Combat (CivBE)

Combat refers to armed conflict between two or more colonies in Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth. There are different types of combat, each with its own intricacies.

Combat Stats

• Ranged Strength: Only units able to engage in "Ranged Combat" have this value. It is the ranged unit's combat strength when it is attacking indirectly.
• Range: Only ranged combat units have this value. It is the distance, in hexes, within which the ranged combat unit can attack the enemy.
• Combat Strength: All military units have this value. Melee units use their Combat Strength when attacking or defending; ranged units use their Combat Strength when defending. Noncombat units generally have a Combat Strength of 0.
• Hit points: A unit's health is measured in "hit points" (HP). When fully healthy, all military units have 100 HP. A unit loses HP as it takes damage and is destroyed when its HP reach 0.

Melee Combat

Melee combat occurs when a melee unit (i.e., any military unit which doesn't have the Ranged Combat ability) attacks an enemy unit or city.

The result of the combat is determined by the relative Combat Strength of the two units – for example, if a powerful unit fights a weak one, the powerful unit is likely to do more damage to its enemy, possibly destroying it altogether. However, many different factors may affect a unit's strength in battle. A unit may receive "defensive bonuses" that will increase its Combat Strength when it is attacked while occupying forests or hills, or is fortified. Also, a unit's damage may reduce its current Combat Strength.

Units receive a "flanking" attack bonus of 10% for each unit adjacent to the target unit. Some promotions and virtues may give an attacking unit additional bonuses beyond the basic flanking bonus. These bonuses can be incredibly powerful when enough units are involved. In general, the more of your units can "gang up" on the target unit, the better the outcome for you.

When one of your units is active, place the cursor over an enemy unit to bring up the "Combat Information Table" and learn the probable outcome of any battle between the two units. This table shows your unit's modified combat strength on the left and your enemy’s on the right. The box at the center top of the screen tells you the likely outcome of the battle, and the bars in the center of the box tell you how much damage each side will take if combat occurs.

The attacking unit initiates the melee by attempting to move into the enemy's hex. The attacker cannot engage in melee unless it can enter the defender's hex - a Soldier, for example, cannot engage in melee combat against a Gunboat since it can't enter that water space except when embarked. To order an active unit to attack, right-click on the target. The active unit will initiate the combat.

At the end of melee combat, one or both units may have sustained damage and lost HP. If the defender is destroyed, the attacker moves into the defender's hex, capturing or destroying any non-military units therein. If the defending unit survives, it retains possession of its hex and any other units in the hex. Most units use up all of their Movement when attacking in melee. Their turn ends upon launching the attack.

Ranged Combat

Some units such as Rangers, Missile Rovers, and Gunboats engage in Ranged Combat (i.e., they shoot various things at enemy units) when attacking rather than engaging in melee combat. Such units have two distinct advantages over melee units: first, they can attack enemy units that are not adjacent to them, and second, they cannot take damage when they attack.

Any unit that can engage in ranged combat has a Ranged Strength value. This number is compared with the target's Combat Strength to determine the results of the attack. To see the potential effects of a ranged attack, with the attacking unit active hover the cursor over the potential target. The "Combat Information Table" will appear, showing you the losses (if any) the target will take from a ranged attack by your active unit.

The unit's Range value determines the distance at which a unit can launch a ranged attack. A Range of 2 means that the target can be in an adjacent tile or one tile distant. A Range of 1 means that the target has to be adjacent to the attacker.

Generally, a ranged unit must be able to "see" its target in order to be able to fire at it. A unit cannot see a target if a terrain feature that blocks its line of sight is between the two – a mountain or hill, for example, or a tile with a forest. A unit can always see into a tile, even if it contains blocking terrain, but it cannot see objects in tiles past the blocking terrain.

With the ranged unit active, select the ranged attack ability, and a red arrow will appear. Confirm the attack by clicking on the target.

At the end of ranged combat, the target unit may have sustained damage or been destroyed. Remember that the attacking unit will never suffer any damage during ranged combat (except possibly for air units). If the target is destroyed, the attacking unit does not enter the now-vacant tile (as usually happens during melee combat), but you may send another unit into the empty space if you've got one with the Movement available. In general, units use up all of their Movement and their turn ends upon launching the ranged attack; however, a few special units have the ability to launch a ranged attack and then move in the same turn.

Bonuses

Both attacking and defending units can receive a variety of bonuses during combat - some from the unit's location, some from its defensive posture, and some from special circumstances. The most common bonuses come from the terrain the unit occupies, and whether the defending unit is "fortified."

Defending units get valuable bonuses for occupying forest or hill tiles. Attacking melee units are penalized if they attack an enemy across a river.

Fortification

Many units have the ability to "fortify." This means that the unit "digs in" and creates defensive works in its current location, giving itself defensive bonuses and making it much tougher to kill. The amount of the bonus depends upon the length of time the unit has been fortified. However, fortifications are strictly defensive: if the unit moves or attacks, the fortifications are destroyed. While fortified, a unit will remain inactive until you manually activate it by clicking on it.

Most melee and ranged units can fortify. Non-military, mounted, naval, and air units cannot fortify. These latter units can "Sleep," which means that they will remain inactive until attacked or manually activated, but they do not receive the defensive bonus.

The "alert" order is similar to "fortify," except that the unit will "wake up" when it sees a nearby enemy unit. The wakened unit retains the fortification bonus as long as it doesn't move or attack (so if you order it to go into alert mode again or to pass its turn it keeps the bonus).

Naval Combat

Like land units, there are military and non-military naval units. Embarked Workers and any embarked land units are non-military units, and they are automatically destroyed when attacked by naval military units. Naval military units can be either ranged or melee units, and naval combat is resolved like normal combat.

City Combat

Cities are important targets, and if fortified and defended by other units, can be quite difficult to capture. However, doing so can reap rich rewards – in fact, the only way to knock another colony out of the game is to capture or destroy all of its cities.

Cities have Combat Strength, just like units. This number represents both the city's Combat Strength and Ranged Strength and is based upon the city's size, its location (cities on hills are tougher), and whether its owner has constructed defensive works in or around the city. A city always defends itself at full strength - unlike a unit, it doesn't suffer Combat Strength and Ranged Strength penalties as it loses HP.

Cities can be targeted by both melee and ranged attacks just as units can. Since cities have Combat Strength, a unit that engages in melee combat with a city may suffer damage. A city can also make a ranged strike with a Range of 2 against one enemy unit within its line of sight each turn.

A city's owner may "garrison" a military unit inside the city to bolster its defenses, adding a portion of the garrisoned unit's Combat Strength to the city's Combat Strength. The garrisoned unit may attack surrounding enemy units and takes no damage when the city is attacked; however, it is destroyed if the city is captured.

A city heals a certain number of HP each turn, even during turns it is attacked. Therefore, to capture a city the attacker must do more points of damage per turn than the city heals (and usually much more than that).

A fully-healthy city has 100 HP. If a city's HP reach 0, an enemy unit can capture the city simply by moving into its tile. Note that a ranged attack cannot drop a city below 1 HP: the city must be captured by a melee unit. The attacker usually has the option of razing the city or adding the city to their colony, either as a puppet or directly through annexation. Whichever you choose to do, the colony which loses the city has taken a deadly blow.

Outposts have no ranged strike capabilities and low Combat Strength, and are destroyed rather than captured when they are overrun. Units may be garrisoned in them, and can engage in melee or ranged combat as usual.

Damage & Healing

As mentioned above, units lose HP when targeted by melee or ranged attacks and are destroyed upon reaching 0 HP. When possible and prudent, damaged units should be "rotated out" (i.e., moved away from enemy units) and allowed to heal before they reenter combat.

A damaged unit is less effective when attacking than a fully-healed unit. The more damaged the unit, the less its attacks – melee or ranged – will damage an opponent. The actual formula is more complex than this, but as a general rule a unit's damage output is reduced by half the percentage of HP that it has lost. In other words, a unit that has lost 50 HP (50%) has the amount of damage it does reduced by 25%, and the damage a unit that has lost 90 HP (90%) inflicts is reduced by 45%.

To heal damage, a unit must remain inactive for one or more turns. The amount of damage that a unit heals depends upon the unit's location.

Naval units cannot heal unless in friendly waters or a friendly city.

If a unit is damaged, the "Fortify Until Healed" button appears in its Action buttons. If you click on this button, the unit will fortify and remain in its present location until it has 100 HP.

The following affect healing rate:

• +10 HP per turn with the Tissue Engineering tech.
• +5 HP per turn if the appropriate option is chosen in the Alien Preserve building quest.
• +10 HP per turn if the appropriate option is chosen in the Organ Printer building quest.
• Many units have perk options that affect healing.

Miasma

By default, units lose 10 HP per turn they spend in Miasma.

• Loss reduced to 5 HP per turn in Miasma with 3.
• No HP loss and +5 HP per turn in Miasma with 5.
• No HP loss and +10 HP per turn in Miasma with the Alien Hybridization tech.

See also

• Combat in other games