WoA-Order

Step One: Declaration of Attack

Unit Commander or Solo Unit declares type of attack and target of attack, including note of any Charms he intends to employ, excepting reroll effects. If the attack cannot be stopped by a specific form of defense, this must be noted as well.

Step Two: Defender Declares Response

Defender declares response; generally speaking, this is to defend with War DV, but may choose to do nothing (rendering DV inapplicable). If Defender is a Solo Unit, may choose to defend with either War DV or normal combat DVs. Defender must declare the use of any defensive Charms not based on a reroll.

• War DV: Intelligence + War + Unit Defense, divided by 2. Shields, terrain and fortifications can modify this DV, as per the normal DV rules.

Step Three: Attack Roll

The difficulty of an attack is 1, with modifiers based on circumstances. The dice roll employed varies, depending on the type of attack.

• Unit Commander: Rolls Wits + War + Accuracy of Unit, applying a difference between the Magnitude of his Unit and that of his target (with Solo Units counting as Magnitude 0) to the successes gained.
• Solo Unit: Rolls normal attack roll, as appropriate to action, applying a difference between his Magnitude (generally 0, though Charms may alter that) and that of his target. This roll is limited by the attacker's War rating, however.

Step Four: Attack Reroll

Attacker may activate any Charms or effects that grant a reroll.

Step Five: Subtract External Penalties/Apply Special Defenses

Apply any external penalties to attack roll, ending with DV. If successes remain, defender rolls extra dice derived from stunts (which do not award Essence), Charms or other effects.

• If successes remain, go to Step Six.
• If no successes remain, the attack misses and this cycle of War Events ends.

Step Six: Defender Reroll

Defender may activate any Charms or effects that grant a reroll to defense.

• If successes remain, go to Step Seven.
• If no successes remain, the attack misses and this cycle of War Events ends.

Step Seven: Calculate Raw Damage

Add Damage (Commander's Charisma + Damage rating for Units; Solo Units determine damage as normal) to the successes remaining. This is the attack’s raw damage. Any effects while modify raw damage take effect now.

Step Eight: Apply Hardness and Soak, Roll Damage

• A — Hardness: Compare raw damage pool and Hardness of target. If Hardness rating equals or exceeds the raw damage, the target is struck but receives no damage. This cycle of War Events ends. If Hardness is lower than the raw damage, go to Step 8B.
• B — Soak: For every point of soak of the type appropriate to the attack’s type (i.e. Bashing, Lethal or Aggravated), subtract one die from the raw damage pool. If this reduces the raw damage dice pool to below attacking Unit’s Magnitude (or the Overwhelming weapon rating or Essence of a Solo Unit), go to Step 8C. If the final damage dice pool is greater than the attacker’s Magnitude, go to Step 8D.
• C — Ping Damage: If soak reduces the damage pool to below a Unit’s Magnitude or the Overwhelming weapon rating or Essence of a Solo Unit, the final dice pool is equal to that Unit’s Magnitude (or the Overwhelming weapon rating or Essence of a Solo Unit, whichever is greater).
• D — Roll Damage: Apply any effects that interact with post-soak damage. Roll the final damage dice pool; each success in this roll inflicts 1 Health Level of the appropriate type of damage to the target unit. Dice that come up as a 10 do not count as two successes.
• E - Add Might Damage: Finally, add the Might rating of a Unit to the final damage successes.

Step Nine: Counterattacks

If the defender elects to use any Counterattack effects, those are resolved at this point, reapplying Steps 1 – 8.

Step Ten: Apply Results

Any non-damage effects of the attack also occur at this stage, as does the damage and effects from any counterattack launched by the defender.