COW 2.0 battle calculator

ill have a go at it, I would love a simulator like this implemented in game.

DxC wrote:

I still have a lot to work on, but I wanted to go ahead and publish this to help motivate me to focus better. The basic mechanics should be implemented. In particular, the multi-stack targeting, defense, and damage distributions are implemented as described in the wiki and expounded upon further by freezy. The special defense against planes is not yet implemented, so planes will currently do better in the calculator than in the game. Fixing this is my top priority so planes should be working properly soon. There are likely bugs and general issues so let me know if you find any. The url is the same as before: http://dxcalc.com/cow

It would be nice, when you selected a unit type, level, and number, it would look up the HP for that at 100% strength. Feels kind of superfluous to have to look it up and enter it yourself.

K.Rokossovski wrote:

It would be nice, when you selected a unit type, level, and number, it would look up the HP for that at 100% strength. Feels kind of superfluous to have to look it up and enter it yourself.

DxC wrote:

What I'm going to do instead is allow using a percentage.

What I'm also missing is the possibility to enter who is attacking. As I understand, side A is the attacker and side B is the defendere; but there's many non-dot battles, where side B is (forced to) attack back as well. Maybe implement the option to fight battles like that as well?

I like this calculator, now i can gauge if it's worth attacking or if i'll lose too much

K.Rokossovski wrote:

What I'm also missing is the possibility to enter who is attacking. As I understand, side A is the attacker and side B is the defendere; but there's many non-dot battles, where side B is (forced to) attack back as well. Maybe implement the option to fight battles like that as well?

Ah right! And when you select "Target" it is defending, right?

DxC wrote:

K.Rokossovski wrote:

What I'm also missing is the possibility to enter who is attacking. As I understand, side A is the attacker and side B is the defendere; but there's many non-dot battles, where side B is (forced to) attack back as well. Maybe implement the option to fight battles like that as well?

Not 100% sure what you mean, but the target pulldown gives each stack on both sides the option to attack any other stack on the opposite side.

K.Rokossovski wrote:

Ah right! And when you select "Target" it is defending, right?

If it says "Target". which is just a header for selecting targets. it means it isn't specifically attacking. Stacks being attacked will defend an attack if they can regardless of if it is attacking or not. Here is more info from the help page: http://dxcalc.com/share/cow.info.html

Attack targets

If you want a stack to attack an enemy stack, select the stack you want to attack from the drop-down. If you only want a stack to defend, then do not select an attack target. If a stack is being targeted it will be in defense mode, but it can simultaneously be attacking the same or a different stack. A stack doesn't have to be attacking anything. It can just be defending. But if a ranged stack doesn't have a target and is not itself a target the calc will automatically try to find a valid target for it. In general, it is best to specify targets, since, in-game, automatic attacking depends on what is moving and possibly who declared war. A stack can be attacked by multiple other stacks. It is important to set these targeting options correctly. If a stack destroys its target it will look for another stack that is in range to attack.

Well you know reading is a very hard thing to do, right? I'm sorry man, and thanks!

DxC wrote:

The special defense against planes is not yet implemented, so planes will currently do better in the calculator than in the game. Fixing this is my top priority so planes should be working properly soon.

Thanks for your efforts DxC

Just want to say, thank you so much for doing this.

Even the color scheme looks similar to the old calculator.

I could cry with joy

A couple days ago I introduced a serious bug in the calc that I just now realized. Sorry if you encountered it, and please let me know if you find something that isn't working.

Getting:

oops: no valid army was specified for one or both sides.

Sorry, my mistake, the number of units in stack B1 was set to 0 because I had "update counts" checked.

Ok I have twiddled a bit with the calculator, and it allows me to really estimate a reasonable number of units to put in my border forts based on what see from spy or reconaissance data.

Great work, the manual is there so if some "syntax" is unclear you can find it there.

Found out is really important for correct calculation to ensure your artillery is at distance from the defending/attacking parties, it does not matter seemingly whether it is set at defend or attack the enemy stack, as long as it is at distance.

It almost feels like a cheat, I could put in minimal forces, amongst which some militia of course because they look weak, to lure them into battle and then bring in the artillery when they gathered their courage to attack

Gen. Smit wrote:

Found out is really important for correct calculation to ensure your artillery is at distance from the defending/attacking parties, it does not matter seemingly whether it is set at defend or attack the enemy stack, as long as it is at distance.

It would be helpful to have some notes on the page saying which unit attacks at what distance.