First strike.. Worth having?

[Hauptman]

@ destroyer...


Combat works like this. Your unit has a strength. 20 for infantry 15 for cavalry.

when combat begins. you take their str and modify it for promotions and terrain respectivly. but for simplicity's sake we will say there are none.

So the infantry attacks the cavalry. 20 vs 15. the computer rolls the 20 vs 15

(not sure how civ 4 does it, but civ3 added them together then rolled 100 based on what percent each unit made up of the total, thus 4 vs 2 = 6, and 4 is 66% of the 6, so a roll of 1 - 66 = the knight beat the spearman)

Now it records who won that particular "fight" and the winner does dmg to the other based on its Orriginal str, So if the Infantry won it would do say 10 dmg to the cavalry (arbitrary number, not sure what it really is) and if the cavalry won it would do 8 dmg to the infantry (it is weaker, thus does less dmg AND has less of a chance to win a fight).

These fights continue until 1 of the units is beat down to zero hit points from its orriginal 100.

[CarnalCanaan]

I'm pretty sure 1st Strikes only apply on defense. I've noticed that the archery units (Archers, Longbowmen, Crossbowmen) don't get to shoot their weapons at the reserve in the back when attacking - they just break out their hand-to-hand weapons.

(BTW, a nice touch, Firaxians; kudos!)

[Urban Ranger]

My understanding is First Strike applies in both situations.

[Destroyer]

Thanks.

I had heard the damage was influenced by the reintroduction of "firepower".

It would make sense that the damage done was based upon the remaining strength of the unit, ie 20str = 20 dam. A battleship will do more damage than a spearman. But I am not sure if this is true or not.

Also, I read that the combat effectiveness may not have been reduced by damage, just hit points.

I think combat is a bit of a mess at the moment. Trying to reduce the stats to a single figure is silly. We should still have hit points, firepower and strength.


I prefer the HP and Firepower used in Civ 3, as it explained how combat worked more simply.