Combat Calculations

Its a very complicated set of calculations that solves combat. For what its worth… here it goes…

Setup

Individuals

When a unit of for example 40x Infantry goes into combat for the calculations 40 so called individuals go into the battle. Each one keeps is own stats in combat and only at the end of the combat calculations the (surviving) individuals are merged back in their units and the stats averaged out.

Interceptors

In case the combat is an airstrike, bombing run, air recon, paradrop, airlift or airsupply the defending regime can have air units intercepting. If they can try to intercept depends on their intercept setting which must be set higher then the average readiness of the unit. Allied air units will also try to intercept if the same is true.

In the rare case that combat is initiated because an air recon mission has been executed above a sea hex without any hostile vessels in it the regime (and it allies) with the most intercept units in range will attempt to do the intercept.

Backbench aircraft will never join in intercepts. Unless their own airfield is the target.

Max Intercept Range

The maximum intercept range is the lowest readiness in the unit seen as Action Points modified by rulevar 547. If the unit can then reach the hex it is in intercept range.

Uncertainty of Intercept

An intercept, even if within intercept range and with right readiness and standing order, is never certain. However the closer to the airfield where the interceptors are stationed the airstrike is taking place the bigger the chance an intercept will take place. Rulevar 837 can disable this or set the % chance of intercept to fail at edge of radius of unit. Rulevar 838 can set the % of intercept to fail at theoretical 0 distance. The % to fail somewhere in between 0 range and ultimate range is somewhere in between rulevar 837 en 838. <Not in AT classic rules>

Anti Aircraft Support from outside hex

Allied and own units outside the combat hex that have subformations with AA range will join the defending side.

Combat Loop

The loop basicly plays rounds untill either the attacker has retreated , been killed or is victorious. Combat round starts at 0 before going into the first Combat Round. The following things happen in the following order:

Check Sea Attack Breakoff

If no defending ships left the battle is ended.

Add Round

Combat round +1

Throw Initiative

If first round only. Every individual gets a random iniative between 0 and its initiative score.

Sort on initiative

The individuals with highest initiative will come first in every subround.

Check Capitulation

Only defenders have a chance to capitulate. If an individuals morale is lower then rulevar 37 and readiness is lower then rulevar 301 then there is a chance it capitulates. This chance it does not capitulates is ((RDN/rulevar301)*100)

Attackers capitulate when combat round 30 has been reached. This happens in rare occasions in amphibious assaults, paradrops or rebel combat.

Set Concentric Bonus

Every round it is again calculated because units might have retreated in the first combat rounds and that might severly reduce the bonus given by concentric attack. This was a gamey exploit in AT, but now thus no longer in AT Gold. The rulevars 132, 133, 134, 135, 136, 137, 138, 139 determine the actual concentric bonus that attackers are given based upon the number of sides of attack. The concentric bonus is halved if units from multiple HQs are involved.

Do Steps

The actual combat for this round. See next chapter.

Check auto destroy

If an individual with autodestroy property has done at least 1 attack it is destroyed now. Also attacking individuals with autodestroy and anti structural points are now immediatly destroyed.

Check out of AP

Depending on the type of combat the following happens.

1. If individual was attacker and transport aircraft for paradrop and its combat round 5 it retreats. Percentage of paradroppers is killed for each killed transport aircraft, remainder is now dropped in combat.

2. If individual was attacker and part of air recon, airlift or airsupply mission and its combat round 2 it retreats.

3. If individual is attacker that has been ambushed in surprise combat and its combat round 2 it retreats.

4. If individual does not have enough AP left to pay for the next combatround (10ap) it retreats.

Check Breakthrough

If individual is not hit for 2 combat rounds and made succesfull attack it will breakthrough. Also if the individual attacker has not even been targetted in the last 2 combat rounds it will breakthrough. There is a chance the breakthrough fails if the attack is overstacked. If defender has no non-backbench individuals left the breakthrough always succeeds.

Aircraft have easier breakthrough rules and they break through if they have not been attacked in the current combatround.

Check Safe Retreat

If an individual started retreated in combat round X it will have safely retreated in combat round X+2. In effect suffering 2 combat rounds of possible enemy fire without being able to return fire.

Check Panic Retreat

If % of troops remaining of a unit drops below the morale of a unit then there is a chance it will panic.

Units that have no avenue of retreat have their morale doubled for this calculation.

No panic retreats are possible in artillery attack or shorebomardment.

Defender cannot panic if under air attack.

If a unit can panic the chance it does in this combatround is rulevar 70. If the unit panics then all individuals morale is immediatly reduced with rulevar 172.

Check Orderly Retreat

If % of casualties that a unit drops sustains goes above the retreat standing order of a unit then it will orderly redraw.

Units that have no avenue of retreat will never orderly redraw.

No retreats are possible in artillery attack or shorebomardment.

Defender cannot retreat if under air attack.

Check Victory

Here it is checked if the battle has ended.

First the number of individuals still in combat are counted on both sides. Defending AA from other hexes does not count for this purpose.

Continue attack even no defenders left?

If no defenders left and still attackers left and it is a bombing run the attack continues untill the attackers run out of action points. The same happens when it is an artillery attack or shore bombardment and a location is under attack. If rulevar341 is active and the attack is an airstrike the same happens again.

End of battle?

1. If no attacking individuals left and still defending inidivuals left the defender has held.

2. If no defending individuals left and still attacking individuals left the attacker has won.

3. If no individuals left on either side it is a standoff.

Structural dammage effects at end of battle

If end of battle structural dammage is given to location and bridges. This can cause in their destruction. And in case of destruction of airfield or port in loss of all aircraft and ships there.

Aircraft experience

If end of battle aircraft that participated in bombing mission get XP. Aircraft that participated in airrecon mission get XP and aircraft that carried paratroopers, did airlift or airsupply get XP. This is XP earned for the nature of the mission not for any combat done with other individuals while performing it.

Airsupply dispersal

If end of battle the airsupply is dispersed. Supply can have been lost due to destroyed transporter aircraft.

Airlift delivery

If unit was airlifted it is now unloaded. If transport aircraft were lost it can result in dammages or complete destruction of the unit carried.

Attacker takes port/airfield

If attacker takes the hex and there were any aircraft or ships stationed in the hex these are destroyed. They are presumed surprised and scuttled at last moment. A standoff combat result will also result in the destruction of all air/naval assets.

Card execution

If the hex resulted in the hex switching owner and the hex had a card/event on it. It will now be executed.

Retreats

Unless no retreat is possible surviving elements of the losing side retreat. Attackers back to where they came from, as well will interceptors. Only defending units that were stationed in the lost hex will retreat to a different hex. The hex they will chose to retreat too will be the one in the opposite direction of the angle of attack. So if a unit is attacked from the north it will retreat to the south.

A unit can never retreat into a hex that it could not move into with 100 AP.

Do Steps

This is called every combat round. In this phase all individuals will keep doing 1 attack each in order of their initiative sorting. Each cycle through all individuals is called a subround. We keep doing subround untill no individual has attacks left.

Determine stacking

Every combatround stacking is determined a new. So what might start as an overstacked attack might quickly, due to casualties become an attack without penalties. Only participating individuals count towards the stacking calculations. The maximum stacking without penalties depends on the type of attack.

Land Stacking

For the attacker the max stacking is dependend on the number of sides you are attacking the hex with. Its either rulevar30 or sides of attack * rulevar 31. The highest is used. The defender always uses rulevar30.

Air stacking

If rulevar 833 is active then air can exceed its own max stacking in attack.

Artillery stacking

If rulevar 834 is active then artillery can exceed its own max stacking in attack.

Battlestack

Keep in mind that if rulevar 859 is active that battlestack for land, air and artillery is remembered and values from previous battles in the hex can be added in the current battle. <Not in AT Classic>

Determining inidividual attackin and its target

Scroll through all

As explained above we cycle through all individuals and then test for each one if it can attack. It can if it has made less attacks this combat round then its statistics allow. Furthermore it must not be in the process of retreating.

A special rule is that air recon individuals do not initiate attacks.

Another special rule is that defending artillery target of an artillery attack or shorebombardment can do counter battery fire if rulevar 142 is active. it is not in AT Gold and Classic rules

find target

Then (semi)randomly an opponent of the enemy side is chosen. Semi random because the randomness depends on the number of tries the individuals statistics allow. If it has only 1 try in finding its favourite target it is purely ranodm. But if it has more tries it will pick the target it likes the most. What an individual likes the most and howmany tries it gets varies per scenario. Keep in mind that the favourite (what it likes most to attack) scores can vary between regular and artillery/shore bombardment attack. You can only attack an enemy backbench individual if the attacking individual has either accomplished a breakthrough or if it has artillery range. Furthermore artillery capable land theater individuals cannot fire on enemy individuals that have brokenthrough. Unless defending individual is retreating, in that case backbench property does not help. Aircraft are not bothered by non-air units with backbench setting. Anti aircraft land and naval units can hit all aircraft, independent of backbench property too.

Attacking backbench aircraft can only attack enemy backbench aircraft (those are supposed to be on the ground), while the fighters are intercepting. This enables us to give bombers high score against other bombers. Since backbench aircraft will never join in intercepts.

You cannot target an individual that has been forced to retreat by a combat result.

find preventer

It is possible the target individual is of a type that another individual from that same side wants to defend. This happens if prevent rules are active. See Subformation Types for more info on these statistics. Whats important for us now is that the target can be switched. Instead of attacking the infantry man we may now be attacking the preventing individual , for example a halftrack. Not used in Classic rules

attack

The actual attack is now done. See chapter Attack below.

counter attack

If counter attacks are not disabled with rulevar 807 and if possible the target of the attack will no counter attack its attacker.

Non-air individuals will not counter attack air individuals.

If artillery attack or shorebombardment is ongoing counter attack is not possible.

If the attacker or the defender is already more often attacked then its max attacked score counter attack is not possible.

If the defender is in the process of retreating counter attack is not possible.

Anti structural points

An attacking individual (wheter or not it did an attack on another individual) or a defending individual (that did an attack on another individual) will do structural dammage every combat round. The structural dammage is modified for the readiness of the individual. Furthermore aircraft not doing a Bombing run will have their dammage modified with rulevar 128. If the individual was attacked in this combat round it will do less structural dammage based on the number of times it was attacked.

Attack

An actual attack from one individual on another takes place either as a regular attack or as a counter attack. Counter attacks are in AT gold and classic rules lighter in effect. But this does not have to be so in other scenarios.

Determine if hit scored

Basicly it is very simple the attack points for the attacker are calculated and the hitpoints for the defender. When this is done both numbers are randomized, score a value between 0 and their number and if attacker scores higher a hit is scored, otherwise not. There is a plethora of modifiers on both scores. See modifiers paragraph below.

Hit scored

If a hit is scored based on the statistics of the individual attacking it is determined if it is a retreat hit, kill hit or pinned hit.

Experience Modifier

The experience modifier is defending individuals powerpoints / attacking individuals powerpoints. the modifier is minimum rulevar 317 and maximum rulevar 318.

Kill Hit

A kill hit gives the individual scoring it rulevar119 modified with experience modifier experience.

Retreat Hit

A retreat hit gives the individual scoring it rulevar120 modified with experience modifier experience. The target goes into immediate retreating mode and loses rulevar 122 percentage readiness, rulevar 126 percentage entrenchment and rulevar 124 percentage morale.

Pinned Hit

A pinned hit gives the individual scoring it rulevar121 modified with experience modifier experience. The target goes into immediate retreating mode and loses rulevar 123 percentage readiness, rulevar 127 percentage entrenchment and rulevar 125 percentage morale.

Lose rdn per attack

If the attacking individual has this rule and it is not counter attacking it will not lose some absolute number of readiness points.

A kill hit gives the individual scoring it rulevar319 modified with experience modifier experience.

Modifiers

Keep in mind when attacker is written below, the individual attacking is meant. It could belong to the defending or the attacking side in the battle.

Fuel ATT

The attacker can get penalties on their scores if out of fuel.

Global Combat Modifier ATT

The attacker can get a global combat modifier for its SFtypeGroup

Attack startup ATT

The attack can get a startup penalty in round 1 of rulevar 316 and in round 2 of rulevar 317. <Not present in classic AT Rules>

Counterattack modifier ATT

If this attack is a counterattack and the individual belonges to the regime attacking the hex and its land vs land attack then the counterattack modifier is rulevar101, else rulevar 103. If the attacking individual belongs to the side defending the hex and its land vs land then the modifier is rulevar 102 or else rulevar 104.

AA from distance ATT

The attack value is modified with rulevar 105

Max attacked ATT

The attack score gets modified if its target has been already been attacked more then the maximum number of times. Attacking it double the ammount of max attacked results in a modifier of 0.5. Triple 0.33, etc.. The effect of this modifier can be maximized by rulevar 300

Landscape ATT

The landscape can modify the attackscore. Keep in mind that defenders of the hex get different modifiers then attackers.

Staff & HQ ATT

Staff with 0 XP give a rulevar140 bonus to their troops. Each additional XP point gives an extra percentage point bonus based on the settings of the SFtype the staff belongs too. The staff bonus is modified for the HQ Power range the unit in question is in. If it is out of range (or partially so) it will not get full bonus.

Readiness ATT + HP

The effect of the readiness modifier on the attack value can be adjusted by the rulevar 106 for the attacking side and rulevar 107 for the defending side. The effect on the hitpoints of the target is rulevar 116.

Special ATT

Subformations can have special offensive or defensive penalties or bonusses assigned to them. (In at gold the are overdrawn the pictures of your subformation in either blue or red)

Supply Consumption ATT + HP

The effect of this modifier can be adjusted by the rulevar 130. The effect on the hitpoints of the target is rulevar 130

For people ATT

You can get a bonus/penalty for the people of the attacking individual.

=Against people ATT== You can get a bonus/penalty for the people of the target.

Experience ATT TARGET

Value of attack score and hitpoints is modified for experience. Each xp point is a % point raise.

Concentric Bonus ATT

How it is calculated is discussed above.

Surprise Combat ATT

If attacker is part of the defense force of the hex it gets the rulevar 108 modifier.

Versus Paradropper ATT

If target is part of the paradrop force being dropped it gets attacker the rulevar 109 modifier.

Versus Amphibic Landing ATT

If target is part of the amphibic invasion force being dropped it gets the attacker the rulevar 110 modifier.

Is Rebel ATT

If attacker is part of a Rebel attack on the hex it gets the rulevar 111 modifier.

Orderly retreating target ATT

If attacker is attacking a target that is retreating. rulevar 113 when target was defender of the hex. rulevar 112] if target was attacking the hex. ==Panicking retreating target ATT== If attacker is attacking a target that is panicking retreating. rulevar [[115 when target was defender of the hex. rulevar 114] if target was attacking the hex. ==Entrenchment HP== The target gets a % point bonus for each entrenchment point. ==River HP== Rivers can give the defenders an increase in Hitpoints. However if a bridge is still present the increase is modified by rulevar [[5. Furthermore the attacking individual must belong to a unit attacking from such a side that it does cross a river.

Overstacking ATT HP

If you overstack, your troops will be more vulnerable and fight less well. You can overstack in defense as well as in attack. Overstacking makes attacks and defense stronger, at the cost of higher casualty rates. Penalties due to overstacking are only imposed when a land troop type is attacked (and notably not when air attacks air), and the penalty is exponential rather than linear.

Airfield Attack HP

When the airstrike is targeting an airfield the aircraft stationed there will fight with a penalty. Air units that are attacked on their airfield hexes fight with a penalty on their hitpoints in the first combat rounds. Penalty depends on rulevar 835 and rulevar 836.