The Battle Screen

For the Official Instructions, please click here . This page is for further details with interactions in The Battle Screen and does not cover anything already covered in the Official Instructions.

The Battle Screen. Note That in the Current Weapon Image is a Scope Icon, Indicating That a Scope is Equipped.

The Battle Screen is where combat with Units are directed to. There are two ways which a battle ends: The defeat (or unconditional surrender of the entire enemy population remaining through total panicking) or the death of your main character.

Basic Battle Mechanics

During battle, every person in your Caravan, regardless of status (i.e: Prisoners, Slaves, Escorted, etc.) are deployed in the battlefield. On the other side of the map, the opposing Caravan is placed on the opposite side of the field. The battle is turn-based, depending on the person with the most Action Points (AP) acting first. Every turn scrolls by and goes from people with the most AP to those with the least AP, and repeats.

When it is a mercenary or a volunteer's turn to move in your Caravan, the player can control their actions. Movement to an empty square require one AP to move to. Click on an empty square to move your character to that square; tiles that are too far to be reached will have that character move to the closest square to that spot reachable.

Non-combatants will automatically flee from all sources of combat. They cannot be directly attacked, but can suffer damage from indirect fire from ranged weaponry. This includes Slaves, Prisoners, and passive Escorted from both sides.

Attacking an enemy requires sufficient AP to execute an attack. When it is a character's turn to move, they can attack any enemy by simply hovering the mouse cursor over the enemy. Hovering the mouse over the target will also display a percentage that displays the chances of landing a successful hit. If the requirements of attack are met, the character will attempt to attack the enemy. Total AP is determined by base Agility and total Battle Experience.

If an attack lands a hit, there will be text in the upper left-hand corner of the screen, telling who has been hit and with what damage. Additionally, if any status is inflicted or if a condition takes effect, it will be displayed there as well. Blue text indicates that an action beneficial for your Caravan has taken effect (i.e: Bandaging an ally or damaging an enemy), while red text explains a negative action (i.e: An ally has suffered Bleeding Damage or has been hit and killed). White text shows no damage taken or damage to a Vehicle, Animal, Cart, or a non-combatant.

Attacking Requirements

1. The Enemy must be in range of the current Character's weapon's attack range. For example, Melee Weapons are only effective if the Enemy is in an adjacent tile (not diagonal), and throwable Grenades are only effective within the Character's throwing range.
2. The Enemy must not be blocked by anything, including terrain, vehicles, animals, or other combatants. Combatants along the angle of fire could possibly receive damage based on the current character's Accuracy. This only applies to firearms - throwable Grenades ignore obstacles.
3. The Character's weapon Must Have at least one ammunition loaded.
4. The Character must (obviously) have sufficient Action Points to execute the action.

Panicking

If a character loses enough Morale during Battle, they will panic. They will flee from all sources of fighting and will continue to do so until the Battle is over. They can still be targeted by your characters for attack, but will display that the target is in panicking mode underneath the percentage of a successful hit.

Other Actions

In addition to attacking, characters can also interact with allies and pick up weapons.

If a character already came equipped with a First Aid Item, they have the alternative action to apply first aid to friendly characters. First Aid items are only useful for negating Bleeding Damage sustained from injuries and cannot restore character's Health Points. To use a First Aid item, a character needs at least five AP. They can either apply bandages to an adjacent friendly person or to themselves. Note that the target must be bleeding first in order to use a First Aid item - Hovering the mouse over any applicable targets will display whether the character is bleeding (alongside the severity of the bleeding damage) or not.

Weapons are dropped in the battlefield upon death of a character, the player's action to drop the weapon, or by the enemy's action to drop a weapon (usually due to lacking insufficient AP to use the weapon at all). In order to pick up a weapon, a character must occupy the same tile to pick up a weapon, and it requires the character to be currently unarmed and to have three AP to pick up the weapon.

Battle Afflictions

There are statuses occasionally inflicted on characters upon receiving damage. Below are a list of the statuses and what they are:

• Bleeding Damage: Inflicted by any attack (some require more damage/skill to inflict). Characters who are bleeding take damage at the end of their turn. Can be negated by the use of First Aid Items. Does not carry onto future Battles. Represented on the character portrait with a blood-drop.
• Burning Damage: Inflicted by Flamethrowers and Motolov Cocktails. Characters on fire are visible by having their person engulfed in a candle-like flame and receive damage at the end of their turn. Cannot be negated by First Aid. Does not carry onto future Battles. Represented on the character portrait with fire.
• Overweight: Caused by the Character carrying more weight than they can carry. Caused as a side-effect from losing significant Health. Characters Overweight require a percentage more AP to initiate some actions, depending on the percentage Overweight. Can be negated by dropping weapons or relieving them of equipment after Battle. Otherwise, the Overweight status can carry onto future Battles if the character remains injured afterwards. Represented on the character portrait with a weight.
• Eye Damage: Has a slight chance to be inflicted by any damage received. Reduces the Character's Accuracy stat by two points and cannot be negated by First Aid. Carries onto future Battles until healed by a Doctor Building that provides Eye Surgery. Represented on the character portrait with an eye.
• Arm Damage: Has a slight chance to be inflicted by any damage received. Increases all actions' (aside from movement) required AP cost by +100% (2x) and cannot be negated by First Aid. Carries onto future Battles until healed by a Doctor Building that provides Upper Body Surgery. Represented on the character portrait with a hand.
• Leg Damage: Has a slight chance to be inflicted by any damage received. Increases movement AP cost required to two AP per square and cannot be negated by First Aid. Has a secondary effect to also decrease Travelling Speed when Travelling. Carries onto future Battles until healed by a Doctor Building that provides Lower Body Surgery. Represented on the character portrait with a foot.
• Critical Health: Caused by extremely-low health (Critical). Reduces Agility, Accuracy, and Intelligence. Cannot be negated in-Battle, and carries onto future Battles until Health is restored to severely wounded or higher. Represented on the character portrait with a first aid cross.

Ending a Battle

If the Player's Main Character dies during Battle, it is Game Over and you will be redirected back to the game's main menu. The main character will never panic.

Killing all enemies (or choosing an option once the enemies all panic) will instantly redirect the player to a Trading Screen similar to ones in Town. You automatically have the enemy's money in the bartering area, and can take any desired items from the defeated enemy's cargo. Additionally, you can also discard your own items in the bartering area. Press "Loot" to exchange the items in the Barter area. Note that once the player exits the Trading Screen, you cannot re-enter the Trading Screen and the items are discarded unless you let the enemies go.

If all of the enemy are panicking, you are given three options:

The Three Options Given Once All Enemies Have Panicked.

• Imprison
  • All of the remaining enemies will join your caravan as prisoners and will be treated ration-wise like prisoners. They will stay in your caravan until you either release them (either in the desert or in town), turn them into either mercenaries or slaves, or remand them to police stations who would accept them. Choosing this option will not affect Virtuous Reputation.
• Let Go
  • You will leave the defeated enemies alive and as a Unit in the desert, but severely weakened and will usually flee from you. They can still be interacted with (or even attacked again by you or by other units in the desert) and will attempt to reach a town to merge with the unemployed population. Any loot left from the Trading Screen will stay in their caravan's inventory, and weapons and armor can be re-equipped to the weakened enemies. Choosing this option will increase Virtuous Reputation.
• Keep Killing
  • Resumes combat. All enemies will still panic, and your caravan will have five turns until the three options reappear or until your caravan kills all remaining enemies. Choosing this option will decrease Virtuous Reputation.

Notes/Tips

• When attacking an Enemy by range, be sure to actually attack and not move towards the Enemy by mistake. Holding Ctrl enables attack-only mode during which you cannot walk, Useful to avoid misclicks, although a system has already been put on place; clicking twice to attack/move for the first time. The rest of attacks/moves are only 1 click after that.
• Hovering over the Character's portrait will also show his/her Attributes.
• Move combatants ahead of your passive members of your Caravan to prevent them from fleeing towards the center of the map.
• Map size depends on weaponry used by both sides and total number of people.
  • Battles involving only Melee Weapons will be smaller compared to those with firearms, and both sides will spawn close to each other, if not right within moving distance.
  • People with high Ranged Weapons Skill (or a certain firearm skill) will extend the boundaries of the map to accommodate their ranged potential. This can be further increased with the usage of Scopes .
• Use cover to avoid being attacked by ranged Enemies.
• Enemies will attack the closest combatant in your Caravan.
• Enemies' attack priority will be affected by the distance of your combatants in your Caravan.
  • Players can exploit this to draw fire away from the rest of the Caravan with a single combatant.
  • Enemies will not attack until they are within a certain range, depending on their weapon.
    • Enemies with Rifles (Not Assault Rifles), Crossbows (Not Hand Crossbows), and Rocket Launchers will tend to fire farther away than those with Shotguns, Machine Guns, and Pistols.
    • It is possible for enemies to continue moving towards the player's Caravan if a member of your Caravan has a firearm skill that extends the map farther than the Enemy's firing distance.

See Also

• Weapons
• Armor
• Units
• First Aid