Welcome to Chain of Command (CoC), where every nasty thing that could befall you in medieval times probably will. Damage from combat being just one of them, and not even the worst. CoC is a medieval strategy game set in gritty medieval Europe, soon expanding to the Islamic world, Far East, and Africa. Battles aren’t about wiping out enemies but breaking their morale – just as history played it. Unless you hit them well – and they wont be running anywhere anymore.

In this article we describe how Combat Damage System works in Chain of Command. While there is more than enough damage to go around in our game, here we focus only on damage that can hit you in the Combat. Disease, starvation and getting old will be covered in the fullness of time.

Your unique units face permadeath, nasty infections from wounds and the occasional loss of limbs. Damage is the grim core of it all, and we’re cutting in deeply and precisely with some dark humor so you can at least laugh through the pain. Like: “Sir Quentin, something is dripping from your armor. But I can’s distinguish if it’s red or brown.”

Health Points: Staying Alive

Your units have different Health Points (HP), based on various stats and some luck at creation. Feed them well and keep them sheltered from the elements so they will be strong when your ambitious cousins come for your crown. High HP means they fight, move, and stay confident like champs. Low HP? They get weak, slow, and shaky.

Combat in Chain of Command has a nasty habit to grind HP down. Regular hits or critical strikes with nasty effects alike will not have mercy on your warriors. Outside battle, age, sickness, or starvation can sap health too. Lost all HP? You catch a nasty case of permadeath. Your favorite archer Gruenhilde? Gone! Forever. Ciao amore.

In the Middle Ages, everyone feared Black Death. Here, it’s your bad tactics.

When Damage Hits

Damage only lands if it breaks through shields, armor, or dodges during the attack sequence (click this link to read all about it). Once it does, we check if it is a booboo or your unit became a Black Knight impersonator. Regular hits just chip away HP. Critical hits brighten your day with instant kills, wounds, bleeding, stuns, or worse – a scar on your back.

Regular Damage: Death by a Thousand Cuts

Regular hits subtract HP directly. If a unit’s health hits zero, they’re off to audition in the heavenly choir. For the code-literate: IF Unit.HP ≤ 0 THEN Unit.Death.

Unlike movies where bad guys are dropping left and right, medieval warriors could take a few hits with a spear, get peppered with arrows and still asked for a tankard of beer before they called their medicus.

El Cid collected about two dozens serious wounds (should the records be trusted) from swords, arrows and even lances. He died at the age of 56 of natural causes – which could include dysentery or fever.

Regular damage keeps battles grounded. Not every hit needs to be a gorefest.

Bleeding: The Slow Killer

Bleeding drains HP away slowly but persistently. Stack a few wounds and even your toughest knight will leak himself to death. Sometimes bleeding stops on its own, but don’t count on luck – wear protection. Many warriors died of slow bleeding, sometimes days after the battle. Much like modern patients waiting on budget-cut healthcare.

Critical Hits: Where Things Get Spicy

Critical hits happen when damage finds its way to the squishy parts we really need to continue frustrating our family and friends. They are based on the body parts they hit and can lead to:

• Instant Kill: As it reads. Common for head or chest shots. Think arrow through the skull and it is goodnight my love. Your elite knight just proved you should listen to your mother when she tells you to wear a helmet.
• Incapacitation: Unit is alive, but wont do any good for you in this battle any more. They can’t fight or follow orders. If your army wins, you may find them on the battlefield and patch them up. Maybe they will be crippled, but alive. Lose? They’re captured. Rich and famous get back for ransom. Peasants get a mercy blow (and not of a good kind).
• Heavy Wound: Bad injuries slash strength, speed, accuracy, and morale. They also up the odds of bleeding and stuns. If dice are not favorable enough to you, you can finally retire from the army and open that tavern you dreamed about. Just hope you wont spill drinks limping with your peg leg.
• Light Wound: Cuts or bruises that hurt less but still slow you down. They can fester into gangrene if ignored. They leave cute little scars, perfect for a campfire story – until you lose a limb.
• Stun: Unit freezes, unable to fight, but will stagger around with the company. It wears off over time. Unless enemy ended all your troubles while you were starring at the flowers.

Critical hits make battles unpredictable, just like history. One well aimed hit can turn a hero to zero or send a peasant run for the hills.

Why It Matters

In Chain of Command, you will not kill entire armies, but hit them well and they will lose the will to fight. Damage drives the realism, morale wins the day. Morale victories mean a few brutal hits can rout an army without a bloodbath. Unique units and permadeath make you think twice before you throw that gauntlet. Alexius lost the arm and it wont grow back. Comnena’s wounds festered post-battle and a few days later her kids were laying flowers to her grave.

Plan ahead, learn when to run and get the best armor your money can buy. If you want your “empire” to outgrow the muddy hill village you inherited from your half-witted uncle who died cursing the fates that made you his only living relative.

Medieval life was a meat grinder, and we will make you not just understand, but feel it. One bad hit, and your champion is a name on the tombstone. Get too emotionally attached to your pixels? Better stay in Farmville, Chain of Command™ is not for the weak in flesh or spirit.