Phased Casualty Caps. Cap long-range casualties at 15%, cap mid-range at 25%, cap melee at 40%. These caps only effect casualties, does not effect battle outcome.

Phased damage resistance. Something like this = Melee units take 50% less damage from long-range attacks. Mid-range units take 25% less damage from long-range. Long-range units take full damage from all phases. These reductions happen during the battle calc, does effect battle outcome and casualties to a degree.

-50% ranged nerf. Cut all ranged attacks in half. This nerf happens during the battle calc, does effect battle outcome and casualties depending on the ranged attack power.

Target-Weighted Damage Allocation
Leo submitted this idea (here), and it has some interesting merit we could consider. This feature changes how damage is applied in battle. Instead of attackers hitting random or all units equally, damage is split across the enemy army based on unit count and weight. Here's what it means:

Damage is distributed proportionally to the size of each unit group in the defending army.

Some special units (like siege weapons) are treated as more valuable and count extra in the damage distribution math (e.g. each catapult counts as 5 troops).

Each unit group absorbs damage based on its defense stat — higher defense = fewer deaths.

Any extra damage beyond what a unit group can absorb is lost — not carried to other units.

A random 5–15% fluctuation is added to simulate battlefield chaos.

Result:
Weaker, cheaper units (like peasants or archers) act as meat shields, helping protect elite or rare troops from being wiped out early — making battles more strategic and less about alpha-striking with range.