Combat and sieges
No dice: a fight is decided by the numbers. An army's attack is the sum of its units' attack, a defence the sum of the defenders', each +4 % a level of its side's Military science. Every unit's attack and defence →
How a fight is decided
Both sides fight until the weaker has lost 80 % of itself, and the stronger wins; at exactly equal power the defender holds. The winner's losses fall fast with the margin:
| Stronger : weaker | 1.2 : 1 | 1.5 : 1 | 2 : 1 | 4 : 1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The winner loses | 42 % | 24 % | 13 % | 3 % |
A win by a winner who lost less than half what the loser did is a rout; by less than that, the loser is only pushed back.
Raids and bandit camps
A raid is a brawl at the gates: the garrison and every army inside sortie, no Keep or walls count, and both sides lose ×0.25 what an assault would cost them. A raider who wins takes 25 % of the food, wood and iron the city holds — never gold — the Orc ×1.25. A raided player can't be raided again for 8 hours. A raid never takes the city.
Bandit camps stand near every homeland: 13 bandits, a defence of 130, on a stash of 4,221 food, 4,221 wood, 4,221 iron. Cleared, a camp comes back 12 hours later nearby, ×1.5 as strong and as rich, once; cleared again it is gone.
How a siege works
A city with a wall and its gates closed stops every army but its owner's and their guild's; an army that marches to it halts at the gates and lays siege. Its owner may open the gates to let others through.
The siege needs hours before it storms at full strength: 2 h and 0.5 h a Wall level, scaled by the square root of the defence over the attack, between 6 h and 24 h. Storm early and the attack strikes with the share served; wait past it and it keeps rising, to ×1.2 at one and a half times the hours. Every allied army at the gates storms together. Siege works cut the hours with wood, up to half of them and never below 6 h. A storm that wins but not by much is repulsed: both sides keep their losses, the armies stay at the gates, and the siege's hours start again with the works spent.
A capital holds out longer: its Keep and Wall defend ×2, and a siege of it needs ×1.5 the hours — never under 9 h, works included.
Capture
A city stormed is taken. Its surviving defenders march to the nearest city of their own or their guild's within 30 hexes, or scatter. A captured city yields nothing for 12 hours of unrest; after that its new owner may keep it or raze it, 1 h a Keep level, halted while an enemy stands at the gates. You're protected from attack for your first 24 h in a world.