Terrain Penalties in Combat

[DDRJake]

I've seen some attackers taking no terrain penalty in a province while other attackers take the full -5 penalty attacking in the very same province. Never understood why.

 

[DDRJake]

That's because a province can contain multiple terrain types. If you hover over a province in terrain map mode, you'll get a breakdown, e.g. 80% hills, 20% farmland. If the battle ends up taking place in the province's hills (80% of province means 80% chance), the attacker will suffer a big terrain penalty, if it takes place in the farmland, they won't.

It can be really annoying if you set up an army to defend a 95% mountains province, and they decide to do battle in the 5% flat terrain.

Wow, thanks. I had it in my head that if, for example, it was 40% mountains and 60% plains you would get 40% of the mountains modifier + 60% of the plains modifier (2 + 0) for a -2 terrain modifier.

All is forgiven, Alps!