Combat results

[Kyborgi]

I don't understand how the combat works in civ3. My units keep losing against all the odds.

Combat results for the next turn seem to be calculated during the last turn. No matter how many times i load and try again, the combat goes exactly the same way. If i return to the last turn and move some units differently, the combat results for next turn change.

The combat calculator isn't working at all. The odds it shows are not right. It starts to piss me off when i lose 5 elite swordsmen to 3 regular warriors that are not fortified and both units are on non-improved grassland tiles. 98% win... Yeah, right!

The units seem to manage worse when they are fighting multiple units on the same turn. This can be seen well when fighting with modern armors against spearmen but also when defending against multiple enemies. usually the first one goes well, you might lose the second battle and extremely rarely be able to win the third one.

Sometimes it starts to feel a bit unfair when u lose elite army to a town defended by 1 regular spearman so I'd really like to know how the combat really works.

 

[Gainy]

All battles are decided by a Random Number Generator (RNG).
If you have Civ3: PTW, then you can decide how this generator works.
You can either, "Preserve Random Seed", or use a new method.
If you choose to "Preserve Random Seed", then no matter how many times you reload, you will always get the same battle outcomes (which is what you are experiencing). Whereas, if you uncheck the "Preserve Random Seed" box (In PTW), then each time you reload, it will calculate the probability again (generally resulting in different battle outcomes).

What you have experienced was pretty unlucky, but stuff happens There is a thread where you can post your "Bad luck" saves, called "BE and CarlosMM's bad luck thread". If you look back a page or so (maybe even at the bottom of this one) then you will find it

 

[anarres]

To be specific, each round of combat is calculated as follows:

Probability of attacker winning combat round = A/(A+D)

where:
A = attacker strength
D = defender defense (including bonuses)

The reason the AI will regain a HP each time is that if you don't kill them outright and they are fortified they will heal before their next turn. For this reason you should attack a city with enough troops to take it in one turn.