Combat (Civ3)

There are four types of combat: ground/naval combat, bombardment, missile attacks, and air combat.
== Ground/Naval combat ==
Ground/Naval combat occurs when units of different civilizations try to occupy the same square. The two units trade blows until one of them loses its health bar and is destroyed, with the attacking unit using its attack strength, and the defending unit using its defence strength and any modifiers, e.g. terrain bonuses, presence of radar tower, or city defence bonuses.
If a unit with 2 or more movement is not fortified and is fighting (either attacking or defending against) a unit with only 1 movement, and the fast unit is reduced to 1 hitpoint while the slow unit has at least 2, the fast unit has a chance to retreat from combat provided there's a valid space to retreat to. As a unit promotes to veteran then elite it has a higher chance to withdraw from combat. All naval units have at least 2 movement, so retreating never occurs in naval combat.
Another factor is defensive bombardment. When a unit attacks a stack with at least one unit with a bombardment strength inside, that bombardment unit gets one free attack on the attacker before the attack on the stack begins. If successful (which depends on the unit's bombardment strength) the attacking unit loses one hitpoint. Each bombardment unit in the stack can only use this so-called defensive bombardment once per turn, independent of whether that unit actively bombarded a unit on its turn. Each attack can only have one unit target it with defensive bombardment, so a unit that can attack multiple times per turn can be targetted multiple times if it attacks multiple times in a turn. Defensive bombardment cannot kill a unit, so an attacker with only 1 hitpoint will not be targetted.
The winner may be damaged (its health bar is reduced).
== Bombardment ==
Bombardment occurs when a ranged unit or air unit attacks without entering the defender's square. Bombardment inflicts losses to the defender's health bar but, for most bombarding units, never completely destroys them. Air bombardment is the same except the planes fly to the target and may be shot down on the way.
== Missile attacks ==
Missile attacks are like bombardment, but the unit never returns to its base and the attacks can destroy enemy units.
== Air combat ==
Air combat occurs between air units. This occurs when a fighter type unit (Fighter, Jet Fighter, or F-15) has been assigned to the air superiority mission over a city and any other air unit attempts to bomb a tile within half the fighter's bombardment range. Interception is not guaranteed. The attack strength of the fighter is rolled against the defence strength of the unit doing the bombarding, and one of the units will die, while the other has a chance to promote in the same way as land and naval units, but with no chance to produce military leaders.
== Repairing Damage ==
A unit that takes damage in combat but survives can heal, adding one block per turn back to its health bar. To do so, it
* must be in friendly or neutral territory (no healing in hostile lands).
* must not move for a complete turn.
=== Repairing Faster ===
* A city heals two health blocks per turn.
* A city with a Barracks heals ground units completely in one turn.
* A city with a Harbor heals sea units completely in one turn.
* A city with an Airport heals air units completely in one turn.
* A civilization with Battlefield Medicine heals in enemy territory.
== Combat formula ==
The combat formula uses floating point values which means fortification and defensive terrain helps even units with only 1 defense (e.g., a Warrior in a forest being attacked across a river will have a much higher chance to win compared to defending on flatland).
== See also ==
* Combat in other games
== External links ==
* Combat calculator
Category:Game concepts (Civ3)