Slitherine

Can someone explain to me the difference between the two?

In my (admittedly simple) mind they are effectively the same: you can only attack into adjacent hexes.

Or do range 1 weapons have an advantage over range 0 weapons in that they fire first or something?

My guess is that range 0 represents hand to hand (melee) combat, whilst range 1 represents the shooting that occurs before the melee.

Trying out the Combat simulator it seems Range 0 weapons only kick in when there is an Assault.

When do assaults happen? Only i close terrain, like buildings etc?

I think I understand now: only units with the Assault special can initiate assaults.

And range 0 weapons only fire during assaults, whereas range 1 weapons fire whether or not there is an assault.

Correct me if I'm wrong!

Range 1 is next hex
Range 0 is only assault weapon
When 2 Units faced each other on adjacent hexes they 1st shoot each other witn Range 1+ weapon. After that assault phase happens and ONLY range 0 weapon involved in this. So as you can see all Units with range 0 weapon has Assaul trait.

Your fellow forum goers are generally right about this, yup.

For a real game example... Some incredibly powerful 'melee only' units, such as the Assault Squad Terminators, can actually be attacked from point blank (adjacent hex) with range 1-4 weaponry without being able to retaliate because they only have their 'lightning claws' for weaponry. Otherwise, units would always need to back full hex away from melee units. After all, what they are really doing is standing and firing from position, not charging into the midst of the enemy where melee/assault weaponry come into play.