[Freeciv-Dev] Re: wrong defending unit (PR#854)

["Ross W. Wetmore" <rwetmore@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 03:37 PM 01/07/23 +0300, Gregory Berkolaiko wrote:
>On Sun, 22 Jul 2001, Christian Knoke wrote:
>
>> Reproducible. Savegame is here:
>> 
>> http://www.enter.de/~c.knoke/bugs/weak-defense.sav.gz
>> 
>> login as chris and as Sitting Bull. Attack Brasilia with
>> Sioux chariot.
>
>after some meddling with the program, the conclusion is:
>settlers in a city have defence 1*1.5 = 1.5  and 20 hitpoints
>    (actual internal value is defence*10 so 0.5 doesn't get lost --
>                   controvesrisal)
>phalanx (fortified or in a city) has 2*1.5 defence = 3 and 10 hitpoints
>chariot has 3 attack and 10 hitpoints.
>
>phalanx' probability to succeed = 0.5
>settlers  "    "    "    "   "  = 0.51725
>
>so technically everything is ok
>
>but it's not terribly realistic.

You clearly have not been watching the news lately as every radical group
from Genoa protesters to Palestinian freedom fighters sends out the
civilians as a screen for their fighting force.

Using peasants, or the "levy" to take the brunt of an attack and tire out
or bog down the attacker by sheer mass while preserving the elite force for
the cleanup/counterattack is a time honoured military tradition.

It might be interesting if the type of government came into play in this,
i.e. "higher" level governments were discouraged from following strict odds
with non-military forces. 

But I do think you mistated things with the "terribly realistic" comment :-).

Cheers,
RossW