Questions about combat resolution and values

[Bertram]

I was contemplating what kind of units to buy to hunt some Cossacks - and then I decided it was time to check out the values of the different units. Which in turn led to the question what those values actually signified. I could find some of the answers in the manual, but have some questions left.

Offensive fire and Defensive fire are easy - higher is better. It is how hard you hit something.
Initiative is who shoots first, range: at what range you can start shooting.
Rate is clear: how often you can shoot in a round.
Protection is how good you dodge the bullets.
Discipline is a bit unclear - higher is better, and means more staying power. It is unclear how this works together with cohesion though.
Assault is how much damage you do with an assault. Higher is better... Unclear is why most (Pruissian) units have one value, but the carabiniers have two (15/15).
Ranged damage is the strength points/cohesion points damage each hit does. Same goes for Assault damage, but then for assaults (duh).

Ok. mostly clear. Now for some questions.

The Corps du Garde, Cuirassiers and Dragoons have a an offensive fire and defensive fire of 2, a range of 1 and a rate of 0. Does this mean they dont fire? Not unlogical (they might go for assaults with the sword), but why a offensive and defensive fire value then? They also have a ranged damage of 0/0. This also means that they do no damage even if they would be able to generate hits at range - consistent with a rate of 0, but not with the offensive and defensive values?

The Mounted Jager have an offensive and defensive value of 4, a range of 2 and a rate of 3... ok, so they do fire ranged weapons. Their ranged damage is 1/9 - that seems consistent to me.

Then the Carabiniers. They use carabines I would think. Their offensive fire damage is 4, defensive is 2. Range is 2, rate is 3. But their ranged damage is 0/0 . If I understand it this means they do ranged damage, but the damage that they do for each hit is always 0?

The same goes for the Hussars. Different values, but offensive and defensive fire, a rate and a range, but 0/0 ranged damage.

Do I misunderstand the system? Are the 0 values a 0,5 rounded down? Or are these units supposed to be unable to do ranged damage?

[Baris]

"Discipline is a bit unclear - higher is better, and means more staying power. It is unclear how this works together with cohesion though. "

Discipline is i think is direcly related with strentght of a unit,as stated in the manual there are 2 stages in combat,at the start of the round and during the fighting round, i think battle engine looks directly to the strenght of the unit and discipline rating before deciding a withdraw of a unit,it maybe indirectly related to cohesion,because it says after losses(it must be primarily related to strenght)

[Pocus]

That would be an error to have a ranged unit not doing ranged damages. I'll report the issue to the historical data team

Discipline is used in various checks, and discipline above 5 give a little bonus in combat (the reverse is true). Discipline and cohesion are somehow related though, although discipline varies not much during the life of an unit, whereas cohesion can have highs and lows.

[Bertram]

Thanks for the reply Pocus. I am looking forward to the feedback of the historical data team - not the least because I need to know which unit is most effective against those pesky Cossacks
(Though to think of it - changes might benefit the Cossacks as well - not something I am in favor of at the moment).

I understand the difference between cohesion and discipline I think: cohesion would be the way the unit acts as a unit at a certain moment, it goes down during the confusion of battle.
Discipline is how well trained the men are and how well they act under the stress of combat.
One question though: from your post I understand that there is only a difference between a discipline of <= 5 or > 5. As the Militia is the only unit that starts at dicipline 5, and all the others are higher, this means that the only effect of this variable (at least in ROP) is that it lowers the effectiveness of the militia (a bit) ?

(Edit: on looking more carefull, I see that the discipline 5 only goes for the Militia replacements you buy - the militia you get by events is actually discipline 2. The discipline goes up by training - so it does have a bit of effect - your militia trains up, and after 4 steps they become more effective. They become line infantry when the discipline hits 6 or 7).

PS: I love it that the developers actually reply on this forum!!!

[Bertram]

Pulling this back up - I still haven't got a reply about the 0/0 damage done ar ranged combat by units that have a rate of fire....

[Pocus]

I answered "That would be an error to have a ranged unit not doing ranged damages. I'll report the issue to the historical data team", unless you asked something else?

[PhilThib]

Fix here. Will be with next patch. Don't forget to removed the Cached file if you want the changes to be effective

[Bertram]

Sorry, I misinterpretated the answer... I thought the data team would decide if it was an error or not - while you (now) obviously meant that it was an error, and they would fix it

[Pocus]

no problem

The files have been added for the next patch.