Defense and resistance

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What is the difference between defense and resistance? Why do some units have good defenses, while others have good resistances? For example, in the Knalgan Alliance, dwarves have good defenses in mountains, but they cannot defend well in forests. Outlaws are very fragile, but it is very hard to hit them.

Defense

Defense in Battle for Wesnoth means that any unit in the game has a chance to dodge the attack. In simple words, a unit with better defense is more lucky, and only a few attacks will hit them. Units have different defenses on different terrains.

Rebels have access to Elvish Rangers. They have a lot of experience surviving in the woods and hills. The ranger is covered very well in these terrains, and there is a very small chance, that someone with a sword or bow & arrow will hit this unit. On flat plains, this unit does not have anything that will help with survivability. Defense here is 40%, so from 10 hits, probably 6 will harm this unit, while 4 will be safely dodged. In forests, defense is as high as 70%, so rangers can stay here for much longer than in the flat plains.

Another unit, like the Merman Spearman, can defend hexes in a completely different way. They are generally weak in forests or hills. They cannot even reach mountains. However, when fighting in water, this unit is better than an Elvish Ranger. Its defense is 50% in deep water, 60% in shallow water, and even 70% in coastal reef.

Resistance

Resistance is all about what will happen to the unit that gets hit. When a unit is attacked, some hits (the amount is based on defense on the terrain) will harm the unit. Resistance means, that for example, a sword or a club can deal different damage to a unit. Or, in other words, some units have armor, which is good against spears, but nearly useless against hammers or fireballs. Similar units have similar resistances.

Dark Sorcerers have average defenses and resistances. Blade, Pierce, Impact, Fire, and Cold can do the same damage. The only difference is the arcane damage, which is good against skeletons, drakes, or simply anything "magic". Dark Sorcerers have a 20% resistance to Arcane, so successful attacks of 10 will only deal 8.

Things get much more interesting with the Fire Drake. When enemy drakes use fire against this one, the 10 damage will be reduced by 60%, so only 4 hitpoints will be lost. A Dark Sorcerer with cold damage is more dangerous. The drake has -40% cold resistance, so attacks with force 10 will harm it by 14 hitpoints. The following table shows its resistances against all 6 types of attack:

Blade	Pierce	Impact	Fire	Cold	Arcane
10%	-10%	20%	60%	-40%	-10%

Undead skeletons, such as the revenant, also have different resistances. Killing them with swords or arrows will be very slow, but arcane and fire attacks can kill them easily or force them to retreat. Resistances of an undead revenant:

Blade	Pierce	Impact	Fire	Cold	Arcane
40%	60%	-20%	-20%	60%	-20%

Marksman and magic attacks

Units with Marksman are good against well-defended units in good terrain. Their chance to hit is very high, at least 60%. A hiding Elvish Ranger will be as vulnerable in the forest as in the flat plains. Marksman is activated only when attacking, not defending. Magic attacks are even more deadly. Attacks have 70% chance to hit, in both offense and defense.

An Elvish Ranger has these defenses:

Forest (normal attacks)	Forest (marksman attacks)	Forest (magic attacks)
70%	40%	30%

To discover, how to kill an important unit efficiently, read the profile of that unit. The fastest way is to attack it with your multiple units with magic attacks of the correct type. About 6 Mages would kill a powerful Revenant quickly, because their fire and arcane attack is great against skeletons. Although the skeleton will try to dodge the attacks, terrain will not help him much against magic.

TIP: Units with high defenses and low hitpoints, like outlaws, are a great target for mages and other units with magic attacks.