'Skirmish' attack mode

[GriffonSpade]

Now that I understand the 'bombard' attack mode, which deals damage to EVERY unit on a tile, but won't kill anything, I'm requesting a 'skirmish' attack mode. The skirmish attack would simply be a single round of damage inflicted upon the single defending target, and would use the same movement cost as a normal attack. (Whereas normal attacks, the two attackers fight until they die) Any unit without a 'skirmisher' flag would automatically have its defense set to 0 against a skirmish attack. This is intended for, say, Archers, who could simply shoot at a Legion, and then withdraw without suffering counterattacks. If the defender can also skirmish, it could damage the attacker instead. Damage would either be equal to its firepower, or a special skirmish_rate property a la bombard_rate.

...thinking about it, something like this would probably work extremely well for air-based attacks too, only with an 'air raid' attack type and 'anti-air' flag. (Meant for fighters strafing a specific land/water target with their machine guns or the sort)

[GriffonSpade]

A simplified revision to the idea.

1) 'skirmisher' unit flag. Allows unit to execute Skirmish action.
2) 'skirmish_rate' unit property. Sets how many rounds a skirmish should last.
3) Skirmish action
-Skirmish actions last skirmish_rate rounds. (Instead of until one unit dies)
-Skirmish rounds resolve damage the same way as normal combat rounds.
-Skirmish actions end if one unit dies.
-Skirmish actions never kill a stack.

The Skirmisher idea is essentially create a more realistic fast-moving guerilla form of combat, rather than only having massed, pitched battles.
Any non-aerial unit with a ranged attack and able to move freely would be able to skirmish. (meaning catapults, cannons, maybe artillery, and any ancient land unit but archers couldn't)
Any naval unit with an attack (except maybe triremes) would be able to skirmish.
Any aerial unit with an attack would be able to skirmish.
It would allow multiple units to whittle away at a single, stronger unit, or serve as a coup de gras against a bombarded enemy.
It might actually be more realistic for air units to use only this instead of an attack action. (A fighter would probably run out of ammo before it mowed down an entire legion!)

Also, why can ancient melee units defend against air units? That's just weird.

[Alien Valkyrie]

You've got my support here. Bombard is nice and all, but I've been wondering about a better implementation of ranged combat as well.
Perhaps there should be the option of multiple different "levels" of skirmishing so that e.g. AEGIS Cruisers can defend against air attackers while Caravels can't, or that a ruleset is possible where turns and tiles represent less time and space and ever unit (except for a "duelist" or something) is a skirmisher, with ranged skirmishers being able to safely attack melee skirmishers etc.

Also, to control whether the Skirmish action is possible, we can use Action enablers. No need for a hard-coded uflag.

[GriffonSpade]

You've got my support here. Bombard is nice and all, but I've been wondering about a better implementation of ranged combat as well.
Perhaps there should be the option of multiple different "levels" of skirmishing so that e.g. AEGIS Cruisers can defend against air attackers while Caravels can't, or that a ruleset is possible where turns and tiles represent less time and space and ever unit (except for a "duelist" or something) is a skirmisher, with ranged skirmishers being able to safely attack melee skirmishers etc.

Also, to control whether the Skirmish action is possible, we can use Action enablers. No need for a hard-coded uflag.

Ah, was actually talking about soft-coded unit flag

I actually had it much more complicated, but ultimately, it's a normal attack that stops after bombard_rate rounds instead of to the death. No need to overcomplicate it. (attack, disengage, run away, ???, profit) The tactical options and realism it would open up would be worth it themselves. As for the 'levels', that kinda goes for all combat. No reason it would be specific to skirmishing, eh? Thinking about it, without the 'immunity from melee' clause (because I removed it), it probably makes sense for horse units to be able to skirmish too.

Also, skirmishing an AEGIS with an airplane would be very foolish! They have 40 defense and 2 firepower! You would wind up with half a plane while the captain sits on his bridge sipping tea! (and that's BEFORE the counterattack!)

Mind, a separate skirmish_rate wouldn't hurt any, but I can't really think of any situation where skirmish_rate and bombard_rate should be different. Eh, it'd probably be best to have a separate property, just in case.
For mobile bombarders, it's essentially just getting close and focus firing a single area before withdrawing. (catapults and cannons are slow and short range, no skirmishing for them) Bombers only get a single attack either way, so whether you choose to bombard or skirmish, it's a full attack. Skirmish then essentially being making repeated passes and bombing the same unit instead of carpet bombing the whole tile. (which not surprisingly opens you up to counterattack)

[Alien Valkyrie]

Also, skirmishing an AEGIS with an airplane would be very foolish! They have 40 defense and 2 firepower! You would wind up with half a plane while the captain sits on his bridge sipping tea! (and that's BEFORE the counterattack!)

Yah, but what I'm talking about is that an AEGIS can actually fight back against a plane, whereas a Destroyer perhaps couldn't. Though this could be dealt with using unit class flag Unreachable and unit type field targets. Granted, that could be used for the other described thing with the skirmisher levels as well.

[GriffonSpade]

Yah, but what I'm talking about is that an AEGIS can actually fight back against a plane, whereas a Destroyer perhaps couldn't.

Well, a Destroyer should probably be packing some kind of FLAK at the least, but the point remains. I wasn't saying it shouldn't be done, but more that it would apply to attack and bombard too. For engaging a skirmish, it would have the same restrictions as a regular attack, so the Unreachable flag would indeed cover it.

Though this could be dealt with using unit class flag Unreachable and unit type field targets. Granted, that could be used for the other described thing with the skirmisher levels as well.

Yeah, sadly, I this only applies for attacking, not defending. It'd probably be best to have another, separate unit class flag that automatically sets defense to 0 against an attacker. With its own attacker exceptions. For example, while a destroyer could defend against air units, a Legion could not. And then 'low air' fighters and 'high air' jet bombers and jet fighters should again be treated differently. (FLAK doesn't work well at all against jet aircraft, you really need SAMs for that. Whether and how that should be distinguished would depend on the ruleset)

Mind, this can be approximated by giving individual units large penalties against certain unit flags with the DefenseDivisor property since we have enough flags now. Giving it a value of 99 would divide their defense by 100. I'm not sure if that would be rounded to 0 or not. However, the ability to outright zero a defender's defense score (making them automatically lose) would be nice.