To understand how the battle system works, let's start by looking at its structure. A battle is comprised of a preparation stage, where unit attributes of both the attacker and the defender (from hereon "the parties") are adjusted, as well as other factors that remain static during the rest of the battle, rounds, where both parties inflict damage and defend against each other according to the units left standing for each particular round, and an aftermath, where things such as calculating the amount of losses to be sent to the Itzamna Temple or plundering take place. Rounds themselves consist of several steps, and they repeat until either one of the parties is defeated, or 5 rounds have been fought without resolution (case in which a draw takes place). Let's take a closer look at all parts.
Preparation stage
Each party sets up their respective unit attribute bonuses and penalties here. This includes bonuses granted by buildings, researches, rituals, the current season in the city where the party is coming from, blessings, rewards from completing missions, bonuses won in the Tzolkin Wheel, effects of certain shop items such as the Kan scepter, and the stamina penalty that occurs when there is no corn left in the city where the party comes from. Calculating the effects of these is straightforward: if a building grants a strength bonus of +3%, and the strength base of a specific unit is 100, said type of unit would have 103 total strength. Note, however, that the attributes seen in the Jaguar Temple do not show the base value, but the final value after bonuses and penalties.
In addition to the basic unit attributes, in this stage and for each party four "factors" are being calculated for later use within the rounds:
- Luck factor: Random between 0% and the sum of the luck bonuses obtained by the elements described above (buildings, researches, rituals, etc), up to 10% maximum. For example, with a Stele structure built to level 5, which grants a 5% luck bonus, and no other luck bonuses in place, the final luck factor will be anything between 0 and 5%. The luck factor plays a direct role in the final amount of damage the opponent can cause as we will see below.
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Regeneration factor: Fixed depending on the amount of units and the amount of shamans being sent, and up to 30% maximum, where one shaman per unit is equivalent to a total of 3% regeneration factor for the whole troop (thus, the maximum effect of 30% is achieved sending 10 shamans per unit). The following formula may be used to calculate the factor:
If the regeneration factor is greater than zero, said percentage of unit losses will recover at the end of the round, as we'll elaborate on below.
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Accuracy factor: Similar to the regeneration factor, this factor is fixed depending on the amount of units and quipucamayocs in the troop, up to 30% maximum, and one quipucamayoc is equivalent to a 3% total accuracy factor. This is calculated in the same fashion as the regen. factor:
The accuracy factor boosts the effective strength of the troop when damage is inflicted as we will later see.
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Strength excess factor: If the total strength (the sum of the strength of all units combined) of a party exceeds the total stamina of the opponent, besides a complete defeat in a single round, the party with the exceeding strength gets a bonus depending on the difference between said strength and the opponent's stamina. This factor may not be greater than 99%, and is calculated as such:
The factor has a direct impact on the damage the opponent can inflict, thus the more superior the troop is, the less damage it'll receive, as we'll see later.
Rounds
Once the initial preparation of the parties is complete, the actual battle starts. As mentioned earlier, a battle consists of multiple rounds until either one of the parties is defeated or a draw occurs. Each round is divided in two turns (one for the attacker and another for the defender), where the parties alternate between attacking and defending, and an post-round, where the regeneration factor is applied for each party (if applicable) before the next round begins. The order in which the turns in a round happen doesn't matter, as the losses are in effect only in the following round.
Turns
Each turn consists of the following steps described below, in that exact order. Note that support units refer to any of the following: Spies, Shamans, Quipucamayocs, Poloms, Pochtecas, Settlers, Amazon Warriors; whereas combat units refer to any unit that is not a support unit.
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Strength count: The party inflicting the damage in this turn has their total strength counted, taking into account the amount of units standing in this round (where a unit standing is a unit whose stamina is greater than zero). Because Amazon Warriors attack in a separate step, as we will see shortly, the total strength for the purposes of inflicting damage consists of two parts: Global strength, which is the sum of the strength of all units except Amazon Warrior's, and Amazon's strength, which is the exact opposite. Once we have these sums, we need two additional steps to calculate the final strength used to calculate damage:
First, we subtract the strength excess factor of the opponent in the following manner:
And then on the result, we calculate the accuracy factor and luck factor:
Both of these steps are to be applied separately to global strength and amazon's strength, though the factors in the formula will be the same for both. Once we know the final strength values, we are ready to subtract them directly from the stamina of the party defending in this turn.
- Wall assault: If the party receiving damage in this round is the defender, and said defender has a Wall built in the city, its stamina (of the current level) must be brought to zero first. The party inflicting damage in this round subtracts their global strength from the stamina of the opponent's Wall and it either falls short, in which case the aggressing party losses the turn and does not continue, or the Wall is fully defeated, in which case the party continues the turn and the remaining global strength is used in the next steps. If the opponent has no Wall (not yet built), or the Wall had already been defeated in a previous round, or the opponent is the attacker, this step is skipped and the party continues the turn.
- Combat-units aggresion: In this step, the party inflicting damage subtracts their global strength from the stamina of combat units only (read, non-support units), in order of weakness. Thus the weakest unit (the unit with the highest 'weakness' attribute value) in the opponent troop receives damage first, and strength is subtracted unit per unit onwards until either there is no more strength left or all of the combat units have been fully defeated. In the former case, we skip directly to the Amazon Warrior's attack step, if the aggressing party has Amazon units in the troop, or otherwise the turn ends. This step is skipped if the party receiving damage has no combat units left in the troop.
- Support-units aggresion: Only if all of the opponent's combat units have been defeated AND there is global strength left, the aggressing party will proceed to attack the support units as well in the same fashion as with the previous step, subtracting the remaining global strength from the respective stamina from the weakest to the least weak, until either there is no more strength left or all of the support units have been fully defeated. As with the previous step, the step is skipped if the troop had no support units left. The next step is takes place regardless of the results of this one.
- Amazon Warrior's attack: If the aggressing party has Amazon Warriors in their ranks, and thus the previously calculated amazon's strength value is greater than zero, an additional attack will proceed against support units, subtracting amazon's strength unit per unit in order of weakness as with the previous two steps until either amazon's strength runs out, or all support units are defeated. This step is skipped if the party receiving damage has no support units left.
Once the first turn in a round ends, the attacker and the defender switch roles, and a second turn takes place.
Post-round
After both turns are done, shamans take a moment to cure losses for each party before the next round starts. For each party, first we need to calculate the amount of losses that there were in this round, which we can easily find out based on the amount of damage (the subtracted strength) inflicted on the troop's stamina. Thus, if we had 5 Lancers, each with a stamina of 200, and we received a damage with a strength of exactly 400 and no more, we would then have 3 Lancers left and 2 losses.
Once we know the amount of losses each party had, we just need to apply the regeneration factor to them. Thus, the amount of units that will come back to life is a function of the following:
These units will immediately join ranks and will participate in the next round, or come home safely if this was the last round in the battle.
Aftermath
After a battle is over, a number of things can occur depending on the results. The following takes place regardless of the winner:
- Units to be healed: The amount of losses that will make it to the Itzamna Temple are counted here and will return with the troop. This amount will always be for each party between 8% to 15% (random) of the total losses. These "healable" losses will, however, be lost if there is no Itzamna Temple built in the city of the party in question.
- Wall downgrade: If the defender had a wall built, and said wall has been defeated in battle, the defender losses one level of said structure, up to a minimum of level 1. No downgrade happens if the wall was already at level 1.
The following takes place if the attacker is the winner, except if the battle is the result of a failed espionage mission:
- Looting: If the defender has resources on their city, the attacker will plunder an amount of Limestone, Obsidian and Cacao of up to 40% + their astrology looting bonus, or up to the total cargo capacity of the troop if the former exceeds the later, out of the defender's resources minus the amount hidden by their underground cave structure + their goldsmith underground cave bonus. The amount of resources the defender hides is subtracted before the attacker's share is calculated. In addition, the distribution between Limestone, Obsidian and Cacao in the share is made as evenly as possible.
- Units changing sides: The Amazon Warrior unit has the property of surviving in case of defeat and joining the other side of the battle when they are defending. Thus, if the defender had Amazon Warriors in their ranks, all of them will join the attacker and will return with the attacker's troop. This property, however, only applies when the Amazon Warriors are on the defending side of the battle.
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And that would be all, congratulations if you made it all the way to here 
We will update this guide as the battle system evolves. Please don't hesitate to let us know whether something isn't clear or if you have any further questions in the "Help & Questions" area of the forum. Happy hunting
