Reach and Area attacks

it does, but since area attack only draw from range the origin, it's not as useful unless you're hitting a hex surround by some very high elevation.

Reach does help hit further ranges within the Area of the attack, but doesn't modify the radius of the attack.

Luther, just to be clear, are you saying reach extends the Origin point of attacks? Or does reach only affect the range within the specified radius?

Reach does nothing to Origin or Radius. It only affects Range (when you check each die to make sure it made Range to the target from the Origin, you add your Reach to the die result for that check only).

Reach is awesome for Area attacks in megalopolis.

I am a little confused about how reach and melee attacks work. For example if Bunker uses flack cannon does he need to be adjacent to his target? If yes does this mean that making range only applies to different elevations? Next if he has artillery mode out does that now mean he does not need to be adjacent because his range is extended? Or does that still only attack adjacent targets? Maybe my real question is "how range works with melee attacks?"

note: Flak Cannon is not melee.

Melee attacks still have range.  if you and your target are at the same elevation you are at range 1, but if an adjacent target is at elevation 3 and you are at elevation 1, they are now at range 3 (1 for the hex, 2 for the elevation change).  Reach does not change the necessity of adjacency for melee attacks, but it will treat that range of 3 as being closer, allowing you to take more die results.

Ok how do you tell what is a melee attack and what is not? Flack cannon just has the punch symbol and the dice and automatic miss dice numbers. So how can you tell?

If it says the word "Melee" in the lower right, it's melee. If not, it's not. The punch symbol means "action."

Yep. Totally missed that. In future printings it might be nice if all attacks had a identifier. The way I understand it now the attack default is a ranged attack and it only varies from that if there are other identifiers. Correct? So you would just have to insert a term like "ranged" in the same place that melee is printed to avoid confusion with new players. Maybe it says that in the rule book. I will have to read it again. 

Melee is a special case, which is why it gets a special tag. Just like unlimited actions. I would not want every action to say "Limited" next to it.

As a side note, the word choice "unlimited" is a source of confusion for every player I have seen learning the game.

Huh. Seems intuitive to me. By default, each action may be used once. Unlimited, though, means that the action isn't limited to once.

The other interpretation I've seen of "unlimited" is "you can do this as many times as you want, for free". But once you know how the game works, you can see how that can't be correct.

Yep - that's how I find newcomers almost always interpret it, and then they have to internalize that it's different.

I'm not sure what would be a better word, though.

Imagine if Unlimited did mean that. Tachyon would always win!

Well, Unity and her bots of infinite actions might have something to say about that.

Multiple?