Slitherine

I recently have seen a couple of discussions where clarifications of game rules have been given which aren't in the Manual (or aren't particularly clear). Amaranthus suggested starting a FAQ topic, so I thought I'd kick things off.

Please post below anything which you think should be in the list, and I'll edit this post to update it. To start things off, here are two points below:


Assault Stat - An attacker's assault stat is subtracted from the defenders entrenchment value before combat is resolved. Units with high assault are generally better at attacking entrenched positions.

Ammo stockpiles - You can't stockpile more than 50 ammo points per nation. Once you reach this cap, your ammo income is wasted.

How can I found out how much income a city provides - Press the space bar. This hides all units and shows a production value for all cities. Production values in red are damaged cities which are not at full production. Damaged cities recover over time.


PS - this thread is about game mechanics, for technical support go here: viewforum.php?f=214

Thanks Myrddraal! A few things, which I couldn't find in the manual (or couldn't find them quantified - only qualitative statements were given):

-- What is the combat penalty when a unit is out of supply?
-- How is the national morale penalty calculated when you are in deficit?
-- What is the combat bonus when a ship is in a green hex. What about a friendly port?
-- How many efficiency points are lost per turn when a ship is in a red hex? (1/turn?)
-- What is the NM penalty when a battleship is sunk?
-- How does first use of gas artillery impact on the status of neutral nations? (I know for Bulgaria it dropped it by about 10 turns)
-- Maximum entrenchment levels by terrain type
-- What is the combat penalty for attacking across a river?
-- How much more efficiency is consumed during winter moves/attacks?
-- What do the colours on manpower equate to (70% = yellow, 30% = red?)
-- How much efficiency is consumed when you move-and-attack rather than static attack?
-- What is the penalty for an amphibious assault?
-- What is the combat bonus to cavalry when attacking weakened enemy units? What constitutes 'weakened'?
-- What is the actual advantage that infantry and garrisons have over cavalry when attacking entrenched positions?
-- What is the first strike bonus for battleships?
-- If a technology type is fully researched, can I then retire the relevant Research Lab without losing that technology, and thus save the upkeep? (Yes)

I'll have a think about others

Wow... a long list. Lets get started:

Maximum entrenchment levels by terrain type

There's no such thing as a max entrenchment level by terrain type. There are two things that affect entrenchment:
- The hex entrenchment level
- The hex terrain entrenchment modifier

The max entrenchment level of a hex is determined by the nationality of the unit currently occupying that hex, and the number of entrenchment technologies that nation has.

The entrenchment modifier is a feature of the terrain type. Dunes and Steppe have lower entrenchment modifiers. Grassland offers the best.

The total 'entrenchment effect' is entrenchment level*modifier.

What is the combat bonus to cavalry when attacking weakened enemy units? What constitutes 'weakened'?

The combat bonus kicks in if the enemy unit retreats. Normally, if a unit retreats, it takes fewer casualties than it would have if it hadn't. However when the attacker is a cavalry unit, the cavalry unit gets a bonus if the enemy unit retreats in combat.

Myrddraal, as a Xmas/New Year present, could you or other Lordz guys add a few more entries to the FAQ this week?

-- How much efficiency is consumed when you move-and-attack rather than static attack?

The cost for a move action + the cost for an attack action. There is no additional penalty for doing both, but moving first will (slightly) lower efficiency thus making the consecutive attack a bit weaker. The move penalty used to be bigger in older beta builds, but in winter (double penalties) the effect is still noticable.

-- What is the penalty for an amphibious assault?

The penalty is actualy disabled in the patch. While not instantly realistic, the limited attack directions available (unless its a single hex island) + limited artillery (battleship) and air support already makes attacking coastal positions very difficult. If the attacker can't push the defender back quickly, it'll soon lose efficiency and it cannot be repaired at sea. All these limitations ment an additional penalty makes it completely impossible.

-- What is the actual advantage that infantry and garrisons have over cavalry when attacking entrenched positions?

Cavalry have low Assault values, which is used to counter the enemy entrenchment value. Most Assault upgrades also don't apply to cavalry. So they get less as less effective while enemy entrenchment grows and infantry Assault abilities increase.