Defensive modifiers for Armies

[Aqualung71]

Dom's quiz over at AU has prompted me to ask a couple of questions:

• Do defensive modifiers apply to the raw defense values of units within Armies, or to the "Army adjusted" defensive value. For example, a 4 x Cavalry Army with Military Academy will have a defensive value of 3 + (3 x 4)/4 = 6. If this Army is fortified, does the 25% fortification modifier increase the defensive value of each unit to 7.5 (ie, 6 + 6 * 25%) or only 6.75 (ie, 6 + 3*25%)?
  
• In the editor, General Settings tab under Defensive Bonuses, what do the values of 16% for Citizen and Building mean?

[Last Conformist]

That's the defense against bombardment. Basically, a BF=8 cannon has a chance of 8/(16+8) to destroy a building or kill off a point of population.

[Fistleaf]

Does the army and academy each add 1/6 or 1/4 to A/D?

[Aqualung71]

Originally posted by Fistleaf
Does the army and academy each add 1/6 or 1/4 to A/D?

Armies add 1/6 to the sum of the A or D ratings of the units within the Army. Example - 3 Knight Army:
Attack bonus = (4 + 4 + 4)/6 = 2
Total attack per unit = 4 + 2 = 6

Defence bonus = (3 + 3 + 3)/6 = 1.5
Total defence per unit = 3 + 1.5 = 4.5

Military Academy increases this bonus to 1/4, so using the same example:
Attack bonus = (4 + 4 + 4)/4 = 3
Total attack per unit = 4 + 3 = 7

Defence bonus = (3 + 3 + 3)/4 = 2.25
Total defence per unit = 3 + 2.25 = 5.25

So the bonus, as a percentage of the raw A/D value, depends on the number of units in the Army and the existence of the Military Academy.

At least, that's the way I've seen it explained before, so as far as I know it's correct.


However, what I'm not sure of, as per my original question, is how the normal modifiers such as fortification, terrain, city defence, etc, affect the defence values of units within Armies.

[Last Conformist]

I thought it was one sixth (or fourth) of the average attack (or defense) factor?

My experience does not seem to suggest that a 3-Knight Army has the same effective attack factor as cavalry ... but I have not done any real testing.

[Aqualung71]

Originally posted by Last Conformist
I thought it was one sixth (or fourth) of the average attack (or defense) factor?

LC, I'm not absolutely certain what I've described is correct, but this is the way I've seen it expressed in other threads, so I too am looking for confirmation that this is it, plus of course how defensive modifiers affect it.

May have to set up a test scenario if no-one has a definitive answer.

[Oystein]

Testing...

Army of 3 MA fortified on mountains. (No Military Academy)

Calculated defence from experiment was 53.8

Assuming that the armybonus works on the total strength, and gives a new base defence strength.

Base strength : 16 + (16+16+16)/6 = 24
Terrain and fortify bouns : 24 * (1 + 1 + 0.25) = 54

Pretty close.

[Aqualung71]

Sounds like a pretty good test result, indicating that defensive modifiers apply to the army defense factor and not the raw unit factor.

How many repetitions?

[Oystein]

As many as needed.

I changed the rng-seed in the savefile, and checked when the result changed. It was between 708 and 709 out of 1024, as it should.

When I last posted, I still thougth that the rng gave a 15 bits random number. Thats why I ended up with 53.8 insted of 54. But I read somewhere that it only uses 10 bits, and now it fits perfect

[bongo]

Just of curiosity, what's the details on the test?

GReat work btw

[Last Conformist]

Thanks for clearing that!

So, Armies are even stronger than I thought ...