quote: IMO, if an attacker with an attack value of 18 attacks a defender with a defence value of 12, the AI will throw thirty papers in a hat, 18 reading 'attacker' and 12 reading 'defender'. The AI will then pull out one paper, and grant a 'win' to the one who's name is one the paper.

Oddly enough, this is not how the winner of a single combat round is determined. Even the manual concedes that this method yields only an approximation of the actual odds. I used to think this was how it was done too but I was proven wrong.

Turns out, the computer takes the A and D values and multiplies them by some constant k (later experimentation determined k=8). The computer then gets two pseudo-random numbers, one for the attacker and one for the defender: the first number ranges from 0 to A*k-1, the second from 0 to D*k-1. The higher value wins the round and the winner's FP is subtracted from the loser's HP. Ties count as wins for the defender (This explains why you can lose an occasional round when you attack a D=0 Diplomat).