Quick question about Combat Calc

[chrome_gnome]

I was just playing around with the combat calculator and and I am kind of confused as to how it ends up with the results it does. I tried pitting a regular hoplite against a regular spearman in the desert. The effective defense listed was 2.2 and the effective attack was 1 for the Hoplite. I was thinking that both units have the same hit points (no advantage either way) , both have an attack rating of 1 and only the defensive numbers vary and only slightly at that. I was realy shocked to see the spearman won 82% to 18%. It was then that it dawned on me that I have been interpreting the attack and defense numbers wrong. I thought combat was more of a each units attack went against the other units defense in kind of an opposed success test but it looks more like the attack is compared to the defense and the resulting winner inflicts one point of damage on the loser. I guess I I was thinking it was more of a tit-for-tat exchange of blows not a one sided affair. Is this really how it works, the attacker number is compared to the defender number for each hit and the defender never uses it's attack rating while defending?

I hope this makes some sense and that I have understood it correctly finally. I was always wondering why hoplites didn't make good attackers since I thought they had a weak attack but could really stand up to the return blows from the defender. But it seems the defender never uses its attack rating so the system is much simpler than I was thinking.

 

[Grey Knight]

On a per-round basis, the attackers chance to win is A/(A+D), and the defenders chance to win is D/(A+D). The percentages are then scaled to 1024, and a die roll is done between 0-1023. If the die roll is greater than the defender's chance to win, the attacker wins that round. If it is lower, the defender wins that round. The looser looses a hit point. When someone is out of hit points, that unit dies and the combat is over.

A longer explanation can be found in the reference section.

If you are used to each side getting a die roll, and the higher die roll winning, this is very different.

Cheers,
Shawn

 

[Zachriel]

Initiative belongs to the attacker.

The attacker's Attack Value is compared to the defenders Defense Value. Hoplites make lousy attackers. Historically, their duty was to hold the line and allow the mounted units to flank the enemy. In a combined-arms Civ3 stack, the horsemen attack, retreat to the stack, and are then defended by the hoplites on the counterattack.