Combat

All units can attack once every turn, provided an enemy is within range. If you attack without moving first, your unit will not be able to move afterwards.

Ordering
In order to attack, first your unit must be within its weapon’s range of an enemy. You can check this by selecting your unit and moving the mouse cursor over the weapon’s icon on the panel on the left of your screen. When ranged units are ready to attack an enemy, a red border will appear on the map indicating their maximum weapon range. In order to attack, select the unit that you wish to attack with by left-clicking, then right-click on the target unit. Combat will occur immediately, and after a short animation of the battle, you will see one or both units lose health to reflect the losses in battle. If the enemy unit is killed by a melee (non-ranged) attack, the attacker will move to occupy the hex once held by the defender. Ranged attacks, or attacks made at a distance (although some units can use ranged attacks to attack an adjacent enemy), do not cause the attacker to suffer any damage.

Melee attacks can be made more powerful by surrounding the enemy unit with several of your own before attacking. Each friendly unit adjacent to the enemy when you attack will provide a Flanking Bonus, which will do more damage to the enemy than a single attack would.

Predictions
If you have a unit selected and mouse over a valid target, but do not yet right-click, a prediction of the battle’s result will appear on the left of your screen, above the unit info panel. This will tell you how many losses both your unit and the enemy unit are expected to take, and the same prediction will be shown on both units’ health bars on the map, with the yellow segment representing expected losses. If a unit is expected to be killed, a skull will appear over its unit bar.

''Combat Predictions are not 100% accurate. Be prepared in case your first attack fails to be as powerful as you thought!''

Combat phases
When the combat predictions are visible, you can view a more detailed (although no more accurate) prediction by holding down the Ctrl key. This explains the combat in terms of the four phases of combat – Missile, Skirmish, Charge and Melee. The phases that will actually see combat are determined by the weapons held by both units (for instance, a unit armed with an axe will attack in the melee phase), and heavy damage suffered in early phases will weaken the unit should it fight in a later one.

Not all phases will be part of every combat – Missile attacks only trigger the Missile phase, and Skirmish attacks only trigger the Missile and Skirmish phases (ensuring that a melee-weapon equipped enemy cannot fight back from these attacks). In addition, many melee units have the ‘Charge Attack’ ability, which allows them to attack twice in the same round of combat, once in the Charge phase and then again in the Melee phase.

However, if the defending unit is occupying a hex with terrain that “Breaks Charges”, such as rough or forest, the attacker will not be able to benefit from this second attack.

Some ranged units will provide Defensive Fire to protect neighbouring units from melee attacks, usually limited to once per turn. If you attack an enemy unit, the enemy unit providing defensive fire will ranged-attack your unit before combat between your attacker and the target begins. This will be accounted for in the combat predictions, causing the attacker to suffer more damage than if the defensive fire did not occur.

Units that can provide defensive fire will be shown with a green arrow next to their icon on the map, and the ability to do so will be visible beneath weapons on the unit info panel when the unit is selected. NOTE: Ranged units can use defensive fire to protect themselves, not just other friendly units.

If a unit is badly beaten in melee combat but survives the battle, it may retreat away from the attacker immediately after the battle. The possibility of a unit retreating will be listed in the combat predictions. Units that attempt to retreat but cannot, due to being blocked by your units’ zones of control and impassable terrain, will surrender instead, destroying them completely.