What happens when two ranged units on different timers combine?

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    • What happens when two ranged units on different timers combine?

      When two ranged units, like battleships or artillery, combine, what is the proper mechanic to decide when they fire?

      What I think happens--but I haven't been able to verify for sure--is that the later-firing stack joins the earlier-firing stack and appears to be on the earlier timer, but when the timer ticks down only damage from the earlier-firing stack is registered, essentially causing the later-firing stack to miss a cycle.

      To give an example to make it super clear what I think happens:
      Two artillery stacks, one with 3 artillery and one with 5 artillery. The 3-art stack's firing cycle (:00, :30) is five minutes before the 5-art stack (:05, :35). If they combine, the stack will appear to fire on the 3-art's firing cycle (so, :00 and :30) but the first such instance will only register 3 artillery worth of damage. So, if they combine at 12:55 (when the 3-art stack has 5 minutes left and the 5-art stack has 10 minutes left), the combined stack of 8 art appears to fire at 1:00, but only does 3 artillery worth of damage. The next firing is at 1:30, when the stack does 8 artillery worth of damage.

      Is this right?


      I also have a related follow-up question, if folks know the answer. If a stack with units of two different ranges splits, do all units have to wait for the full cycle timer before they fire? I'm pretty sure the answer to this is yes, but just want to make sure. (Example: battleship and cruiser stack fires from battleship range. If the cruisers split off and move into cruiser range, they'll still have to wait until the battleship timer is done before they'll fire for the first time)
    • This has been on my list to test for some time now.

      From my experience I have seen many things which have helped me form "assumptions" on how this works. But I trust someone will correct any wrong assumptions.

      These are the things I think have an effect on ranged unit joining timers:
      - timer duration of each stack
      - difference between timer duration
      - whether the short timer stack is close to firing or has just fired

      What I have experienced:
      - If a long timer stack joins a short timer stack, the combined stack will use the LONG timer and all units will fire when timer runs out
      - If a short timer stack joins a SHORTER timer stack (unverified how close or low the timers must be i.e. cutoff time) depending on how close or low timers are they will use the shorter timer and all units will register damage
      - Sometimes neither of these rules seem to apply and something odd happens, such as a number of units not firing or the combined stack using the wrong timer than I would have predicted.

      Leave it to me to make more questions while trying to answer a question : ).

      Since I have not verified all my assumptions it has led me to avoid joining stacks that have a large difference between timers and avoid adding any units to a stack about to fire as I don't want to miss guaranteed damage.

      You can also facilitate all units firing without joining, or joining at a later time for proper timer adjustment by geographically moving the short timer units ahead a few minutes so the long timer units can also move in range but fire as a separate stack.

      I have found it most beneficial for damage output to separate all range units into single stacks. Line them all up a few minutes from each other, you can even move them in this formation. Yes it is a pain in the ass to set up, it is super hard to defend the separate units from air/arty, it takes a lot of micro, the more units you have in a location make it nearly impossible to separate all, sometimes the units randomly join if moving them in formation (resetting their attack timers).

      I seem to do the most damage this way because any stack has a chance to fire at max or do no damage at all. A huge stack in theory has a chance to miss entirely. Many small or single stacks should decrease this chance.

      I have some time soon so I will set up a test map and see if I can come up with some more solid data. Will post what I find.

      Cheers
      Genghis Khanson
      Former Something or Other


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