Bonus Information for the Tournament

By Gary S. Best and Bob Heeter. Last Revised 21-Jun-97.

First read the Bonus Calculations page for background information and definitions of terms.

All examples are from the Tournament army set.

Tournament Bonuses Flowchart

This should be used to calculate the actual strength of each non-naval unit in a stack. WarBOT does this automatically provided you specify the Hero Strength (with battle items) of any heroes, unit types and base strengths of any non-hero units (including blessings; medals are not allowed), and the total of all hero command items.

Determine Terrain Strengths (maximum 9). For each unit in stack:
1. Add any Battle Items carried by a Hero to the Base Strength of that Hero.
2. Add any individual Terrain Modifiers to the Base Strength of that non-Hero army. The relevant terrain is that of the defender. This applies in city terrain to light infantry (+1), heavy infantry (+1), and spiders (+2); in open to light cavalry (+1) and pikemen (+2); in forest to orcish mobs (+1) and wolfriders (+2); and in hills to dwarves (+2).
Determine Modified Strengths (maximum 14):
1. Determine Total Bonus (maximum 5):
  1. If opponent has no demon or dragon, and thus no Cancel Non-Hero Attribute, add highest Non-Hero Bonus to Total Bonus. The units with non-hero bonuses are the allies (worm and wizard at +2; elemental, demon, devil, ghost, dragon, and archon at +1), and the "leaders" for the defender's terrain (minotaurs and pegasi in cities, heavy cav in open, unicorn in forest, and giants in hills - all have a +2 non-hero bonus in their terrain).
  2. If opponent has no archon or devil, and thus no Cancel Hero Attribute, add the effective Hero Bonuses to Total Bonus.
  3. If stack has an archer, add a +1 Fortify Bonus to Total Bonus.
  4. Add defensive bonuses. If stack is defending:
    1. If attacker has no catapult, and thus no Cancel City Attribute, add City Bonus to Total Bonus.
2. If Total Bonus is greater than 5, reduce to 5.
3. Add Total Bonus to each unit's Terrain Strength.
Determine Final Strengths:
1. If opponent has an elephant, subtract the -1 Enemy Subtract Modifier from the Modified Strength of all units (minimum Final Strength is 1).

Additional Tournament Clarifications

See the General Bonuses Page for general clarifications.

Swamps, Bridges, and Plains are Open terrain. Flying units over water/shore receive bonuses as if they were in Open terrain. (WarBOT knows this; just use water/shore.)
Navies have strength 4 in non-Deluxe Warlords, but in Deluxe their strength is either their base strength or 4, whichever is *lower*. Thus a light cav navy is strength 2, while a heavy cav navy is only strength 4, not strength 6.
The +1 "Special" stack bonus is a Non-Hero Bonus in any terrain type.
WarBOT knows your hero's natural command bonus (it's derived from Hero Strength), so you don't need to enter it. Enter only the command ITEMS. (The natural bonus is +1 for strength 4-6, +2 for strength 7-8, and +3 for strength-9 heroes.) The reason for counting only the items is that the effective total hero bonus for a stack with multiple heroes is the highest natural bonus plus the total of all command items carried. WarBOT needs to know which bonuses are from items and which are strength-based.
Your standard is a +1 command *item* and should be put into WarBOT when you carry it it.