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The Combat Pipeline
Definitions
A Player's Group Sequence
Initiative Between Groups
Checking for Combats
Pipelines
Pipeline for a Full Combat
Pipeline for One Combat Round
Choosing Victims Wisely
Combat Damage Immunities
Pipeline for One Attack
Questions
If my group is surrounded, in what sequence will it
fight?
Definitions
A Player's Group Sequence. A player's
groups are considered in a strict sequence. This is approximately from
oldest to youngest. However, some spell effects can move a group to the end
of its player's current sequence.
A group is moved to the end of its owner's group sequence whenever:
- The group is first created.
- The group returns from off
the board.
- The group changes sides. This includes changing to a new owner, and also
changing back to the original owner.
- The group replaces another group. This
includes Lycanthropy, and also when Lycanthropy is dispelled!
Initiative Between Groups. Initiative between
two groups is uniquely determined by:
- Owners' initiative: Initiative goes to the initiative player, else
to the neutral player, else to the non-initiative player, in that order.
- Older group: If both groups belong to the same player, the older
group has initiative, i.e. the group that was created earlier. This is
true regardless of the groups' positions within their owner's group sequence.
Checking for Combats. All groups check for
combats, in initiative order:
- All of the initiative player's groups, in their current group sequence
- All of the non-initiative player's groups, in their current group
sequence
- All of the neutral player's groups, in their current group sequence
A combat is fought between two hostile groups in adjacent squares.
- A group fights 1 separate combat against each hostile group in the 4 orthogonally
adjacent squares.
- Each pair of groups will fight only 1 combat against each other per turn.
- The group with higher initiative will initiate the combat. If both groups
survive, then the group with lower initiative could find the same pair of
groups later in the same turn, but it will skip that fight.
Pipelines
Pipeline for a Full Combat. Each combat lasts
10 rounds.
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#
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Sub-Phase
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Effect
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C1
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Start of Combat
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- Both groups animate into their combat poses.
- All “start of combat” effects
happen, in group initiative order.
- Check for “ending combat”. Some spell effects
cause combat to end early.
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C2
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Combat round 1 (“missile round”)
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- All minions use missile attacks only in this round.
- All missile attacks are at -1 damage in this round.
- Minions with only hand attacks skip this round.
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C3
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Combat rounds 2-10
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- All minions use all hand and missile attacks.
- All hand and missile attacks are at normal damage.
If all minions in one or both groups die, the combat ends immediately.
Otherwise, combat ends after round 10.
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C4
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End of Combat
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- All “end of combat” effects
happen, in group initiative order.
- Surviving groups animate into their standing poses.
- All “after combat” effects
happen, in group initiative order.
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Pipeline for One Combat Round. In each round,
all minions on both sides strike with all of their attacks, unless otherwise
stated.
- Victim. In combat, each minion has a victim, which is the
one enemy minion it is currently attacking.
- The victim relation isn't necessarily symmetric. Your victim
may attack one of your comrades instead of you.
- Idle. A minion with no victim is said to be idle.
- Misses. Each minion also has a misses
counter. This is the number of times the minion has swung at and missed
a victim since the last time it hit.
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Sub-Phase
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Effect
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R1
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Start of Round
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- All missile attackers disengage from their previous victims, and go
idle.
- All minions reset their armor
and attacks.
- All “start of each combat round”
and “every round” effects happen.
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R2
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Choose Victims
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In round 1:
- All minions set their misses to “infinite”.
- Missile attackers choose victims wisely.
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In round 2:
- Each idle hand attacker chooses a random idle enemy
victim (hand or missile).
In rounds 2-10:
- All idle minions (hand or missile)
on both sides now pair up “straight across”, that is,
my first idle guy vs. your first idle guy, etc.
- Any unpaired minions (hand or missile) in the larger group
choose victims wisely.
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R3
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Initiative side attacks
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- Each minion in the initiative group becomes
active, in group order.
- If the active minion is idle (because its victim died):
- A missile attacker immediately chooses wisely.
- Retaliation. A hand attacker who is being attacked by any
enemy minions chooses the first such enemy as its own victim.
- Forfeit. If the active minion is still idle, it forfeits
any remaining attacks this round.
- The active minion attacks its current victim
once.
- If the active minion has more attacks remaining, it chooses a random
victim for each remaining attack, until it has used all of
its attacks.
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R4
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Non-initiative side attacks
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Same as (R3), but for the group without initiative.
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Choosing Victims Wisely. Minions who choose
victims “wisely” use the following tiebreakers to select a victim.
This includes all missile attackers most of the time (but not always,
because of idle pair-ups), and all idle hand attackers.
- Non-immune. Prefer the victim who isn't immune
to your damage type.
- Instant kill. Prefer a victim whom you think you can kill off in
this round.
- Highest armor. Prefer the victim with highest maximum armor (not
current armor).
- Lowest HP. Prefer the victim with lowest current HP.
- Highest damage. Prefer the victim with highest hand or missile damage.
- Random. Pick randomly.
Combat Damage Immunities. The following
immunity-like effects exist. Note: These effects don't really give immunity
to damage. But they are used as the first (highest priority) tiebreaker,
so they tend to dominate wise targeting decisions.
- Against non-magical missile damage: Mark of Ulanoth, Pixie
Dust, Karillian Venom.
- Against magical weapon damage: None.
- Against non-magical hand damage: None.
Pipeline for One Attack. Each single attack
goes through the following steps. Some spells can cause the attacker to die
during this pipeline!
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#
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Sub-step
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Effect
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A1
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Check for Hit
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Compare the attacker's level + misses to its victim's
level.
If the victim's level is greater, the attack misses.
- The victim animates ducking.
- The attacker's misses increases by +1.
- Halt (skip the rest of this pipeline).
Otherwise, the attack hits!
- The victim animates taking a hit.
- The attacker resets its misses to 0.
- The attacker applies damage, as described below.
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A2
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Calculate Damage
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Attacker calculates the current damage for its attack type, including
all spell effects and any combat round modifiers.
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A3
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Victim Takes Damage
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Victim takes attacker's damage. See the Damage
Pipeline. This returns a result of bounced, damaged,
or killed. Some spells can cause the attacker to die
during this step!
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A4
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Attacker “hits”
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Attacker applies all “when ... hits”
and “hits give” effects. If this causes either minion
to die, skip to A6.
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A5
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Attacker “damages”
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If the result of A3 is damaged or killed,
attacker applies all “when ... damages” effects. If
this causes either minion to die, skip to A6.
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A6
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Victim “died” early
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If the victim has died (from a spell effect), halt.
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A7
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Apply damage result
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- If the result of A3 is bounced or damaged, halt.
- If the result is killed but the victim is no longer dying
(because the victim already applied a dying-cancel
spell effect), halt.
- Otherwise, the victim is now killed,
and the attacker is to “blame”. See the Minion
Death Pipeline.
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A8
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Attacker “kills”
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- If the attacker is itself dead by now, halt.
- Otherwise, the attacker applies all “kills
an opponent by combat damage” effects.
- If the attacker is a recruit who does not already
have an experience
level, then it qualifies for one. This will be awarded at the start
of the next turn.
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Questions
If my group is surrounded, in what sequence will it
fight? The following map shows what the blue
player would see. For the red player, just turn the map upside-down.
A group at g, with initiative (regardless of its color!), will fight
adjacent hostile groups in the order shown below.
- The blue player sees this order as NE, SW, SE, NW.
- The red player sees this order as SW, NE, NW, SE.
- Groups 1-4 may be any combination of neutral or enemy groups.
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01
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02
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03
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04
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06
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09
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ne
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0
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nw
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*
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se
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1
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sw
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2
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3
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4
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ne
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5
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1
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6
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nw
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g
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3
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se
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7
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2
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8
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sw
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9
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10
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11
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If group g doesn't have initiative, then it won't be picking the fights. (Remember
that only the group with higher initiative will initiate combats!)
Suppose g is a blue group, but red has initiative.
- If groups 1-4 are all red groups, or all neutral groups, then g's fight
order is determined entirely by the group sequence
among groups 1-4, regardless of their locations.
- If groups 1-4 include both red and neutral groups, then g's fight order
would be determined by:
- group sequence among all red groups (since red checks for combats first);
- then group sequence among all neutral groups.
If groups g and 1-4 are all neutral, then their fight order is determined
by the neutral player's group sequence. (In this case, if group g is the oldest
neutral group, then it will be the one to pick the 4 fights, and then it will
use the order shown above.)
v2.10.00 Last updated 2005/08/05
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