Concept : How to take a sector or ship from the enemy
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Attacking - Details for attack, assault, paradrop, board and lboard
Level: Expert
This info page describes 5 different commands: "attack", "assault",
"paradrop", "board" and "lboard". These are the five commands that you use to
take something (either a ship, land unit or a sector) from the enemy by force.
Note that much of the board information relates to the lboard information,
just apply it to a land unit instead of a ship.
A combat has 15 steps:
(1) Ask the aggressor for the target sector/ship.
(2) Ask the aggressor further details about the offensive force.
(3) Estimate the odds and possibly ask the aggressor for confirmation.
(4) Move reacting defensive units to the target sector.
(5) Calculate defensive support.
(6) Fight.
(7) Spread the plague.
(8) Take mobility and supply from land units.
(9) Send reacting units home.
(10) If successful, the aggressor takes the target sector/ship.
(11) Remove mobility and efficiency from the target sector/ship.
(12) Remove mobility from the aggressor's sectors/ship.
(13) Possibly ask the aggressor for mil and units to move into the target.
(14) Possibly interdict the aggressor's mil and units as they move.
(15) Charge the aggressor BTU's.
(1) Ask the aggressor for the target sector/ship.
Sea, sanctuary, and wasteland are illegal targets.
You may not assault a mountain.
You may not paradrop into a mountain, capital, city, or fortress.
You may only board a ship from the sector the ship is in, you may
not board a ship which is faster than your ship, and you may not board
a submarine at sea.
You may only board a land unit from the sector the land unit is in.
The "assault" command is the only command which will let you attack your own
sector (you can use this to get mil & assault units on shore). You should not
"attack" unowned land (see info explore).
If the SLOW_WAR option is enabled, you will not be able to attack a sector
owned by a country you are not AT_WAR with, unless you are the old owner of
the sector.
(2) Ask the aggressor further details about the offensive force.
When you board, you are asked for a ship or sector to board from. If you are
attacking or assaulting, then you have the option to specify whether you want
your forts/ships/plane/units to support your attack. If no support is speci-
fied, then it is assumed that you want support from all sources.
If you are not paradropping, then you will be asked for mil and units you
would like to attack with. You must always leave at least 1 mil in the sector
or ship you are attacking from, so you may never attack with all of your mil
out of a sector or ship. The following limitations apply to the aggressor's
mil:
Attack: You are limited by the mobility of the attacking sector
according to the mob-cost to move the mil into the target sector.
Assault: If the target sector contains mil, then you may only attack with
1/10th of your mil on board, unless your ship has "semi-land"
capability in which case it is 1/4th, -or- if your ship has
"land" capability in which case there is no limitation.
Board: When boarding from a sector, the sector must have mob. When
boarding from either a ship or a sector, the number of mil
you may board with is limited to the maximum number of mil that the
target ship can hold. Note that you can board land units
from a sector only.
The following restrictions apply to the aggressor's land units:
A land unit must have mobility and be in supply (see info supply) in
order to be able to enter the combat. Land units with "supply"
capability may not attack. Only land units with "assault"
capability may assault or board.
Attack: The land unit will be charged as much mobility as it would
spend marching into the sector. If that is at least as much
as for a path cost of 1.0 (typically mountains only), it must
have that much mobility, else positive mobility is
sufficient.
Board: You may only board with as many land units as the target ship
can hold. You cannot board a land unit with other land units.
When asked whether you'd like to include a certain land unit in the combat,
you will be given a prompt ending in [ynYNq?]. At this prompt, you can type:
y - yes this unit
n - no this unit
Y - yes all units in this army
N - no all units in this army
q - quit attack
? - print this help message
(3) Estimate the odds and possibly ask the aggressor for confirmation.
The offense strength of your land units is mil * off where "mil" is the
number of mil in the unit, and "off" is the offense multiplier of the
unit (see show land stats), with the following exceptions:
Assault: If the unit doesn't have "marine" capability, then its
offense strength is cut in half.
Board: If the unit doesn't have "marine" capability, then its
offense strength is equal to half of the number of mil in the unit.
The total offense strength is the number of mil plus the offense strength of
all offensive units. This number is then multiplied by the offense value of
the sector the mil and units are attacking from (see show sector stats).
Ships have an offense value of 1.
The defense strength of a land unit is the total number of mil in the unit
times its defense multiplier (see show land stats). The only exception to
this is non-marine land units on ships which have a strength equal to the
total number of mil in them. The defense strength of units out of supply is
cut in half. The defense strength of fortified units is multiplied by (127 +
fortification) / 127.
The total defense strength is the number of mil plus the defense strength of
all defensive units. This number is then multiplied by the defense value of
the sector the mil and units are in (see show sector stats). Ships have a
defense value of 1 + def/100 (see show ship stats). You can use the
"strength" command to see the defense strength of your sectors.
Now, when your scouts estimate the defense strength, they only count land
units and mil that they see. If your scouts didn't notice the efficiency of
the defending units, then they assume that they are at 100% efficiency. Your
scouts also assume that none of the enemy units are fortified. Once your
scouts have come up with an "estimated defense strength", then that number is
compared with your offense strength. The output so far might look like this:
[##:##] Command : attack -14,2
-14,2 is a 100% 5 harbor with approximately 0 military.
Number of mil from headquarters at -15,3 (max 108) : 10
cavalry #7 has a base attack value of 44
attack with cavalry #7 in -15,3 (~ 100%) [ynYNq?] y
cavalry #24 has a base attack value of 44
Initial attack strength: 108
Scouts report defending unit: inf1 infantry 1 #22 (efficiency 71, tech 169)
Scouts report defending unit: inf2 infantry 2 #41 (efficiency 94, tech 169)
Scouts report defending unit: inf2 infantry 2 #42 (efficiency 94, tech 173)
Scouts report defending unit: inf2 infantry 2 #43 (efficiency 65, tech 139)
Estimated defense strength: 1118
Estimated odds: 8%
Note that your estimated odds are calculated before any enemy units have
reacted, and before support multipliers are calculated, so they will not be
particularly accurate.
(4) Move reacting defensive units to the target sector.
If the target is not a mountain, then defensive units in nearby sectors may
react. Defensive units will keep reacting until the defense strength is 1.2
times the offense strength. The following restrictions apply to reacting land
units:
- The efficiency of the unit must be higher than it's retreat percentage.
- The unit must be in supply.
- The unit must have enough mobility to get to the target.
- The unit must be in range.
If the unit is in a 60% efficient headquarters, then 1 is added to its reac-
tion radius. If it is on "reserve" mission, then 2 is added to the radius.
Note that you can limit the reaction radius of your land units using the
"lrange" command.
(5) Calculate support.
For attack and assault, both offensive and defensive support is calculated.
For paradrop, only defensive support is calculated, and for board and lboard
there is no support (however, defending ships within range will fire on the
boarding ship or sector before the fight if boarding a ship).
The aggressor's support is calculated based on what the aggressor asked for.
Defensive support is only called in to the extent that it would be useful. If
the aggressor outnumbers the defender 10-to-1, then the defender will not have
any support. Otherwise, the defender will keep calling in support until its
strength is at least 1.2 times the offense strength.
Fort, ship, and unit support is simply those forts, ships, and units in range
that can fire (see info fire). Note that ships and units on missions will not
fire support. Plane support comes from those planes on "support" mission.
The support multiplier is
1.0 + fortdamage/100 + shipdamage/100 + planedamage/100 + unitdamage/100.
Ships/forts/units belonging to allies of the combatants will support, if they
are at war with the other combatant. (For example, if A is allied with B, and
at war with C, and A attacks C, things belonging to B will support the attack
if able. The same is true for defense. If C attacks A, the B stuff will help
defend A)
After these four supports are calculated, then land mine support is added to
the defense support. Defending land mines add (number of mines) * 0.02 to a
maximum of 0.40. If there are attacking engineers present, this number is cut
in half.
(6) Fight.
Total offense and defense strength are multiplied by their support multipliers
to obtain the final combat strengths. From this, odds are calculated. Then
in each "round", a chance according to the combat odds determines whether an
aggressor or defender troop is lost. Troops killed in combat are first taken
from the mil (from the sector containing the most mil), and then from the
units (from the unit containing the most mil). Combat odds are recalculated
and the process continues until there is a victor. Each time there is a casu-
alty, a character is printed:
! means a defending soldier bit it
@ means one of your soldiers went doan
If the effiency of a land unit is less than its retreat percentage when it
gets hit, then it will need to make a morale check. The chance of failing a
morale check is (retreat percentage - efficiency). If the unit has nowhere to
retreat to, then it takes "extra losses" which amounts to an extra 10% docked
from its efficiency. Otherwise, the land unit retreats to the adjacent sector
containing the maximum number of civs. Units will never retreat into moun-
tains.
Also note that once all of the military on a land unit are killed, the land
unit stops defending. What this means is that a land unit can become
"trapped" in an sector if an enemy takes it over after killing all the mili-
tary on a land unit while the land unit may not be destroyed.
When planning an attack remember that overwhelming forces greatly increases
your odds; i.e., attacking 10 men with 40 will result in your losing fewer
troops than if you had attacked with 20.
(7) Spread the plague.
If any combatant in a battle is infected with the plague, all potential comn-
batants in the battle are infected as well (if they do not already have some
level of plague already.)
(8) Take mobility and supply from land units.
The "aggresor loss factor" is equal to the number of aggressor casualties
divided by the total number of aggressor troops that went into the conflict.
Similarly, the "defender loss factor" is calculated. Then each land unit
loses mobility equal to 10 * (loss factor). Defensive land units on reserve
mission only lose half of that. Also there is a chance equal to the loss fac-
tor that the land unit will use up some of its supply (see info supply).
(9) Send reacting units home.
If the defending land unit did not retreat, then send it back to where it came
from at no mobility charge.
(10) If successful, the aggressor takes the target sector/ship.
Either 1 aggressor mil (first choice) or one land unit (second choice) is
automatically moved into the conquered ship or sector to occupy it. Since
this mil or unit is effectively "chasing out" the remnants of the defending
forces, the defender will not interdict it (because he won't want to damage
his forces with "friendly fire").
This is what happens to the sector when you take it:
- All delivery and distribution information is wiped.
- The production in the sector is stopped (see info stop).
- Planes in the sector owned by the player you just took the sector from
lose 30 plus random(100) efficiency and go to 0 mob. If the new efficiency
is less than 10%, the plane is blown up.
- Units in the sector owned by the player you just took the sector from
lose 30 plus random(100) efficiency and go to 0 mob. If the new efficiency
is less than 10%, the unit is blown up.
- The avail is set to 0.
- New che are created (see info Guerrilla).
- Set the loyalty of the sector to 50 (see info Citizens).
- Reduce the mobility to 0.
- The civs in the sector become "conquered populace" (see info Occupation).
When you take a ship:
- Mission, retreat info and fleet info is wiped.
- Planes and land units on the ship are reduced to 10%.
When you take a land unit:
- Mission, retreat info and army info is wiped.
- Planes and land units on the unit are reduced to 10%.
When you take someone's capital, the defender loses half of their
money or $3000 whichever is greater. If the defender wasn't broke to
begin with, then the aggressor gets half of their money times (1/5 +
4/5 * efficiency of the sector).
(11) Remove mobility and efficiency from the target sector/ship.
The efficiency of the target sector or ship is damaged by a percentage equal
to the total number of casualties divided by ten.
If the target is a sector, then it will lose a percentage of the mobility
equal to the number of defender mil casualties divided by the total number of
mil that were originally in that sector, up to a maximum of 20 mobility. So
if for example, your casualty fraction was 70/100, and your sector started
with 50 mobility, then you would lose min(20, 50*70/100) = min(20, 35) = 20
mobility.
(12) Remove mobility from the aggressor's sectors and ships.
The pre-combat mobility costs are:
Attack: Remove mobility equal to the mob cost to move the mil into the
target sector.
Board: If boarding from a ship, the cost is the half of the speed of the
defending ship times the efficiency of the defending ship.
If boarding from a sector, the cost is the number of boarding
mil divided by 5. This applies for boarding of ships and land units.
Only sectors are charged an additional post-combat mobility cost. In this
case, the amount of mobility the sector loses is calculated using the same
formula as is used for the defending sector's mobility cost.
(13) Possibly ask the aggressor for mil and units to move into the target.
If the combat was an assault, paradrop, board or lboard, then all victorious
mil and units are automatically moved into the target. The mil are moved in
with no mobility charge. If the combat is assault, then the mil will take an
amount of food with them proportional to the number of people leaving the
ship. The mobility cost to land units is as follows:
Assault: If the land units are attacking from a ship with "land" capability,
then land units are charged (update mob) mobility, except for
"marine" units which are only charged half of that. For all
other kinds of ships, land units go to -(update mob), except for
"marine" units which go to zero. Here, (update mob) refers to
the amount of mobility that units gain at the update.
Board: Marine units are charged 10 mobility and other land units are
charged 40.
In the case of attack, the aggressor is asked what they'd like to move in as
follows: First, the aggressor is asked how many mil they would like to move
in from each attacking sector. This number is limited by the amount of mobil-
ity left in the attacking sector. Then the aggressor is asked which land
units they'd like to move into the sector with the same [ynYNq?] prompt as
above, the only difference being that 'q' now means "don't move anything in".
The mobility costs here are the same as for "move" and "march".
(14) Possibly interdict the aggressor's mil and units as they move.
Post-attack interdiction only occurrs in the "attack" command (and not in
"assault", "paradrop", "board" or "lboard"). When you move your mil into the
target sector after an attack, you will risk the same chances of interdiction
(number of mil / 200) and stepping on land mines (see "info lmine") as if you
were moving them using the "move" command.
Similarly, once you have specified which land units you'd like to move into
the conquered sector, then all of your units will move in at once, and they
will be interdicted in the same way as though they were being moved using the
"march" command, including the danger of stepping on land mines. Note that
there is no post-attack interdiction and no danger of stepping on land mines
if the INTERDICT_ATT option is disabled (see version).
(15) Charge the aggressor BTU's.
The BTU cost is equal to 0.5 + (the total number of casualties) * 0.015.
SEE ALSO
attack, assault, paradrop, board, lboard, Combat