Randomness in combat.

[Sean Davis]

I have been playing the game for about 70 hours, and have read most of the available guides. Nowhere have I found a description of the random factor for determining losses in combat. Seems to me that knowing the probability distribution is critical to planning a successful assault. Does anyone know how luck figures into the combat losses formulas at the bottom of page 19?

[Terif]

It is pretty simple:

You can see before a combat the expected losses for you (attacker) and the defender.

The real results will only differ by +-1.

I.e. you have a chance of 1/3 to get either exactly the expected, a loss of +1 or a loss of -1 to the expected result.

Important in tactical combat is to plan the right attack sequence and also take into consideration the actual results of the first combats to change plans/targets if necessary.