Gunner

The Gunner is a Firearms tier 3 infantry unit in Symphony of War and an advanced anti-heavy infantry unit capable of shredding through enemy front lines. This is especially so when the Musketeering technology is researched, allowing them to shoot twice per combat.

Guns in each row in a squad fire in different waves, so it is useful to have guns in both middle and back rows to reduce doing too much wasted damage on a single enemy. They are still quite vulnerable, so it is risky to have them in the front row taking direct enemy melee damage.

Stats

Stats		Base	Growth		Lvl 1	Lvl 54		From Tier1
		Med	Med		~100	~285		-
		Great	Great		?	247		?~156
		Low	Med		10	45		?
		Med	High		~22	~45		-
		None	None		-	-		-50
		Med	High		~17	~50		-
		Med	Med		~	~2229		~904

The Gunners' damage only uses weapon power, not strength, to deal damage: so their weapon power has to cover both weapon and Strength values relative to most other units.

Relative to a unit with an average 20~91 weapon, a Gunner's STR would be the equivalent of ?~156 STR; along with whatever added benefit their is from ignoring 75% armor: which is quite a lot more than most units have.

Still: Gunners only strike once until very late in the game when a dual-capstone tech is researched; forcing their weapon-damage to not only compete with weapon+strength of other classes; but 2 attacks as well.

Related Technologies

Tech:
	Martial Traditions	Gain Class Points 15% faster.
	Mixed Unit Tactic	Gains +3 weapon power for each different archetype of unit added to the squad, starting from the second.
	Gunsmithing	Enables the creation of Firearms Units.
	Breech-Loading Gun	Firearms Units are no longer negatively impacted by weather.
	Musketeering	Dragoons and Gunners are able to attack twice in combat, doubling their damage output.

Despite Journeyman Leathercrafting and Behemoth Leather Armor claiming to affect Firearms Units from their in-game tooltip; they don't.

Battle Details

Battle Detials:
-	Basic:	Musketeering:
Round 1	Firearm Attack, Gun Volley (2nd, Front Row) (4th, Middle Row), or (6th, Back Row), at 1 range.	Firearm Attack, Gun Volley (2nd, Front Row) (4th, Middle Row), or (6th, Back Row), at 1 range.
Round 2	Wait	Firearm Attack, Gun Volley (2nd, Front Row) (4th, Middle Row), or (6th, Back Row), at 1 range.
Extra Attack	Firearm Attack, Gun Volley (2nd, Front Row) (4th, Middle Row), or (6th, Back Row), at 1 range.	Firearm Attack, Gun Volley (2nd, Front Row) (4th, Middle Row), or (6th, Back Row), at 1 range.
Other Detials:
Attacks ignore 75% of target's Armor Only uses Weapon Power, not strength, for dealing damage.

Strategy

Tactics

Gunners are very dangerous in the enemies' hands: though a lot of their danger unfortunately comes from being rather disposable as enemy units; or effective in the same way a rocket is effective.

A major challenge when using Gunners is keeping them alive long enough to participate in multiple battles: given they lack the armor to survive on the front-row, and their near total lack of magic resistance means most attacks that can sneak past the front-row have a real chance of KOing a gunner outright.

Fortunatly Gunners do have meaningful bulk against archery units; and when placed in a squad with +Armor artifacts can easily be built to withstand hails of arrows.

This does make Gunners an effective class to siege enemy squads perched atop Walls.

Though usually the moment-to-moment gameplay for Gunner squads is avoiding enemy ranges while waiting for a heavily-armored squad to draw hostile squads closer; then going all-out. In this case Gunners capacity to ignore armor almost entierly makes them effective at taking out a lot of heavily-armored units; were Champions, Zweihanders, and Centurions are strong targets to go for: as their collective bulk and damage output make them broadly dangerous foes that can cause serious issues for a lot of other squads. Champions in particular are very dangerous for Dragons; as their double-attacks just melt through the lack of armor and high HP here. And Centurions are generally annoying to take out with Cavalry squads, given they're a Polearm unit.

Knights and Valkyries also make good moving targets; as in spite of haveing cavalry vulnerabilities other squadmates are more adept at exploiting; both are still very bulky and highly mobile problems that frequently need to be solved: and Guns are a solution.

Of course: when armor doesn't matter HP still does; making Gunners pretty effective at OHKOing a lot of squishier, low-HP problems as well.

Squads

Light Infantry or Cavalry squads offer a lot of solid bonuses for the Gunner class-line; though their separate attack-volleys based on their row positioning also makes heavy infantry squads that double-down on firearms units an interesting option.

As Opponents:

Gunners are frail but extremely dangerous. A critical shot to the Hero is more than capable of killing them in a single hit, let alone most other units.

They're frequently a top-priority, if not always a top-priority; to take out on player-phase before they have a chance to blow your units away.

To this end: any unit capable of bypassing block and cover (Magicians , Dragons, Archery Units, Firearms Units , and units with Stealth Attack) can be an effective answer to removing as many hostile gunners from a squad before they get their 1st attack.

For attempting to enemy-phase them (mostly relevant in Chapter 12: Upheaval), there aren't a lot of great options; at least before DLC. Still: Valkyrie's large health pool and very low 25 Strength requirements make them one of the better options to tank a gun to the face; and their capacity to heal themselves afterwards enables them to carry on throughout the rest of the chapter.

Further in the game: Silver Dragons and especially Sentinels, given the reduced firearms-trait of the latter paired with Guardian's 25% damage reduction, make for reliable bullet-sponges.

With DLC: Risen Archers make perhaps the best unit here: as they can occupy walls for impressive evasion bonuses; and their undead mechanics enable them to heal themselves if they do enough damage: not a difficult task against the high-damage, low-defense gunners.

Emperor's Missive allows tier 1 units like Risen Archers, Fighters, and Bowmen to take 50% damage from foes.

Builds

Traits

• Concentration is a consistant and reliable damage boost. The lack of critical strikes in exchange feels bad; but with only 1 attack per combat and no inherent bonus to Skill it should generally be assumed they aren't going to crit.

• Executioner and Desperation are good tools to improve their offense; often by doubling their number of attacks.

• Traits like Dragonslayer and Smite also serve as an effective damage bonus. Against Dragons to enable the Gunner's ~1 attack to deal meaningful damage against large health-pools and turn around one of their poorer match-ups; against Magicians or Stealth Attackers enough of a boost to reliably and consistantly KO their target with 1 decisive hit over them hanging on with a sliver of health.

• Scavenger is another solid option: given Gunner's ideally function as a firing squad that kills opponents over weakening them, along with Scavenger being reliant on kills to generate resources.

Artifacts

• Trueshot Bow and Obsidian Edge are also good offensive boosters for the Crossbowman, making the most of what's available for a class that receives no benefit from STR or MAG.

• Cyrene's Regalia is noteworthy for enabling Gunners to survive the Dark Magic of Dark Mages, Sorceresses, and the Final Boss with it's 48 HP and 25% Magic Resistance, circumventing one of Gunner's issues of 0 Magic Resistance

• And Aldor's Tower Shield is a good option to enable Gunners to overpower archery squads; a situation that frequently presents itself in maps were Walls are a key feature. While Gunners aren't typically durable enough to benefit from Armor, archery attacks are a notable exception.

• Essence of Embor can greatly benefit any Firearms Squad; as they benefit from opponent's skill being weakened by Chill on every extent. Better accuracy for their 1 valuble attack, a chance to dodge otherwise getting OHKOed, and the fear of being critically struck being all but eliminated.

• Iblis Family Signet's bonus of 120 HP is well used on Gunners in particular, as their (lack) of good item options make them a good fit; and more overall bulk makes it safer to utilize them while opening up new positioning options.

• Temporal Modulator is also a fun option: turning a very dangerous player-phase unit in the Gunner into an excellent kill-first, ask questions later unit on enemy phase as well; at least for the first 3 encounters during enemy phase.

Affinity

Gunners are in a difficult spot here, seeing as their lack of benefits from STR or MAG, and only real value on SKL and HP: tends to pit HP and SKL against one-another.

Water Affinity, despite favoring HP+MAG, is arguably the best option for a good collective HP+SKL total for the Gunners; being the only above-average mix of the two stats.

Lightning Affinity is also a strong option: given Skill is the only way to boost a gunner's offense from their stats, and Lightning is the only affinity for this.

Earth Affinity is also a respectable option. In spite of eating a near ~10 point dip to Skill, the larger HP pool adds more survivability against anything that reaches the Gunners, and SKL and Hit% are some of the easiest stats to fix.

Especially with Target Leader as a near-constant option throughout an entire playthrough, offing easy access to +35% Hit.

Gallery