Skirmisher

The Skirmisher is a Melee tier 2 light infantry unit in Symphony of War, and the 1st opportunity for Fighters to access Light Infantry traits.

Broadly speaking, the Skirmisher serves well as a source of backline DPS in the early-game given their good Skill; lack of accuracy issues, and light-infantry units moving on a different attack-wave than most other squadmates.

They're also among the cheapest units to obtain, requiring no resources for promotion themselves and promote into the most affordable Tier 3 unit in the Ranger.

Skirmishers also provide a (lack) of threat rating, adding a useful tool to manipulate enemy behavior and encourage them to attack the Skirmisher's squads more often.

They can also serve as a core unit in a Light-Infantry squad, perhaps supporting the likes of Stefan or Narima.

Finally: they're one of the better classlines to go into Firearms units, given their good SKL development, and Firearms units caring about little else.

Stats

Stats		Base	Growth		Lvl 1	Lvl 54		From Tier1
		Med	Med		~105	~308		- ~ -50
		Med	Med		18	79		-2~12
		Low	Med		5	40		-5~45
		Med	High		~25	~49		+3
		Low	Low		~12	~23		-
		High	High		~27	~51		+10
		Med	Med		~	~1317		-303

Stats compared to Fighters as tier 1 units here, though Skirmishers can promote from Bowmen as well. Fighters are usually the way to go between these 2, as the main difference is an additional ~20~60 HP of base stats before class bonuses are applied.

Adept Metallurgy and Advanced Material Science is were that -50 HP relative to Fighters comes from.

Overall: this doesn't look great relative to the Fighter as it's a near universal downgrade; though given the option of Fighters in the middle or back row or Skirmishers: that extra +10 SKL and largely the same overall attack power (at least early on when +3 Str vs. -3 WPN cancels out) is going to make them more capable damage-dealers. And if Skirmishers aren't in the front line, their lack of bulk is significantly less important.

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.
	Journeyman Leathercraft	+5 Armor
	Behemoth Leather Armor	+5 Armor (+10 total)

Battle Details

Battle Details:
Round 1	Melee Attack, Light Volley (9th), at 1 range.
Round 2	Melee Attack, Light Volley (9th), at 1 range.
Extra Attack	Melee Attack, Light Volley (9th), at 1 range.
Other Details:
Guerilla grants bonus Hit and Avoid during player-phase, or any phase when on Ambush tiles.

Strategy

Tactics

Skirmishers are heavily reliant on leveraging their Light Infantry movement type to perform Ambush attacks.

Using Woods, Hills, or Towns to maximum effect; they can disable an opponent's first counter-attack outright. Turning good offense into the best defense.

Squads

Skirmisher's core draw (as a stand-alone unit), is the benefits the Light Infantry squad type can provide: namely access to Ambush attacks; though the ~1 extra move through rugged terrain, and the benefits from Guerilla, are also core benefits.

Of note here: only the majority of units need to be Light Infantry to give the squad this movement type, so in a squad of 5 only 3 are necessary. Given the frailty of Light Infantry units as a whole (and the upsides of creating a strong mix of units), it's generally recommended to mix various unit archetypes together.

For squad movement types: it's also worth noting the "Light" and "Infantry" are two separate components, were making a squad one of the best movement types in Light Cavalry can be accomplished almost entirely through Heavy Cavalry and Light Infantry units, with only 1 Light Cavalier being necessary to tip the scales. Quite useful early-game when Horses are difficult to come by and small squad sizes forces unit to be a little more general-purpose over heavily specialized.

Alternatively: Skirmisher's high skill can be leveraged as reliable back-line DPS; regardless of what their core squad's movement type is. Their lack of resource costs, low threat rating, and slightly above-average damage output all pair well for this role.

Light Infantry Squad:				Light Cavalry Squad:				Backline DPS:

As Opponents:

Skirmishers are fragile units reliant entirely on striking first (ideally with Ambush), so their main counter-play is either striking them first, or, barring that, baiting them into open spaces were their squad won't disable your first counter-attack.

Target leader is also a good option, given it's 35% Hit rate bonus in addition to the leader-targeting effect.

Withstanding their attacks with a solid front-line can also work; though Ambush will delay the Oracle's HP shield or Healers from acting until the 2nd volley, so it's just down to raw stats here.

Builds

Traits

• Challenger, Desperation and Executioner are good tools to improve their offense.

• Lithe Assault, Precision, and Disarm also make good use of their high skill.

• And Assassin's Heart can add an extra kick with to their critical strikes.

Artifacts

• Steelshatter and Flame Saber are strong offensive options that will serve Skirmishers well throughout the game; and in spite of being Uncommon artifacts are the best offensive boosters until Legendary items.

• Blademaster's Armor, Zero Point Blade, and Cyrene's Regalia are good options for increasing their bulk. Skirmishers don't have the armor class to reliably survive on the front-line; so they're main goal is mitigating a few big hits that wind up reaching them in the back: were more HP is often the most effective strategy.
  Dark Magic in particular can also be really nasty for Skirmishers, as their low HP and low Magic gives them nothing to work with, were Cyrene's Regalia offers a lot of HP, Magic, and 25% less Dark damage taken.
  Blademaster's Armor is also noteworthy for improving their matchup vs. other Light Infantry squads, as player and rival Ambush squads are going to gravitate to the same spaces.

Affinity

Lightning Affinity is the best option for a physical glass-cannon, boosting +STR and +SKL. It's also the only Affinity that boosts SKL, which is generally important for promoting into tier 3 light infantry.

Boosted Skill is also nice for Firearms Units once those are unlocked, seeing as SKL is one of the few stats they care about.

And Fire Affinity provides a nice suite of bonuses in boosting offense and defense through HP and STR; though it's generally better used on Heavy Infantry units.

Gallery