Calculating unit promotions

[Ringwraiths]

I've been reading up on promotions and I have three questions, so I'm going to tap into the collective wisdom:

1. Do promotions add or multiply?

What I mean is, if an archer gets 50% from city defense, 25% from fortify bonus, 40% from cultural defense, and 20% from city garrison 1, would you just add all those percentages and then multiply? For example:

50+25+40+20=135%.
3 x 135% = 4.05.
3 + 4.05 = 7.05 total strength

Or are the bonuses cumulative? For example

3 x 50% = 1.5 3 + 1.5 = 4.5
4.5 x 25% = 1.125 4.5 + 1.125 = 5.625
5.625 x 40% = 2.25 5.625 + 2.25 = 7.875
7.875 x 20% = 1.575 7.875 + 1.575 = 9.45 total strength

7.05 vs 9.45. That's a huge difference! And that's not even factoring first strikes.

2. Do mounted units start with a withdrawal chance?

On the unit page it says chariots start with a 10% withdrawal chance but it doesn't say anything like that about horse archers, knights, etc. So with flanking I & II is the horser archers withdrawal chance 30% or would it be more because of a built in bonus?

3. Are mounted units innately immune to first strikes?

The unit guide says that even unpromoted horse archers, knights etc, are immune to first strikes. Is that correct? Or would you have to have flanking II to be immune to first strikes? If mounted units start with immunity then what's the point of flanking II granting immunity to first strikes? Is that just for chariots?

Thanks in advance

 

[TheMeInTeam]

1. They add. Combat bonuses stay with the unit that has them. All other promotions are applied to the defender. There's a breakdown of the math in a strategy article.

2. Most do. Knights and elephants do not. Mousing over the unit will show you its withdrawal chance.

3. No. Most, however, have first strike immunity to begin with. Exceptions are keshiks (regular horse archers are immune, but not keshiks), cataphracts, and cavalry. You can, of course, give them first strike immunity anyway by getting flanking II.

 

[Ringwraiths]

Thanks, bro. Pretty nice for a self-centered guy

 

[TheMeInTeam]

One must possess a certain degree of arrogance to use a name like this, but that doesn't mean you have to be mean or condescending .

 

[Ringwraiths]

BTW, I got a laugh out our join dates vs. our post count. Seems I have some catching up to do.

 

[Joshua368]

Holy crap, TheMeInTeam only joined early this year? He's almost as new as me!

 

[Celebithil]

As a bonus I'd like to add a strange consequence of the combat system: If attacking a city against such a defender (135% bonus) combat 1 is stronger than city raider 1 (indeed 1.1/2.35 > 1/2.15). Usually opponents do not have such strong bonuses after you have properly bombarded city defenses (or removed them otherwise), and the needed bonus for C2 to beat CR2 is almost never reached (the defender needs 170% bonus), but when axerushing with units that can get at most 1 promotion, C1 wins out if defender bonus is greater than 115% (which is not uncommon).