Hitpoints vs. Firepower: any difference?

[DaveV]

I'm playing Blackclove's Dungeon scenario (nice job, by the way), and am dealing with lots of units that have high hitpoint and/or firepower values. I've always assumed that offensive capability is Attack x Hitpoints x Firepower. The manual is a little unclear concerning defense, but it appears to be Defense x Hitpoints x Firepower.

This leads me to a question: is there any practical difference between the following units?
3A, 3D, 2HP, 4FP
3A, 3D, 4HP, 2FP
3A, 3D, 8HP, 1FP
3A, 3D, 1HP, 8FP

[DaveV]

OK, let's consider a theoretical combat vs a 3A/3D/4HP/1FP unit. Attack and defense factors are equal, so assume each unit hits the other an equal number of times.

3A, 3D, 2HP, 4FP - inflict 40 damage, take 10 damage. Wins with 1/2 hitpoints left.
3A, 3D, 4HP, 2FP - inflict 40 damage, take 20 damage. Wins with 1/2 hitpoints left.
3A, 3D, 8HP, 1FP - inflict 40 damage, take 40 damage. Wins with 1/2 hitpoints left.
3A, 3D, 1HP, 8FP - inflict 40 damage, take 5 damage. Wins with 1/2 hitpoints left.

[Paul Hanson]

When the game says 1 hitpoint, it actually means 10. Firepower is the same though; if it says 1 firepower it means that. So a unit with a high hitpoints rating will take more hits, where as one with high firepower will do more damage if it hits.

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[Mark von Wagner]

Because of the way that battles are resolved, your method of multiplying the strengths together will only give a rough idea of who will win, not the exact odds. For example, with your 3A/3D/4HP/1FP unit defending, the odds of winning and average damage for the other units is as follows:
3A, 3D, 2HP, 4FP - 95% chance of winning, take 11 damage. Wins with 9 hitpoints left.
3A, 3D, 4HP, 2FP - 99% chance of winning, take 22 damage. Wins with 18 hitpoints left.
3A, 3D, 8HP, 1FP - 99.9% chance of winning, take 44 damage. Wins with 36 hitpoints left.
3A, 3D, 1HP, 8FP - 88% chance of winning, take 5 damage. Wins with 5 hitpoints left.

Overall, hitpoints are worth slightly more than the equivalent firepower. A program for calculating these odds of winning can be found at http://www.geocities.com/rengaw03/Downloads_Page.html

Mark

[DaveV]

Mark - could you please Email me the source code for the routine that does the combat odds calculation? I'd be very interested to see how you worked it out. Send it to the address in my profile. Thanks.

[Xin Yu]

HP worths a little bit more.

A high HP means the unit can sustain more rounds of battle, thus by laws of large numbers the outcome of the result is likely to be more closer to the true odds. That is to say, a unit with 8HP 1FP is less likely to be wiped out by inferior opponents than a 1HP 8FP one.

Also, some special rules apply for coastal bombardment: both the attacker and the defender have FP=1 regardless the original FPs. This means an attacker with 8HP 1FP definitely has more edge than 1HP 8FP, since the latter is 1HP 1FP now.

For ships being caught in the port, its FP is always 1. And if the attacker is a plane, the attacker's FP is doubled.