Detailed Combat Mechanics
Ever wondered why an infantry defends off a light tank, or why you sometimes win and sometimes lose the same unit matchup?
After reading this carefully, you should be able to look into the unit stats before you go into battle, and approximately predict its outcome, and also tell what role each unit has.
Damage value calculation
Every unit in CoW has its armour class and its damage values against other classes. To determine the damage value of an army against an armour class, the damage values of all the units against that armour class are added together (so if we have two units with 2 damage vs. tanks and 1 unit with 4, it will be 8 against tanks for the army). However, if the army is greater than 10, only the top 10 units with the highest damage against that armour class will be used. The damage efficiency for those 10 units will not be decreased.
Units always have two damage values: offensive (for attacking) and defensive (for defending).
(The ratio of the offensive/defensive damage values is the same for a unit against all armour classes.)
A strength bonus increases the army's damage values by a certain percentage.
If a unit is damaged, its damage values will be decreased. (20+x.0,8)% is the damage efficiency of the unit, where x represents the health percentage of the unit. In other words, the damage efficiency is 100% for a full health unit and will go down as the unit is damaged, ending at 20% when the unit has zero hp (is very close to zero).
The fight
There are three groups we can divide units into: close combat units,ranged units and planes.
Close combat
If army A moves into army B while B isn’t moving, army A will attack and B will defend; that will happen again every 30 minutes. If then the owner of army B orders it to move or attack it will attack A and A will defend. That will repeat every 30 minutes (once B is ordered to move or attack you cannot stop it from attacking over and over again till A is destroyed, so if you want to only defend, don’t move the army during the fight).
The close combat range is 5km (1/10 the range of Artillery); if army A is 5km or closer to B, and either of the armies changes orders (is moving and then is ordered to move elsewhere, or is stationary and ordered to move), that army will start attacking. However, if army A was ordered to attack B before getting too close, it won’t attack from 5km, it will first reach B’s position and then attack.
Any unit that has no circle around it when selected is a close combat unit; close combat units can engage any enemy unit within 5km of them, so a submarine can engage an infantry if they are within 5km of each other, too.
There’s an exception – land or naval units can not attack planes in the air. Not even anti air can. However, any land or naval unit has defensive damage against planes. That will be used against planes that attack it or anything within 1/10 Artillery range (=distance of 5) of its position. Anti air has exceptionally high defensive damage against planes, which is its purpose (dealing large damage to planes when they attack the army the anti air is in).
Ranged units
If the unit has a circle around it and is not a plane, it’s a ranged unit and the circle is its range. Ranged units are similar to close combat, but they can attack from more than 5 (can attack anything within the circle around them), in which case the target won’t defend (the target can attack back if it’s also ranged and has enough range, though). Just like close combat units, ranged units can only attack in 30-minute intervals, but they can be moving during the reloading (so you can hit-and-run with them if you have the time). If a ranged unit attacks a target closer than 5km, it will become a normal close combat fight (the target will defend).
Planes
Unlike land units, planes have two attack commands – attack and patrol.
Attack
If you order planes to attack another unit, the time it takes for the planes to fly to the target’s current position is measured and becomes the attack timer. The planes will follow the target and deal damage when the timer runs out; then they have to go back to the airport to refuel (you cannot order the planes to do anything while they are returning and then refuelling). This means you can attack a target even if it’s running away and is faster than you (you just fly the distance you were from it when the plane was ordered to attack, then you deal damage, even if the target is far away already). However, if the target flies out of the range of the planes (the circle around them) and the attack timer runs out, the planes won’t deal any damage to the target (though they will still have to refuel).
Planes receive the defensive damage of their target before they deal their own. Therefore, if a plane dies to the defensive damage of its target, it won't deal any damage. This also applies to flying bombs and nuclear bombers.
Patrol
The second way to fight is patrol. The blue circle ( “patrol circle”) indicates what area the plane will affect; when patrolling the plane’s position is the centre of the patrol circle. When the plane arrives at its position (the centre of the assigned patrol circle), it starts patrolling. A 15-minute interval is set; every time it runs out, the planes deal 1/2 normal damage to all enemy armies within the patrol circle, and to all enemy patrols whose circle overlaps; if there are multiple targets the damage is spread out.
The targets will also deal ½ defensive damage back; the exception are enemy planes whose patrol circle overlaps, but their current position (the centre of their patrol circle) is not within your patrol circle. I also found out (with patrolling planes vs. land units) that the planes that deal more damage to the target will receive a larger portion of the defensive damage from it. Notice that patrol only attacks enemy units; if you’re at peace, it won’t deal damage and trigger war. Unlike attacking, patrolling planes can patrol forever without refuelling.
Once a plane starts patrolling, any units within the patrol circle will be saved as intelligence reveals. Even if they disappear afterwards, the game will keep displaying the intelligence reveals till next daychange, or until a plane patrols the area again. The patrol timer does not have to run out, so intelligence reveals can be made without the planes getting damaged.
Tip: Normally when seeing a neutral or enemy unit travelling you only see a fraction of its path. However, when the foreign unit becomes an intelligence reveal, it will show its whole path, which can sometimes be very helpful. (if they fix this bug, let me know )
Refuelling planes and planes on the truck convoy are treated as light armour units with 10 hp and very little defensive damage (0,3-0,5 against all armour classes). That is one of the reasons patrol is used by pro players more frequently than attack. Planes refuel for 30 min on an lv1 airstrip/factory; upgrading it reduces the refuelling time.
Convoys (additional info)
Planes turn into truck convoys when they need to move and cannot transfer airports to reach the destination; land units turn into a transport ship when they need to move across water.
The land unit needs to stay 3-4 hours at the shore to turn into a transport ship (embarking), same for the transport ship to turn back into the transported unit (disembarking). This embarking time is reduced if there is a local port or naval base at the path the unit is using to embark/disembark.
Convoys (transport ships or trucks) are completely independent on the unit they are transporting. The only difference between an artillery on a transport ship and a heavy tank on a transport ship is what each of the ships turns into after it disembarks. Convoys have their own parameters (damage values, health and speed) and are close combat units. Higher levels of transport ships can be researched, but only the ships you embark on after the research is complete are affected.
Ever wondered why an infantry defends off a light tank, or why you sometimes win and sometimes lose the same unit matchup?
After reading this carefully, you should be able to look into the unit stats before you go into battle, and approximately predict its outcome, and also tell what role each unit has.
Damage value calculation
Every unit in CoW has its armour class and its damage values against other classes. To determine the damage value of an army against an armour class, the damage values of all the units against that armour class are added together (so if we have two units with 2 damage vs. tanks and 1 unit with 4, it will be 8 against tanks for the army). However, if the army is greater than 10, only the top 10 units with the highest damage against that armour class will be used. The damage efficiency for those 10 units will not be decreased.
Units always have two damage values: offensive (for attacking) and defensive (for defending).
(The ratio of the offensive/defensive damage values is the same for a unit against all armour classes.)
A strength bonus increases the army's damage values by a certain percentage.
If a unit is damaged, its damage values will be decreased. (20+x.0,8)% is the damage efficiency of the unit, where x represents the health percentage of the unit. In other words, the damage efficiency is 100% for a full health unit and will go down as the unit is damaged, ending at 20% when the unit has zero hp (is very close to zero).
The fight
There are three groups we can divide units into: close combat units,ranged units and planes.
Close combat
If army A moves into army B while B isn’t moving, army A will attack and B will defend; that will happen again every 30 minutes. If then the owner of army B orders it to move or attack it will attack A and A will defend. That will repeat every 30 minutes (once B is ordered to move or attack you cannot stop it from attacking over and over again till A is destroyed, so if you want to only defend, don’t move the army during the fight).
The close combat range is 5km (1/10 the range of Artillery); if army A is 5km or closer to B, and either of the armies changes orders (is moving and then is ordered to move elsewhere, or is stationary and ordered to move), that army will start attacking. However, if army A was ordered to attack B before getting too close, it won’t attack from 5km, it will first reach B’s position and then attack.
Any unit that has no circle around it when selected is a close combat unit; close combat units can engage any enemy unit within 5km of them, so a submarine can engage an infantry if they are within 5km of each other, too.
There’s an exception – land or naval units can not attack planes in the air. Not even anti air can. However, any land or naval unit has defensive damage against planes. That will be used against planes that attack it or anything within 1/10 Artillery range (=distance of 5) of its position. Anti air has exceptionally high defensive damage against planes, which is its purpose (dealing large damage to planes when they attack the army the anti air is in).
Ranged units
If the unit has a circle around it and is not a plane, it’s a ranged unit and the circle is its range. Ranged units are similar to close combat, but they can attack from more than 5 (can attack anything within the circle around them), in which case the target won’t defend (the target can attack back if it’s also ranged and has enough range, though). Just like close combat units, ranged units can only attack in 30-minute intervals, but they can be moving during the reloading (so you can hit-and-run with them if you have the time). If a ranged unit attacks a target closer than 5km, it will become a normal close combat fight (the target will defend).
Planes
Unlike land units, planes have two attack commands – attack and patrol.
Attack
If you order planes to attack another unit, the time it takes for the planes to fly to the target’s current position is measured and becomes the attack timer. The planes will follow the target and deal damage when the timer runs out; then they have to go back to the airport to refuel (you cannot order the planes to do anything while they are returning and then refuelling). This means you can attack a target even if it’s running away and is faster than you (you just fly the distance you were from it when the plane was ordered to attack, then you deal damage, even if the target is far away already). However, if the target flies out of the range of the planes (the circle around them) and the attack timer runs out, the planes won’t deal any damage to the target (though they will still have to refuel).
Planes receive the defensive damage of their target before they deal their own. Therefore, if a plane dies to the defensive damage of its target, it won't deal any damage. This also applies to flying bombs and nuclear bombers.
Patrol
The second way to fight is patrol. The blue circle ( “patrol circle”) indicates what area the plane will affect; when patrolling the plane’s position is the centre of the patrol circle. When the plane arrives at its position (the centre of the assigned patrol circle), it starts patrolling. A 15-minute interval is set; every time it runs out, the planes deal 1/2 normal damage to all enemy armies within the patrol circle, and to all enemy patrols whose circle overlaps; if there are multiple targets the damage is spread out.
The targets will also deal ½ defensive damage back; the exception are enemy planes whose patrol circle overlaps, but their current position (the centre of their patrol circle) is not within your patrol circle. I also found out (with patrolling planes vs. land units) that the planes that deal more damage to the target will receive a larger portion of the defensive damage from it. Notice that patrol only attacks enemy units; if you’re at peace, it won’t deal damage and trigger war. Unlike attacking, patrolling planes can patrol forever without refuelling.
Once a plane starts patrolling, any units within the patrol circle will be saved as intelligence reveals. Even if they disappear afterwards, the game will keep displaying the intelligence reveals till next daychange, or until a plane patrols the area again. The patrol timer does not have to run out, so intelligence reveals can be made without the planes getting damaged.
Tip: Normally when seeing a neutral or enemy unit travelling you only see a fraction of its path. However, when the foreign unit becomes an intelligence reveal, it will show its whole path, which can sometimes be very helpful. (if they fix this bug, let me know )
Refuelling planes and planes on the truck convoy are treated as light armour units with 10 hp and very little defensive damage (0,3-0,5 against all armour classes). That is one of the reasons patrol is used by pro players more frequently than attack. Planes refuel for 30 min on an lv1 airstrip/factory; upgrading it reduces the refuelling time.
Convoys (additional info)
Planes turn into truck convoys when they need to move and cannot transfer airports to reach the destination; land units turn into a transport ship when they need to move across water.
The land unit needs to stay 3-4 hours at the shore to turn into a transport ship (embarking), same for the transport ship to turn back into the transported unit (disembarking). This embarking time is reduced if there is a local port or naval base at the path the unit is using to embark/disembark.
Convoys (transport ships or trucks) are completely independent on the unit they are transporting. The only difference between an artillery on a transport ship and a heavy tank on a transport ship is what each of the ships turns into after it disembarks. Convoys have their own parameters (damage values, health and speed) and are close combat units. Higher levels of transport ships can be researched, but only the ships you embark on after the research is complete are affected.
"In CoW, don't stamp on things before looking. Rakes are everywhere!"
"Don't underestimate noobs; if they don't know what they're doing, how can you?"
Hornetkeeper
"Don't underestimate noobs; if they don't know what they're doing, how can you?"
Hornetkeeper
The post was edited 1 time, last by Hornetkeeper: Aug 17th update (units defend vs planes using defensive damage) ().