Which belt to choose vs. undead? Silver or Champ.

[WhYdOyOuThInKtHaThApPeNeD]

I've got a limited selection of belts. When going up against an undead army which would be better: Champion Belt +1 def. +150 leadership vs. Silver Belt +1 int. -2 def. enemy undead.
I'm warrior so the +int. doesn't do anything for me. How good is that -2 def. compared to my +1def. +150 leadership. I'm thinking the -2 def. might be more effective when stacked with other -def bonuses like Holy Anger as opposed to by itself.

I encounter these item choice dilemma often and not sure which is really gonna pay off better. Any sage advice? Granted it's a really minor benefit either way but am curious which is better and why...

[dashcunning]

A damage comparison is probably the easiest to make, so let's start there. For every point that the attacker's attack is higher than the defender's defense, the damage done is increased by 3.3% (up to a maximum of 200%). In the interest of simplicity, we will say the silver belt increases damage by 6.7%. Adding 150 leadership to a previous amount of 2250 would have the same 6.7% increase. Therefore, if you have less than 2250 leadership the champion belt would increase damage more than the silver belt and vice versa.

This isn't always the case however. For high leadership units, adding 150 might not allow you to recruit any more and the champion belt would thus do nothing. Similarly, if the difference in attack and defense is 60 or more (black dragon vs skeleton archer) and already maxed at 200% more damage, adding another 2 wouldn't do anything either.

How useful defense is really depends on your playing style. Hit and run tactics with high initiative/speed, no retaliation units? Defense less important. Sit there and take it with a tank type while doing alot of the damage with your pet dragon? Defense more important.

While 1 point of intelligence isn't all that useful most of the time, it's pretty nice if you currently have 19. At 20 intelligence, many spells increase their duration by 1 turn. It's more helpful than you might think.

All that said, belts aren't very good. Find a Hand of Necropolis somewhere.

[TemjinGold]

Well said!

[Zechnophobe]

Ah, sorry to point it out dashcunning, but your original logic is wrong.

You are already getting a bonus from your atk, based on ATK-DEF. Meaning that a further bonus isn't going to stack up so well. Consider if you are going from 58 (ATK-DEF) to 60 (ATK-DEF). You were already doing 293.4% of your base damage. The change in damage is only 6.6%/293.4%, which is significantly smaller.

The lesson here is that ATK and DEF bonuses are significantly more effect when they are close to the opponents stats. In this case, the 150 leadership would give that many more troops at whatever current damage bonus you already had.

Anyhow, this is ultimately quibbling. The two items are very nearly identical, and won't make much of a difference in combat.

[WhYdOyOuThInKtHaThApPeNeD]

Nice analysis.
Yeah the Hand of Necropolis is one of my favs. I like the experience bonus items. So far the only I've found are Degosh's Book, Shark Tooth & Hand of Necropolis, for a combined total of +20% experience. Combined with Learning at level 3, another +20% bonus. Almost like having an Ancient Wisdom scroll always active. Add an Ancient Wisdom to that for a total of +90% experience. Nifty.

Does anyone know of any other +% experience items or tricks?

[dashcunning]

Yeah I was thinking about clarifying that the 6.7% from the attack-defense mechanic was to the base damage and not the current damage (if attack != damage, which admittedly is the case most often) while that the 6.7% from the leadership was to the current damage. Or to put it another way leadership stacks with attack, but attack doesn't stack with itself. I figured I was getting a bit wordy as it was so I just omitted it. In retrospect it's a very good point as you illustrate in those very lopsided attack vs defense situations.

[dashcunning]

In the interest of fully illustrating Zechnophobe's point:

if attack = defense, adding 2 attack is an increase of 6.7%, the "tipping point" leadership is 2250
if attack is 58 > defense, adding 2 attack is an increase of 2.3%, the "tipping point" leadership is 6600, much higher

in between is a linear progession (for the leadership value)

if attack is 30 > defense, 3.3% increase, 4500 leadership

and so on

The same values hold true for when defense is greater than attack.