Right, newbs, listen up!
I'll borrow this image from XCEF.
Things work like this for movement, range, whatever. So if you have a range of 1, you can attack people standing next to you in the cardinal directions.
If you try to kill someone, they'll be rude enough to try and kill you right back. So keep ranges in mind - if they're out of range, they can't retaliate to your attacks. Of course, this also works against you as well.
Now the chryssalid in the picture has a range of one. If you tried to stab it with your sword while standing on one the tiles labelled "1", things would go poorly for you - most melee weapons have a range of one.
A bow has a range of two - this means it can only attack from two tiles away! If the archer was standing on one of the "1"s, she would not be able to attack the chryssalid, and would promptly be gribblied the following enemy phase without being able to retaliate. If they were standing on a "2" square, however, they
If one of our significant quantity of mages were to take on the chryssalid, they would be slightly different. They use tomes, which have a range of 1-2. This means they could attack from squares "1" or "2". If they were standing on "2", they could attack the chryssalid without fear. If the chryssalid survived the magic and moved up to attack them next turn, the mage would be able to retaliate. Theoretically, at any rate.
And no, you probably won't fight chryssalids in noob emblem.
Any questions?