Damage, Splash and Special Attacks

Damage in Kingdoms follows Total Annihilation's pattern in some ways and departs from it in others. This page sets out what the game's code confirms, and marks what it does not.

Splash

Splash damage falls off with distance by the same formula as in Total Annihilation. A unit that the explosion touches takes full damage. Further out, the damage is multiplied by:

e + (1 − e) × (1 − distance ÷ radius)²

The radius is half the weapon's area, and e is its edge effectiveness. A weapon with an area under 17 that hits a unit directly damages only that unit.

The difference is who gets hurt. In Total Annihilation, a unit is never hurt by its own explosion. In Kingdoms nobody is spared: every unit inside the radius takes splash damage, including the attacker's own units, its allies and the attacker itself.

Melee weapons splash too. The Swordsman's sword does 360 damage across an area of 24, a radius of 12, with an edge effectiveness of 0.7. A unit 6 away from the struck target takes 360 × (0.7 + 0.3 × 0.25) = 279, even if it is another Aramon soldier.

Damage Categories

Each unit has a damage category in its data, such as human, monster, fort, factory, lodestone, naval, siege, monarch, dragon or god. A weapon's damage table can give a value for some categories beside its default damage.

The values read as multipliers of the default damage. The Cannoneer's cannon does 2000, with 0.5 against gods and monarchs. Every weapon of the five gods lists 0.01 against monarchs. The Fallen Angel's Death Sword does 9000, with 1 against humans, monsters and the undead, which only makes sense as a multiplier. The code that applies these values has not been confirmed, however, so the guide shows them exactly as the data lists them.

A value of 0 means no damage under any reading. Every stunning weapon of the five houses lists 0 against monarchs, so none of them can stun a monarch.

Random Variation

Each hit varies a little at random, and so does the time between a weapon's shots. The size of the variation is not confirmed, so the damage figures in this guide are the values before it.

Damage Types

A weapon's damage type is normal unless its data says fire, explosion or paralyzer. Normal, fire and explosion damage all take hit points away; they differ in their effects, and only normal damage draws blood when blood is switched on.

A paralyser does no damage. Each point stuns the target for one tick, a thirtieth of a second, up to 60 seconds, and further hits while a unit is stunned add to its stun.

Veterancy and Auras

Every unit has an attack multiplier and an armour multiplier, both 1 to begin with. A hit's damage is multiplied by the attacker's attack multiplier and divided by the target's armour multiplier. Veterancy raises both, by 0.1 a level.

Some units raise them for the friendly units around them. The Titan multiplies armour by up to 1.4 within 200, and the Shaman multiplies both armour and attack by up to 1.2 within 200. Like the healing auras, these work most strongly at the edge of their circle. All the multipliers combine: a level-5 unit at the edge of a Titan's aura takes 360 ÷ (1.5 × 1.4) = 171 from a sword stroke of 360. The bonus ends as soon as a unit leaves the circle.

Stone, Freeze and Mind Control

Some spells turn a unit to stone, freeze it or take it over. Turning to stone or freezing destroys the unit, and mind control makes it yours. Whether such a spell works is decided by chance, and the chance rises with the target's veteran level:

These are the chances for a target at the centre of the spell. Further out the chance is lower, by an amount that is not confirmed.

Some units are never affected. No spell of this kind works on a monarch, on a unit that is not finished or on a unit being carried. Turning to stone never works on buildings, and 109 units are immune to it in their data; 33 are immune to freezing, and 39, among them every dragon and god, cannot be taken over.

The Acolyte's Turn To Stone costs 750 personal mana. Against a new Swordsman, it works 4 times in 5. Against a Swordsman that has reached level 4, it almost never fails.