The Combat Equation

Every unit and building has a certain amount of hit points. These hit points represent how much damage they can take before the unit is killed, or the building is destroyed. When a unit attacks another unit or building, there is a simple equation that is used to determine the amount of damage that is taken. Before we get to this equation, there are a few points you have to understand about Warcraft 2, and it's inner-workings.

Armor - Every unit and buiding in the game has an armor rating. This rating shows how much defense that particular unit has. Obviously, the higher this rating is, the better it is. All buildings (walls included) have a defense rating of 20.

Basic Damage - Basic damage is the type of damage units do, that IS affected by the targets Armor rating.

Piercing Damage - Piercing damage is the type of damage that IS NOT affected by the targets Armor rating.

The Equation

((Basic Damage - Armor) + Piercing Damage) = Total Damage

Now, take the total you get here and divide it by 2. If the division leaves you with a .5 decimal, round it up to the nearest 1. That value you have now is the minimum amount of damage your unit will inflict per attack. Warcraft 2 takes this minimum value, and multiplies it by a random number from 1-2. As you can see, an attack will take off any value between the minimum value, and 2 times the minimum value. That is why the maximum amount is 2 times the minimum. Confused yet? Here are some examples.

Level 1 Footman / Level 1 Ogre

Let's say a level 1 footman attacks a level 1 ogre. The footman has a basic damage of 6, a piercing damage of 3, and an armor rating of 2. An ogre has a basic damage of 8, a piercing damage of 4, and an armor rating of 4.
Remember the equation now : ((Basic Damage - Armor) + Piercing Damage
If the footman attacks the ogre: ((6 - 4) + 3 = 5.
We take this value of 5 and divide it by 2. This gives us 2.5, which we then round up to 3 (always round up if you are left with a .5). This gives us the minimum amount of damage the footman will do against the ogre. A random number from 1-2 is multiplied to this value by the game, leaving us with a value between 3 and 6. Therefore, every attack a level 1 footman makes on a level 1 ogre will cause 3-6 points of damage.

Now let's look at the ogre attacking the footman: ((8 - 2) + 4) = 10.
Dividing this value by 2 gives us 5. That means that every attack on the footman will do between 5-10 points of damage.

Level 5 Footman / Level 1 Ogre

Now I will use the same units, but this time I will use a level 5 footman, against a level 1 ogre to demonstrate the importance of smith upgrades.
Footman attacking the ogre: (10 - 4) + 3 = 9.
Dividing 2 gives us a value of 4.5 which we round up to 5. Each attack will do between 5-10 damage.

Ogre attacking the footman: (8 - 6) + 4 = 6
Dividing by 2 gives us a value of 3. Each attack will do between 3-6 damage. You can see how big of a difference upgrading you units makes.

Remember that you can find all the unit and building statistics in the map editor.

Strategy - Main | Top | Bloodlust Mechanics [an error occurred while processing this directive]