Ranged combat should be more like melee combat.

[diamond geezer]

I do think however, that there could be - maybe as a promotion - an opportunity for melee units to retaliate against ranged units if they are in the tile next to them, the fact is, at current it is simply too difficult to breakthrough lines of ranged combat units and melee units have been reduced to cannon fodder where ranged units rule the game. I think that this small change could help make melee units slightly more useful.

In reality there should be maybe a scissors/paper/stone thing - ranged>melee>cavalry>ranged. And, if you take spearmen as your melee, it's not too far from that. Swordsmen are actually pretty strong in comparison to horsemen, being the same strength, when in reality they would be considerably weaker. Then compare musketmen with cavalry - only a little weaker and cost a lot less. Historically musketmen could only survive against cavalry if they formed a square and were able to keep in formation; otherwise they were routed. Equally the Cannon would badly mangle the musketmen and cavalry until they came in contact. Contact means attack - not sitting next door while they get pounded.

While ranged has the attack then the melee unit is taking a pounding while moving into position; when the melee has the attack they have to do so into the face of enemy fire.

 

[HuskyPeter]

i disagree. units beeing attacked shouldnt auto fire back. they might be under suppression.

 

[King Rad]

I agree with the idea that ranged units return fire [if within their range] but at a reduced level - so the idea of their taking damage and then returning fire makes sense. With regard to melee units, they can move on their turn if they desire to do, and attack if movement allows - again this makes sense. They were attacked at a distance, so they have to move into range before counterattacking. Of course, if the ranged unit that was attacked moves into range on its turn [after its counter attack on the first units fire] it would be attacking at its range but subject to the same potential counterattack as the first unit. It's not a perfect simulation, especially with the tiles essentially representing different distances for different era units, but I think it would work well in the game.