Decided to place this here instead
Speaking of conflict, since I can feel one brewing, here’s some trivia on how combat works:
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Soldiers are divided into three unit types: Infantry, cavalry and archery. Depending on how many units each person sends, some types fare better against others. I will be using the rock-paper-scissors model of AoE, so infantry is good against cavalry, which is good against archery, which is good against infantry. Each base unit is good against siege weapons, while siege weapons are good against boats, which are good against every base unit.
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The way the bonus is calculated is similar to the malus when tasks are split between the population. It’s easier to explain with an example. If nations A and B are at war, and A has 40 foot soldiers and 50 knights which he sends against B’s 30 archers, here’s how the bonus would be calculated: Add A and B’s related units together (In this case, cavalry and archery, which would give 80). Then, use the same system to determine the bonus that A would get and the malus B would get. I this case, A would get a +5 and B would get -3.
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Heavy units are also a trade off, where they double their strength, but also their weakness. In the example above, if the archers were heavy archers, since they take double the weakness, they would get -6 instead of -3. If, instead it was A’s knights that were heavy cavalry units, they would get a +10 instead of +5. If both units were heavy, then they cancel each other out and it stays +5 and -3.
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As for how sieges work, once the village is surrounded and the siege is declared, the village now has a timer, determined by a diceroll, before they run out of food or morale, when which they will either starve, losing lots of population every turn, or surrender. Watch out though! Your soldiers might also starve at the same time, so you have to make sure they have access to food as well. While the siege is in effect, the attackers have the advantage, which gives them a +2 and the defenders a -2. And contrary to regular battles, siege battles only determine the number of casualties, never the victory.