Ranged vs Melee

[The Fuzzician]

Got back into playing, forgot how great this mod really is. Anyways.....

I am finding that Ranged units hit a little too hard. Given that they not only attack from further away, but also do not suffer retaliation, this seems to make them better than melee, which have to catch the enemy, and take damage when they attack. Becomes especially clear when you have several ranged units lined up and picking off approaching enemies.

 

[displayer]

Ranged units are good, but they are vulnerable to mounted units. Melee units protect them against those, and can also capture cities unlike ranged units.

 

[chicorbeef]

Got back into playing, forgot how great this mod really is. Anyways.....

I am finding that Ranged units hit a little too hard. Given that they not only attack from further away, but also do not suffer retaliation, this seems to make them better than melee, which have to catch the enemy, and take damage when they attack. Becomes especially clear when you have several ranged units lined up and picking off approaching enemies.

Horsemen/Knights are good at chasing down Ranged Units. You can also more or less hard-counter Ranged units by going Cover on foot melee (Drill I---> Cover I-II is the faster path for non-Swords/Longswords). It's much harder to take Siege down with Ranged compared to with Horses/Melee as well.

 

[vyyt]

@The Fuzzician , I agree, but me and you are a minority. The balance between melee and ranged had been discussed in detail and most people like it the way it is now.

I decrease both strength and ranged strength of the ranged (non-siege) units in my mod-mod. I can send you the sql commands you can play with if you want.

 

[Minh Le]

Ranged units are weak without melee support, but they are the main source of damage for me too (ranged and mounted unit).

 

[Bhawb]

That's essentially the point. Civ land combat works with a type of rock-paper-scissors for each of the units. Melee are your frontline, ranged sit a tile behind and deal the majority of the damage, siege kill cities, mounted archers harass, mounted melee flank. If you reduced ranged damage they'd be unable to do their job, it is already pretty easy to stall ranged units with Cover II Fortified melee units.

 

[vyyt]

Well, that is the fundamental question : what is the purpose of ranged (non-siege)?

- are they supposed to deal the most of the damage while the melee protect them as meat shields in the front?

- or are they meant as auxillary which soften the target and let the melee finish the job?

I, personally, would prefer the auxillary one. Also, at least on King and Emperor, the AI seems to prefer the ranged (non-siege) heavily in the later stages of the game, so I can slice through the enemy lines quite easily with tanks, because most of the AI front lines consists of Gatlings and Machine guns.

 

[TranceBlossom]

Well, that is the fundamental question : what is the purpose of ranged (non-siege)?

- are they supposed to deal the most of the damage while the melee protect them as meat shields in the front?

- or are they meant as auxillary which soften the target and let the melee finish the job?

These are the same thing??

By lowering the enemy units health by half (aka doing the majority of damage), your melee units can move in for the kill with minimal repercussions.

 

[Minh Le]

I almost never use melee units to kill an enemy (unless its very safe). Because my unit will be exposed to attack doing so. Horses will do the kill because they can retreat, while ranged deal damage from safe distance.

 

[vyyt]

These are the same thing??

By lowering the enemy units health by half (aka doing the majority of damage), your melee units can move in for the kill with minimal repercussions.

Haha, you are right, I did not write it in a very clear way, sorry, I was typing in a hurry

What I meant was that currently the ranged deal the most damage and melee can mostly just stay put. I would like melee playing more important role and have them engage in combat more.

 

[Stalker0]

I could maybe see some tweaking in a few direct matchups. Melee unit X vs Ranged Unit Y.

But in general I think the balance is good. Probably the one thing I find weird is sometimes upgrading ranged units is really cheap, like crazy cheap in comparison to other units.

 

[doublex55]

I could maybe see some tweaking in a few direct matchups. Melee unit X vs Ranged Unit Y.

But in general I think the balance is good. Probably the one thing I find weird is sometimes upgrading ranged units is really cheap, like crazy cheap in comparison to other units.

Maybe the idea is that since it is harder to get xp on ranged units they should upgrade more cheaply? Or are you only refering to specific ranged units and not the upgrade path as a whole?