Test games played

[Nelphine]

Damaged Hammerhand (only 5 figures, and the 5th figure only has 1 hp; veteran; adamantium)
strategic offense: (12-2)*20*6*1.32 = 1584 *17/24 = 1122
strategic defense: 4*6*4*(7+2) *17/24 = 612

vs

Zombie
strategic offense: (4-2)*20*6*1.32 = 317
strategic defense: 4*6*3*(3+2) = 360

Demon
strategic offense: (14-2)*20*1.32 = 317
strategic defense: 4*1*12*(5+2) = 336

Combined rampaging monster values:
634 offense
696 defense


So my hammerhands have 1122 offense and 612 defense; the rampaging death units have 634 offense and 696 defense.

Yet every time I attack, my hammerhands lose. And this doesn't even consider my casting skill (161) and my spellbooks (9 chaos, 1 life), which should dramatically increase my offense. What's going on? Did I calculate something incorrectly?

Edit: Spell increase:

9 Chaos books: 9*150 Attack*(161/10/5) = an extra 4347 attack first the first 10 rounds of combat
1 Life book: 30 PercentATK*(161/10/100) = +4.83% of unit attack (base 1122) for the first 10 rounds of combat, or around +30-50 attack for the first 10 rounds of combat
1 Life book: 40 Defense*(161/10/25) = an extra 25.76 defense added for the first 10 rounds of combat

Assuming a combat lasts exactly 10 rounds, thats an extra 257.6 defense (total 878) and ~4400 extra attack (total 5522). Soo, there shouldn't be any way the rampaging monsters win (they would lose even if they rolled a 10 every round and I rolled a 1 every round.)

[Seravy]

Check if there is an invisible night stalker in that stack.

[Nelphine]

.. that makes entirely too much sense. It was late I was tired. I didn't actually want to deal with the combat which is why I tried strategic in the first place.

[Nelphine]

Nope. No Invisible stalkers (and even if there were it would have had to be several to make up for the spellcasting). Incidentally in tactical i win without taking any damage, and only spend 87 mana, not 161, which is what I expected, although the possibility of invisible stalkers didn't occur to me. Yes I've got over 700 mana before going into the combat, so even at x3 range (it's only at x1.2) I would be able to use full spellcasting.

Trying some other things: 6 chimera (plus my spellcasting) vs 2 draconian bowmen, a draconian swordsmen, a ghoul, and a war bear (plus enemy spellcasting, which is noticeably lower than mine), and I'm only winning around 1 in 5 attacks (should also be a pushover). 9 Chimera plus my spellcasting, against neutrals that don't have 9 full units, and I'm losing (should be a pushover).

7 elite adamantium hammerhands + elite mithril airship + level 4 Bard (holy bonus!!) against dark elf neutral (with 6 halberdiers and 1 cavalry, so not completely weak, but even still my spellcasting should be stronger ranged than theirs combined), and I'm losing multiple hammerhands.

Looks like something is definitely off.

[Seravy]

Can I have a save for one of those?

[Nelphine]

When I get back home yeah. I'll see if I can find the autosave for the original combat I noticed it on, or I'll see if there's anything else really obvious I can trigger.

Personally I feel like it only comes up when I'm playing chaos - maybe the lack of defense from chaos spellbooks is skewed? I realize that's kind of silly, but we've been through this a lot, so I'm reaching. Yet, chaos neutrals have always seemed to be right.

[Seravy]

I tried a few battles but found nothing unexpected - not even if I replaced all books with Chaos - so I'm definitely going to need your save files.
Maybe a bug in breath attack strength?

[Nelphine]

No breath attack with the first hammerhand vs death units. Hmm. I have just cause in play, a wizard on the other plane has aether binding and aura of majesty - after the original hammerhand vs death, the other arcsnus wizard cast survival instinct.

I've got conjuror, sage master, myrran, archmage, specialist. I've also picked up 2 more sorcery books since that initial combat.

None of that should be relevant in theory. No events are in play.

[Seravy]

Were any of these city battles? Maybe the bug of having spell ward apply when it's not in play is back?

[Nelphine]

The only city battle was my hammerhand bard airship vs neutral dark elves. Oh and the 6 chimera vs draconians plus common summons.