How do you use Ratling Guns effectively?

[Airborne Seals]

I played an Ikit Claw campaign recently, and since I was told that ratling guns were op, I used them in a battle. They fired all their ammunition and hit most of them, they killed 7 troops and when I told them to shoot they decided to run into battle instead and get themselves killed and before you say "why did you have melee on your ratling guns" I didn't, I told them to shoot and they decided to run into the two swordsmen units instead.[----------------------------] I disbanded the Ratling guns the next turn and replaced them with warpfire throwers, they got over 400 kills. Ratling guns are really bad so please tell me how to use them well.

[Solvem Probler]

1. Always use Guard Mode
2. Either let the AI decide where to fire or place them on the flanks in such a way that they get targets in front of them without you having to click attack
3. The tiniest bit of elevation can make a big difference. Skaven are small, the guns can easily shoot over their heads, especially at cavalry and monsters

[Sloul Des Tucs]

Yes, absolute trash units, disband.
Nothing to see bypassers, keep walking.

[Dani :3]

It's a gun unit, the shots cannot arc over things. They need to be higher up, so place them on small hills.

Alternatively go all in and replace your entire infantry frontline with them, using summons to roadblock any unit that is about to hit them (plague priests are good at this)

[Airborne Seals]

The issue i'm having is: The ratling guns hit most of their shots but only killed 7 of their units? Is there a reason for this?

[wpegg]

Yes OP, I really wish that when you manually target there was a "but please don't move" option. Same for catapults when trying to target in sieges, but there at least you can use ALT to force it.

Your ratlings move forwards because they didn't have line of sight. It's really finicky so my advice for ratlings is contrary to what would seem obvious - don't put them on a hill. Try to find as flat a surface as possible and just keep everything out of their way. The reason being that the hills are really bumpy, and while you might be higher up, there may be a bump in the hill that shields the enemy for most of their range. This will prompt you to manually target, then they take a few seconds while you look away, then start strolling forwards to their deaths.

If you must put them on a hill, get the camera right down to their level and look at what they can see. Try to place them on mounds and accept that there are "dead zones" that the enemy can walk through. Ideally try to make sure that at least one ratling can see each zone. Then just let them shoot, they usually target the closest enemy, so if they're not doing it then they probably can't.

Flat surface unobstructed by your units = easy win. Hills = messy battle.

[wpegg]

Originally posted by Airborne Seals:

The issue i'm having is: The ratling guns hit most of their shots but only killed 7 of their units? Is there a reason for this?

Have you put a warlock engineer in the army? You'll want one (ideally 2) of those with the Triangulation skill to boost missile strength.

They're not so good at completely eliminating a unit, breaking them tends to be the ratling's job

[Airborne Seals]

That sounds like a good idea, I'm one of those stupid people who has played Tretch more than Ikit so I don't really know how the ratling guns really work, but Triangulation + all the workshop buffs does sound very strong.

[JiN]

Ratling guns kills all ! ;-)

[Elitewrecker PT]

Originally posted by Airborne Seals:

The issue i'm having is: The ratling guns hit most of their shots but only killed 7 of their units? Is there a reason for this?

No, because that shouldn't be happening.

[Sn3z]

These units should be on flanks to shoot.stop cavalry, with skaven your expected to make synergy with flanking denial tools. Ratling gunners can work with different types of units.

[Oderisson]

Originally posted by Airborne Seals:

I played an Ikit Claw campaign recently, and since I was told that ratling guns were op, I used them in a battle. They fired all their ammunition and hit most of them, they killed 7 troops and when I told them to shoot they decided to run into battle instead and get themselves killed and before you say "why did you have melee on your ratling guns" I didn't, I told them to shoot and they decided to run into the two swordsmen units instead. Absolute garbage unit. I disbanded the Ratling guns the next turn and replaced them with warpfire throwers, they got over 400 kills. Ratling guns are really bad so please tell me how to use them well.

1. Your guns ran into enemy unit because they didnt have clear line of fire. Best is to adapt star wars rule to them ( https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/i-have-the-high-ground )
2. Never order them to fire at a target and forget about them. Either leave them on fire at will and disable skirmish, or be ready to micromanage everything.
3. Damage of ranged units drops the further the taget is. For ratling guns its much more than for others, because they lose accuracy much faster than other ranged units. Plus they slow down target keeping it in low dmg distance for longer. This is intentional to allow enemy to flank them (obviously with another squad). They may appear uneffective at a distance, but at point blank range they shread every target.
4. Warpfire throwers have aoe dmg, less restrictive firing angles, and require more micromanagement.

[cb4n28]

Originally posted by Elitewrecker PT:

Originally posted by Airborne Seals:

The issue i'm having is: The ratling guns hit most of their shots but only killed 7 of their units? Is there a reason for this?

No, because that shouldn't be happening.

Right? I mean what were they shooting?

[Elitewrecker PT]

Well, if they were all shooting at single entities then that would be a good number

[Airborne Seals]

They were shooting at Empire Swordsmen.

[Oderisson]

Originally posted by Airborne Seals:

They were shooting at Empire Swordsmen.

Yeah, thats not possible.

Unless they came at you from the back or line of fire was obstructed.