GAME MANUAL - Steam

HEARTS OF IRON DARKEST HOURevent can occur until it hasexpired.The attackers will inflict somedamage to whatever provincialassets exist in the province. Ifthe defenders have a landfortification, or a coastalfortification in the case of anamphibious assault, it willsustain some direct, intentionaldamage. The amount ofdamage is tripled for divisionswith an engineer brigadeattached to them. There willalso be some collateraldamage to infrastructure,factories, and other structuresthat will reduce theiroperational conditions until thedamage has been repaired.The combatants will exchangefire, with each side likelysustaining some level ofcasualties and probablyexperiencing a slight reductionin organisation and morale.Both combatants will alsodraw a measure of suppliesand oil to sustain them for thenext combat round. This willbe at a somewhat higher ratethan their normal hourlyconsumption, and if there is alack of either, their combatorganisation and morale willbegin to drop quite sharply.Running out of supplies or fuelis a sure way to lose acombat.At the end of each round, theoperational status of eachdivision is checked to seewhether it is able to continuefighting. A division that hassustained enough casualtiesto reduce its operationalstrength to zero will beeliminated. More often,though, a division will reach apoint where its organisationhas been reduced to a levelwhere it cannot continue tofight (below 5%) and will beginto withdraw. It may still be firedupon and will try to defenditself but it will no longerattempt to inflict casualties onits enemy.This cycle will repeat eachhour that the combatcontinues until either one sidehas been completely eliminated,which is quite rareunless the battle is verylopsided, or when all of aside's divisions are in theprocess of withdrawing frombattle. However, you may electto disengage from combat atany time if you feel that yourchances of winning are slimand you would like to preserveas much of your force aspossible. If you are theattacker, you can do this byselecting the field commandand right-clicking in theprovince that they currentlyoccupy. In the case of adefender, you can select theforce and then right-clickanywhere, since thereare special rules that governretreat from a province.ExchangingFireIn the above description, Isimply indicated that the twosides “exchange fire” eachhour. This is actually a verycomplex process whoseprecise mechanics areembedded in the gameengine, but you need to haveat least some idea of how itworks in order to be able tomake an informed decisionabout whether to initiatea combat and what forcesmight be useful for you tobuild, deploy, and order intothe battle. Here’s roughlywhat happens…The firing phase of thecombat is subdivided into anumber of “shots”, such asshot 1, shot 2, shot 3, shot4, and so on until allpossible shots have beenfired. For each of thoseshooting rounds, eachdivision on both sides willrandomly select an enemydivision to fire at and thenwill target either its hard orits soft component. Thelikelihood of it picking a softtarget is equal to the enemydivision’s softness value, soif your division is shootingat an enemy division with asoftness of 70%, there’s a70% chance that it willtarget the soft componentand a 30% chance it willtarget the hard component.Your division then checkswhether it is “allowed” to shootby checking its hard or softattack value. Whether adivision is allowed to shootdepends on what shot numberit is and on the attack value ithas against the target type ithas selected. Example: If itchooses a hard target and hasa hard attack value of 5, it willbe allowed to shoot if it ispresently shot #5 or earlier. Ifit’s shot #6 or later, it is notpermitted to shoot. Thatdoesn’t necessarily mean thatits attack is over for this roundof combat, because if ithappens to have a soft attackvalue that is higher, it mightstill select a soft target for alater shot at which point it willbe able to shoot. Example: Ifthat a division has a softattack value of 12, it will beallowed to shoot if it happensto select a soft target any timeup to round #12.If a division will shoot if it isallowed to do so, but thetarget division will also have achance to avoid being hit.Whether the target is able toavoid the shot is determinedby either its defensivenessvalue or its toughness value,depending on whether it is thedefender or the attacker in theoverall combat. If it isdefending a province, it usesits defensiveness value; if it isa division on the attackingside, it will use its toughnessvalue. This value is thenumber of times that it mayattempt to avoid being hitduring each full combat round.Example: An attacking divisionthat has a toughness value of10 may attempt to avoid beinghit on the first ten times that it116