Combat

Combat is the art of killing and/or routing the enemy. In the context of this article, it's determining accuracy and damage of units in combat - just what does Melee Attack, Defense etc. do?

Much of this article is possible thanks to ferriswheel9ndam9 on Reddit.

Accuracy

Accuracy or chance to hit is determined by the following calculation (attacker's attack skill vs. target's melee defense):

Chance to hit = 35% + ( Melee attack - Melee defense)

Each unit has a minimum 8% chance to hit after applying modifiers and a maximum of 90% (or 10% chance to miss). Stats are modified by fatigue levels before the calculation.

Example

Temple Guards		fight	Rat Ogres
	Melee attack 32 Melee defense 38	Lizard chance to hit → 35 + (32 - 26) = 41% ← Rat chance to hit 35 + (26 - 38) = 23%	Melee attack 26 Melee defense 26

In short

A higher attack skill makes units more likely to hit, while a higher defense makes them more difficult for the enemy to hit. However, since pure random number generation is used, it's entirely possible to have a string of hits or misses. Higher skills levels merely reduce the chance of that occurring.

Damage

So, the units hit each other and deal damage. What happens? They deal damage to one another.

• The base damage value is fixed according to the weapon equipped:

Total damage = 1 + Damage + Armour-piercing damage

• Units charging the enemy will also deal impact damage, calculated according to their speed and mass. The resulting damage is 70% armor piercing, though it's largely academic as impact damage ignores any armor.
• Armour reduces incoming non-impact damage. It is a randomized percentage-based reduction, where the maximum value of damage reduction is determined by the armour_roll_lower_cap value (0.5 by default):

Max damage reduction = Damage - ( Armour * 0.5)%

• Shields provide a flat percentage chance to deflect missiles, but do not affect armor values.

Example

Temple Guards		fight	Rat Ogres
	Damage 13 Armor-piercing damage 29 Armour 85	Lizard damage → 1 + (13 - 30*0.5) + 29 = 30 - 43 ← Rat damage 1 + (22 - 85*0.5) + 58 = 59 - 81	Damage 22 Armor-piercing damage 58 Armour 30

• A word of note: Attack intervals matter. The 3.8 intervals common to most units are the baseline. Units with larger intervals, such as Great Weapons variants of units and cavalry formations, will have reduced damage outputs despite having superior stats. To determine the effective damage, divide their interval by 3.8.

Takeaway

• Melee attack and defense are responsible for accuracy and increasing them according to the units' purpose (more defense for tanks, meat shields, and tar pits, more attack for those who are supposed to take down the enemy) is generally a good idea.
• Armour is essentially capped at 200, providing the maximum (near 100%) damage reduction against regular attacks. As such, AP is strictly necessary.