Attack bonuses. City vs other.

[PoweredBySoy]

Hi friends.

So when my military units get promoted, I'm able to choose either a +melee attack bonus, or a +city attack bonus (among others). When an enemy melee unit is fortified in a city, which of these bonuses get applied when I attack him?

Or, another example are units that get an inherent attack bonus to other units. Let's say a Grenadier, which get a +50% attack bonus to gunpowder units, attacks a Rifleman who is in a city. Is that Rifleman still considered a gunpowder unit, or is he considered "city".

If these above defending units are still considered Melee and Gunpowder, then exactly what good is a +city attack bonus for?

 

[Rameau's Nephew]

The answer is "all of the above." A defender is tagged by both type of unit (melee, archery, mounted, gunpower, etc.) and where it is (forest, hill, fort, city, etc.).

 

[PoweredBySoy]

The answer is "all of the above." A defender is tagged by both type of unit (melee, archery, mounted, gunpower, etc.) and where it is (forest, hill, fort, city, etc.).

Hmmm. I realize that at this point it's probably too hard to answer this, but I wonder how those bonuses stack. If what you say is true.

So in my previous example, if my unit has both the +20 to Melee, as well as the +20 to city, and I attack a Warrior fortified in a city, would my total bonus be +40%? That doesn't sound very balanced at all to me.

On the other hand, if they don't stack, what is the point of taking the +city promotion? Why would you take a benefit that is totally situational, when at the same time you could have a promotion that is viable no matter where the unit is?

 

[Rameau's Nephew]

I'm fairly certain that they do stack. It balances for two reasons. First, it works both ways-- defenders also get any inherent bonuses they get against particular enemies, plus their location bonuses (which is significant in cities).

Second, the situation-specific bonuses tend to be larger than the general increase in power bonuses. Note that the bonus to melee you cite is actually a specialization, not the generic 10% power increase. Most cities won't be defended by melee units-- usually there will be archers instead. The City Raiders get their bonus regardless of what kind of defender they face.

So you can either have a versatile unit that is decent at everything, or a specialist in a particular type of warfare who is vulnerable in different situations.

 

[Khaim]

They stack. In your example, you'd have +40%. However, that's not very much at all, when you consider the fortify bonus and the city bonus of the defender.

If you're going to be attacking cities, take the city raider line. City Raider III is a total of +75%, and +10% vs gunpowder. And it's still not enough; by the time you can build them, you really really need cats to pull down the city's inherent defense.

The strongest defense early on is both an archer (hopefully with city defense) and an anti-melee unit. The archer beats an attacking +melee unit, and the axemen/maceman beats an attacking swordsman with city raider.

 

[PoweredBySoy]

I'm fairly certain...

Okay, that post helped tremendously. I'm starting to understand the mechanics behind the numbers now. Thanks, Nephew.