Darkness
Darkness is a battlefield modifier that can be applied in a lot of ways. Its base effect is to decrease attack, defence and precision of units, as it becomes harder to hit someone with your sword, dodge blunt objects or aim an arrow without the ability to see them. Different ways of generating darkness will have different magnitude of penalties, ranging from -1 to -6.
Based off their abilities, units interact differently with it, some units going as far as ignoring the penalties entirely. As such, fighting in the dark can massively favor one side of a battle. Ways to generate darkness can be a significant force multiplier and research goal during the midgame.
Interacting with darkness
Units with
Darkvision will suffer reduced penalties.
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Units that are already
Blind will not suffer additional penalties for fighting in the dark.
Units with
Dark Power will get a bonus to their stats when fighting in the dark.
Ways to get darkness
Battlefield magic
The eponymous spell
Darkness, accessible after researching Alteration 6 and castable by a
4 mage, will turn any battlefield into a dark room (-6 stat penalty).
Solar Eclipse is a less effective (-3) variant, requiring Alteration 5 and a
31 caster.
Global enchantments
The
global enchantment Dark Skies will slightly (-1) darken battles in its owner's dominion.
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Nature
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Fighting at night, which is 50% of
assassination battles, will cause -3 stat penalties.
Ways to counter darkness
Interaction with The Forbidden Light and items carrying the 'localsun' tag?