Attributes

Unit Attributes[]

Attribute Name	Effect
Life	How much life the unit has. If this reaches 0, the unit is destroyed. By default, (non-Broken Lords) units regenerate 5% health per turn. Standing on a owned city, or being garrisoned, increases this to 10%. Various other effects, like Watchtowers, can boost this amount.
Attack	The ability of the unit to attack successfully. Higher attack rating means that the unit will successfully hit and critically hit more often.
Defense	The ability of the unit to defend itself. Higher defense rating means that enemy hits against this unit will be misses and partial hits more often.
Initiative	How quickly this unit can act in combat. Units with higher initiative act before units with lower initiative. If two units have the same initiative, an order is randomly chosen.
Speed	How many movement points this unit has per turn. In the world map, an army can only move as fast as its slowest unit. In the combat map, every unit will use its individual speed to decide how many movement points it has. See the table below for more information.
Damage	The amount of damage inflicted by this unit on a normal hit. Critical hits will inflict twice this amount, and partial hits will inflict half this amount. Critical and partial hit chance is determined by a combination of the attacking units Attack and the defending units Defense .

See Units#Statistics for a table comparing all unit stats, and Heroes#Attributes Table for a similar table for heroes.

Base Movement Speed[]

A unit's movement speed in battle and on the world map is generally determined by its unit class, with a few exceptions:

Class	Movement	Battle Movement
Infantry	4	2
Ranged	4	2
Support	4	2
Flying	6	3
Cavalry	6	4

Attack and Defense[]

The ratio between the defender's defense and the attacker's attack determines the probability of (critically) hitting or (critically) missing, as seen in the chart below:

As the ratio of attack to defense increases, so does the expected damage dealt as a multiplier of the attacker's attribute:

When attack / defense is below 2 / 3, the attacker deals on average 37.5% of their damage.
When the ratio is above 3 / 2, the multiplier is roughly 110%.
Between 2 / 3 and 3 / 2, the multiplier increases (slightly less than) linearly.

The interaction of attack and defense makes unit quality very important:

Because the expected damage multiplier nearly triples, from 37.5% to 110%, it is highly efficient to invest in strategic weapons on attacking units to overpower enemy defenses.
The opposite is also true. If the attacker's is equal to the defender's then, according to the chart above, the attack will do on average 80% . However, if the defender has the Block 3 or Sharp Sense 3 Capacities, their will increase by 30% when attacked, or 40% for ranged attacks, which reduces the expected damage to 55% or 45%. This makes shields especially powerful defensive items.

Computing attributes[]

Modifiers came in three categories: base, equipment, and net. Within each category, the computation starts by summing all flat attributes. Then, any percentage modifiers are applied.

Base attributes[]

Flat base attributes are the sum of:

Unit type.

Base percentage modifiers are then applied:

Direct modifiers (i.e. not via Capacities) from non-quest equipment.
Unit level (20% for regular units per level, 10% for Heroes).

Equipment attributes[]

Flat equipment attributes are the sum of:

Direct modifiers (i.e. not via Capacities) from equipment.

Equipment percentage modifiers are then applied:

Direct modifiers (i.e. not via Capacities) from quest equipment.
Strategic resource efficiency.

Net attributes[]

Flat net attributes are the sum of:

Base attributes.
Equipment attributes.
Hero skills.
Faction traits.

Net percentage modifiers are then applied:

Hero skills.
Morale (15% per point).
Unit capacities, including those resulting from unit actions and from equipment.
Technologies.
Faction traits.
Bonuses from assimilated minor factions.
Other empire-wide effects.