The goal of this guide is to become a compendium of knowledge that describes all of the major gameplay mechanics of Goblin Storm, complete with descriptions and screenshots where needed.
Core Mechanics
All credit goes to NS2 Games!
The impulse system, stacking limits and zone of control are the three most critical mechanics for any player to understand. They take a moment to learn, but after you have them down everything else becomes
Impulses:
Since units from both sides move simultaneously in Goblin Storm, the game uses impulses to replicate real time movement in a turn based environment. Impulses are essentially times of the day from impulse 1 (dawn) to impulse 9 (dusk). In the screenshot below you can see how far a heavy cavalry unit can move in a single turn, the black and yellow numbers over the hexes show the impulse that the unit will arrive in the hex.
Stacking:
Every hex has a 4 point stacking limit. To put this into perspective, a single company of soldiers of any type has a stacking value of 0.5. Full strength regiments have a stacking value of 2.0. So you can fit 2 regiments or 8 companies in a hex at the same time.
There are two exceptions to stacking limits.
- Moving along roads during turn resolution. During turn resolution up to 6 stacking points may move along roads. This allows friendly units to move through each other on roads and prevents terrible traffic jams on your precious medieval highways.
- Beginning of game deployment. All stacking rules are ignored during beginning of game deployment.
If a hex has more than 4 stacking points at the end of the turn, then the excess stacking points will be randomly ejected into a neighboring hex.
Zone of Control:
Every stack with 1 or more stacking points projects a zone of control (ZoC) into the surrounding hexes. You can move into and out of enemy zone of control hexes, but you cannot move between enemy zone of control hexes. See the images below for an example.
Here we have a horde of Wolf Prowlers, with the Zone of Control overlay turned on. Friendly ZoC is shaded in gray, enemy ZoC in red. How can we get around the enemy zone of control?
We can move into and then out of enemy zone of control, so this move would work:
But we cannot move between two enemy zone of control hexes. So this move would not work.
Units
There are many types of combat units in Goblin Storm with numerous specialties, but they all share a similar basic structure. The largest units are regiments. Regiments consist of several companies, and each company is composed of individual soldiers.
Regiment >>> Company >>> Soldier
Regiments:
Most units in Goblin Storm are regiments (goblins call them hordes). Each regiment consists of a number of companies that move and fight together as a single unit. For instance, the Ravager Horde below consists of two companies of Shield Bearers, one company of Spears and one company of Bows. Any of these companies may be detached from their regiment to move around independently if you so desire.
Companies:
So, if regiments are just collections of companies. Then what are the individual parts of a company? If you open up a regiment’s card (by double clicking on a unit’s graphic at the bottom of the screen) you will see the individual companies inside a regiment listed on their own smaller cards.
Each company is comprised of soldiers, usually 50 per company, but there are exceptions, both larger or smaller. Each company is listed within its regiment on its own unit card. If we take another look at our Ravager friends again, you’ll see the cards for each of the four companies of the regiment.
Anatomy of a Company:
Now, let’s take a closer look at each of those companies. Everything you need to know about each individual company is conveniently listed on the company’s card:
- Training: Better trained companies fight harder and suffer lower cohesion loss. While poorly trained companies suffer a combat value penalty and lose cohesion more quickly. There are eight training levels (from highest to lowest): Elite, Crack, Veteran, Experienced, Trained, Recruit, Conscript, Untrained.
- Soldier type: Companies can have up to 3 soldier types.
- Morale: Morale is the combat modifier granted by training. A unit with elite training has a +30% combat bonus, while an untrained unit is -40%.
- Cohesion: How organized is the unit? Cohesion is lowered by casualties, marching and fighting, but can be restored by resting. Cohesion directly affects the company’s combat value. A company at 0.73 cohesion would fight at 73% of its base value.
- Strength: Raw manpower, the number of soldiers in the company.
- Offensive: Offensive melee value
- Defensive: Defensive melee value
- Fire: Ranged attack value
The border color of each card also tells you their type.
- Orange/Brown = Light Infantry
- Red = Heavy Infantry
- Yellow=Fire
- Cyan=Light Cavalry
- Dark Blue=Heavy Cavalry
- Orange/Brown = Light Infantry, Red = Heavy Infantry
Soldiers
Ultimately, the quality of regiments and their constituent companies comes down to the ability of the individual soldiers. You can check the basic stats of your soldiers at any time by clicking on them on their company card like this:
The top half of the soldier card shows their vital statistics: offensive/defensive melee value, fire value, skirmish modifier, fire protection and a few niche modifiers such as fire bonus when defending fortifications. The bottom section describes the soldier’s equipment and lore.
Most of these stats are self-explanatory. But there is a special note about the skirmish modifier. The skirmish modifier shows the % bonus or penalty to melee and fire when this soldier type is engaged in skirmish combat.
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