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.