Talk:The Order/@comment-1636709-20200120222412/@comment-26419174-20200121152718

Most likely they use melee troops because that is what is appropriate for the  real life historical period of the setting is located in. Whether changing that due to the differences between the setting and real life makes sense is actually quite an interesting question and in my mind it mostly depends on how resistant MGs would be to missile attacks.

We know that they are tougher then humans, but how tough exaclty they are not something we know for sure. However, if they are about as tough as a man in mid to high end  late medieval metal armor, then this approach would fail for the same reason melee was superior to ranged up until mid XVI-mid XVII century. Namely, that the sufficiently powerful ranged weapons of the time were expensive, heavy, required extensive training to use and still were only reliably effective enough at the range that would allow the melee troops to close in after only a few volleys and chop the ranged troops to bits, unless those were protected by their own melee troops (in large enough  numbers to win the melee) or permanent fortification (think castles). That only really changed with firearms and only after a few centuries of development.

This sort of balance can of course be changed by magic (in favour of either side), or the exact degree of MG durability. But I don't think  we have the official data on that.