Hellfire's (Advance?) Combat Guide

[Deathprone]

Nicely done. I'm sure it won't be easy for the newbies to understand any way you organize it it's going to be a strain for people to read.

About time someone got around to posting a nice mech thread... maybe now I won't have to defend against scoutbombs + archer waves.

[jonrb]

Defender goes first is also what I found out from my testing too.

Now the 50% advantage you talked about makes sense. In my calculator I dont assume lvl 10 research. I put in known tech levels. And you are right most people dont seem to know about intelligence of heroes having an affect.

Good job it sounds like you also have a functioning knowledge of mechanics.

[egyptian9]

but could u have less words more pistures plz

[Naems]

Very impressive. I was thinking about making a guide like this and then posting it when I eventually quit the game lol ( I didnt really want everybody knowing how to attack me intelligently lmao)

Nice work though, and replies like "nice, but could u have less words more pistures plz " shows that noobs still wont be able to attack intelligently. No offense intended egyptian.

For the firing order, the fastest unit firing first that makes sense. @ DeadlySinners, you could test archers before rams with this:

1 pult, 500 rams, 500 archers vs 50 cavs, 50 warriors.

If it lasts 1 round, Rams fire first, 2 rounds archers fire first.

Fastest unit going first makes sense though. It also explains all of our test results (cavs before phracts, swords before archers, archers before ballistas before pults etc.) more logically than your theory xD


Oh, and an edit:
In my spreadsheet, ive been using 4.5% range bonus per level of walls (so 45%). I cant remember why I'm doing this to be honest, but I think someone did post proof of it somewhere. (It doesnt make a difference in your examples though, or most reports either.)

It would be good to do some tests to determine the exact bonus level 10 walls give.

Another edit. For transporters, you say they dont move forward until everything else is dead (for scouts this is correct). But I read somewhere that transporters move forward with the slowest unit (if the slowest unit is faster than them, they just move at their speed) Which means they layer for rams when there are t/a/d's up. Again, Ive never actually tested it, but it would be work looking into.

[WN1 Hit]

Very nice guide. Perfect descriptions too.

[hellfire566]

Very impressive. I was thinking about making a guide like this and then posting it when I eventually quit the game lol ( I didnt really want everybody knowing how to attack me intelligently lmao)

One reason I am doing this, is I am kind of on the way out. RL is starting to get in the way :-). (Namely an annoyed wife)

Fastest unit going first makes sense though. It also explains all of our test results (cavs before phracts, swords before archers, archers before ballistas before pults etc.) more logically than your theory xD

Dunno if that was directed at me, but yes, Fastest unit does go first, for both movement, then again for the attack phase. Just for movement, if there is a 'tie' then the defending unit does first.

Oh, and an edit:
In my spreadsheet, ive been using 4.5% range bonus per level of walls (so 45%). I cant remember why I'm doing this to be honest, but I think someone did post proof of it somewhere. (It doesnt make a difference in your examples though, or most reports either.)

It would be good to do some tests to determine the exact bonus level 10 walls give.

Hmm, interesting. I have always heard 5% per level, and the results seems to work out, but don't think I have ever tried it so the 60 (5% of 1200) range difference would alter the results. When I get some free time, a guildie and I will set something up. If I can... time is so sparse anymore.

Another edit. For transporters, you say they dont move forward until everything else is dead (for scouts this is correct). But I read somewhere that transporters move forward with the slowest unit (if the slowest unit is faster than them, they just move at their speed) Which means they layer for rams when there are t/a/d's up. Again, Ive never actually tested it, but it would be work looking into.

Now that you mention it, I vaguely remember seeing a report like that. Don't know remember the set up. In a compact defense attack, transports would layer for you against range, as they have a faster 'movement' than rams. Whether they sit at 1700 (Pult range) or not. Much like scouts do, even though they don't move. And I have never seen transports act as a layer on defense against a cav smack, not any other. So I guess I always assumed they act as scouts do, hang out 5200 till everything is toast.

[DeadlySinners]

Fastest unit going first makes sense though. It also explains all of our test results (cavs before phracts, swords before archers, archers before ballistas before pults etc.) more logically than your theory xD

My theory was based on the premise that programmers are lazy by nature. Indeed, hellfire's explanation is far more logical than the one I had using troopID seeing as it'd be an even easier thing to do.
I'm well aware of how to test it, but, like many programmers, I am far too lazy to actually do so.

[nghiade]

great guide, you teach me way too much, I hope I could know how to + rep

[Naems]

Argh. Just tried testing the transporter thing, but messed up. If you have 1 trans and 10 rams attack 10k archers and 1 pike or something, I think that if the pike died, it would prove that transporters moved and got in ranged of the archers, to take 1 round of damage allowing the rams to reach the pikes.

I got someone to launch a 6 hour attack on me, but only with 1 trans/1 ram. The pike didnt die, but I dont think 1 ram has enough damage to kill 1pike. (not with a level 4 inn hero at least). Grrrr annoying lmao. Need to retest.

[un3x]

exercise 1:
17722 archers vs 1M scouts

exercise2:
1254 archers vs 10k tp

exercise 3:
98 tp + 1 ram vs 1 archer

...