Giants — design overview

A section from the master-unit redesign documentation for World of Battles: Morning Star. Internal GDD, written around 2011 during the master-unit overhaul described in The Macaroni Method. Terminology assumes familiarity with the game’s systems — AP = Army Points, MU = Master Unit, DD = Damage Dealer, UBL = unit-blocking logic, Overkill = wasted damage on a dying unit.

What place does a Giant take in the army?

• A Giant is a very powerful part of the army.
• It must be something the player wants to unlock — so they play for a certain time before they get one.
• It shouldn’t be the only unit in the army; a single-Giant army requires no skills and devalues opponent skill.

How do I play with Giants in my army?

Move the Giant into position (different for each Giant type — see below), activate the Special Attack, and let it fight for the duration of the Special Attack cool-down while you command your other units. Giants also have auto-cast for new players.

The two Giant types have different battlefield purposes:

1. Area attacker — searches for a dense mass of enemy units, walks into the centre, uses Special Attack.
2. Direct attacker — searches for a powerful single unit standing alone or away from a mass, kills it as fast as possible, then runs away before the enemy can surround it. Avoid being surrounded.

Giants — distinctive properties

• Giants are powerful, tough, simple-to-use units.
• Their effectiveness isn’t decreased by HP loss.
• Each Giant is worth several normal units, not one.
• Giants aren’t affected by unit types or weapon skills of attacking enemies — only Attack value matters.
• All Giants have magic-like Special Attacks (active abilities):
  • Area attacks deal damage to all units around the Giant.
  • Template attacks deal damage to units directly in front of the Giant.
• All Special Attacks have magical after-effects: burning, poisoned, slowed, stunned, etc.
• Giants cannot be stopped by normal units and cannot stop normal units (with UBL).
• Two Giants cannot pass each other — open question: should we allow allied Giants to pass through each other when they have no other path?
• Archers can fire at Giants without Overkill.

Possible additions:

• Impact damage — Giants damage enemy units they walk over, rewarding the simplicity of use: just move and the Giant keeps dealing damage. With return damage, this mechanic becomes similar to Charge.
• Charge on Giants

Strong and weak points of Giants vs normal units

Strong points	Weak points
No stat decrease with wounds	Equal to several units in AP
Special Attack deals big damage	Special Attack needs manual order for best effect (auto-cast available, like an MU)
Not affected by weapon skills or unit classes	Class-specific weakness
Special Attacks have magical after-effects	No Overkill when fired at

Difference between Giant types

Two classes — Area attacker and Direct attacker.

Area attackers are slow. They move through enemy units, even formations holding ground, breaking groups apart with normal attacks or special abilities.

• Better against many units at once.
• Special Attack affects all units around the Giant.
• It’s senseless to block them with a Tank and attack from the sides with DDs — all attackers receive the same damage, and DDs will die quickly.
• Tanks don’t take extra damage from back/side attacks.
• Movement speed: same as foot units.

Direct attackers are fast. They intercept single powerful enemy units and kill them with normal attack or special ability.

• Better against single targets.
• Special Attack is narrow, template-shaped, affecting only units in front.
• Take extra damage from side/back attacks.
• Movement speed: same as Cavalry.

Giant type	Strong points	Weak points
Area attacker	Damages all directions. No side/back damage penalty.	Low damage in any single direction.
Direct attacker	High damage to single target. Outruns any foot unit.	Extra damage from back/side. Can’t damage many surrounding units at once.

Giant vs Giant

1. Direct attacker > Area attacker.
2. Giants aren’t affected by Special Attack after-effects from other Giants — but the damage itself is dealt normally.