PLACEMENT

Placement is an attribute which refers how well a person is situated on the battlefield. For example, a lone orc totally surrounded by six knights on horseback has pretty bad placement. Each of those knights though, has pretty good placement.

The placement of person A is calculated as follows:

+ A's Flanking skill % / 100
+ A's Flanking, Superior skill % / 100
+ A's Mounted Combat Skill % / 100 if A is mounted
+ 1 if A is Flying (you do not get a mount bonus if you are flying)
- 1 per attacker attacking A
- each attacker's Flanking Skill % / 100 who is attacking A
- each attacker's Flanking, Superior Skill % / 100 who is attacking A
- 1 per attacker attacking A who is grouped with another attacker
  who is attacking A

For example, that orc being attacked by six knights would have a placement of -16.45 (-6 knights, -5.4 knights who know flanking to 90%, -6 grouped knights, +0.95 for the orc's own flanking at 95%). Each knight would have a placement of 1.8 (if they know Flanking to 90% and Mounted Combat to 90%). (Whichever knight the orc was attacking would have a placement of 1.8-1.95 or -0.15 though.)

To see how placement affects combat, see PLACEMENT-COMBAT.
To see how placement affects casting, see PLACEMENT-CASTING.
To see how placement affects backstabbing, see BACKSTAB.
Really bad placement also hurts your chance to flee.

Bonuses dealt out are also dependant upon the power level difference between attacker and defender. See PLACMENT-BONUSES for more information. In addition, being in a poor position will also hurt your ability to benefit from placement (i.e. if one of the knights in the above example were mortally wounded that wounded knight would not adversely impact the orc's placement much).