Endless discussion about luck and other unsavory things

[Starev91]

When I was new I really didn't understand why you could encircle a troll on hills at night and he would not only live through 2 rounds but kill 2 of your units while he was at it. I mean, he's only got 78 hit points and you've got 200 HP of damage there – there just has to be something wrong with these dice!

200 hp of damage BEFORE making allowances for hit chance?

Of course, if it was an orcish warlord on his throne/encampment tent, that's a 40% chance to hit-80 damage expected. That's still a kill, but it's much more liable to lean to one side or the other then 200 damage. One extra miss with an elvish warrior and that's not a kill.

(I used to curse my "bad luck" in the HttT campaign, but when I calculated the math to actually figure out how bad my luck was, it turned out I was having better luck then I should've been. I wasn't counting hit chance in my thinking, and so thought that 150-200 damage should easily kill an orcish warlord on it's base, when it was really iffy wiether it would or not )

[Elvish_Pillager]

I read these forums for hours and no where did it mention that your loyal thieves will advance to assassins which are powerful very durable units.

Good thing it didn't mention that, because Assassins are *not* very durable. Just like most threads, this one contains both good advice and terrible advice. I see nothing special about it, at least beyond the fact that it keeps being ressurected.

I think the title of the thread should be changed to something a little more newbie friendly.

I don't think the title "My tactics" is any better for attracting newbies than this one. Also, it is my opinion that a thread title should describe the thread, rather than being engineered to attract certain kinds of users to it.

[podunk]

They look pretty tough to me!

[pqueiro]

I can think of various adjectives to apply, and God knows a pack of loyal Assassins is capable of wreaking a lot of havoc at a very low cost, but durable? Dwarvish Lords, Grand Knights and such units are durable, Assassins are not

[Elvish_Pillager]

A nerfed Orcish Warlord, non strong, during the Day, can kill an Assassin in one attack. A strong backstabbing Assassin at Night can't kill the nerfed Orcish Warlord in one attack.

[podunk]

I conceded the point on “tough� and “durable.� Assassins are extremely elusive and seldom hit. If they are in the woods or in a village or castle hex they're very hard to kill.

I'm not sure what nerfed is (it's not in Scott's official acronym guide) but who would try to kill a Warlord with one unit? Plus warlords are 15-3. At -25% for day time that's only 34 damage and assassins are 51? That's if the warlord hits them all – assassins are 70% defense just about everywhere.

What I like to do with warlords and other bosses is slip a couple of assassins in ahead of my troops. A little poison, a back stab or 2, by the time my regular troops get there the boss bad guy is almost done and you can let a low level unit stick a fork in to get an easy 24 XP.

Can you tell assassins and other chaotic units are my faves right now?

[Elvish_Pillager]

I'm not sure what nerfed is

It means that in a recent version, there melee was reduced from 13-4 (52 damage) to 15-3 (45 damage).
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Plus warlords are 15-3. At -25% for day time that's only 34 damage and assassins are 51?

No, it's 48 damage because Assassins are weak to Blade, and assassins are 42 (unless they've changed since... I'm probably a bit out of date.)

[Sly]

Plus warlords are 15-3. At -25% for day time that's only 34 damage and assassins are 51?

No, it's 48 damage because Assassins are weak to Blade, and assassins are 42 (unless they've changed since... I'm probably a bit out of date.)

Yeah, they're now 51 (since 1.1.2 I think)

[Elvish_Pillager]

Oh, so it now needs to be a Strong Orcish Warlord in the daytime. Fine.