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Repel is how Dominions represents the effectiveness of long weapons, such as halberds, pikes, and the like. If a unit swings at an enemy who has a longer weapon, the enemy may actually repel the swing and prevent it from happening. This occurs as follows:
1) Weapon Length Check
Repeller Weapon Length: Weapon length
+ 1 if repeller is size 4+
Repelee's weapon length: Weapon length
+ 1 if Repelee is size 4+
If Repeller's Weapon Length > Repelee's Weapon Length ⇒ The repeller can attempt to repel
2) Attack Roll
Repeller Attack roll: Repeller's Weapon's Attack value
- Fatigue penalty
- Harassment penalty, if any
+ DRN
Repelee Defense roll: Repelee's Defense value
- Fatigue penalty
- Harassment penalty, if any
+ DRN
Repeller wins ties!
If repelee wins ⇒ The repelee continues to resolve the attack steps as normal
If repeller wins ⇒ The repelee makes a morale roll. Simultaneously the repeller makes a regular damage roll against the repelee for a maximum of 1 damage capped.1)
3) Morale Roll
Repeller roll: 10
+ Amount the repeller won its attack roll by
+ DRN
Repelee morale roll: Repelee Morale value
+ Repelee size - Repeller size
+ DRN
Repeller wins ties!
If Repelee wins ⇒ The repelee continues to resolve the attack steps as normal
If repeller wins ⇒ The attack is abandoned and the repeller gains +1 harassment penalty 2)
Note that units with low morale are more likely to be repelled, and thus using long weapons against low-morale troops is very effective.
In theory it's even possible for thugs with extremely high attack values to repel mindless units (who has morale 50 and are normally unconcerned with repel) but that is unlikely to happen in a normal game.
Bear in mind that the defender gets one repel roll per weapon regardless of the number of attacks of that weapon. So a Dancing Trident incurs as many chances to repel as a Stone Bird, exactly one. However the Stone Bird will potentially be more efficient at repelling a single attacker because of the harassment penalty it can inflict with its multiple attacks.