War and Peace

[Krum]

MORALE

This is the fighting spirit of your army. It symbolizes the will to fight, which is dependant on a great number of factors. The lack of desire to fight can result in your army fleeing the battlefield, even if its ranks are greater than that of your opponent's.

GLOBAL MORALE

When on a mission, this is the morale your army will fight with. The Global Moral depends on the overall behavior of the player. Morale, as a basic value, is 100. If a player attacks players which are not in the allowed coefficient of 2, his morale drops, because he doesn't fight equals. For every 0.1 difference in the coefficient (that is over x2) the morale of the army suffers 3 points loss. If you attack an enemy that has x3 more or less points than you, you will fight the battle with 30 points morale less. Upon returning home, your army will restore its normal morale value.
Thus, it's very important how much morale your troops have.  It is not a good idea to fight much weaker or much stronger opponents cause your morale will suffer drastically.

THE BATTLE PROCESS

The two armies start the fight with their Global Morale values. (100 against 100)
Each round the morale drops due to the fatigue, damage, losses, etc.
Each round the morale drops with 4 due to the fatigue.
Considering the damage inflicted, the morale drops with another 1-3 each round.
When your army inflicts more damage than the opponents your morale raises and the enemy's drops. This is the formula:
20-50% difference = 1 morale correction
51-150% difference = 2 morale correction
Everything above 151% difference - 3 morale correction

Thus the morale differences can reach 1-7, which prevents the loss of a battle on a casual basis.
After passing the 50 points of the morale, there is a chance for your army to flee with the respective percentage (49 morale = 2% chance of fleeing, etc.)
If one army leads the other by 15 of morale it is not endangered of fleeing(If your army has 45 morale, and the enemies has 29, your army will not flee even though it is under 50).
Fortress garrison do not have morale - they simply cannot escape anywhere.
Fortress garrisons do not require upkeep. In other words, if you put your army in the Fortress, you won't spend money in it.  Repeat:  you only have to pay upkeep on the army you keep on the field in your province, not inside the fortress!
If an army flees from the battlefield, it automatically loses 50% if it's remaining troops. The rest of the army returns to the province they were sent to mission from.
If an attacker's army flees from the battlefield during a Siege, the troop's loss is 20%.
If an attacker loses the battle, all siege weapons are lost.
If an army attacks "inner province" (province which is surrounded by other provinces), each province he passes in order to get to its target "punishes" him with 20 morale loss. This happens because your army enters deep into enemy territory, which has a demoralizing effect on your soldiers.


RETREAT

You can "program" your army to retreat from the battlefield in organized order, before the battle starts.
If the province is attacked with Fortress Siege attack, your army WILL fight regardless of the order given. The retreat option works only when the attack is Pillaging or Field battle.

TERRAIN OF THE BATTLE

Different terrains give different bonuses to the troops during a battle.  Please see the Terrain section for bonuses.


BATTLE CHRONOLOGY IN A PROVINCE

There are two types of battles for each province.
First is the Field Battle (presumably your opponent has an army outside his Fortress)
Second is the Fortress Siege (presumably you won the field battle)
If there is no field army, you go directly to Fortress Siege


PILLAGE AND FORTRESS SIEGE

Only one province can be pillaged and/or sieged during a campaign.
Sieging converts all the resources of your opponent into gold by the fixed prices of 10wood=2iron=5stone=5gold. The gold is then added to your gold when your troops return home. If the attacked province has negative gold, it will stay there, you will NOT take negative gold.
Sieging cannot be performed if the Fortress of the province has not been taken.
Pillaging can be performed on a province. It means a certain amount of the province's population disappears (because it is killed or sold into slavery).  Pillaging brings you gold using the following formula:  for every villager caught (killed or sold into slavery) you get 5 gold.

Sieging brings gold from the resources stacked in the Fortress (if any) and raises your Honor, because you fight honorably. Pillaging always brings gold because it is always successful (peasants cannot escape from well trained troops) and more effectively, it "slows" the province's economy but it drops your Honor, because you perform genocide and crimes against humanity.

Pillaging destroys up to 20% of the province's population. After that the province cannot be pillaged for the next 168 hours. If the pillaging attack is not successful, because the troops were too few, the attack can be repeated immediately (once more troops have been added).
In order for your pillage to be successful, your troops' ranks have to be 10% or more of the province's population. In order to perform the most damaging pillage your army has to be at minimum 20% of the province's population. Between 10% and 20% difference, your army pillages the amount of peasants equal to the percentage. (13% troops put 13% of the population to flame, but it never exceeds 20% loss no matter how big is your army)

Pillaging can be performed without the Fortress to be attacked. If there is a field army, it has to be destroyed in order for the siege to be performed. Thus, you can perform quick "raids" on the province with a light cavalry and make money. But the easy money comes with a price.


ATTACKS

Field Battle attack

With this attack you order your troops to fight only with the opponent's field army, without seiging the Fortress or pillaging. It is best used to destroy the enemy's army on the field without risking a siege afterwards. This attack is rarely profitable on its own, but it can be very useful in the long run. The defending army is allowed to retreat if the option is turned on.


Pillage attack

Your troops put your opponent's peasants to flame. If a field army exists, your soldiers have to deal with it and then rob the Province. For every villager killed you get 5 gold,for every successful pillage you lose 4 honor.The defending army is allowed to retreat if the option is turned on.


Fortress Siege attack

Your troops have to overcome the enemy Fortress. If there is a field army, they have to destroy it and then attack the Fortress walls. The defending army is NOT allowed to retreat if the option is turned on. The field army of the defender always fights.



MOVEMENT AND BATTLE MECHANICS


The General

This is a Unit which is required for attack. The amount of Generals you have defines the number of attacks you can perform at a time. Generals are made in the Military Academy. A General cannot go on a mission with less than 1000 troops. Also the number of Generals defines the number of separate training groups you can have in the barracks.


Army movement

Different kinds of troops move with different speeds. Your army always moves with the speed of the slowest unit. When you order your army to go on a mission, the upkeep is higher than the basic one. Upkeep while marching is calculated x3 the basic. Your army needs time to prepare for a mission. This time is 40 minutes one way, and it is added to the time of the mission in both directions.
A unit, moving with a speed of 1 (spearman) passes 1 IM for 4.5 seconds. Cartography Research can decrease the time of your mission, but not the time of your preparation. The formula is X/(1+whatever % of cartography you have), where X is the basic speed of the army.


How are the field battles conducted?

Front lines of your army are arranged as follows:

Infantry is stationed in the center. Cavalry fights in the center and/or on the flanks.Cavalry no more than 20% from the total army(excluding the archers) can be positioned on the flanks.Light cavalry is always arranged on the flanks first. Cavalry gets 50% attack bonus when it is on the flanks. When in center, the cavalry receives 10-30-50% one time bonus, depending on its level.

Light cavalry gets 10% for its first attack.
Heavy cavalry gets 30% for its first attack.
Paladins get 50% for their first attack.

Archers can shoot 1 or 2 rounds before the battle starts. After that they fight like everybody else.
Light Archers shoot 1 round before battle.
Heavy archers shoot 1 round before battle.
Elite Archers shoot 2 rounds before battle.

Cavalry beats totally archers (it is 4 times more cost effective)
Cavalry beats normally swordsmen (it is 2 times more cost effective)
Archers beat totally spearmen (they are 4 times more cost effective)
Spearmen beat totally cavalry (they are 4 times more cost effective)
Swordsmen beat normally archers and spearmen (they are 2 times more cost effective)

Siege weapons do not participate in the field combat. If you lose the battle when you are attacking, you lose all your siege weapons. Siege weapons cannot be destroyed when they are at home.

By cost effective we mean that with cavalry, for example,  you can annihilate 4 times more expensive army of archers without great loss..


Fortress Siege

These are the battles that are conducted between the attacking army and the Fortress garrison. To do this, the attacking army has to eliminate the field army of the opponent (if any) and then continue with the fortress siege. A fortress cannot destroy an army on its own. Its task is to tire and demoralize the attacking troops. Fortresses support relatively small garrisons whose job is to hinder the advancing army, not confront it and destroy it. The invaders are forced to lay siege and lose men and time, which causes loss of morale, since it is all happening on hostile territory. Fortresses are always important, because they slow the advancing army, making it constantly losing power and morale. Even if the aggressors outnumber the Fortress garrison greatly, this is not much of a help, because of the limited front, its troops have to be deployed on. The garrison usually cannot destroy the attacking army even if it smaller since it can always lift the siege and leave, but when it does it because it has lost its morale and will to fight, which in return means loss of soldiers due to desertion. The strength of the Fortress lies within its thick tall walls  the enemy will often lose its will to beat them, since it is taking time, and men. Precious time. Attacking a Fortress when you have low morale is always risky.


Fortress Siege Characteristics:

- Fortress Siege is handled in two phases. Phase one destroying the walls. And Phase two after the walls fall. When the Fortress walls fall, the combat with the garrison is like a normal field combat. Until the walls fall there are certain rules that apply:

In any given time the attacker cannot use more than the x4 the maximum garrison of the fortress. This happens because the frontline is limited to the physical borders of the Fortress (if the attacker has 500 swordsmen, and the Fortress has a maximum garrison of 100, then 400 men can attack at a time, the rest of the army waits and fills in the lost men during the next round)

Cavalry cannot be used in the battle until the walls fall.

Spearmen and swordsmen are the only non-siege units who can damage the walls. Their amount of damage is their normal attack.
If there are spearmen, swordsmen and cavalry in the Defender's garrison, they do not engage in battle until the walls fall.
Attacker's archers shoot at the Fortress garrison with 0,33 of their normal attack and damage it until the walls fall.
Defender's archers shoot at the enemy with x4 of their normal attack and receive 1 round extra attack, because of their high grounds position.
Fortress garrison does not depend on morale. They simply don't have anywhere to escape.
If there is no garrison in the Fortress, it still has to be stormed. Because, even with no regular soldiers inside the Fortress, its citizens and population can still fight back the advancing army.
If the attacker flees due to low morale, his troops suffer 20% casualties (not like the 50% in the field battle)
If there are less than 50 troops in the Fortress, they will desert and disappear before the battle, if someone attacks the Fortress.


Fortress Classes

There are 3 major Fortress classes:

Level 1, 2, 3  Small Class Fortress
Level 4 and 5  Middle Class Fortress
Level 6+ - Grand Class Fortress

The Small class Fortress is designed to defend the province from the first class units
The Middle class Fortress is designed to defend the province from the Heavy class units.
The Grand class Fortress is designed to defend the province from the Elite class units.

It doesn't mean you can't try to bring down Grand Class Fortress with Heavy units. It's simply much harder to do it (unless you bring huge number of siege machines with them).

When the attacker comes with rams, they start the fight along with the infantry. Catapults and Trebuchets engage in the combat from the first round.

After the walls are down and the garrison is dealt with, the attacker takes all the resources of the province, converted in gold by the fixed rates.

When a Fortress is taken it is considered damaged. In order to rebuild it, the player has to pay 1/3 of its building price in stone. The rebuilding is instant. Until the Fortress is rebuilt, players cannot build other buildings in the province or order any research from it. All other Fortress features remain (economic bonus, garrisoning etc.), including its defensive bonus (hit points, garrison size, fortification level etc.).


Fortresses hitpoints and garrisons:

(these are the basic numbers, Fortification and Military architecture is increasing them along with the terrain factors)

                 Hit points   Garrison

Level 1       48 000       100        (Stone tower)
Level 2        96 000       200        (Walled stone tower)
Level 3      192 000       400        (Citadel)

Level 4      576 000       800        (Fortress)
Level 5   1 152 000      1600       (Fortress with Citadel)

Level 6   4 608 000      3200       (Fortress complex)
Level 7   9 216 000      6400       (Legendary Fortress)
Level 8  18 432 000     12800


After the battle

As soon as the battle is over, both armies restore some of their lost troops. Loser, if vanquished, restores 17% of his starting army. If the losing army flees, suffers 50% additional casualties on all remaining troops and then the restoration % is applied. Winner restores 32% of his army. Winner, also, takes the loser's supply train. Its size is the 24h pay of the destroyed army in gold.
Under the bracket casualties are all losses during the battle: Killed, wonded, desertions, broken companies and so on. That is why, when attacking a Fortress there is a recovery after each stage of the battle, these are not resurrected? troops, these are the units that have been routed, broken and so in the previous stage that have been returned in the battle lines.


What if there is not enough gold for the upkeep of the army?


If on the march, your army continues its mission, generating minus gold in your province. Your army cannot start its mission unless you keep your gold positive numbers. Also if you have a negative balance of gold in your province you cannot build any buildings or army units. After all, you cannot spend any money on other things before you have paid your army.. least of all things this may not be healthy. If your negative balance reaches 5 million gold for the whole Empire you will be unable to construct buildings, hire troops or research technologies until the balance is restored.

Army Training

To train an army unit you need to have free villagers and resources. No matter how many soldiers you order at once, they are all going to get ready at the same time. (Something like no matter how big the class of students is, the semester is always the same length)
After the army units are trained you have the option to mobilize them or not. If you do not mobilize them, they stay ready for 72 hours, after which the automatically get mobilized, the first time you log in. When the soldiers are not mobilized, they will not fight if you are attacked, nor can be destroyed. They also are not seen by the enemy's spies.


MILITARY UNITS CHARACTERISTICS

Spearmen

Spearmen have huge attack bonus against cavalry and are x4 cost effective when fighting cavalry.


Swordsmen

The most balanced unit in the game. They receive bonus when fighting against archers and spearmen. x2 more cost effective when fighting archers and spearmen.


Archers

The ranged unit in the game. Inflict damage before other units. Archers receive huge bonus against spearmen x4 more cost effective against them.


Cavalry

This is the unit with most bonuses.
One time attack bonus for a direct charge. Attack bonus for flanking the enemy (during the whole battle).  Huge bonus against archers x4 more cost effective and a bonus against swordsmen x2 more cost effective.
It cannot be used in siege battles before the fall of the walls.


Battering rams engage in battle in round 3 along with the infantry.
Catapults assault fortress walls in round 1.
Trebuchets assault fortress walls in round 1.