What else is out there?

[Drasca]

Could you say a bit more about how combat works (or point me at another description)? Ta.
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For every tactic, for every unit, for every strategy, there is a counter.

I'm not sure if I can explain fully, but here I go.

All units have 100 health to begin with, a unit type and a base strength modified by attack penalities and defense bonuses like terrain, crossing rivers or attacking from a boat, and inherent unit properties. We have a rock paper scissor effect with different unit types and inherent properties. For example, a strength 4 spearman (melee) gets a +100% strength bonus vs Horse Archers (mounted) str 6. Axemen are str 5, and with a +50% str bonus vs melee. Swordsmen are str 6, and get a 10% bonus to attacking cities. Only some units can fortify (usually archers, gunpowder and melee), but the bonus is only 5% per turn foritified up to 25%.

Total modified strengths, are compared, and to hit chance and damage is done based on relative strengths, until one unit reaches zero. That doesn't end here, as the unit still alive remains wounded, retaining only the health % of their original strength, and only the health left. So, even though an axeman of str 5 and +50% bonus vs melee units might win against swordsmen str 6, he'll be wounded and left with, let's say, 3.4/5.0 str this time around (it varies a little with prng). The axeman is less effective for engaging in combat. He might be easy prey for some other unit since he's recently engaged in combat and been wounded, requiring time to heal.

Wounding units prevents infinite attacking, or infinite defense via one unit. A lone defender of equal strength to the attacker could possibly fend off one or two, but not several of the equivalent strength.

Rules of engagement: Units attacking always face the best defending unit. Stacks of doom you say? SoD beware...

Catapults and collateral damage. Certain units, usually catapults, can cause collateral damage when they attack. This wounds other units in the stack. Catapults can wound to 50% of their strength, if you build enough of them and attack an offending stack with it.

Catapults also bombard city defenses, which normally add to the defending unit, but this can be reduced with catapults, thus pummeling city walls (they do regenerate if given tmie left alone).

All military units gain xp from battle too. These can be spent at various plateaus of increasing xp requirements, (2, 5, 10, 17, 26, ...) for promotions that can increase general strength effectiveness (Combat promotions +10% each), one promotion additional strength vs a specific type (+25% vs archers, melee, etc), or to take advantage of certain terrain (+20% to hills defense), or various special abilities. With these xp and combat promotions, you won't see much randomness with units leveling up based on their experienced. You'll see that specialized city raider III swordsman str 6 (melee unit) having +75% total being great for attacking units garrisioned in cities, but no good elsewhere, particularly when defending against combat I-->shock axeman str 5 with a total of +85% against melee.

Rock paper scissors, and no randomness. You won't see any one unit getting too lucky, or too powerful against everything. You have city attack units, general combat units, and units you promote in the field to use however you'd like.

That's some of the combat system. There's more, like flanking, withdrawel chance, movement point balances, ignore terrain movement cost, first strike, unique units, and other neat things to consider, but I don't really have time to cover all those details. You'll have to just play the game, read and discover for yourself.