Combat & Cars

Combat occurs in a region if at least one raiding soldier is present and one rival soldier is present.

If more than one rival gang is present, the raiding gang fights against the gang with the most soldiers present.

Pairings
Combat is fought in pairings. Each soldier is randomly paired off against a soldier in the rival gang. If a gang outnumbers the other gang, leftover soldiers 'double up' in the pairings.

For example, if 3 yellow soldiers fight 2 purple soldiers, there would be two pairings: 2 yellow vs. 1 purple, and 1 yellow vs. 1 purple.

For each pairing, a winner is chosen considering the total powers on each side plus a small random value. Whichever side is greater wins. For every 5 points a side wins by, they fire one shot.

In the case of a tie, both sides fire one shot each. Each shot causes one random damage effect.

Rounds
In most cases, the loser of a pairing is removed from the fight and the winner proceeds to the next round. If the loser lost by one shot and he was set to either raiding or protecting this turn, he is not removed and does not take damaged; instead he fights on and advances to the next round along with the winner.

If at least one soldier from each side remains, the remaining soldiers are paired off and another round of combat is fought. This continues until one gang is completely eliminated from the region.

Damage effects
Each shot a soldier suffers causes one random damage effect:


 * Nothing happens: a clean escape
 * Wounded: +1 month of recovery
 * Crippled: +1 month of recovery, -1 permanent stat
 * Killed

Each effect is as equally likely to happen, but the more shots a soldier takes, the greater the probability at least one will kill him.

Soldiers that take damage in a region that does not border a region they control are in great danger! Any hit that would have ordinarily wounded or crippled them may possibly kill them instead, as they are unable to crawl away to safety.

Cars
Cars can be purchased through lieutenant intelligence reports for $10,000. They are capable of drive-bys and have thee stats: armor, passengers, and speed.

Armor is the maximum damage reduction the car does on any damage to the passengers. An armor value of 1 reduces either 0 or 1 damage per hit. Damage reduction reduces the type of damage result, so 'killed' would be reduced to crippled, crippled to wounded, and wounded to nothing.

Passengers is simply the number of gang members that may participate in a drive-by in the region.

Speed corresponds to the number of defenders that can fight back against the car. A higher speed means fewer defenders.

Cars damaged in combat are repaired automatically by deducting from your bank.

Pros of a drive-by:


 * You can't be surprised by more defenders than you were expecting.
 * Armor protects you.
 * You can leave dealers out of combat.

Cons of a drive-by:


 * You can't wipe out all of the defenders and take over dealing in one turn.
 * You accumulate heat on the driver.
 * Damage to the car costs money to repair.

Cars are best for softening up a tough region before you try to move in and take over dealing.