Alright, let's begin your training! First topic we will start with the literal bare basics of combat. The basis of the combat is similar to the kind you may see in Company Of Heroes or Dawn Of War. Each country is composed of a number of strategic points, some provide bonuses during or in the process of getting into combat, some are helpful after you've conquered the nation and the rest are for decoration or have yet to have purposes added.
The basic aim of invading a nation is to conquer all the strategic points of the nation in question.
In terms of the actual combat, the bare basics of combat is a round of four rolls spread over the course of three posts. A good rule of thumb is to think of it as 1-2-1. As the attacker, you'll provide the opening blow with a single dice roll. The defender will respond with their dice roll and the casualties they sustained. You'll then finish off with your casualty roll.
In terms of the combat rolls. It can get a little complicated at first, but it will soon become second nature. So, to provide an example. A standard unit of measurement for a "division", a standard sized fighting unit used by all factions across the board, bar two exceptions from me since I'm weird, is 15,000 units. Units being a simple term that encompasses planes, vehicles and people without differentiating between them. The system provides a range of dice for what kind of formation you may bring to the table. The division is a single dice with 7 sides or 1d7.
To provide a scenario, let's suggest that The ECA is invading GLA-held Crete. They begin by invading Heraklion and the posts would go like this.
Attacker:*Text describing the event*
Defender:*Text describing how they defended the location and whether they lost or won.*
((The roll here is one that can vary wildly. In terms of the two sides having the same formation size, both sides will use 1d99 (The Winner) and 1d100 (The Loser) and calculate their casualties, however, if one side outnumbers the other by having a larger formation size, they are allowed to drop down by 30% with each formation size above their opponent. As an example, a division uses a 1d7, while an army group is a 1d10. This is three formations above the division and is allowed to use a 1d10 when calculating its casualties. 10% is the maximum a casualty roll can be done, while the others are 1d70 for being one formation above and 1d40 for being two formations above.
So for this scenario, the calculation would be 15,000 multiplied by the number rolled on the dice or you can use this
spreadsheet. However, if, for example, you had brought or the defender had two divisions, then that would mean you have the formation above the defender/attacker, a corps. This allows you to use the dice above the one the smaller formation has. A list of which type of dice belongs to each formation is
here.))
7,650 units destroyed or killed.
Attacker:
4,650 units destroyed or killed.
((With the announcement of how many died on your side, this round of combat is now officially over.))
*Text describing their victory or defeat and what they have planned next.
((You could, if you didn't win as the attacker and have enough forces to try again, you could put your dice roll that will begin a new round of combat here.))
That is the bare basics of how you would go about attacking an enemy or defending yourself. However, what you must always be aware of is the size of your formation. As you lose troops the size will decrease and with it the dice you can roll. In this example, the defender won, but lost 51% of his force. It is necessary each time you lose troops to check if you are still allowed to use the dice you used or if you need to use a lower dice. The ECA Hierarchy list provided by
Jürgen Adler in the
Army Base Section shows that you are still within the boundaries of a Divisions in terms of units, so you are therefore still allowed to use a 1d7.
Moving on, we have base building. Under the system created by
David Van Rotterdam, you have varying types of base you can have built. The way you do so is by writing up a post in your Factions Information Base stating that you are going to build a base there. Yes, the enemy won't be able to read that post and if they don't believe you when you say you have a base where they're attacking they can complain, however, since you wrote up a post about it, you can prove to an administrator that you DID indeed build a base and everything will be fine. The one issue with the bases is that they take a long time to build, as shown
by the list. The times given are in real time, so yes, you will have to wait up to half a year for a base to be built. However, I can say that it is definitely an investment worth making since the way they work is that they add a percentage to the casualties of the attacker.
To go back to the previous scenario, if the defender had a Heavy Base with Heavy defences, then the attacker would add 11%, due to the defender being GLA, to their casualty roll, making it 42% casualties instead of 31%.
As for tips, the first I can think of is that if you're going to be attacking someone, make sure you bring a big army, you will inevitably lose people in the fighting and it will swiftly drain your formations, making you much easier to destroy. However, if you outnumber the enemy, you can save a good proportion of your forces with the outnumbering dice modifier mentioned above.
If you have any questions or anything else you'd like help with, feel free to ask.
