Lies My Rulebook Told Me

[Endoperez]

Here are some relevant threads:

Critical hits, math vs reality

Missile Vs Shield, math vs reality

Also an older thread:
Missile Vs Shield, Dom2 vs Dom3
Was the missile formula actually changed? If the parry value isn't doubled but just taken as-is, well, that'd explain many things.


I'll test Swarm vs Arch Devil once I get home. Does it matter what weapon I give him? I'll also try it with an Ice Devil with a burning pearl, to see if it's some bug with the attack bonus from Fire or something similar.

[thejeff]

Just a few questions/quibbles:

If forces from different nations attack the same province on the same turn the order that the battles resolve in is deterministic based on nation number. It is NOT random as described in the rulebook. p66

Strictly deterministic? I could have sworn I have seen it switch back and forth. Could it be one of the things that either goes in order or reverse order?

The attack current province command on a hidden unit will join any magical attack made on the province as opposed to moving during normal unit movement. p71

The hidden unit will wait until normal movement if there is no magical attack.
I'm not sure you didn't mean this, but it seemed unclear.

Prophetizing a high-level priest is not actually a good idea. p95

A matter of opinion. Fanaticism and the boosted banishment can both be good things. I'd agree Word of Power isn't worth it. Early on getting a cheap prophet without waiting and recruiting an expensive priest may be best, but later on I'd rather have 1 H4 prophet and a bunch of H3 priests than a bunch of H3 priest one of whom is a prophetized commander.

[MaxWilson]

Strictly deterministic?

I'm pretty sure it is. Abysia always goes first IME.

The hidden unit will wait until normal movement if there is no magical attack.

Correct, which is why Micah wrote, "will join any magical attack."

Another one: regeneration does NOT reduce the chance of battle afflictions to 1/8. It's a variable reduction, proportional to the regen percentage.

-Max

[capnq]

thejeff said:

Strictly deterministic? I could have sworn I have seen it switch back and forth. Could it be one of the things that either goes in order or reverse order?

Definitely either in order or reverse order.

I had a rather memorable solo game where my Agartha and the AI's Ermor blundered into each other while attacking indy provinces, twice within a span of three or four turns. In one pair of battles, Ermor attacked the indies first, then Agartha attacked Ermor. In the other pair, Agartha took the indy province first, then Ermor attacked Agartha.

[Endoperez]

Repel mechanic works as said, but mindless units automatically take 1 point of damage from repel. An arch devil repelling dozens of 1-hp dragonflies was a wonderful sight... And surprisingly enough, a horde of morale 12 dragonflies was able to deal several points of damage to the Arch Devil.

Non-mindless dragonflies would probably be the easiest way to test the real probabilities of critical hits, if someone feels like doing that... Here's a mod if anyone wants to count how many hits dragonflies get against a heavily armored unit.

#modname "test"
#selectspell "Swarm"
#researchlevel 0
#end
#selectmonster "Dragonfly"
#mor 30
#end

[Gandalf Parker]

Saxon said:
Thank you for posting this. It helps explain a few odd things and will certainly prevent some future posts. I would suggest making this a sticky.

It is majorly useful but we already have quite a few stickies.
I guess the IRC one could be unstickied.

Maybe this info could be incorporated into a sticky we already have. Like the FAQ one?

[johnarryn]

Nice work buddy.

[Ninave]

Micah said:
Research does not grant experience (beyond the base 1 that everyone gets). p58

I had to test this. So with R'lyeh I now have Polypal Queen pretender with 2 experience stars. She hasn't done anything else than researched from turn 1. It is now Summer in the year 5. I can never seem to be able to see the turn number on resolution, it goes by so quickly.

As a side note, I have Polypal Mother, who has been preaching 5 turns less and nothing else and has 2 stars.

[few turns later]
On turn 5 I got the national hero Auluudh and put him straight to research. Now (early fall year 5) he has 2 stars of experience. I think I'll try to get them to the hall of fame.

So, that point listed is incorrect.

[Sombre]

Don't they automatically get 1 exp per turn regardless?

[thejeff]

I think that's the point. They get 1 exp/turn, but the manual implies they get more. I don't have the book in front of me, so I can't check p58.