Combat

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Latest revision as of 03:49, 23 April 2012

This page is reserved for description of rules and mechanics of combat in Erfworld. For information on Combat as a unit stat go to Combat_(stat)

[edit] Proposed Canon

Combat in Erfworld can occur whenever one side's Units choose to attack a second Side's Units that are in the same hex or zone.

[edit] Forces

A Side's Units may be grouped into Stacks, or may fight as single Unit. There is no limit to the number of Units that may stack together. Each Stack fights as a single entity, working together to perform a single task.

Leaders perform the tasks of officers. Leaders may re-organize stacks in the vicinity, provide instructions to stacks, provide combat instructions to any units stacked with the leader, and provide a bonus to units in the same stack. Leaders are Casters, Warlords, Chief Warlords (all three unit types are also referred to as Commanders), and Rulers.

For details on the effects of Special Abilities on stacking and force make-up, see Unit.

[edit] Attacking

An Unit (the attacker) may attack another unit (the defender) when it meets all of the following conditions:

• the defender is not an ally of the attacker
• the attacker is on Turn or when the defender enters the same hex with the attacker
• the defender is in the same hex as the attacker
• the attacker is aware of the presence of the non-allied units
• the attacker is capable of reaching the non-allied units with its weapons (Ie. Archers can attack flying units, but meleers cannot, see Terrain below for more details, but the fact the enemy's defenses are too powerful to cause damage does not prevent attacking.)

Note that further use of "attacker" and "defender" is not appropriate in a Real-Time Combat system: it is only useful to determine if any combat is possible between two Units. Once combat has initiated, damage dealing is simultaneous for both Units.

The effectiveness of one Unit vs. another is determined by some function of:

• offensive Unit's Combat statistic with bonuses
• defensive Unit's Defense statistic with bonuses

This calculation may be performed for both Units simultaneously, due to the real-time nature of the Combat system.

When an attacker successfully gets in its "hitsies", it deals some amount of damage. This amount is subtracted from the Hits statistic of the defensive Unit. If the result is zero or less, the Unit is croaked. There may be a function, similar to the new D&D rules, where a unit must have negative hit points for it to be croaked, and otherwise is out of commission.

A stack that is lead by a leader can selectively target specific enemy units in a Stack they are attacking.^Erf-b1-p049

The organization of a Side's forces are not restricted to a smaller hex grid inside the hex. With flight, units may be above or below each other, or do anything else they could on Earth, like climb on each other's shoulders. Units can perform any function a human on Earth would.

[edit] Terrain

Restrictive terrain may prevent combat between Units. See Movement for details on moving between hexes of different types.

• Air Units
  • While over Water, Mountains, or Heavy trees may only be attacked by other Air Units
  • While in Forests may only be attacked by Forest Units and Air Units

• Water Units

• Forest Units

[edit] Combat Bonuses

While combat is resolved based on the stats of the units involved, bonuses can have a large effect.^Erf-b1-p125 Bonuses are cumulative, so it is most effective to combine as many of them as possible.

Bonuses apply to both Sides in combat. It is not known if they apply to just Attack or to Defense as well.

[edit] Known Bonuses

• Bonus based on Stack size
  • Each unit in the stack adds 1 to the bonus, to a maximum of 8
    • Traditionally, this results in 8-unit stacks being the most common
    • A minimum sized stack of 2 would begin with a bonus of 2

• Bonus based on Leadership stat
  • Commanders have a Leadership bonus of 0
  • Warlords and higher ranks have a leadership bonus of 1 or more
  • Applies fully to all units in the Warlord's stack
    • the highest known bonus is 10 (for Ansom), but there is no level limit so there may be no limit to this bonus

• Chief Warlord bonus
  • Bonus applies partially (~1/3) to all units in the Chief Warlord's Side^{summer-updates-033}
  • Bonus applies halved to all units in the hex^Erf-b1-p113
  • Bonus applies fully to all units in the Chief Warlord's stack
  • Bonus applies fully to all units in a side's capital

• Leadership Bonus of Casters
  • Casters act as Commanders
  • Croakamancer
    • "Huge" bonus applies to all uncroaked units in the croakamancer's stack^Erf-b1-p084a
  • Dirtamancer
    • Bonus applies to Dirtamancer created golems.^Erf-b1-p084a

• Artifact bonus
  • Arkentools add a bonus to all units in the hex.^Erf-b1-p072

• Dance Fighting bonus
  • During combat, each side performs a dance (and might sing).^{Erf-b1-p111 and Erf-b1-p127}
    • See Unit for more details on the Natural Ability Dance Fighting

• Terrain bonus^Erf-b1-p125

• Specials bonus^Erf-b1-p125

• Spell buffs bonus^Erf-b1-p125

[edit] Defending

In a Real-Time Combat system, there is no defender; however, in Erfworld, units that are not on Turn are restricted in their activities. Units not on Turn may attack only non-allies that enter the same hex: if the defending Unit declines to attack the Unit as it enters, it may not attack later.^[1]

[edit] Speculation

Bonuses may be applied to level, creating an effective level in the stack that alters all of the unit's statistics (Hits, Combat, Defense, and Loyalty). This of course would not alter the unit's actual level, but could manipulate the amount of experience they accrue.

[edit] References

1. ^  Word of the Titans