Action Points impact

[balto]

If am trying to roughly calculate the outcome of an attack, would it be correct for me to assume that if a unit that starts the turn with 80 AP it should have its attack factors reduced by 20%?

And the same for defense -- if I am trying to estimate how strong my defenders will be for the impending attack by my opponent, are my units that have 80 AP going to be 20% less effective than my units that have 100AP?

If this not correct would someone explain to me how to account for the AP differences when attacking and defending?

[Falke]

Hi,
The amount of AP only affects the possible number of combat rounds.

Combat ends either when all units from one side have retreated or when all the AP has been used.

[Blind Sniper]

Hello Balto,

speaking of combat the AP number is just the amount of time that you can spend fighting, 10 AP one round.

If you want to know the modifiers involved check the manual on page 47-50, you can find what you are looking for.

I.e after moving a unit for 30 AP you still have 70 for the attack but this does not change your fighting value, the readiness lost moving your unit does.

[balto]

Thanks for the input.

If you had two identical units, same everything except one has 100AP and the other has 70AP, I am not a math whiz, but I would think that the one with 100AP (getting ten rounds of combat as opposed to the the one that gets 7 rounds) would mathmatical have it better. I just do not know if it is 30% better or something in between. Of maybe as you two say, it makes no difference.

Because if AP does matter, then moving AND having combat really hurts you because you; (a) lose Readiness and, (b) rounds of combat (AP).

I

[Blind Sniper]

Yes, more AP increase the chances to hit the enemy and viceversa, but your % to hit come from readiness and so on.

[balto]

Hmmm. Well said. I am not a math expert, but that still sounds like the APs are directly correlated to the combat outcome. More specifically, would a unit with 70 AP have 30% less chance of being successful in attacking than an identical unit with 100AP. I cannot do the math, but I feel like I am on to something.., but then again..., damn-it, I wish I was smart.

[ComradeP]

I'm not sure if the AP's of the defender matter. They seem to return fire until you run out of AP's as the attacker or until they retreat/break.

Even though you're technically correct that more AP's statistically increase the chance to win or inflict more casualties, the effect does seem to drop off after a certain number of rounds. Based on my limited experience, most if not all of the defending units generally show some form of retreat result at about round 7 or 8.

[olivier34]

I think that the defenders AP's don't matter, only the attacker's one.
"These individuals then battle it out for several rounds, each round costing 10 AP. The moment an attacking unit is out of AP, it ceases combat."

[Toby42]

ORIGINAL: olivier34

I think that the defenders AP's don't matter, only the attacker's one.
"These individuals then battle it out for several rounds, each round costing 10 AP. The moment an attacking unit is out of AP, it ceases combat."

So if a unit has 10 AP's left, it can conduct at least one round of combat?

[Blind Sniper]

ORIGINAL: Treale

So if a unit has 10 AP's left, it can conduct at least one round of combat?

Uhm...I think you still need the AP necessary to enter the hex, therefore I would say no but I never tryed to attack with a so small amount of time.

[olivier34]

To attack, you must have more than 10 APs left otherwise you could enter a hex after having won the battle, a hex that you could not have enter if it had been empty ! You see "red arrows" telling you if you will be abble to conduct another attack if you move near an adjacent ennemy unit.

[balto]

So if you want to attack a Plain hex, you need at least 35 AP (25 for the hex and 10 for ZOC).

I wonder if the defender fights at a reduced amount once its APs are exhausted? Hmmm, I will check that tonight in the DETAILS window.

It just occurred to me that in the DETAILS window I have seen the term MAXED ATTACK and I just blew it off as another one of the mysteries of this awesome game.

[Isokron]

Also the first two rounds of combat is less efficient (slowstart i think the manual calls it) so something with 80ap would be more than 2x as efficient as something with 40.