How does the scatter mechanic work

[Hasefrexx]

Any details?

[gvandinteren]

I never heard of scatter in Battle Brothers.

[Calandro]

From my pinned post in the unofficial discord:

Q: How do cover and scatter shots work?

A: The game has 2 different systems for cover and scattered shots, however, cover can feed into the scattered shots mechanic.

The way cover works is quite simple, if you target an enemy with a ranged attack, and that enemy is both MORE than 2 tiles away (i.e. there are at least 2 tiles between the shooter and the target) AND there is an obstacle directly adjacent to the target, between the shooter and the target, then that obstacle provides cover.
An obstacle can be another unit, or terrain elements, such as a tree.

Cover doesn't directly affect hit chance or ranged defence or anything like that.
What it does is provide a flat 75% chance (50% with Bullseye) to simply miss the intended target, before the attack is actually rolled.
The hit chance on the displayed tooltip when mousing over a target in cover simply applies this % reduction to the hit chance you WOULD have if the enemy weren't in cover.
If this roll fails, and the obstacle(s) providing cover is another unit(s), then the attack is rerolled against the covering unit as a scatter shot (if 2 units are providing cover, then one is selected at random).

Scattering in this game has two ways of happening, the first being what is described above, the second being when shooting at an enemy at least 3 tiles away and missing.

If that target was 3 tiles away then the scatter will select the tile behind the target, from the shooter's perspective. If the target was at least 4 tiles away, then a random tile adjacent to the target is selected.

If the selected tile is within 1 levels height of the original target, and contains a unit, then that unit is targeted for a scatter attack.

Scatter works just like a regular ranged attack with a few exceptions.

1. A scatter attack ignores cover, and on a miss can't scatter again.
2. A scatter attack takes a -15% to hit, and a -25% to damage.

[Hasefrexx]

That's very interesting, thanks. Reading this, it's clear that misunderstanding the mechanics made me make poor decisions. Time to spill more blood from afar.

[Killy Wonka]

First I want to thank you for posting this - even the wiki's explanation is much too undercooked on this.

Second, there are a few clear implications if all the above is true that I want to explore and maybe test:
1.) This means particularly "bad" shots are never going to hit anyone, even if fired into an enormous group. The ranged attack has to roll successfully on someone's ranged defense in order to hit regardless of whether it was the targeted unit or not, and an attack that would miss against 0 ranged defense will still miss after scatter (assuming no huge negative range defenses). So even when shooting into a giant blob, your own ranged attack skill is very important; a brother with 0 ranged attack skill will "never" hit no matter how many bodies he is firing into (except for the guaranteed 5%). This aspect of the mechanic is a bit counter-intuitive to real life.

2.) If shooting into a blob with an extremely skilled ranged brother and desiring to hit a particular target, you have a 25% chance to get to roll against that target normally if you target him, but a 75% chance to get to roll against him with -15% to hit if he is the only "obstacle" blocking the target you do choose. This means quite often it will make sense to target the guy behind the guy you want to shoot (Although of course it is rare for there to be a guy behind the one you want to shoot).

3.) If shooting a target 3 tiles away always makes the scatter go to a predictable hex (the one "behind" the target), this creates some situations where you are more likely to hit the target 4 hexes away by shooting the unit in front of it rather than it itself. Assuming you have a very high chance to hit the back unit under normal conditions (say 100 ranged attack vs 0 ranged defense) but a much smaller chance to hit the front unit (say 100 ranged attack vs 66 ranged defense from a shieldwall) - then In this case aiming at the back unit hits the back unit ~25% of the time, while aiming at the front unit hits the back unit ~66% of the time. I guess this is where the part described on the Wiki comes in, where if the "reason" the attack misses the intended target is a shield, no scatter happens?
3b.) There's also the complication that on a hex grid it is often ambiguous which hex is directly "behind" a hex 3 tiles away. In this case perhaps a random one of the two is chosen? Or perhaps it's not always "behind" the 3 tile hex and instead there's just a rule that disallows scattering to hexes 2 tiles away from ones that are 3 tiles away? It's certainly an interesting complication.

[99Random]

1. This is somewhat realistic since no matter how bad the archer there is always a chance of actually hitting the side of that barn.

2. Yup and I do this all the time when my bros are in melee with an enemy I want to shoot at. I target the enemy behind the enemy I want to hit and it is not super rare for scatter to get the arrow to hit my intended target.

[Calandro]

Originally posted by Killy Wonka:

First I want to thank you for posting this - even the wiki's explanation is much too undercooked on this.

Second, there are a few clear implications if all the above is true that I want to explore and maybe test:
1.) This means particularly "bad" shots are never going to hit anyone, even if fired into an enormous group. The ranged attack has to roll successfully on someone's ranged defense in order to hit regardless of whether it was the targeted unit or not, and an attack that would miss against 0 ranged defense will still miss after scatter (assuming no huge negative range defenses). So even when shooting into a giant blob, your own ranged attack skill is very important; a brother with 0 ranged attack skill will "never" hit no matter how many bodies he is firing into (except for the guaranteed 5%). This aspect of the mechanic is a bit counter-intuitive to real life.

2.) If shooting into a blob with an extremely skilled ranged brother and desiring to hit a particular target, you have a 25% chance to get to roll against that target normally if you target him, but a 75% chance to get to roll against him with -15% to hit if he is the only "obstacle" blocking the target you do choose. This means quite often it will make sense to target the guy behind the guy you want to shoot (Although of course it is rare for there to be a guy behind the one you want to shoot).

3.) If shooting a target 3 tiles away always makes the scatter go to a predictable hex (the one "behind" the target), this creates some situations where you are more likely to hit the target 4 hexes away by shooting the unit in front of it rather than it itself. Assuming you have a very high chance to hit the back unit under normal conditions (say 100 ranged attack vs 0 ranged defense) but a much smaller chance to hit the front unit (say 100 ranged attack vs 66 ranged defense from a shieldwall) - then In this case aiming at the back unit hits the back unit ~25% of the time, while aiming at the front unit hits the back unit ~66% of the time. I guess this is where the part described on the Wiki comes in, where if the "reason" the attack misses the intended target is a shield, no scatter happens?
3b.) There's also the complication that on a hex grid it is often ambiguous which hex is directly "behind" a hex 3 tiles away. In this case perhaps a random one of the two is chosen? Or perhaps it's not always "behind" the 3 tile hex and instead there's just a rule that disallows scattering to hexes 2 tiles away from ones that are 3 tiles away? It's certainly an interesting complication.

1. Correct.

2. Mostly accurate, but you might be forgetting the -25% damage of scatter shots.

3a. Yes and no, you are correct about missing enemy at 3 tiles means you will scatter against the unit behind it, but shield hits happen if you miss within twice the shields bonus, if you have 30% chance to hit a unit with a kite shield, (no shield expert or shield wall) then if you roll 31-80 you will hit the shield and can't scatter.

3b. In this specific case, a single tile is selected, even when it's ambiguous.
Shots can never scatter to 2 tiles away, so I'm not sure what you mean by "Or perhaps it's not always "behind" the 3 tile hex and instead there's just a rule that disallows scattering to hexes 2 tiles away from ones that are 3 tiles away?"