In the comic, Parson says that Combat in Erfworld has a simple mechanic, and the key to victory is multipliers, not addition. The following system attempts to replicate that.
Units fight together in Stacks. In Combat, Total all ATTACK values points for the first eight units in the stack. Flyers may not stack with non-Flyers (unless the non-Flyers are using the Flyers as Mounts).
Commander Bonuses – for each level of the Commander in the stack, increase the Command Bonus by 0.1. Commanders do not have to be listed in the first 8 units to add this bonus. If there is no Commander, the Bonus remains at 1.0.
The Chief Warlord is a Special Commander. In any hex with a Chief Warlord, the Leadership bonus of all Allied stacks is increased by 0.1.
Terrain Bonus – Some terrain increases Defence values. Fortifications also increase this number. In attack, this is always 0. In Defence, Open is 0, Rivers and Woods are 1, Bridges and Forts are 2. Flying units never get Terrain Bonuses, and always count this as a 0. Total Defence values for all units in the stack, and then divide by the number of units to get the average. Add in any the Terrain Bonus. This is the number of enemy attacks negated by armour, dodge, fortifications, etc. {So Average Defence of 4 and Terrain Bonus of 1 means that 5 out of 8 hits will be negated}.
Woods & Flyers: in the Comic, Flying units may not be attacked by ground units in woods unless the ground unit is “Woods” capable. For the purposes of this game, all Ranged, Scout, and Commander units are considered to be “Woods” capable. Only these units and Flying units may attack Flyers in Woods.
Ranged units on the Defensive inflict hits before the enemy has a chance to attack. Ranged units on the offensive may inflict hits, and, if the unit has move remaining, may leave the hex before the opposing stack retaliates. If a ranged unit attacks a ranged unit, combat is simultaneous. In order to use a ranged attack, the entire stack must be ranged. Non-Ranged Commanders may add a Leadership bonus only to a stack of Ranged units – obviously do not use their Attacks. Ranged stacks must always choose to engage an enemy ranged stack (if possible) before attacking a non-ranged stack.
Special Bonus – Specials include Dancefighting, Ditto-Mancy, etc. Default is 1.0. Rules for these will come as the game develops. In each combat after the first, this Special Bonus is halved. That is, a stack is attacked by two stacks. In the second calculation, the Defender’s special bonus value drops to 0.5. In a third combat, the value would drop to 0.25, and so on.
The only exception to this is if the Defending unit succeeds in ‘wiping out’ the attacking stack – ie, all attacking units are cwoaked. In this event, the Defending stack acts as though it had not fought any combats.
Ambush Bonus – units that enter a hex without scouting can be ambushed. The Ambush value ranges from 1.0 (no ambush) to 2.0 (ambush).
Random Number – not every combat point means a hit. The Random Number adds a bit of luck to the mix. On (2d6+8)/20, 2 is 50%, 7 is 75%, 12 is 100%, etc.
Use the following formula to work out how many hits have been inflicted on the enemy:
Hits = Total Attack X Command Bonus X Special Bonus X Ambush Bonus X Random Number X (8 - Opposition Average Defence - Terrain Bonus) / 8
Round result to nearest whole number. This is reflected in the Spreadsheet which is also linked to in LTDave's signature, and is the xls file on this page:
http://sites.google.com/site/erfworldempires/home/gobwin-bump-twoThe opposing stack takes the number of hits inflicted. Units are destroyed based on their stacking order – first unit listed takes maximum hits, before the next is wounded.
Exception – a stack led in attack by a Commander may direct hits at any unit in the opposing stack, but the unit takes TWICE as many hits to cwoak as it normally would. Opposing Commanders take FOUR TIMES as many hits to cwoak as normal if targeted. Obviously the first unit in a stack will never need to be targeted.
Cargo-ness shouldn't be bad; I think it could just be an extension of whatever I do for mounts. And the issue for mounts is making sure move is accounted for correctly, which I think can be done assuming logical stacking (as long as no one tries to stack a rider separately from a mount, everything should be fine)
