Combat

**Combat** between your team of Metal Maidens against enemies, be it from Story or Clash, generally have the same stages and flow.

## General

### Target Acquisition and Exposure

In battle, the probability of getting shot at is not equal between tanks, and can be heavily manipulated to be in your favor.

When pressing the screen at any time during battle, the view will change and a small bar will appear directly above your team’s portraits (and below the enemy’s). These bars represent **Exposure** how likely that tank will be shot at. The bar increases when the tank fires and successfully hits an enemy, and decreases when the tank is hit.

The largest factor in determining the probability of getting shot at is  *Stealth* (STL); tanks with lower  STL gain Exposure quicker and lose Exposure more slowly.

When you hit an enemy, the Exposure gain is determined by your  STL, the enemy's  *Detection* (DET), and your weapon's  *Range*. A high  DET enemy will be able to counter your  STL and flush you out more easily, and you will also gain more Exposure if your weapon's  Range is shorter.

When you get hit, the Exposure loss is determined by your  STL.

A smaller factor in Target Acquisition is also  Range. With all above being largely equal, tanks will tend to fire at enemies who have 50% of their  Range, after factoring in things like  Extended-Range modifiers.

With the above mechanics in mind, you can create heavily armored "meat shields" (usually HT, sometimes MT and ATG) with rock-bottom  STL, that draw attacks away from the more fragile tanks like SPG and LAV.

## Stages

### Shelling (Scouting)

The Scouting stage is one of the most important stages in the battle, a lot of information is thrown at you and new players may not understand exactly what’s happening. The round starts off with a contested scouting check, the teams compare their detection ratings and display the results in the bar in the middle of the screen; When your team has more  DET and  STL, you get a larger portion of the scouting bar.

The number of tanks that get to attack from each side is dependent on how much of the bar they have controlled. (e.g. If you control 90% of the bar, ⅚ of your tanks get to attack and ⅙ of the enemy tanks attack.) Tanks with higher  STL will get to attack. Firing priority in the shelling stage is determined by  Range, so SPGs will typically fire first.

### Shelling (Second)

A second shelling stage will occur after the first, but all tanks will get a chance to attack during that round. The mechanics are similar.

### Contact

After Shelling, the battle will enter the Contact phase, reducing the  Range of the combat. Mechanics are similar to Second Shelling, but now  *Targeting* (TAR) and  DET will affect the firing priority in this stage.

If your tanks are equipped with APCR or  Assault-modifier AP ammunition, they’ll start to do more damage per hit due to the fall in  Range.

### CQB (Infantry)

After Contact,  Range is reduced further into Close Quarters Combat (CQB) range, the shortest range of the map.

From around Volume 7 onwards, tanks from either side may appear equipped with Infantry from Armrest or Cabin equipment. These tanks will be able to participate in the Infantry phase, allowing them bonus attacks on the opposing side.

Infantry damage and number of tanks the Infantry can attack is determined by the  Range of the tank's ammunition (Shorter is favored), the type of ammunition (Kinetics are favored over Explosives), the tank's  *Penetration* (PEN), and the amount of Infantry left. Amount is reduced when the tank gets hit in the previous stages, and can be seen by the 5-heads bar underneath an Infantry-equipped tank. Cabin Infantry are less likely to be killed compared to Armrest Infantry.

Infantry damage can be further reduced through the use of Machine Gun equipment i.e. LMG and HMG.

### CQB (Second)

The last phase of combat, this stage is similar to Contact. *Mobility* (MOB) and  DET will affect the firing priority in this stage.

Similarly, tanks with APCR or  Assault-modifier AP ammunition will do even more damage per hit due to the further fall in  Range.