Melee combat starts when two or more enemy units collide as a consequence of charge (or during wheel maneuver which happens very rarely).

Unit may attack enemy only if it is located withing forward arc and is visible to unit, i.e. not obscured by terrain and/or other units. This is called line of sight.

Contents

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Melee combat system

Hundreds of playtests shown that melee combat system in DO is round based. Melee round system has its own phases flow from other type of combats (i.e. ranged, magic) and this flow affects all melee combats simultaneously. For instance, wounds resolution phase for any melee combat occurs simultaneously regardless of time each melee combat started.

example:
Melee combat A started at 1:30
Melee combat B started at 1:50
Despite that melee combat B started 20 sec later wounds resolution will occur at the same time (2:00) for both melee combats

Melee round starts along with start of battle (after player pushes "start battle" button) and runs every 30 seconds till the end of battle.

Melee round duration may vary from 23 to 30 seconds and depends on specific game session. It is unknown why round duration varies from game session to session but most of the time round duration value is 24 seconds. For more information, please, see melee flowchart

Round phases

Melee combat round has phases that run in the following sequence:

Start of melee combat
Attacks resolution (in Initiative order)
1. Allocation of attacks
2. Attacks probability calculation
  1. To-hit
  2. To-wound
  3. Armor save
3. Applying wounds
Round score calculation
Break test
End of melee combat

Start of melee combat

As soon as unit collides with enemy unit, they receive "in melee" state and become affected by melee round system.

Attacks resolution

Each melee round units that have models in contact attack each other. Units attacks have its own set of sub-phases during which calculations are made to determine whether models strikes were hit or missed and how many casualties each unit suffered. All attack are resolved in strict order which depends on each unit Initiative characteristic and different bonuses/penalties that unit may receive from charge, type of weapon, magic spell.

For instance, unit that charges into melee combat will receive highest attack priority bonus during initial melee round only and its model attacks will be resolved first despite their initiative.
If models have similar initiative (including bonuses/penalties) then their attacks resolve simultaneously.

Attack resolution order is very important since killed models can't strike back and their attacks are wasted.

The number of attack is determined by unit Attack characteristic. Its value is usually equal to 1 for most of models in game

Allocation of attacks

The melee combat system determines how many models are in contact and can attack each other based on conditions described in Collision article (still under work).

If a model is in contact with more than one enemy model its attack is allocated randomly to one of these enemy models.

Attack priority is based on Initiative from 10 to 1

Attacks probability calculation

Models attacks outcome is determined by to-hit, to-wound and Save rolls which are made by six-sided dice, i.e. with a range from 1 to 6 (shortly D6).

To hit

To-hit roll determines whether model attack hit enemy model or missed by comparing rolled D6 value with enemy model Weapon skill characteristic value.
The table on the right shows minimum required D6 roll value to score a hit for attacker WS vs defenders WS.

For example, an attacker with WS 4 needs to roll minimum 3 or more to hit defender with WS 3 or in other words to-hit probability chance will be 66.6%. But the same attacker needs to roll minimum 5 or more to hit defender with WS 9, this time to-hit probability chance will be only 33.3%.

to hit formula

if att WS > def WS, then to-hit probability is 66.6%
else if att WS >= def WS/2, then to-hit probability is 50%
else to-hit probability is 33.3%

in D6 format:
if att WS > def WS, then to-hit on roll 3
else if att WS >= def WS/2, then to-hit on roll 4
else to-hit on roll 5

To wound

To-wound roll determines whether landed attack is strong enough to wound enemy by comparing Strength characteristic of attacker with Toughness characteristic of defender.
The table on the right shows minimum required D6 roll value to score a wound for attacker S vs defender T.

For example, attacker with S 4 needs to roll minimum 2 or more to wound defender with T 2 or in other words to-wound probability chance will be 83.3%. But the same attacker needs to roll 4 or more to wound defender with T 4, this time probability chance will be 50%.

Pay attention, that if difference between attacker S and defender T is 4 and more then attacker is not strong enough to wound defender (this is not the case in later TT rules where roll 6 always wounds)

to wound formula

difference = (S_basic+S_bonus) - T
where:
S_basic - basic Strength of attacker model
S_bonus - bonus Strength i.e. from weapon, charge, spell etc.
T - basic Toughness of defender model

if diff >= 2, then to-wound probability is 83.3%
else if diff = 1, then to-wound probability is 66.6%
else if diff = 0, then to-wound probability is 50%
else if diff = -1, then to-wound probability is 33.3%
else if diff = -2, then to-wound probability is 16.6%
else if diff = -3, then to-wound probability is 16.6%
else to-wound probability is 0%

Armor save

If a model has equipped armor there is a chance for her to completely avoid being wounded. Such chance is called Armor save and calculated by comparing Armor Rating (AR) value of model with a D6 saving roll result. If saving roll result <= AR value then model avoids being wounded.

For example, an Elf has AR 2 (two armor pieces). In case of being hit and wounded Elf needs to make saving roll 1 or 2 to avoid the wound.

Defender's Armor Rating can be additionally modified if attacker has Strength 4 or more.

For example, if the same Elf with AR 2 was hit by Orc with S4 then it will modify Elf AR by -1, i.e. 2 - 1 = 1. This means that due to powerful strike of Orc, Elf needs now to roll only 1 and has less chances to avoid being wounded.

armor save formula

ARf = AR - Sm

where:
AR - Armor rating of defender
Sm - Strength modifier of attacker (see the picture)
ARf - Armor rating final, i.e. after attacker Strength modifier

if ARf >= 5, then avoid wound is 83,6
else if ARf = 4, then avoid wound is 66,6%
else if ARf = 3, then avoid wound is 50%
else if ARf = 2, then avoid wound is 33.3%
else if ARf = 1, then avoid wound is 16,6%
else avoid wound is 0%

Strength of attacker => 4 decreases Armor Rating:

Applying wounds

When and if defender model save fails to deflect inflicted wound then it is applied to model wounds pool (i.e. hit points). Model dies as soon as its wounds pool becomes 0. If killed models have not had a chance to attack yet due to low Initiative than such models attacks are lost and disregarded.
If there are still alive models with lower initiative in contact then melee system continues to resolve their attacks in the same sequence described above.

Killed models has specific death animation and can be removed instantly or with a delay. Please, read this article for more detailed information on death animations.

Round score calculation

When attacks of each Initiative step are resolved the Melee system determines winner and loser of melee round by score calculation for each side.

Each side gets score points (SP) which added to their total score for the following actions:

Inflicted wound 1 SP per each wound
High ground 1 SP in first round (terrain bonus is absent in DO)
Rank bonus 1 SP for 4 models rank after the first one (up to 3 SP max)
Flank attack bonus 1SP (unit has to have 4 or more regular models or 1 large model). Is applied once per unit, i.e. two units attacking the flank of one enemy doesn't stack.
Rear attack bonus 2SP (unit has to have 4 or more regular models or 1 large model). Stacks with flank attack bonus. Doesn't stack from attacks of multiple units.
... more actions can be added later

The side that has less SP is considered as the one which lost melee round and all units of that side have to pass leadership test (see the next article)

If both sides have equal score the round is a draw and there is no Ld test.

Melee system calculates score for each melee combat independently, i.e. if there are 2 simultaneous melee combats then each of them will have their own score points.

For example, elves unitA and elves unitB charged orks unit0. This formed first melee combat X unitA and unitB vs unit0
In the same time, orks unit1 and orks unit2 charged elves unitC. This formed second melee combat Y unit1 and unit2 vs unitC
As a result, there are two simultaneous melee combats X and Y and each of them has their own score calculation.
For melee X this is a total SP of unitA unitB vs total SP of unit0
For melee Y this is a total SP of unit1 unit2 vs total SP of unitC

round score formula

score = SP₁ + SP 2 + ... + SPn

where:
SP - score point which a unit may acquire by meeting specific conditions such as inflicting wound, charging, etc.
score - round score which is used to determine winner and loser of melee round

if side1 score > side2 score, then side1 is a round winner
else if side1 score = side2 score, then a round is a draw
else side2 is a winner

Break test

When one of the sides loses melee combat all its units must pass panic test or "Break test" according to TT name.
Break test is a comparison of unit Leadership characteristic value with 2d6 roll plus round score difference of two sides participating in melee. If lost unit Leadership value is higher or equal then 2d6 roll + score difference, then unit of lost side passes the test. Otherwise unit of lost side fails the test and must retreat from melee combat.

break test formula

score diff = score of winner side - score of loser side
if Ld => (randbetween (1,12) + score diff), then Break test is passed
else - Break test is failed

End of melee combat

if all enemy units were retreated and/or destroyed than left units get their (add pursue state to the flowchart)

Melee flowchart

Click here to expand...

flowchart file for draw.io

Attacks resolution in TT 4E and 8E