How does melee Overwatch work?

[Big J Money]

Do you just need a melee unit next to another unit? Or does it need to defend? Or have some Action Points left when it ends its turn?

Also how come sometimes melee overwatch seems automatic but other times it will trigger only on Miss/Graze?

About the only thing I am sure of with regards to melee overwatch is that it can be cancelled by stagger, just like ranged overwatch. Well, actually I'm not sure that it's cancelled by melee stagger...

 

[TheDeadlyShoe]

melee overwatch is always on, regardless of what actions a melee unit takes. If a melee unit is Staggered for any reason it will also lose its melee overwatch. The 'Overwatch on miss/graze' message refers to that the target unit will only hit you back if you miss or graze, because a successful hit will stagger it and remove Melee Overwatch.

Certain status effects can also block Melee Overwatch, such as Blind, Stun, and Concussion.

Heros can get a skill called Counter-Strike that lets them always strike back with melee overwatch, even if they get staggered.

 

[METAShift]

melee overwatch is always on, regardless of what actions a melee unit takes.

Pretty sure that doing a "red move" where you have no more AP remaining will not put the unit in melee overwatch.

 

[Big J Money]

The 'Overwatch on miss/graze' message refers to that the target unit will only hit you back if you miss or graze, because a successful hit will stagger it and remove Melee Overwatch.

Ah, so if I understand the implication here, units that are immune to your stagger would get their Overwatch attack even if you hit.

The strange thing is that I've attacked an enemy before and the tooltip had BOTH messages:
"Overwatch"
"Overwatch on Miss / Graze"

Also, the game resolves attacks too fast for me to be sure, but I think I've seen these 2 things happen that I don't quite understand:

- I think I've seen a unit Overwatch melee attack more than 1 time against an opponent
- I think I've seen a unit Overwatch melee attack and CANCEL my attack (this might simply be because they didn't miss / graze and they staggered my guy)

Pretty sure that doing a "red move" where you have no more AP remaining will not put the unit in melee overwatch.

I have had my melee units (and opponent units) simply not get any Overwatch at all, so this is a pretty good explanation. Something I can test out for sure.

 

[Round_Dice]

If you melee a unit that has Melee Overwatch on, the Overwatch will activate after the first hit.

So, if you're using a unit that can attack 3 times in a row it goes: Your attack > Enemy Overwatch > Your attack > Your attack
If your unit can be staggered and it can't stagger the enemy, it will only get one attack through as the OW will cancel the follow-ups.

 

[METAShift]

Ah, so if I understand the implication here, units that are immune to your stagger would get their Overwatch attack even if you hit.

The strange thing is that I've attacked an enemy before and the tooltip had BOTH messages:
"Overwatch"
"Overwatch on Miss / Graze"

That happens when you're next to 2 melee units at the same time. You attack one, stagger it and cancel it's overwatch. The second one still gets to attack you.