Notes on GC. Continued.
Gabor Törö
it.
Notes on ground combat
Written by Gabor Törö in November and December 2004
1 Introduction
Ground combat is one of the most important and most misunderstood subjects
in vgap4. Even if only two bases are present the outcomes and messages
generated are often interpreted doubtfully. If three or more bases [1] are
involved then an exact understanding is needed. And indeed within an
alliance
sophisticated tactics both for attack and defence exist. Though there
already exist notes about GA, i.e. the excellent one of Dave Bundy or the
information which comes with Diplomat.exe from Paul Honigman or shipcalc.exe
from Andreas Benne I still have the feeling that additional remarks are
needed. Even the text one can find in Tim's online help does not answer all
questions and leaves people sometimes with more questions. Ground assault
(GA) can occur if there are at least two bases and at least one of the
owners is no ally of the other and that other player has chosen one of the
four fighting attack modes for his base. That means that GA can even occur
if player A has set player B as ally and his base to fighting mode and
player B has set player A as enemy and his base to peaceful. In other words
if two allied player have bases on a ommon planet and one of them sets his
base to an fighting attack mode and the other player switches his ally state
to enemy state then even if he leaves his base in peaceful a GA occurs.
Having this in mind is very important in games with ally limits and for
tactical & economical operations where temporally the alliance has to be
resolved.
2 Overview
Before we go into the deep details let's have a look at the whole ground
combat phase of a single planet.
2.1 Before the Battles
There are five ground combat modes (0-4) and among them four attack modes
(1-4), which can be set in the base menu:
0) Peaceful (P)
1) Roaming defence (RD)
2) Deep ground patrols (DGP)
3) Attack and run (A&R)
4) Kill, kill, kill (3K)
The modes, which can trigger GA are 1, 2, 3 and 4. There are several
significant differences between them and so it is worth to look at them in
more detail. Before it comes to combat the forces prepare for war. At first
any Centaurian ground assault type 3 unit will send its PSI force to make
all force fighting stronger. Each unit makes the forces 2% stronger until a
total of 30% is reached. At second 20% of the existing drones of an involved
Borg will convert to troops even if this base will not fight. It is enough
that there are two other bases present which are at war. Remember that here
the total forces of the base before GA count. At third the forces will leave
the base due to its combat mode. That means that due to the combat mode
first a part of the forces leaves the base for the battlefield. Remember
that although in mode 4
High Guards leave the base they will not fight (High guards are later after
the end of all normal fights important for the outcome of the surrender and
blood bath phase):
Sometimes this phase is called as "Marshal Phase".
Combat mode
0 (P)
1 (RD)
2 (DGP)
3 (A&R)
4 (3K)
Crew
0%
0%
0%
0%
95%
Troops
0%
25%
50%
90%
95%
High Guards
0%
0%
0%
0%
80%
Mechs
0%
0%
50%
100%
100%
Fighters
0%
0%
50%
100%
100%
2.2 The Battles
After this the battles begin. The battle phase consists of many one to one
battles. That means only two bases fight at one time against each other. And
due to a given order with respect to the anti air guns, laser cannons,
ground assault units, fighter, troops, crew the combat is evaluated. One of
the bases in such a one to one fight is the attacker and one is the
defender. Most of the time the attacker gets the right to kill first then
the defender fights back. The attacker additionally gets a kill advantage.
But this is not always correct. The strength part due to the dark force is
greater for the defender than for the
attacker. At first all bases in mode 1 are allowed to fight against all
other hostile bases. That means the battlefield forces of a mode 1 base will
stay during the whole battle phase outside and attack all other existing
bases. They return home - of course only if they have survived - after the
last battle of any
base has been done. Before it comes to fight in a single battle the existing
HGs on both sides will be checked. They reduce the losses down to a minimum
of 50%. As a mode 1 base will not send any HG out a mode 1 base will not
take this HG advantage. It can only occur here if the attacked base is a
mode 4 base.
If all bases in mode 1 have done their attack then host searches for bases
in mode 2 which can do an attack. It works the same like in Roaming defence
with the only difference that due to the fighters which are now involved
"Enforcer Bombing" could happen. That means that if the attacker is Enforcer
and he has type 2 fighter and the base command code set to "bxy" where "xy"
is a two digit number for the ground structure to be attacked then the type
2 fighter destroy a fixed number of this ground structures before the normal
fight begins. "Enforcer bombing" takes profit from the one turn combat delay
change. In earlier days ground bases fought immediately in the turn in which
the task force has landed. Now an Enforcer base has time to set the command
code. This could help in cases where first the anti air guns have to be
destroyed before a base can successfully be attacked with fighters from
orbit.
Till now it was quiet simple. Now it becomes a bit more tricky with the
modes 3 and 4. At this stage all forces of bases in mode 1 and 2 fought
against all other hostile forces outside their bases which are on the
planet. If forces outside the bases survived the mode 1 and 2 battles they
all are on the battle field outside the base. Forces of bases in mode 3 and
4 attack forces inside other bases. Attacking forces of 3K bases can defeat
another base what means that the personnel will totally be killed or taken
as prisoners and the defeated base will be looted and the stuff and the
structures will be added to the structures of the winner. Then all ground
assault units and fighters of the defeated base are lost. A second case
where a base vanishes after ground assault is when a base is left with no
forces at all at it wasn't attacked by a 3K base. I think this will even
happen if the bases are only in mode 0 and at least one player is an enemy
of the other. Then the base is emptied, deleted and the actual stuff and
the stuff which was used to build up the structures is placed one to one on
the planets surface except the supplies, mc and fuel. Here is the rule that
90% of the supplies and 75% of the cash is placed directly and 10%
respectively 25% at a random rate between 0 and 100%. And the fuel vanishes
and appears as molybdenum on the planets surface. I think the last one will
not survive the next host changes because this is a typo in the code and it
easily can be abused to convert fuel into molybdenum.
The kill routines for A&R and 3K are both the same. What makes them
different is how the forces behave before and after fight and that mode 3 or
4 base only can do one battle against another base per turn: If a 3K base is
attack by a mode 3 or 4 base then all forces of the 3K base rush back into
the
base before the fight begins. If a mode 3 base is going to attack a 3K base
then if the 3K base has more than x1.5 the troops of the A&R base on the
battle field then the attack of the mode 3 base will totally blocked. The
A&R base is not allowed to attack this base though it can still attack other
bases. When an A&R base's fight is finished, all surviving forces left on
the battlefield immediately return home before another base is attacking.
This is different
to mode 1 and 2. Here the forces must endure outside the base the whole
ground combat phase for a given planet. And even the outer forces of a 3K
base stay outside until they are attacked by a mode 3 or 4 base. Another
difference to mode 1 or 2 bases is that mode 3 and 4 bases cannot do their
attack only with fighters on the battle field. There have to be personnel
and/or ground assault units. When a 3K is successful attacked by a mode 3 or
4 bases then as mentioned the defending 3K forces rush back. If the
defending 3K base wins the fight then no forces are on the battle field
anymore and so it can't attack anymore.
As one may expect first the mode 3 bases do their attack and then the mode 4
bases. As mentioned the kill routines are the same. After the attack of A&R
forces they immediately rush home and that's it. After an attack of a 3K
base there is a check for surrender or blood bath. Before this all fighters
and
ground assault units of both sides are rushing back. Then the combat
strengths of the surviving forces for both sides are calculated with a
special rule. Important here is that for the attacker the remaining outside
forces and the base' ground assault units are taken whereas for the defender
the forces in the base count. The side which is better than x3 takes the
prisoners of the other side. The attacker gets the whole defender's base
forces as prisoners without the fighters and ground assault units. The
defender then counts as defeated and later the whole bases will be added to
the attacker's base. If the
defender wins the attacker's forces outside will be taken as prisoners. The
attacker will hold his base and doesn't count as defeated. Enforcers only
need to have a greater strength at this point to get the same. If no one is
Enforcers and no side has the x3 majority then we have blood bath. If the
attacker
wins all defender forces will be destroyed and the defender base counts as
defeated and will be later added to the attacker's base. If it is vice versa
then all remaining battle field forces of the attacker will be destroyed.
The winner in the blood bath case will lose forces due to the percentage
part of the
losers strength with respect to the winner's, i.e. if the looser has 10% of
the strength of the winner then the winner will lose 10% of all personnel
and only of the personnel.
During all modes there is a book keeping of all killed personnel because
later there will be checked if killed Borg drones can be recovered to normal
colonists and if Coalition rescue teams (the Coalitions type 3 ground
assault unit) can save personnel in rescue pods to other planets.
2.3 After the Battles
After all this is done the bases marked as defeated will add to the
defeater's base. Then prisoners will be released. Unfortunately the
prisoners are not cleared. That means that the following series of
colonist/prisoners is possible if a base is for example captured and
recaptured alternatively:
Colonists
Prisoners
Start
1.000.000
0
Captured
0
1.000.000
Recaptured
1.000.000
1.000.000
Captured
0
2.000.000
Abuse is possible: One can double over a cycle of two turns the population
with a friend's help. I think this also should not survive the next host
change.
Next action is that all forces which are still in front of their bases will
return home and the recovered colonists from a Borg will also added to the
base and after this all bases which are still empty will as mentioned be
emptied.
Then "Coalition Escape" will take place the happiness gaining due to the
defeating of a privateer base.
So we have to following scheme:
1. Centaur PSI warrior and Borg Troop Conversion
2. Marshalling
3. Roaming Defence attacks
4. Deep Ground Patrols attack with initial Enforcer Bombing
5. Attack and Run attacks with initial Enforcer Bombing
6. Kill, Kill, Kill attacks with initial Enforcer Bombing
7. Loot defeated bases
8. Army returns home and Borg recovering
9. Empty bases without forces
10. Coalition Escape
3 Looking closer
We now go into the details and looking even at the exact formulas and their
implications. Before we go
any further it is unfortunately necessary to introduce some nomenclature to
be able to write done the
formulas in a more and understandable form. There forces can be colonists,
crew, troops, high guards,
mechs, fighters, anti air guns and laser cannons.
Though we have the abbreviations CO, CR, TR, HG, ME, FI, AA and LC. The
capital "P" stands for
personnel. As the host distinct between forces in bases and on the field we
need the notation "f" and
"b" to rely on field forces and base forces. As the host makes a
distinction between who is attacking
first and who have to do the counterattack we need "A" and "D" to notify the
attacker and defender. A
little "a" and a little "d" designates attack and defence parameters and not
one of the involved bases.
As various race stats are used in the formulas such as combat strength of
personnel, dark force, the
defence and attack strengths of the mechs and fighters we also have to
introduce short cuts for this:
cP - combat. P can be one of the values CO, CR, TR, HG.
fd - force dark notification
dP - defence from personnel, reads normally as "defence from troops"
dM - defence from mechs
dF - defence from fighter, reads normally as "defence from air"
aP - attack personnel, reads normally as "attack troops"
aM - attack mech
aF - attack fighter, reads normally as "attack air"
aC - attack cities
There is no extra parameter for defence from cities. Host uses the defence
from mechs values. If there
is a "(j)" then this designates something with fighters and/or mech and j
can take all values from one to
three. We also must have something for the cases that more than two base are
present. If this shall be
expressed then occurs a "(A)" where A can take values from one to 30, i.e.
for the at max thirty player
which can be in a game and so with a base on one planets ?. The choice of
the "A" here indicates the
attacker. The same "(D)" is used if it will be browsed thru the players as
defenders. Let's see if we
understand this mess:
CO.b - colonists in a base
ME.A.b - base mech of the attacker
FI(j).(A).f - field fighter of type j of player A who is attacker
HG.c - combat strength of high guards
TR.(D).c - combat strength of the troops of player D who is attacker.
ME(j).(A).aF - mech3 type's strength of player A (who is attacking) for
attacks on fighters
Next we have to introduce modifiers due to the Lizard boulder attack and
defence:
aLIZ.(A)=30, dLIZ.(A)=1/2, aLIZ.(D)=30, dLIZ.(D)=1/2
The Lizard boulder effect takes place if only one side is a Lizard and only
between personnel -
personnel fights. The boulder effect amplifies the kill effect of an
attacker by a factor of 30 and
weakens the kill effect of the attacker by a factor of 0.5 if the defender
is a Lizard.
Maybe some remarks are suited to understand the meaning of the words
"attacker" and "defender". Take as example the roaming defence phase. Host
throws a dice and decides where in the row of players he begins to browse
and search increasingly (!) for a base in mode 1 on the given planet. If he
finds a player A with a base in mode 1 then he throws a dice a second time
to decide where to begin to search for a suited opponent. He then browses
increasingly (!) through all possible opponents of this first base of player
A. Like the whole ground combat on a planet is divided in one to one fights
between two hostile bases the ground combat of such a pair of hostile bases
is divided in pairs of fights between the different types of forces. Player
A only has troops on the battle field but his first opponent could be in
mode 2,3 or 4 and so he has sent out troops, guards, mechs and fighters. So
this battle consists of a TR -TR, TR-CR, TR-ME and TR-FI fight in exactly
this order. During all this fights this player A has always the right to
kill at first. If forces of a opponent survive they can counter attack the
troops of player A. This is the meaning of "attacker" and "defender".
3.1 PSI Warrior & Borg Troop Conversion
3.1.1 PSI Warrior
Let us denote PSI the bonus multiplier for player due to the circumstance
that he can be a Centaur with mech type 3 units in his base at the beginning
of the ground combat. Before any combat and marshalling starts host
calculates PSI as
PSI=1+MIN(0.3; 0.02*ME(3).b) if the player is a Centaur. Otherwise PSI has
the value 1.
MIN(x; y) gives the smaller of the two values x and y, i.e MIN(2;4)=2.
Important here is to remember that although mech type 3 units will be killed
during the combat this bonus factor remains the same thru the whole ground
combat. In addition the bonus factor has 1.3 as upper bound what means the
mechs can improve the combat strength of personnel up to 30%. Each mech type
3 adds 2%. The Centaur PSI warrior effect makes all personnel combat stats
30% better as they normally are but only for personnel - personnel fights.
It increases the kill effect of the normal combat strength but not the kill
effect of the force dark. Don't get confused if later a "PSI.A" for example
occurs. This is the PSI factor of the attacker then.
3.1.2 Borg Troop Conversion
This means that at the beginning of a ground combat in any Borg base of a
planet where a ground combat occurs no matter if these bases are involved or
not a conversion of 20% of the base colonists into base troops will happen.
These troops will stay during the whole combat and also afterwards. There is
an event outside ground combat, which converts troops back into colonists
but only with a rate of 5%.
It is important both for attackers and defenders not to forget that
marshalling is after this. So sometimes giant amounts of Borg troops enter
ground combat.
Once I was told only three bases per planet were allowed. This is not true.
I simulated GA with 13 different bases. It works
though impressive outcomes occurred
Wish you merry rest of the 2nd Advent
GFM GToeroe