attack-defence promotions

[xalien]

Things like heroic str/defence and sinister - how exactly do they work? Do they only trigger if the unit in question is the one to initiate attack or is attacked? Or are they used in the internal damage roll calculations where unit alternates between attack-defence?

 

[Arctem]

Attack and defense increase the base strength unit. FFH2 allows for units to have different attack and defense values so that a unit will have a different base strength depending on whether it is attacking or defending, similar to previous Civilization games. Having Attack +1 won't help you on defense, and vice versa.

 

[xalien]

So I need to be an attacker to gain from +attack? What about 1st strikes, do they get attack bonus if I'm the one being attacked?

 

[mimic]

You can look at the units strength if you have something like heroic defense it would look like 5/6 which means 5 attack, 6 defense.

 

[xalien]

Yeah, I know that, that's not what I'm asking about. I want to know what's the difference between +attack and +defence in various combat situations.

 

[Grey Fox]

Well units have attack and defense strength. Attack str is only used when you attack, and it is used against the defending units defense strength.

First strikes are used in both offense and defense. If one unit has 4 first strikes and the other have only 1, the first unit will have only 3 first strikes.

 

[xalien]

Attack str is only used when you attack, and it is used against the defending units defense strength.

By "attack" you mean when I click on a unit and order it to attack the other one? Or do you mean when combat starts and hero A attacks hero B and deals x amount of damage (A uses +attack and B uses +defence), then hero B attacks hero A for y amount of damage (this time B uses +attack and A uses +defence), rinse repeat until one of them is dead?
E.g. if the unit is fortified in a city for defensive purposes only, does sinister or heroic str promotion have any impact on it's performance?

First strikes are used in both offense and defense. If one unit has 4 first strikes and the other have only 1, the first unit will have only 3 first strikes.

Aye, but the question is if the defending unit gets to use 1st strike will it get a boost from the +attack promotion?

 

[Grey Fox]

By attack I mean the unit that is moving into the defender.

 

[xienwolf]

First strike means that for that combat round, only the unit who has first strike is allowed to do damage. Stoneskin works in a similar manner by declaring that in that round the unit with Stoneskin cannot take any damage.

Either is useless if you win the round anyway. They only come into play if you lose the check.

(if you don't know how combat works, each unit starts with 100 Hp, and by default will do 10 Hp damage per round of combat if they win the roll. The chances to win the roll are (pretty sure) the overall combat odds, and the amount of damage you do per round is also adjusted based on the combat odds (so a 5 vs 5 means that each round each one can do 10 damage. But in a 10 vs 2 you are probably looking at the 10 doing 20 damage per round, and the 2 only doing 1 or 2. Thus not only is it unlikely you will hit them, but when you DO hit them it won't hurt much)

 

[Zechnophobe]

I'm pretty sure the default damage is 20 not 10.

Aside: Part of the reason even a 5% bonus to strength, in an otherwise even battle, is because you not only have a slightly higher chance to win each round, but also have to win less total rounds. Y'see, you will be doing 20 or 21 damage (5 round victories needed to win) while the opponent will be doing 19 or 18 (6 victories needed to win).

So, here's a question I've always wondered... when you have a 'chance' to do a first strike, what is the % of the time you actually get to do it? Is it static?

 

[Grey Fox]

I think the chance is 50%, but I dont remember. (It might be two checks for a hit, though)

 

[xienwolf]

You are right, it is 20 damage. I kept thinking I was wrong while I was writting it, but my mind couldn't clear up