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Just how many ranks can unit of skirmishers shoot with?

Edit: my friend thinks that all of them can (four ranks essentially) but im thinking that that it would only be the first two

Looks like only the first two ranks. But remember that they can march and reform during the movement phase (the latter for free), and still shoot with just the -1 for moving.

Thanks!
Thats how we ended up playing it anyways, but its good to know for sure.

Sorry I'm new here but I'm confused, how do you measure ranks in skirmishers? I thought the advantage to skirmish (aside from movement) was that an entire squad could fire their weapons without penalty (I play high elves and I've always had my entire squad of shadow warriors fire)

Well no the skirmisher rules give no special way to fire, other than fire on the march, so all normal shooting rules apply – rank 1 and 2 shoot further ranks can only shoot with volley fire weapons.

The only special rules Skirmishers get are found on pg.77 under Fire on the March. Other than that I would interpret they have to follow normal shooting requirements of only shooting in two ranks.

EDIT: Hoverboy beat me to it lol

Remember skirmishers now have ranks, albeit "loose" ranks.

HoverBoy wrote:Well no the skirmisher rules give no special way to fire, other than fire on the march, so all normal shooting rules apply – rank 1 and 2 shoot further ranks can only shoot with volley fire weapons.

wait a second, but what determines who's in what rank? sorry again for being new but they're skirmish, can't you arrange them however you see fit? so isn't there technically no second or third rank?

No, reread the rulebook. You put them in a loose ranked formation, with defined ranks and files. After you finish moving you must have defined ranks and files, after reforming however you like while moving, and this determines what models can shoot.