Bonus Damage for flanking / "backstabbing"

91 votes

If you manage to maneuver any of your units to attack an enemy from behind, they should get a bonus to their offence, melee more than ranged.
This should also partially apply if you manage to flank an enemy with multiple of your own units.

Suggestion Suggested by: Kloetee (18 May, '22) • Upvoted: 16 Apr • Comments: 12

Comments: 12

18 May, '22
PhamTrinli
how about bonus damage for being surrounded instead?

instead of just having a unit on one of the back 3 tiles to another unit be the deciding factor in bonus damage -
have it be so that if you have 1 unit on each opposite side it grants bonus damage
Also, have it be so directly behind grants most bonus damage while diagonally behind grants less bonus damage
1
18 May, '22
Andreas Peter Larsen
to build apon the previous comment, the idea of flanking would be an excellent idea.

either as a special skill for certain units or a general thing that every unit can so.
20 May, '22
Clean&Clear
For backstabbing to feel good you would also need to introduce the possibility to choose where the unit faces. And these are 2d sprites so they can only face 2 directions, so it would feel weird.

On the other hand, the surround mechanic sounds good. It would further buff having more command slots so there would need to be some rebalance that takes this into account though.
21 May, '22
Dante Merged
I think Sassanid and Shadow units should be able to use "back attack". This ability is appropriate for these units.
22 May, '22
Vampire Kitty Merged
I think it would add a lot of strategic and tactical element to the game if there was a backstabbing feature where units on the battlefield would get a different damage percentage bonus depending on how close to the direct backside of the unit they were when striking/attacking them.
22 May, '22
Aleksei Merged
I really enjoyed how it was implemented in age of wonders 3: Once the unit got attacked he start rotates to the direction of the attacker so by attacking from all directions you are doing way more damage
23 May, '22
Munin Admin Merged
"Back Attack" (suggested by Dante on 2022-05-21), including upvotes (2) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.
25 May, '22
Ezzekhiel
I feel mobility spells are pretty powerful, so I would not think that flanking / backstabbing you'd be a great mechanic. It would benefit magic-focused wielders who are already very strong. I could however imagine "Backstab" as a special unit-specific ability.
21 Jun, '22
McDuda
Flanking and backstabbing are cool mechanics that would make battles more complex. However, as stated in the previous posts, buffing unit movement is very easy, especially for magic focused wielders. But, at the same time, I don't want these mechanics to be completely shunned, thus I will agree with @Ezzekhiel and support the idea they should be added as unit traits and/or special abilities.
23 Jun, '22
TheBlasterPastor Admin
"Backstabbing" (suggested by Vampire Kitty on 2022-05-22), including upvotes (17) and comments (3), was merged into this suggestion.
23 Jun, '22
TheBlasterPastor Admin
"flanking damage" (suggested by Maxis on 2022-05-18), including upvotes (6) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.
23 Jun, '22
TheBlasterPastor Admin
Admin note: Edited to reflect full range of suggestions merged.