairing:

From the attacking army –

The Leviathans will hit the Liches
The Ice Elementals will hit the Air Elementals
The Shadow Elementals will hit the Mind Rippers
The Dark Elf Magicians will hit the Archangels
The Naga Queens will hit the Efreetis
The Minor Elementals will hit the Shadow Elementals
The Astral Magicians will hit the Water Elementals
The Mind Rippers will hit the Yetis
The Archangels will hit the Medusas
The Zombies will cycle back to the top, and hit the Liches

From the defending army –

The Air Elementals will hit the Leviathans
The Archangels will hit the Ice Elementals
The Liches will hit the Shadow Elementals
The Mind Rippers will hit the Dark Elf Magicians
The Efreetis will hit the Naga Queens
The Shadow Elementals will hit the Minor Elementals
The Water Elementals will hit the Astral Magicians
The Yetis will hit the Mind Rippers
The Medusas will hit the Zombies
The Squirrels will hit the Archangels

This is a GENERAL idea of how the pairing would work out, but ultimately it also depends on the SIZE of each stack. A stack will only attack an opposing stack if the target stack’s net power is at least 10% of the attacking stack’s net power. Using the above example, if the Yetis in the defending stack consisted of 20,000 net power, and the Mind Rippers in the attacking stack consisted of 300,000 net power, the Yeti stack would be too small to hit, and the Mind Rippers would ignore them, instead cycling back to the top and hitting the Air Elementals. This is why Heavy Top and Shallow Stackers often find their top stacks getting hit far more often than their bottom stacks, and also why I suggest making ALL stacks consist of at least 1% of your army power unless you specifically WANT them to be avoided (such as fodder stacks for land grabbing).

Fake Stacking

Fake Stacking uses the information from the paragraph above in tandem with the fact that once a stack is removed from play, any stack that was paired with it no longer deals ANY direct damage (only counter damage). Creating a stack whose purpose is specifically to soak the damage of a much larger stack is called Fake Stacking. A Fake Stack is most often intended to be sacrificed, so don’t be concerned with it being wiped. If it has taken that damage away from your main stacks, it has done its job. Fake stacking is relatively easy once you know the stacking style of your target. If they happen to run a 4-deep Shallow Stack, you can run a Heavy Top with fakes for stacks three and four. Set your stacks 3 and 4 to 3% of your army power, and they’re very likely to draw the attacks of his stacks 3 and 4 (which should theoretically be between 18 and 30% of his army size), effectively negating half an army’s worth of damage while only losing 6% of yours (provided they stackwipe). It’s a very effective strategy. The reason it works is because that fake stack may only have, for example, 350,000 hit points, but it’s soaking the damage of a stack that can deal, for example, 3,000,000. So instead of your army taking the full 3mil, it takes just over 1/10th of that, and nullifies the rest. You just have to be SURE of your target’s stacking style before you implement it.

Unit Attacks

There are a number of factors that go into the Attacks of each unit. Two of these are Attack Types and Attack Initiative. These factors can be somewhat detailed and, in the case of initiative, a bit confusing. I will do my best to simplify these things for you. Let’s begin by giving a short description of each attack type.

Attack Types

Missile: This is a Distance attack type (meaning the target can be airborne). It is really only used by Barracks units such as Archers. Basically, it’s plain old arrows.

Fire: By itself, this is a close-quarters attack type (meaning the attacker must be face-to-face with the target. For Flying targets, the attacker must be Flying). Imagine this as having flaming claws.

Poison: By itself, this is a close-quarters attack type. Imagine this as having poison claws.

Breath: By itself, this is a close-quarters attack type. Imagine this as being just like one would assume Dragon’s breath to be, but close range.

Magic: By itself, this is a close-quarters attack type; however, this particular attack type is usually ranged. One exception is Unicorns.

Melee: This is a close-quarters attack type by definition. Basically this is some kind of standard weapon like a sword, or fists. This attack type can be combined with other non-ranged types, though, like Fire or Cold, in which case you can imagine it like a flaming sword.

Ranged: This is a Distance attack type and, to the best of my knowledge, ALWAYS accompanies another attack type. If you have a ranged attack, it’s a specific kind of ranged attack.

Lightning: By itself, this is a close-quarters attack type. Imagine this as having like … electric fists, or something. You have to punch them to give them the shock.

Cold: By itself, this is a close-quarters attack type. Imagine this as having fists made of ice, or a touch that freezes.

Paralyse: By itself, this is a close-quarters attack type. One can pretend that this can happen when a paralyzing agent is introduced into the attacker through claws or teeth or a stinger. Like a Scorpion.

Psychic: By itself, this is a close-quarters attack type. It’s an attack on the opponent’s mind. Usually, this attack type accompanies Ranged.

Holy: By itself, this is a close-quarters attack type. To the best of my knowledge, there are only two units that have a Holy Ranged attack, and they are both White Barracks Units: High Priests, and Knights Templar.

Any type of Ranged or Missile attack is an attack that is made at a distance. In the case of Efreeti, they are shooting fire and magic at a target a ways away from them. This is why Ranged attackers can hit Flying Units. ANY attack type that does not specifically say Ranged or Missile is a close-quarters attack type. This means that the unit must be face-to-face with its target to hit it. This is why Ground-based Melee Units cannot hit Flying Units. One might assume that the attack type Breath would be an attack type that can cover a distance, but it is not.

Attack Initiative

Those who have played table-top role-playing games in the past will likely grasp the concept of Attack Initiative easily, but to those who have not, Attack Initiative can be a very confusing concept. To those people, I would like to start off by saying that it is best to assume that any ideas you have about the way units attack each other may be wrong. The first thing you really need to know about Attack Initiative is that the higher number attacks before the lower number. In a case where two units have the same Attack Initiative, the attacking order is determined randomly.

When you look at the Unit Sheet for a particular unit you will see one or two attack types. The upper one, I call the Primary Attack, and the lower I call the Secondary Attack. If we use Efreeti and Phoenix as examples, you may see some notable differences in their Attack Initiatives (listed as Attack Init). The Efreeti’s Primary Attack has an Attack Initiative of 4, while the Secondary has an Attack Initiative of 2. The Phoenix’s Primary Attack on the other hand has an Attack Initiative of 1, while the Secondary has an Attack Initiative of 5.

Using the information I gave above that the higher number attacks before the lower number, one might conclude that Phoenixes will attack first, and then Efreetis will attack, and the fight is over. However, this would be fallacious. It is best in this situation to pretend that there are no units. There are simply four attacks. One attack with an initiative of 5, one attack with an initiative of 4, one attack with an initiative of 2, and one attack with an initiative of 1. And the attacks will occur in that order. So, in practice …

The Phoenixes will attack first with their Secondary Attack (init 5)
The Efreetis will attack second with their Primary Attack (init 4)
The Efreetis will attack third with their Secondary Attack (init 2)
The Phoenixes will attack fourth with their Primary Attack (init 1)

Now, if we were to add some more units into the mix, say Demon Knights (2/3), Astral Magicians (2/4), Dark Elf Magicians (3/4), Mind Rippers (3/3), and Treants (1/1), we would get the following:

Phoenix with Secondary Attack (init 5)
Efreetis with Primary Attack (init 4) OR
Astral Magicians with Secondary Attack (init 4) OR
Dark Elf Magicians with Secondary Attack (init 4)
Demon Knights with Secondary Attack (init 3) OR
Dark Elf Magicians with Primary Attack (init 3) OR
Mind Rippers with Primary Attack (init 3)
Mind Rippers with Secondary Attack (init 3)
Demon Knights with Primary Attack (init 2) OR
Efreetis with Secondary Attack (init 2) OR
Astral Magicians with Primary Attack (init 2)
Treants with Primary Attack (init 1) OR
Phoenix with Primary Attack (init 1)
Treants with Secondary Attack (init 1)

This should give you a pretty good idea about the order in which units attack during battle. Given there are no outside modifiers, this is the exact order in which these units would attack. But, there are always things that can change this. For example …

Level 20 Animal Mastery and Undead Mastery give +1 init to many units
The blue spell Slow reduces the init of ALL enemy units by 1
The blue spell Paralyze reduces the init of a random enemy unit by 6
The item The Spider’s Web reduces the init of ALL enemy units by 1
The item Ash of Invisibility increase the init of ALL friendly units to 6
The green spell Call Hurricane reduces the init of ALL enemy Flying Units by 1
The blue spell Double Time increases the init of a random friendly unit by 1
The blue spell Invisibility increase the init of a random friendly unit to 6
The green spell Web of the Spider Woman reduces the init of a random enemy unit by 1

This is important information because if a unit’s initiative for any particular attack is reduced to zero, that attack never occurs. Let’s pretend that we’re a mage running the stack listed above. We hit a blue mage who is using Slow and The Spider’s Web as his defense assignment. This combination reduces the Attack Initiative of ALL of your units by 2. So, the above attack cycle would now look like this:

Phoenix with Secondary Attack (init 3)
Efreetis with Primary Attack (init 2) OR
Astral Magicians with Secondary Attack (init 2) OR
Dark Elf Magicians with Secondary Attack (init 2)
Demon Knights with Secondary Attack (init 1) OR
Dark Elf Magicians with Primary Attack (init 1) OR
Mind Rippers with Primary Attack (init 1)
Mind Rippers with Secondary Attack (init 1)
Demon Knights Primary Attack never occurs
Efreetis Secondary Attack never occurs
Dark Elf Magicians Primary Attack never occurs
Treants Primary Attack never occurs
Phoenix Primary Attack never occurs
Treants Secondary Attack never occurs

And immediately we can see why Slow/Web is such an effective defense. Not only does it eliminate quite a few incoming attacks ENTIRELY, but it also makes the attacks that still happen, happen MUCH later in the battle, allowing for his units to first damage yours, making them not only fewer in number, but also fatigued and therefore weaker.

Battle Damage

There is an ENORMOUS amount of data that goes into determining how much damage each unit deals to its target during battle. In this secction I will outline the ENTIRE damage equation, as well as all of the data used in determining what I will, from here on, call ACTUAL Damage. Actual damage is the damage dealt by a single unit in a stack after ALL modifiers have been taken into account, and is often SIGNIFICANTLY lower than the associated unit's Attack Power.

Attack Power

Attack Power is basically another name for “base damage.” This number is the starting number which all battle modifiers are applied to in the Damage Equation (explained at the end of this page) before arriving at ACTUAL damage. There will be a significant difference between Attack Power and Actual damage once the Damage Equation has been applied, so any method to increase any of the numbers involved is very helpful.

Increasing Attack Power is probably one of the easiest ways to increase one of the numbers in the Damage Equation. Potion of Valor, Battle Lust, The Holy Light, Hero abilities … there are simply too many things to list that can increase or decrease the Attack Power of units. Do some studying and you’ll find something. I guarantee it.

Attack Resistances

Attack Resistances mitigate damage directly. That means if a stack is hit with a FIRE attack, and has 50% FIRE resist, that stack will only sustain 50% of the damage the attacking unit deals. Obviously there are going to be situations where a unit with more than one attack type attacks one of your units. In this situation, how do you determine the resists? Well, let’s look at an example:

Efreeti have three total attack types: Fire, Magic, and Ranged; and all three attack types are taken into account when the target is resisting. But how does that work? For sake of brevity, let’s say that Efreetis are hitting other Efreetis. Efreetis have 30% Fire Resist, 50% Magic Resist, and 75% Ranged Resist. Efreeti attack types are Fire Ranged, and Magic Ranged. Fire Ranged is actually TWO attack types: Fire, and Ranged. Magic Ranged, again, is TWO attack types: Magic, and Ranged. These attacks will be calculated like so:

Attack #1 – Fire Ranged:

     Fire Resist (30%) + Ranged Resist (75%) / 2 = Resist against this attack.
     30% + 75% / 2 = 52.5% Resist against this attack.

Attack #2 – Magic Ranged:

     Magic Resist (50%) + Ranged Resist (75%) /2 = Resist against this attack.
     50% + 75% / 2 = 62.5% Resist against this attack.

There is the occasional case in which a third attack type can be added to a unit’s attack. Such is the case with Wyverns (which have a Poison Melee attack type) when you cast Flame Blade on them (adds Fire attack type to all units with Melee attack type). It turns their attack into Fire Poison Melee, and this is how that would be resisted by Efreetis:

     Fire Resist (30%) + Poison Resist (55%) + Melee Resist (60%) / 3 = Resist against this attack.
     30% + 55% + 60% / 3 = 48.33% Resist against this attack.

You can see that in this case the resistances are divided by three. That is because we’re averaging the resistances to determine the resistance against the total attack. Were it a four-type attack (like a Demon Knight’s Cold Melee accompanied with Flame Blade (+Fire) and Vial of Venom (+Poison), then it would be divided by four. The more attack types you can add, the more damage you are likely to do to a target, as more resistances get called into play. Once a final resistance value has been determined, it is added to the damage equation (I will go into this at the end of this section) as its own opposite. That is, 1 – Total Resistances. So, if your total resistance against a particular attack type is 52.5%, the resistance value is subtracted from 1 for the purpose of damage calculation, and therefore would be 47.5. This will make sense when I explain the damage equation, later.

That is how resistances are determined for attack types. So when you’re studying the Attack Types and Resistances of your units and the units of any potential targets, make sure you look at ALL of them. Because 95% melee resist isn’t going to help you much against a Wyvern with Flame Blade if you have 20% Fire and 0% Poison resist.

The unit sheet is very important when it comes to determining how a battle will go down. Knowing what your units’ attack types and resistances are will help you to stack them somewhere they’ll do the most damage and receive the least.

Accuracy

Accuracy is one of the factors of battle that are extremely important and also very complex. I will do my best to make it understandable, but if it’s just too complex to grasp, don’t feel discouraged; anyone can understand the simple rule regarding accuracy: More is better, less is worse. All units start out with a base Accuracy of 30%. PLENTY of things modify this, but one of the most important things to remember is that Accuracy has more of an effect on how much damage your units will do than their own attack power. I will try to give an example …

Efreeti have a base Attack Power of 5,000 on their Primary Attack. With a base 30% accuracy, those Efreeti will deal 1,500 damage each to an enemy unit with no fire or ranged resistances (5,000 * 0.30). For this example, we are not considering any of the Efreeti’s abilities. Now, if we add the Valor bonus of a level 15 Veteran to that (+10% AP), then the Efreetis’ Attack Power increases to 5,500. With 30% base accuracy, each Efreeti will deal 1,650 damage to an enemy unit with no fire or ranged resist. However, if we add 3% Accuracy from Sun Favor instead of that Veteran, we’ll get 1,650 damage out of those Efreeti (5,000 * 0.33). This means that 3% Accuracy gives the same bonus as 10% Attack Power! What if it were 10% Accuracy (5,000 * 0.40)? We’d get 2,000 damage out of those Efreeti. We would need over 33% AP increase to get the same increase in damage that we’d receive from a 10% increase in Accuracy.

There are plenty of Abilities, Spells, Items, Hero Effects, and so on that adjust accuracy in battle, but I will leave it up to you, the player, to research and learn them. As for determining the overall Accuracy of any given unit in a battle, we can rely on the Accuracy Formula. To complete the Accuracy Formula properly, we will need to know the total sum of Accuracy Modifiers. For this formula, every percentage point is added as its direct integer value (that is, a 3% accuracy modifier from Sun would be represented by the number 3):

A = total sum of Accuracy Modifiers.

if A >= 0, then Accuracy = 30+A
if 0 >= A >= -15, then Accuracy = 30-A
if -15 >= A >= -30, then Accuracy = 24-3/5 * A
if A <= -30, then Accuracy = 12-1/5 * A

So, as an example, let’s pit Efreetis against Zombies, on a Regular Attack, with the Zombies using Satchel of Mist on defense …

Efreetis have Fear, Swift, and Marksmanship. This increases their own Accuracy by 10% (Marksmanship) while reducing the Accuracy of the Zombies by 25% (10% from Swift, 15% from Fear). The Zombies have the ability Clumsiness, which reduces their Accuracy by a further 10%, and the Satchel of Mist reduces Accuracy of all units in the entire battle by 10%. Given that the total sum of Accuracy Modifiers affecting the Zombies is greater than 30 (in this case, 45%), we use the last equation in the Accuracy Formula: if A <= -30, then Accuracy = 12-1/5*A. So, this is what the Accuracy result is for both stacks:

Efreeti = 30% Accuracy (base 30% + 10% for Marksmanship – 10% for Satchel)
Zombie = 3% Accuracy (12 – 0.2 * 45)

The Efreeti will deal 1500 Damage each before resistances (5,000 * 0.3), and the Zombies will deal 6.3 Damage each before resistances (210 * 0.03). This is a fantastic example of just how much of an effect Accuracy can have on a battle. Let’s look at one more example for a severe difference in Accuracy. A green mage is Sieged by a black mage(On a siege, the attacker's units receive a -10% accuracy penalty if they are ground units (that is, not flying) attacking ground units). The green mage is running High Elves with Nature’s Lore enchantment and Eye of the Eagle as defense assignment. The High Elves are being led by a level 17 Warlord, and the mage has Sun Favor. The black mage attacks with Zombies.

The High Elves have Beauty and Swift abilities. These reduce the Accuracy of the Zombies by 15%. The Zombies have the ability Clumsiness, which reduces their Accuracy by a further 10%. The spell Eye of the Eagle increases the Elves’ Accuracy by 10%. The Nature’s Lore enchantment increases the Elves’ Attack Power by 14% and Accuracy by 7%. The level 17 Warlord increases the Accuracy of the Elves by 4% with its Tactics Ability. The green mage’s Sun Favor increases the Accuracy of the High Elves by 3%. The Zombies are attempting a Siege, which reduces their Accuracy by 10%. The total sum of Accuracy Modifiers on the Zombies is -35%. The total sum of Accuracy Modifiers on the High Elves is +24%. So, this is what the Accuracy result is for both stacks:

High Elves = 54% Accuracy (base 30% + 10% for Eye + 7% for Nature’s Lore + 4% from the Warlord + 3% for Sun Favor)
Zombies = 5% Accuracy (12 – 0.2 * 35)

The High Elves (base damage of 13,000 on their strongest attack, + 1,820 from Nature’s Lore) will deal 8,003 damage each before resists. The Zombies will deal 10.5 damage each before resists.

So that should give you a general idea of how Accuracy works, and why it’s always good to have as much as you can get. This is why Sun Favor is so popular. That 3% Accuracy is the same as having a lvl 15 Veteran leading your troops (or a free Potion of Valor).

Efficiency & Fatigue

Efficiency is a percentage that steadily decreases as a battle goes on. All units begin with a base Efficiency of 100%. This number is then decreased every time that unit makes either a Primary or Counter Attack. Efficiency is NOT affected by a unit making a Secondary Attack. The VALUE of Efficiency, however, is carried across all attack types. This means that if a Primary or Counter Attack has reduced a unit’s Efficiency, the Secondary Attack will have the adjusted Efficiency Value, even though it does not reduce the Efficiency at all.

There are a few modifiers of Efficiency aside from attacks. There are a few spells and items which reduce Efficiency (such as the red spell Stun, and the item Candle of Sleeping), as well as the unit ability Charm. Heroes can increase Efficiency as well; if the Hero leads a stack which is the same color and race as the Hero, the stack will receive an Efficiency bonus of a percentage equal to the level of the Hero. As an example, a lvl 16 Shaman leading a stack of Treants would give those Treants +16% Efficiency. This percentage can bring Efficiency over 100%, which in turn will cause more damage to the target. Efficiency is one of the modifiers of final damage in the Damage Equation, and is applied as a percentage. As an example, the Efreeti’s Primary Attack is init 4 and Secondary Attack is init 2. Therefore the Primary will strike first, which will reduce Efficiency by 15% (explained below). This will change the Efficiency portion of the Damage Equation to a 0.85 multiplier, reducing the damage of all future attacks. The process by which Efficiency is reduced by attacks is called Fatigue.

Fatigue is caused every time a unit makes a Primary or Counter Attack. For each one of these attacks, 15% Efficiency is lost (Units with the Endurance ability only lose 10%). As Counter Attacks are a cause of fatigue, it goes without saying that one would prefer their units to exhaust their attacks before ever having to Counter. This is why units with a high initiative are preferred over units with a low initiative. The absolute preference is to find a unit with both high Primary and Secondary initiative, but as this is rarely possible, it is generally preferred that the stronger attack be the one with the higher initiative, maximizing the damage output while the Efficiency is still at its top.

Units with the Additional Strike ability have a very interesting relationship with Fatigue. Fatigue takes effect for EVERY strike made. This means that units with Additional Strike will actually end up losing more Efficiency than other units. On top of this, the Additional Strike of units with that ability is unaffected by the Endurance ability, meaning that the second strike reduces Efficiency by 15% instead of 10%. Take for example the Demon Knight. The Demon Knight’s Primary Attack is Cold Melee, and it has an Additional Strike. It also has Endurance. This means that when the Demon Knight attacks, it will lose 10% Efficiency on the first hit, and 15% Efficiency on its second. It will lose another 10% on ALL Counter Attacks as well.

Weakness

Weaknesses are something one really needs to watch out for in their own units. A weakness causes such a dramatic shift in the overall resistance of a unit that it can be the deciding factor in whether or not that unit wins in a fight. Mechanically, a weakness to a particular Attack Type adds a -50% resistance into the average of the resistance formula. This modification is applied IN FULL and AFTER the averaging of other resists. It can actually put a unit into NEGATIVE resist. Let’s look at an example:

Hydras have 50% Fire resist and 0% Breath resist. Chimeras have a Fire Breath attack. Given these numbers, the Hydra would have a 25% resistance against the attack of the Chimera. However, the Hydras have a weakness to FIRE. This causes an extra 50% reduction in resists from the Hydra’s 25% averaged resist, resulting in a -25% total resist. Let’s look at another example:

Liches have 0% Holy resist and 95% Melee resist. Spirit Warriors have a Melee Holy attack. Using our general resistance formula, the Liches should have 47.5% resistance against the attack; however, Liches have a weakness to Holy, making the overall resistance -2.5%. Looking at these examples you can see just how drastic a shift occurs when a weakness comes into play.

Unit Abilities

Many unit abilities affect the damage the unit will receive during battle (such as Marksmanship increasing accuracy, Piercing reducing resistances, and Charm reducing efficiency); however, only ONE ability affects it directly, in that it doesn't modify a damage modifier--it modifies damage itself. The unit ability Scales reduces ALL damage that stack takes from other units by 25%, which can be pretty major, when it comes down to it. This is why many units with Scales make very good soakers.

The Damage Modifier

Each attack that any unit makes in battle is affected by a Damage Modifier. This is a random multiplier between 0.25 and 0.75 (average 0.5) that affects ALL Attack Types except Magic and Psychic, which are both fixed at 0.5. Here is how the Damage Modifier works in theory:

The Base Attack Power of 5,000 on Efreetis will deal a modified damage of no less than 1,250 (5,000 * 0.25) to no more than 3,750 (5,000 * 0.75) dependent upon the random return of the Damage Modifier. This is an example to give you a general idea of how the Damage Modifier works. It will not function exactly like this in actual combat, as the Damage Modifier is applied to your damage done after ALL other modifiers (AP, Accuracy, Resistances, etc.) are taken into account.

The Damage Equation

The Damage Equation is the final step in the process of all of the mechanics we’ve gone over. It takes all of the combined information and multiplies it all together for a final ACTUAL Damage output. The variables used in the equation are Attack Power (AP), Efficiency (E), Accuracy (A), Resistance (R), and the Damage Modifier (D). If the unit targetted has the Scales ability, it will be appended to the Damage Equation as 0.75. Aside from attack power, all numbers are likely to be decimals and will almost always be less than 1. All of the numbers are multiplied together to arrive at the ACTUAL Damage (AD) per unit for that attack. The Damage Equation is calculated for EVERY SINGLE ATTACK a unit makes, including Counter Attacks. Here is what the Damage Equation looks like:

AP * E * A * (1 – R) * D = AD

Let’s make an example to see this in actual practice. A group of Efreeti are attacking a group of Liches. The Efreeti attack first with their Fire Ranged Primary Attack at init 4. The Liches have 75% Fire resist and 95% Ranged resist and no weakness to either attack type. The Efreeti have the Fear, Marksmanship, and Swift abilities. The Liches have the Fear ability (negating the Efreetis’ Fear). The attack is a Regular, so Accuracy is unadjusted by the Siege penalty. For simplicity, let’s assume no spells, items, or enchantments are in play. The AP of the Efreeti is 5,000. The Efficiency of the Efreeti is 1 (or 100%). The Accuracy of the Efreeti is 0.4 (or 40% … base 30% + 10% from Marksmanship). The resistance of the Liches is 0.85 (or 85% … 75% + 95% / 2 … this value, however, is subtracted from 1 to arrive at the total unresisted damage, and so will appear as 0.15 in the Damage Equation). The Damage Modifier, we’ll pretend, is 0.5, as this is the average. So our Damage Equation looks like this:

5,000 * 1 * 0.4 * 0.15 * 0.5 = AD
AD = 150

The Actual Damage that each Efreeti will do to the Lich stack is 150. Given that Lich hp is 7,500, it will require 50 Efreeti to kill one Lich. Had the Lich mage been running a defensive assignment, that number would likely be even lower; perhaps significantly lower. For example, if the Lich mage had been running Lovesick/Satchel on defense, the Efreeti’s accuracy would have been reduced to 0.25, making the Damage Equation look like this:

5,000 * 1 * 0.25 * 0.15 * 0.5 = AD
AD = 93.75

Let’s look at it, now, in the other direction … The Liches’ strike just after the Efreeti using their Magic Ranged Secondary Attack at init 3. The Efreeti have 50% Magic Resist and 75% Ranged Resist and no weakness to either attack type. The Efreetis’ Fear ability is negated by the Liches’ Fear ability, but the Efreeti’s Swift ability reduces the Accuracy of the Liches by 10%. The AP of the Liches is 16,000. The Efficiency of the Liches is 0.85 (or 85%) because, while the Liches’ first attack is their Secondary, the Primary Attack of the Efreeti triggered the Counter Attack of the Liches (even though that counter would not hit due to the Efreeti being “too distant”). The Accuracy of the Liches is 0.2 (or 20% … base 30% - 10% from the Efreeti’s Swift ability). The resistance of the Efreeti is 0.625 (or 62.5% … 50% + 75% / 2), which will be represented as its opposite in the equation, of 37.5% or 0.375. The Damage Modifier is fixed at 0.5, as this attack is Magic. So, our Damage Equation looks like this:

16,000 * 0.85 * 0.2 * 0.375 * 0.5 = AD
AD = 510

The Actual Damage that each Lich will do to the Efreeti stack is 510. Given that Efreeti hp is 3,600, it will require 8 Liches to kill one Efreeti. Had the Lich mage been running an offensive assignment, such as Battle Lust/Candle, the Actual Damage would be even higher. The Liches’ AP would increase to ~24,800 and the resistances of the Efreeti would decrease to 0.525 …

24,800 * 0.85 * 0.2 * 0.475 * 0.5 = AD
AD = 1,001

For the Efreetis’ Secondary Attack, the equation will change to reflect the Efficiency loss from the first attack, as well as the difference in Attack Power, and the difference in the Liches’ resistances (in this case, there is no difference, but often there would be). It would look like this:

8,000 * 0.85 * 0.4 * 0.15 * 0.5 = AD
AD = 204

And the Liches’ Primary Attack would look like this:

5,500 * 0.85 * 0.2 * 0.25 * 0.5 = AD (again, assuming the Damage Modifier is 0.5)
AD = 137.5

If the Efreeti mage had any other units which targeted the lich stack with a primary attack, the counter attacks from the liches would steadily decrease in efficiency. Given all these data, it is easy to see how some very slight changes in any number of things can cause a drastic change to the damage done by any unit during battle. Therefore, make sure you research the units you use and the units you fight against. Learn everything you can about them, because it's very sad when your Naga Queens with a 23,500 AP on their secondary attack pair up with Titans and deal no damage whatsoever do to the Titans' 100% lightning resist.