Combat

Combat resolution in Starfall Dominion is deterministic and category-weighted. Every engagement compares the attacker's offense mix across three damage categories against the defender's matching resistance values, structural fortifications, active traps, and entrenchment bonuses.

Damage categories and defense triad

Every combat unit deals damage in one of three categories—Kinetic, Energy, or Ordnance—and carries separate defense ratings against all three. When an army attacks, the defender's effective defense is weighted by the attacker's exact share of offense in each category:

Effective Defense = ((O_kin × D_kin + O_eng × D_eng + O_ord × D_ord) / O_total) × WallMultiplier

Category	Damage key	Representative attackers	High-resistance defenders
Kinetic	kinetic_melee	Syndicate Vanguard, Rail Guard, Chitin Mauler, Aegis Runner, Reaper R-115	Hard-Light Guardian, Breaker B-400, 🎯 Defensive Turret
Energy	energy_plasma	Spore Runner, Phase Lancer, Sentry S-90, Reaper · Energy	Hard-Light Guardian, Giga-Mech, Vector V-800
Ordnance	heavy_ordnance	Siege Foundry, Giga-Mech, Brood Titan, Aegis Sniper, Vector V-800	Brood Titan, Giga-Mech, entrenched garrisons (+50% Ordnance defense)

Mission types and casualty formulas

Armies dispatched from the 🗺️ War Room use distinct casualty curves depending on mission type. Outbound Attack, Raid, and Reinforce marches can be recalled during the first 50% of their outbound travel time.

Mission	Symbol	Casualty formula	Siege damage	Plunder & special rules
Attack		Winner loss = min(1, (LoserPower / WinnerPower)^1.5); loser loses 100%	Yes (surviving siege units)	Triggers 🪤 Perimeter Trap first; survivors plunder unhidden resources up to carry capacity.
Raid		x = (Attacker / Defender)^1.5; defender loses x / (1 + x), attacker loses 1 / (1 + x)	No	Skirmish curve where neither side is completely wiped out unless power is overwhelmingly one-sided; survivors plunder resources.
Reinforce		Joins target outpost's defending garrison	No	Uses defender's 🛡️ Perimeter Shield and tile modifiers while stationed.
Entrench		Locks garrison for 24h; digs in after 6h	No	Grants +10% total defense and +50% Ordnance defense once dug in.
Scout		Compares scout power vs defending scouts only	No	Collects intel (resources, defenses, military) or executes sabotage (production, traps, telemetry).

Fortifications, traps and medical beds

Outpost structures multiply garrison defense, capture incoming troops before combat, shelter flagged units, or recover wounded casualties:

• 🛡️ Perimeter Shield — Multiplies total defending resistance by 1.0365^Level and has 1,000 HP per level against siege bombardment.
• 🎯 Defensive Turret — Adds permanent structural Kinetic defense (200 at level 1 up to 20,000 at level 20) that does not suffer troop attrition across consecutive waves.
• 🪤 Perimeter Trap — Captures attacking units before combat resolution (120s build time per trap, 60s rearm time).
• ❤️‍🩹 Bio-Recovery Ward — Recovers 40% of unrescued non-siege Human casualties as wounded troops (2× upkeep in beds; heals at 50% resource cost and 50% training time).
• 🛡️ Bunker — Hides up to 5% × Level (max 50% at level 10) of Warehouse stockpiles from raiders and shelters flagged garrison units.

Level	Perimeter Shield scalar	Building HP	Turret Kinetic defense	Perimeter Trap cap	Bio-Recovery Ward beds	Bunker troop shelter
1	×1.04 (+3.6%)	1000 HP	200	25 traps	100 beds	100 units
5	×1.20 (+19.6%)	5000 HP	525	160 traps	265 beds	510 units
10	×1.43 (+43.1%)	10000 HP	1770	385 traps	885 beds	3840 units
15	×1.71 (+71.2%)	15000 HP	5955	662 traps	2975 beds	—
20	×2.05 (+104.8%)	20000 HP	20000	1000 traps	10000 beds	—

Siege and structural bombardment

Dedicated siege units trained at the 🏭 Siege Workshop deliver structural damage after combat on full Attack missions only. Siege damage drains the target building's HP pool (1,000 HP × Level); at 0 HP the building is disabled until repaired.

Unit	Race	Tier	Offense	Defense (kin / energy / ord)	Speed	Siege damage
Directorate Breacher	The Human Directorate	T3	90 (Heavy ordnance)	45 / 113 / 79	25 tiles/hr	20
Swarm Borer	The Swarm Hive	T3	98 (Kinetic melee)	45 / 72 / 83	33 tiles/hr	22
Hegemony Breaker	The Ancient Hegemony	T3	75 (Energy plasma)	45 / 197 / 101	35 tiles/hr	17
Wrecker W-500	The Automaton Assembly	T3	90 (Heavy ordnance)	52 / 129 / 91	20 tiles/hr	20

Casualty recovery and reconnaissance

• Combat Medics (Field Medic & Assault Medic): Each surviving medic saves 1 fallen friendly unit at the end of battle, prioritizing the highest resource-cost casualties first.
• Reconnaissance (Directorate Scout & Recon R-50): If the target has 0 defending scouts, infiltration succeeds silently with 0 losses. If defending scouts are present but outnumbered, the attacker takes (DefenderScoutPower / AttackerScoutPower)^1.5 losses and still extracts the report. If defending scouts equal or exceed attacker scout power, all attacking scouts are lost.
• Sabotage Orders: Scout missions assigned to sabotage can target production (draining up to 250 stored resources), traps (neutralizing active 🪤 Perimeter Traps), or telemetry (disrupting target sensor reporting for 1h).