Damaging strikes

[sam_waz_here]

thunderer or hoarfroster, damage or strikes. Which do you value as more important, the ability to miss an enemy but continue attacking untill you kill it or the ability to kill an enemy before it can damage you? (excluding first strike)

[AI]

Both have their uses. Thunderers are great at offing drakes before they start burning you, while poachers are far better at finishing off units. (especially w/ high def)

[Caphriel]

While both average about the same damage, more strikes with lower damage per has a somewhat more predictable performance. Also, more strikes gains more from traits like strong and dexterous. On the other hand, high-damage, single strike units gain more and lose more based on time of day, and gain more benefit from leadership.

They both have their uses. I find it pays to attack with high-damage, low-strike-count units first, so I can adjust my strategy based on whether they hit or miss.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

On the other hand, high-damage, single strike units gain more and lose more based on time of day, and gain more benefit from leadership.

How come? The composite bonuses on each separate strike should mean that this applies equally to multi-strike units. Check this...

4-4 vs. 8-2 (16 damage/16 damage)

-25%:
3-4 vs. 6-2 (12 damage/12 damage)

+25%:
5-4 vs. 10-2 (20 damage/20 damage)

The damage dealt is the same, even with penalties.

[AI]

Until you introduce rounding, then everything goes off.

[Wintermute]

damage or strikes. Which do you value as more important

I prefer all my strikes to do damage.

[Caphriel]

Maths!

Pretty much what AI said. I still haven't figured out exactly how the rounding works in Wesnoth (:oops:), and I'm not sure in what order leadership, ToD, and resistances are applied, or when rounding takes place, though, so I am open to the possibility of observer error. My suspicion is that leadership is applied last, and that rounding takes place at each step, and Wesnoth rounds up at .5, but I can't provide any support for that beyond the impression I've gotten from playing

[megane]

[I still haven't figured out exactly how the rounding works in Wesnoth (:oops:), and I'm not sure in what order leadership, ToD, and resistances are applied

Chigaimasu

All multipliers are applied together, then the resulting number is rounded off normally (with values of 0.5 rounded towards the base number); a Loyalist Spearman under lv2 leadership at day attacking a Horseman does:
7 x 1.25 x 1.25 x 1.20 = 13.125, rounded down => 13 damage per hit.

[TL]

Mostly it's a zero-sum game. More strikes means you're less likely to get unlucky and whiff, but also means you're equally less likely to get lucky and score big. More strikes means more rounding error, which means you get bigger plusses from bonuses but also bigger minuses from penalties. Generally, however, there's a slight edge towards stacking damage into a smaller number of heavy strikes since you get to do all your damage upfront--makes it a lot easier to kill an enemy before they can retaliate, and if your unit is threatened they can get their damage out faster before they die.

[Noyga]

Lots of small strikes also means you'll likely let your enemy fully retaliate before you finish your attack.
This makes an important difference in some situations (your unit attacks to kill and has low hp for example).