Ranged Attack: Skirmish Phase

[Ludendorf]

I understand that the skirmish or ranged phase is a series of duels between skirmish-capable units and their targets. Does this mean that skirmish damage is determined in a roll vs the Ranged Attack of the skirmisher and the Defence or Ranged Defence of the target (whichever is higher I imagine)? If so...

1: Does experience and minimal rolls still come into this? So if enemy archers attack my 4 experience phalangites, do they have a minimum roll of six (4 + Fresh fatigue) on their defence roll? Also, do generals give rerolls to ranged attackers and units defending against ranged attack?
2: Can all range-capable on the field attack during the skirmish phase regardless of their deployment? Or are some crowded out and unable to engage if frontage is too limited?

[loki100]

partial answers:

1 - its ranged attack vs ranged defence value

2 - experience plays an indirect role, low experience units may fail to find a target

3 - its frontage limited. Remember also some combat units (legions for sure) can also attack in the skirmish phase.

I *think* that there is just one roll with a pretest for finding for a target so leadership is less valuable. I could be very wrong about this

[Ludendorf]

partial answers:

1 - its ranged attack vs ranged defence value

2 - experience plays an indirect role, low experience units may fail to find a target

3 - its frontage limited. Remember also some combat units (legions for sure) can also attack in the skirmish phase.

I *think* that there is just one roll with a pretest for finding for a target so leadership is less valuable. I could be very wrong about this

Thank you for your response. This is an incredibly deep game, and I keep coming across new considerations I have to work out when deciding whether or not to take a fight. Some follow-up questions you or others might be able to answer.

1: Ranged attack vs Ranged defence makes sense. However, melee units don't seem to have a ranged defence value. Do they just use their regular defence value, or is there something else going on?

2: I was aware of experience in target selection, I was just wondering if experience also plays its usual 'minimum roll' function in the skirmish duel (as it does in the melee duel). So if a 2 experience, fresh unit of archers attacks a tired, 4 experience unit of phalangites, would the archers have their minimum roll of 4 (fresh + 2 exp) and the phalangites their +5 (+4 + 1 for Tired)? Or are both units playing from 0-9, as if they were two green, exhausted units fighting in the melee phase?

3: That is extremely important to know. My skirmishers aren't quite as good as my opponent, so I need to take into account that I'm going to be at a disadvantage due to quality.

[Soar]

1: Ranged attack vs Ranged defence makes sense. However, melee units don't seem to have a ranged defence value. Do they just use their regular defence value, or is there something else going on?

They do have one, it's just that in battles, the game always shows the tooltip with the duel phase values if the unit has no ranged attack. It does show in unit tooltips outside of battle.

[loki100]

just done a test with the battle slowed to step by step

so:

a) experience does give a base value for the roll
b) leadership gives you multiple rolls

[Ludendorf]

They do have one, it's just that in battles, the game always shows the tooltip with the duel phase values if the unit has no ranged attack. It does show in unit tooltips outside of battle.

Thanks, I found it. It's not even hard to find, I just wasn't reading the tooltips properly.

just done a test with the battle slowed to step by step

so:

a) experience does give a base value for the roll
b) leadership gives you multiple rolls

I've now confirmed this myself.

Overall, this has taught me to be very, very wary of archers. That 9 ranged attack +2 max damage is extremely dangerous. Add to this the fact that they give +3 support instead of +2, and you have a very dangerous presence on the battlefield if there in any force. This also means they can give units the debilitating 'Exhausted' penalty in a single stroke, or give phalanxes or other strong units it in two. Be very, very careful when engaging armies with large numbers of archers or anyone else with high ranged attack.