Hey guys, started playing again a few weeks ago and there are some rules I'd like to refresh my brain with.

Ok, in the movement phase (say for example I'm orcs and the enemy are elves), when the elves are moving can they check to see if my orcs are within charge range or within shooting range?
Seems silly to me if that is legal, because if it is, the team with the longer range can just keep measuring their men away from my orcs. If someone can let me know please it would help me loads in my next battle, as I have constantly had the enemy measure my shooting range whilst they are moving so they always avoid my archers...

Hi jonnekh , sorry to disappoint you when you've only just started playing the game again but , yes of course you can measure shoot/charge range. Tactics are a big part of strategy battle game

So you are saying that the enemy team can check the range of my own archers?

Yes your enemy is able to measure your distance and keep moving away, but there are many ways to avoid this. First of all, this was mostly a problem in the old deployment style when armies deployed 12" from the board edge. Now armies are 12" from the center. Therefore you should only be about 12" from most of their units. A Heroic March, Drum, or cavalry charge will quickly close in on that distance. Then they will be forced to fight after only two shooting rounds at best.

If you are playing by older rules, which some communities do, then you will simply have to suffer the shots. The reason for the change in rules was to avoid the problem you are facing, which was that armies would just fire at you all day as you tried to make it across the board.

Don't forget, even with the longer range, a mini who wants to fire their weapon cuts their movement in half, so the elves are only moving away at a rate of 3" to your six. Additionally (depending on the rules you use), the elves are suffering a penalty to their shoot value. An orc hero could also spend a pt of might, call a heroic march and move at a rate of 8" as opposed to 6". There are ways to minimize archery dmg. Thankfully, the probability of a single arrow scoring a hit is below 30%.

Here is a link on TMP where I break it down mathmatically.

http://theminiaturespage.com/boards/msg.mv?id=258894

My legolas example has a math error, but another poster corrects my mistake. Aside from that, the numbers don't lie. Now, having said that, I never play an army with 0 archers.