Combat Basics

The attack system is very simple. Each army that attacks has a 60% chance at killing one defending army. If all the defending armies are killed, the territory is captured and all the attacking armies move to occupy the destination territory.

For example, if you attack with 10, you will kill, on average, 6 armies. This is why you generally want to attack with at least double the number of armies the defender has.

Defenders also get an opportunity to kill attacking armies. Each defending army has a 70% chance at killing one of the attacking armies.

Generally, you always want to have overwhelming numbers in every battle you participate in. Clearly, however, this isn't always possible, so you must pick and choose your fights to make the most effective use of your armies.

Example 1

15 armies attack a territory that has 6 armies. The attacking 15 armies could have killed between 0 and 15, but on average they will kill 9 (60% of 15). Let's say they kill 9 armies. The defenders could kill between 0 and 6 of the attacking 15 armies, but on average they will kill 4 or 5 (70% of 6). Let's say they kill 5 armies. 5 of the attacking armies die and all 6 of the defending armies die. Since all the defenders died, the remaining 10 attacking armies take control of the defending territory.

Example 2

25 armies attack a territory that has 20 armies. The attacking 25 armies could have killed between 0 and 25, but on average they will kill 15 (60% of 25). Let's say they kill 15 armies. The defenders could kill between 0 and 20 of the attacking 25 armies, but on average they will kill 14 (70% of 20). Let's say they kill 15 armies. 15 of the attacking armies die and 15 of the defending armies die. Since 5 defenders lived, the territory is not captured. The remaining 10 attacking armies retreat back to their territory of origin.

Note

The calculations on this page assume that the game's luck modifier is set to 100%. To see how the luck modifier changes the calculations, see the Luck Modifier Page. Also, the offense and defense kill rates can be overridden by game creators, so check the settings on your game to be sure.

Within the game Warlight supplies an Analyze function. This function can be accessed when attacks/transfers are defined (Phase 2 of a turn) by pressing the Analyze button of the Attacks/Transfers - popup window and shows how probable it is for an attack to succeed. This function takes into account the luck modifier. For example in a game with following settings:

75% luck / 60% attack kill rate / 70% defense kill rate (default settings)

an attack with 3 troops on a neutral with 2 troops succeeds with 69% probability

an attack with 4 troops on a neutral with 2 troops succeeds with 88% probability

an attack with 5 troops on a neutral with 2 troops succeeds with 95% probability

and you need at least 8 troops to attack a neutral to get a 100% probability of success

See Also

• Luck Modifier
• Offense and defense kill rates