Philosophy: The balance between Melee and Range Units#192
As it stands, melee units have a massive disadvantage.
Here are examples of why range units are so strong compared to melee units in general:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zaTyF5wP87LD4Oj1fOJ4ptNJUwYfYHG9gRSrJPTU5GQ/edit?usp=sharing
Also, after digging into the numbers, it seems that range units have better stats than melee units on average, which is something I recommend looking into.
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-Grissi
I wanted to comment on this as I don’t agree with several points made in the document / this post.
The idea that ranged units are by default stronger than melee units is not correct in my opinion for several reasons.
1: They often have much stronger abilities than ranged units have. There are also very good combo’s to be made with melee units. As an example “Antios, Gauntlet” has the ability to gain +3 damage with their ability which on its own is already strong as it also gives firestrike. Then in combination with “Drumdancer Tlalli” you can give Antios pummel for up to a base damage of 8 and a maximum of 16 with crits and then you still have Drumdancer’s base attack left for an extra 1 damage.
Then you could go even crazier with “Amplifier Bitol” which boosts damage which if you have all 3 of them around a unit is even more damage:
- Antios will have 5 base damage if they use their ability + pummel will be equal to a minimum of 10 damage and max of 20.
- Antios can then deal another 2 damage with a maximum of 4.
- Bitol can deal an additional 1 damage with a maximum of 2.
This is enough to nearly kill a captain or if lucky will kill it and should destroy every single unit. Even without bitol most units will still go down and a captain gets severely damaged from the combo of those 2 units.
2: In the document it shows all kinds of positions with other units but in no way shows one of the most important advantages melee units can make use of. Hard & soft cover. Yes if you have a map with no cover then ranged units are very likely stronger, but so much gives cover in this game that this isn’t really the case. Other units give cover, soft cover reduces the hit chance and hard cover completely blocks shots and there are also the steam vents in certain maps. Not to forget that ranged units also are less accurate the further away they are, you don’t have too much of an advantage by having a lot of distance in between your self and a melee unit as your shot will likely miss.
3: There are tons of ways for melee units to very quickly move across the map. Crankbait can for example move half across the map with it’s movement and can then pull a friendly unit near him which if done correctly has their movement left so should then end up with Crankbait’s damage + a different unit’s damage (which in turn could have their own ability).
Then we have “Quetzalli” which can refresh units’ movement turns and can move it self, this unit alone can if wisely used with 2-3 melee units + a captain end the game.
Then we have Zax that could pull units to others, we have ship assists that can push and pull units. There are a really good amount of options to move units around. And even if you can’t always defend a unit we have healing units and ship assists that can give some health back. Even with all of that we can still say “it doesn’t matter that the unit dies as long as it does some good amount of damage” and perhaps because of that win the game in the long run.
Final words: I will agree that some of the things I just mentioned aren’t always viable to use, but neither is it always the option for ranged units. I really don’t think ranged units are so much better than melee or vice versa. They both have their ups and downs and I often in matches have seen people make a mix of it. I don’t think I’ve seen a full ranged or full melee roster many times yet. I’ve only seen it a few times when people were experimenting with them.
Thanks for a well-written and clear answer
-To clarify:
The article is focused on the point: When melee and range units have the same amount of Health, Damage, and movement - Range units will always have the advantage. For this reason, melee units will need more base stats or stronger abilities to counteract this situation.
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When you look into the value of every base stat in the game, ranged units, on average, have higher Health, Damage, and movement.
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Also, if you consider every ability in the game, the overall difference between range power vs. melee powers is very similar.
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To answer specific points:
Range units also have access to the double attack combo with rapid fire and gain the advantage from Amplifier Biol. The difference is; that range units have way more freedom in positioning and don’t have to close the distance at all to create value every turn. They can do everything that melee can from a safe distance.
Correct, but keep in mind that Range units can also use the full benefits of cover.
It is also correct that Melee units do have the advantage of a natural 100% hit chance. However, as shown in the examples, melee units can easily be prevented from getting that attack chance and have a hard time surrounding units to focus fire down. In addition, melee units have the problem of having no freedom of positioning when attacking and are forced to stand vulnerable in front of opponents’ figures.
Meanwhile, range units can attack and focus fire on any target they want every turn while playing from a strong position, even with a couple of missies, being able to attack every turn becomes more valuable.Exactly, melee units need additional support to have a chance to compete with range units that can do without the support and still function fine.
Not only that, but they also get the benefit from all the examples you gave:
-They can use Quetzalli to increase the distance from melee units and get into more vital positions
-You can use zax to pull melee or range units further away to increase the distance units have to travel.
This is why it’s essential to give melee units some kind of advantages over range, be it their base stats or abilities.