The combat system

How a battle is decided

No hidden dice. A fight is the sum of two stacks' strength, adjusted by a handful of transparent modifiers you can plan around.

• Each unit has a Strength (Str). A stack fights with its members' combined strength, highest-Str units defending last.
• A battle is a series of one-on-one exchanges: each is a strength-weighted coin flip (the side with more effective strength is more likely to win it), and the loser takes 1 hp. This repeats until one side is destroyed or retreats.
• Leadership: the single highest Leadership among a stack's non-hero units adds to the whole stack — it does NOT stack (only the best applies). Elite units give +2, heavy +1.
• Command, Leadership, Walls and Terrain bonuses are added together but capped at +5 for either side.
• Favored terrain: if any unit in a battle favors the tile it's fought on, the whole side gets +1. Ground units favor their faction's homeland; heavies also favor Hills, cavalry also favor Plains.
• Marsh is nobody's home ground: no side gets the favored-terrain bonus fighting on a marsh tile.
• Siege: a siege engine in the attacking stack cancels the defender's city Wall bonus.
• Naval: strength at sea is capped (a land army can't project full force onto the water).
• Wounds carry between battles: a unit that survives fighting hurt stays hurt until something mends it (see Wounds & healing).

Cities & walls

Settlements are more than income — their walls swing a defense, and a siege engine is the answer.

• Every city gives its defenders a flat +1 Str Wall bonus on defense (City Levels is off, so a city's level never changes it).
• Terrain still matters in a siege: a city keeps the ground it was built on, so the Favored terrain bonus (see Combat & strength) applies fighting there exactly as it would in the open field — for whichever side it favors.

Keep exploring