Question about Armies

[Ijuin]

Let's say that I have an Army containing two Longbowmen (4-1-1) and two Pikemen (1-3-1). At what strength will the Army attack and defend? Will it attack with the Longbowmen's attack of 4 (assuming that the Longbowmen unit in question has hit points left) and defend with the Pikemen's defense of 3 (again assuming hit points are left)? Or will it attack and defend with the average strength of all the units [(4*2+1*2)/4 = 2.5 attack and (1*2+3*2)/4 = 2.0 defense)?

If the former is true, then it is a great advantage to combine high-attack-low-defense units with high-defense-low-attack units in an Army, but if not, then one is better off building separate all-attack and all-defense Armies.

[vondrack]

It is my understanding that the Army attacks with the strength of its strongest attacker, defends with the defense of its best defender, and moves with the speed of its slowest unit. Even to such an extent that it does not matter how many HP points are left... they are no longer "of any unit", but "of the Army".

But I am no expert on armies, I just try to recall what I read about them here at Poly. Ask Theseus...

[TacticalGrace]

I don't think that's right. The highest attacker will attack first but you will notice that when it gets down to one energy point (the sub-unit not hte army) there will be a slight pause and then another unit will take over. presumably at it's attack value.

[vondrack]

As far as the animation goes, that's correct. But I vaguely remeber reading a notice somewhere pointing out the fact that even though the animation suggested another unit took over, the attack strength was actually still that of the best attacker. But then, I may have dreamed this up altogether or misread the post...

Theseus!!! Where the hell are you? We need your expertise here...

[Theseus]

The units in an Army divide the remaining hit points for a given battle, and fight in order of highest strength for offense or defense.

In other words, using Ijuin's example, on offense the order would be LB, LB, Pike, Pike, and on defense the reverse. This will be true for each successive battle in a turn, so if the example Army is on defense, the Pikes start each combat again and again.

Going into a given battle, the units add and divide their total remaining hit points proportionately... although it doesn;t matter from a 'strength' or hp perspective, higher promoted units (e.g., elites) seem to go first.

A subtlety is that the units *other* than the last one will use ALL of their hit points, which is helpful.

Ijuin hit the nail on the head... this is why mixed-unit Armies, and also Armies that are *improved* over time, are so valuable.