What does effective range mean on special war ants, and is it better to build an ant with a particular..

Range determines what row the ant can hit. I.E. if it's range is one, the ability will only hit the enemy if it is in your front row. the enemy has three rows and you have three rows. Your rows are included. If an ability has a range of 3 and you place it in your third row, it will only hit the enemy's front row because you have two rows in front of it. If that same ant was in your front row, it could hit all three of your enemy's rows.