Artillery duels

[Strategist83]

Hi,

greetings to SMACers still people playing this beyond exceptional mod (far and away better than professional offerings like Beyond Earth) in 2015.

I have a question about the mechanics of the mod's artillery duel system: How exactly does it work? My impression was that if a stack containing an artillery unit with the 'range' upgrade got attacked by another ranged artillery unit (actual artillery unit, Spore Launcher or Bunker), an 'artillery duel' would commence, killing the losing unit. This appeared to be an important mechanic for protection against the otherwise very scary Bunkers. Certainly, I've had situations where I actually lost a full health Bunker unit by firing onto a stack that contained artillery. However, I now have a game where I've specifically created artillery units with 'ranged' upgrade for protection against Bunkers, yet these Bunkers are able to fire at and deal collateral damage to my stack with impunity, no duel ensuing. What gives? Can somebody detail the rules on this?

 

[Maniac]

Artillery duels happen if both artilleries can fire at each other. Was your artillery unit able to fire at the bunker? It's been a long time ago I last played Planetfall, so I'm not sure anymore what can influence artillery range, but perhaps your artillery couldn't see the bunker due to being on lowlands, and the bunker being on highland two tiles further? (Again, I'm not sure this even matters.)

 

[Strategist83]

Maniac, thanks for your response. However, as I'm sure you'll agree it's not particularly helpful as you seem to be just guessing yourself.

There have been over 600 views of this thread. Nobody knows the exacts of how artillery duels work?!