Combat - are relative strengths and hps recalculated for each round of combat?

[DrJambo]

I read through the War Academy 'Combat Explained' and it was a useful read, but there was one thing not overly clear. To summarise:

1. When combat is initiated the relative strengths for the attacker (A) and defender (D) are calculated based on their current hitpoints remaining. So for instance a knight at 10 st with 50 hps has a relative strength of 5. Simple.

2. Relative strengths are used to calculate who will win each round of combat. This is done through the ratio of attacker's strength (A) to defender's strength (D). For instance a full strenght knight at 10 st vs an axeman at 5 st has a 66.7% chance of winning the round.

3. Damage is dealt to the loser of a round and a new combat round is commenced. I'm not going to go into how damage works here.

Now, here's the ambiguity:

For subsequent combat rounds between the same two units, are the relative strengths of A and D recalculated taking into consideration the new hitpoints of the units? Or, are the relative strengths that were initially calculated for the first round of combat kept throughout until there's a result, upon which time they are then considered to have their new (damaged) relative strength?

I imagine hitpoints must be kept track of as they'll constantly be decreasing as damage is done, but the question is more - does this interact with a recalculation of relative strength from round to round (presuming this even happens)?

If so, does the % chance of winning any given battle, as shown in-game, take this into account, or is this just based on the initial strengths and hitpoints prior to combat?

Thanks in advance to someone who knows.

DrJ.

 

[PieceOfMind]

The relative strengths do not change during the battle.

This is why as the battle progresses the number of HP damage dealt in each round does not change. In other words, each round is fought with the same probability of win/loss.

I'm not too sure about the accuracy of the combat odds calculator in other regards, but it does take into account the detail that we're describing.

The combat system is in fact remarkably simple at its core. The analysis of odds relating to it etc. are not so simple.

So answering your final question, yes, the odds do depend only on the initial strengths, the initial hitpoints and of course the defense modifiers.

EDIT BY the way, saving anyone the time to find the article mentioned above (Combat Explained), here it is.