When units enter an enemy occupied Area, a battle begins. Battle must be fully resolved before the game can resume. The battle is being resolved in the following steps:
- Step 1. Calculate initial Strength, for both attacker and defender. Following factors contribute to Strength:
- Unit attack / defense strength. Check out unit statistics here.
- Bonus values from Move, Defense, Support and Shore Bombardment Orders. Check out all available order details here.
- Presence of fortifications (1 fortification level grants 1 strength point to defender)
- Units attacking / supporting across rivers suffer 50% strength penalty, unless the river is frozen.
- Step 2. Play card. Both sides secretly pick one card from their hand. Once they confirm their decisions, the cards are revealed simultaneously. Players add the played card strength to their strength in battle. Cards may have additional effects which grant extra Strength bonuses or penalties.
- Step 3. Use Air Support. Both sides secretly pick any number of Air Support Tokens they have. It is possible for a player to not pick any Air Support Tokens. Once both players confirm their decision, selected Air Support Tokens are revealed and their strength gets added to corresponding player’s strength in the battle. Used Air Support Tokens return to Faction’s Air Support Token pool. Air Support step is skipped in naval battles and in Mud areas (no air support due to heavy rains)
- Step 4. Determine the winner. The side with higher total strength is the winner. In case of a tie, the winner is a Faction higher on the Initiative Track.
- Step 5. Calculate and inflict losses. Both sides determine how many dice they will roll to deal damage to the enemy. The dice come from units present in the embattled area, played Cards and Air Support Tokens. Both sides then roll all the dice to determine how many points of damage they dealt to opponent side. After that, players select which of their units will take damage to satisfy the result of the dice roll. Defender takes damage first and reduces/destroys his units, then attacker does the same. Players may also use fortifications present in the area and HP symbols from played cards to absorb losses (1 fortification level can absorb 1 loss point, 1 HP symbol can absorb 1 loss point).
- Step 6. Losing side must retreat. Losing player’s units which survived the battle must retreat. If attacker lost, they retreat to an area from which they attacked. If defender lost, they may retreat to any adjacent friendly area. All units must retreat to the same Area. If there’s no valid area to retreat to, all units get eliminated.
- Step 7. Winning side must advance. If winning side was the defender – nothing happens. If winning side was the attacker – all attacking units which survived the combat advance to the attacked Area. The area is captured and the control changes to the attacking Faction. All Fortification Tokens present in the captured Area are removed. If captured area has a port with enemy Fleets in it, they are destroyed.
Units which retreated, gain exhausted status until the end of turn.
Exhausted status effects:
- Exhausted unit strength is always zero in battles (that includes support strength).
- Exhausted units do not inflict any losses in battles
- Exhausted units cannot make any moves using Movement, Maneuver and Strategic Orders