Creative Assembly is revealing the numbers behind Total War: Warhammer 3, praise to Mathal, Chaos God of algebra

pcgamer.com:

There are a lot of things we do in Total War because they seem like common sense, even though we don't know if the systems behind the scenes really back them up. I put my archers on hills because I think I remember a loading screen tip saying that raised elevation increases your damage output, but by how much? And does it apply equally to melee attacks? 

Fortunately, Creative Assembly recently began explaining what goes on under the hood of Total War: Warhammer 3 in a series of blog posts called the Feature Focus series, which are doing a great job translating those assumptions into actual numbers, even if they slip into algebra at times, like saying «coefficient» when they could just say «multiplier».

Elevation was the topic of the first post in the series, which clarified that the damage multiplier based on height difference is calculated from the base of each model. That means, as CA put it, «being tall does not actually factor into elevation modifiers». Turns out my ogre chieftain, Large Marge, does not actually get additional bonus damage when hitting goblins who are five feet shorter.

For ranged damage the maximum bonus to damage is 30%, which requires a height difference of 40 meters. There's also a damage penalty for shooting upwards, with the same 40-meter difference resulting in an equivalent maximum damage penalty of 30%. «Flying units hover roughly 16 meters above the ground,» the post continued, «and so they benefit from an elevation damage bonus of 12% if their target is standing on ground level.» That bonus can be increased by situating flying units over tall terrain to increase the difference between their hover height and flat ground. And yes, elevation does factor into melee damage calculations, though