Clarification regarding the damage formulae

[Question]

I've noticed that damage seems to be a lot less than it should be, according to the wiki's description anyway.

This is especially noticeable with high damage units like steam canons, fantastic units, etc. They seem to struggle with killing more than 1 of any multi figure unit, even if they are heavily buffed and attacking a low level unit.

I've tried killing engineers with elite mithril steam canons many time, i even gave them the long range ability via the MOM tweaker. But even though they have 15 ranged, a 30% hit chance and am attacking engineers with two defense...they almost never kill more than one figure.

Why is this?

The maths is :

On average 30% hit - 4.5 damage, 0.6 damage blocked, roughly 4 figures should be killed with every hit.

That is obviously not happening in game though...i know that the next model gets to make a new set of defense rolls, but with only two defense, how is it stopping the steam canon from killing a 2nd figure almost all the time? Is there some kind of bug where left over figures get to total up their defense instead of making individual defense rolls?

I'm using the latest stable insecticide patch by the way.

[I like Serena]

I wrote a Combat Simulator.
The full version is here:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1430.../index.htm

And I ported it to the wikia:
http://masterofmagic.wikia.com/wiki/Combat_Simulator

If an elite mithril dwarven steam cannon shoots at elite normal high men engineers, we can expect to kill about 3 engineers.
Are you saying it's different?

[Seravy]

Steam Cannons suffer a range penalty and I think they don't even have Long Range unlike Catapults. So unless the engineers are close, you are actually firing at them with -2 to hit, 10% instead of 30.

[I like Serena]

Steam Cannons suffer a range penalty and I think they don't even have Long Range unlike Catapults. So unless the engineers are close, you are actually firing at them with -2 to hit, 10% instead of 30.

True, but they also have a +2 To Hit, which still makes it 30%.
At close range they should kill significantly more engineers.

[Seravy]

Steam Cannons suffer a range penalty and I think they don't even have Long Range unlike Catapults. So unless the engineers are close, you are actually firing at them with -2 to hit, 10% instead of 30.

True, but they also have a +2 To Hit, which still makes it 30%.
At close range they should kill significantly more engineers.

Wait, they do?
Oh, elite and mithril.

Hmm no idea then. Engineers aren't supposed to have Lucky to reduce damage. You would have noticed if a spell like Warp Reality was cast.
You sure those engineers didn't have 2 health instead of 1 or something?

[I like Serena]

Wait, they do?
Oh, elite and mithril.

Hmm no idea then. Engineers aren't supposed to have Lucky or Invisible to reduce damage.

My Combat Simulator follows the actual code almost to the letter and I'm not aware of any flaws in it.
(We should pick 'Monte Carlo simulation' though, which is more accurate and particularly relevant for multi-figure units.)
So for now I'm assuming that the cannon will kill 3 engineers on average, unless we're not talking about elite and mithril.

[Question]

To clarify i used the tweaker to give steam canons the long range ability.

I have elite + mithril steam canons, i almost always kill only one engineer per shot though.

[I like Serena]

What kind of engineers? Dwarven engineers? They have more hitpoints, which would account for the difference.

[Question]

I thought it was high men but i can't remember exactly, i will update when i see it happen again.

[Asfex]

The maths is :
On average 30% hit - 4.5 damage, 0.6 damage blocked, roughly 4 figures should be killed with every hit.

Not so, exactly. math: 4,5 damage, and 0,6 damage blocked per figure.- each figure for 1,6 damage - i.e. 2 figures average for non-elite engineers (1,6*3=4,8>4,5)