dragon ball fierce fighting 3.0 — attack surface
Attack surface is a concept mostly useful for melee units and which in simple terms means the amount of space there is for them to attack the enemy units. Why is this worth knowing about? Because it can significantly change the outcome of a battle. A battle that would be a disaster for one side on open land, in a choke point the other side could be victorious. Image Paladins vs Chu Ko Nus in the middle of an arabia map, both of the armies in staggered formation. Now compare that to the same armies, but both in line formation and the Chu Ko Nus are tightly packed be- tween 3 buildings, so only 1 of the Paladins can attack at any given time. In a fight between melee and low-ranged units, a numerically inferior force can use a nearby surface to reduce the attack surface thus reducing the numbers advantage of the enemy. There are countless examples of real battles that were won because of this simple tactic.
http://gamesng.com/dragon-ball-fierce-fighting-3-0/
One such place where there is limited attack surface is in choke points.On open land, the attack surface is maximum. The cavalry army, in a concave, was able to quickly achieve a high attack surface, and therefore rapidly reach its maximum DO. A choke point is a geographical or structural feature such as a valley, a bridge or other narrow passage greatly decreasing one of the army’s combat power while they go through it. This way a choke point can allow a numerically inferior force to win versus a larger opponent.
In a 8vs4 situation like the one on the image below but on open land, blue would have 1 casualty and red would have 4. On the choke, however, it’s 2 times 2vs2, so assuming everything else is equal, both would have 4 casualties. You can see how this is advantageous for an inferior melee army fighting a stronger melee army.
By using the choke point, the numerically inferior army will be able to deal their maximum damage before they eventually lose the battle, with 4 casualties on each side. So if you have a melee army fighting another melee army, you’re outnumbered and losing and you can’t run forever, then go to a choke point so that he can’t get a surround and take advantage of his superior numbers. In the image below we have melee units fighting ranged units. Assuming the ranged units’ range is high enough to attack from the end of the formation, all ranged units attack from the start. The melee units however can only attack 2 units at a time due to the reduced attack surface. By correctly using the map, Red turned a 8vs8 into a 2,2,2,2vs8 which now that we know about the Lanchester’s Quadratic Law is highly beneficial to one with 8 simultaneously attacking units.
