First Aid
Recovers 3/6/9% of lost units after every combat.
I was curious as to how the First Aid skill works in detail so I did some testing and had a eureka moment I'd like to share.
If you send a suicide of 100 recruits you get back 3 / 6 / 9 of them depending on how many books you have on first aid, that is simple. But what happens if you lose mixed troops, how many do you get back and how much of each? Until BB (dev diary please?) give us official info here is the result of some of my testing and the assumptions I have drawn from this:
I sent 3 gens with 1, 2 and 3 books on First Aid with ten each of every normal troop type against a boar camp on vlt to test the result. All the troops died every time.
101010101010101010 total 90 units
With one book saving 3% the units saved (2.7) are rounded up to 3 and the dead general was still loaded with
111
With two books saving 6% the units saved (5.4) are rounded up to 6 and the dead general was still loaded with
111111
With three books saving 9% the units saved (8.1) are rounded up to 6 and the dead general was still loaded with
111111111
I might be wrong but this has led me to assume that the game first computes how many units to revive with first aid, then chooses them based on the order they are attacked by ref. "Unit portraits above garrisons and enemy camps are now displayed in the order in which they will get targeted by opponents (barring special abilities)." from change log 16.05.2017. Sadly this means you will get more of the cheapest units back in general.
As many will have noticed if you send a 1r suicide using a general with at least one book in first aid the 1r becomes immortal. Even though the 1r and the general both die, First aid revives at least 3% of that one unit lost which is rounded up to one.
This means that 1r suicides are now so last season!
AD=attack damage
Instead of mma 1r you should now send (assuming your mma has at least one book in First Aid!)
Normal adventures
mma 1 (first strike enemies). AD 455-510 vs 450-500 before.
mma 1 (normal strike enemies, no first strike). AD 495-590 vs 465-530 before.
mma 1 (last strike enemies only). AD 510-620 vs 465-530 before.
Ali adventures and ventures
mma 1 mounted marksman (first strike enemies). AD 500-600 with splash damage
mma 1 armoured marksman (no first strike enemies). AD 550-700 without splash damage on the AM part of the hit (100-200AD)
mma 1 besieger (only last strike enemies and you don't want to hit weakest first). AD 550-700 plus splash damage, more if your general has books in Weekly Maintenance. Note: I expect this to be a very rare attack, sending 1AM is at least as good or better in most cases, last strike only on alis are stone cannon and some leaders, the stone cannon will be hit first either way, only Weekly Maintenance can make this better as far as I can see right now.
These can of course be used for other suicides too.
NUSALA GIVES ARMOURED MARKSMEN SPLASH DAMAGE! (sorry, I got a little bit excited)
nusala 1AM (no first strike enemies) is 1100-1700 splash damage
To sum up: Even only one book on First Aid makes one unit suicided with your general immortal, therefore you should use the unit that does the most damage. If in doubt use 1mm on alis.