Do the advanced, expert, and master armour techs count for retaliation, or do they just lower the damage taken from enemy attacks?

"Max"
I don't know the answer to how this is calculated but I think I understand the question and I have pondered the same or similar thing.
A "retaliation auto-response" seems as if the defence of a unit is used offensively or is it the offensive level of a unit that is used to calculate the retaliation or is it a combination of both, and if it is the first or the last previously mentioned circumstance;
does the armor bonus get included in the calculation to determine the result?

I'm sorry if that seems even more complicated but I have always just accepted the result without understanding how it is calculated to be honest even though I have wondered about how it is calculated.
In any event I think it is a difficult question to answer and I'm not sure if our questions are the same but I have made an attempt to ask a similar question with the idea that maybe someone will understand my question and maybe both our questions might then be answered.

TR