Huh, you are right! checking the wiki of the legacy games there are indeed bonuses directly to ERK by skirmishers, not in DE however, even dragoons dont show that they counter shock infantry in their multipliers when they obviously do.
If any devs are watching this, please check their tags, we are very much confused by this heheh
The ERK might be stronger than the skirmisher even with a slight number disadvantage tho (As shown on the above video), BUT, the one way to know for sure if they do a multiplier damage vs the ERK is to test it myself, ill be right back from the editor using UN-upgraded units straight up at age 3.
WELL, this is some interesting data.
They don’t have the tag but they still get x2 damage from skirmishers, they only reduce the multiplier because of the 30% ranged armor they have, so in the end, a skirmisher that has 15 attack, doesn’t do 30, 21 damage (According to calculations and in game testing).
Funny how they still win in a 1v1 combat or a huge army vs a huge army, even with cost equality.
Heck, they even perform better with their ranged attack rather than the melee attack.
It really comes down to the ERK being a stronger unit in health (60 extra hp), damage output is the same (5dps instead of the skirmisher’s 2,5dps as base damage, with multipliers both do 5dps and then it’s just the armor reduction).
The do the same dps if you look at it like that, but the ERK fires twice as fast nonetheless, and that always makes big fights go to their advantage since they eliminate skirmishers earlier and with less overkill waste that is why they act as the better counter in the end with better cost-effectiveness.
In conclusion, update the tags please :v