Still Tinkerin'- Mass Combat Table for Blow-by-Blow

[derv]

Chainmail’s Mass Combat Table for Blow-by-Blow Melee

The Chainmail Mass Combat Table was most certainly created and intended for large battles with units of figures in formations. The smallest sized unit would possibly contain 4-8 figures and no less, but preferably more. This is obvious, if one wants their units to be effective on the battlefield, when considering troop types like light or heavy foot vs. heavy horse, where 4 men only receive one die in melee. I won’t touch on how sheer numbers can bear on morale in Chainmail also.

What if we want to use the Mass Combat Table at 1:1 figure scale? No problem, same rules apply. It matters little whether your figures are considered 1:20 or 1:1. What if we want to use the Mass Combat Table as a blow-by-blow combat resolution mechanic at 1:1? You like the Mass Combat Tables ease of resolution and don’t care for the Man-to-Man system for what ever reason. You are also looking for a way to resolve smaller conflicts quickly and easily.

Well, we could take Appendix A and where it says “man” or “men” replace it with the word “round”. If we do this the MCT will read that a LF will get one die per three rounds against AF and that AF will get one die per round against the LF. So, we can then conclude that over the course of three rounds the AF will get 3 dice (blows) to the LF’s one. We will compress this information into a single round even though the table will suggest from 1-4 rounds between the different types.

This require us to assess our troops individually and assign them a general troop type or, alternatively, a specific armor value and weapon value that corresponds to a troop type. I’ve offered some suggestions below, but others have already categorized these things in the past and it’s easy enough to come up with your own. Do what seems right to you.

I have converted the MCT to ratios of blows per round by type. The target numbers remain the same on a d6. It matters little whether you consider the ratio to equal the severity/force of the blow, the swiftness of the weapon, the quantity of blows, or the effectiveness of the weapon against certain armor. It’s an abstraction and remains consistent with the MCT as written.

Weapon types:
LF: mace, sword
HF: battle axe, spear
AF: flail, morning star
LH: dagger, hand axe
MH: pole arms, two handed sword
HH: lance, pike

Light Foot vs.:
LF 1:1, 6; HF 1:2, 6; AF 1:3, 6; LH 1:4, 6; MH 1:6, 6; HH 1:16, 6

Heavy Foot vs.:
LF 2:1, 5+; HF 1:1, 6; AF 1:2, 6; LH 1:4, 6; MH 1:6, 6; HH 1:12, 6

Armored Foot vs.:
LF 3:1, 4+; HF 2:1, 5+; AF 1:1, 6; LH 1:1, 6; MH 1:4, 6; HH 1:6, 6

Light Horse vs.:
LF 4:1, 5+; HF 4:1, 6; AF 1:1, 6; LH 1:1, 6; MH 1:2, 6; HH 1:6, 6

Medium Horse vs.:
LF 6:1, 4+; HF 6:1, 5+; AF 4:1, 6; LH 2:1, 5+; MH 1:1, 6; HH 1:2, 6

Heavy Horse vs.:
LF 16:1, 5+; HF 12:1, 5+; AF 6:1, 5+; LH 6:1, 5+; MH 2:1, 5+; HH 1:1, 6

So how would this work? As an example, a HF vs. AF would get one die per round where 6 kills, while the AF would receive two dice each round where 5+ kills.

If you choose to distinguish weapon and armor types, an example might be a LF/LH (leather and hand axe) enters melee with an AF/MH (plate and two handed sword). The LF/LH would attack as LH vs. AF and get one die per round where a roll of 6 kills. The AF/MH would attack as MH and get six dice each round against LF where a 4+ kills. Recognize that regardless of the number of dice rolled, there can only be one kill/hit per round.

Some rough probabilities:
6= (1 die)16.7%, (2) 30.6%, (3) 42.1%, (4) 51.8%, (5) 59.8%, (6) 66.5%, (12) 88.8%, (16) 94.6%
5+= 33.3%
4+= 50%

Some other thoughts and possibilities:
Porting over Fighting Capabilities from M&M, tossing in hit points and d6 damage, magic weapons add dice, magic armor subtracts dice, Heavy weapons strike first blow in first round, Light weapons strike first blow there after.

[Finarvyn]

I've played OD&D this way before and it works but it can be a little strange, particularly when a player does things like add a shield and this may or may not change his armor rating. One thing that I like about it is that it allows one to make use of the Fighting Capability stat from Men & Magic, and another thing I like is that players get to roll handsfull of dice.

I abandoned this as a long-term combat option, but it was a lot of fun for a short campaign.

[derv]

Jul 11, 2015 5:20:29 GMT -6 Finarvyn said:

and another thing I like is that players get to roll handsfull of dice.

The story goes that Ken St. Andre looked at the LBB's and couldn't make heads nor tails of it. I sometimes wonder if he wasn't really looking at Chainmail

As for shields making a difference, I didn't want to throw out too many diversions with the OP. I was hoping to get others gears a turning with a few undefined ideas. But, here's another. Shields absorb one hit during a melee. Magic shields absorb one additional hit per "+". Not quite "shields shall be splintered", though this could be adopted too with the shield being destroyed after a second hit. It's a little bit of a paradigm shift for D&D, but essentially it's an extra hit point.

[Todd]

I've been tinkering with it as well, but from a slightly different angle. Here's the present state of my tinker-age:

ARMOR & WEAPON CLASSES:

   CLASS   WEAPON                          ARMOR
   -----   ------                          -----
   1       daggers and knives; slings      none
   2       shortbow, light crossbow        padded armor
   3       one-handed weapons              leather armor
   4       two-handed weapons, pole-arms   scale mail
   5       heavy crossbow, longbow         chain mail
   6       lance                           plate mail

MASS COMBAT MATRIX:

   HD killed per successful attack, 1 attack per HD of attacker:

   WEAPON  vs       ARMOR CLASS
   CLASS       1   2   3   4   5   6
   ------     -----------------------
     1         1  1/2 1/3 1/4 1/5 1/6
     2        2/1 1/1 1/2 1/3 1/4 1/5
     3        3/1 2/1 1/1 1/2 1/3 1/4
     4        4/1 3/1 2/1 1/1 1/2 1/3
     5        5/1 4/1 3/1 2/1 1/1 1/2
     6        6/1 5/1 4/1 3/1 2/1 1/1

   Excess HD killed above that required to eliminate a defender is
   considered OVERKILL. Melee overkill can be applied to other
   targets in melee until exhausted. Missile overkill is lost unless
   caused by attacks with splash or radial damage (ie. catapults).

   Example: A mounted knight charges into a mass of unarmored peasantry.
   -------  Each successful attack would kill 6 HD worth of peasants.
            Assuming each peasant is less than or equal to one HD,
            the knight would kill 6 peasants.


[derv]

It's fun to toy with the rules a little. What are you using to determine a successful attack?

[Todd]

I was thinking just the usual. My main goal is to tweak the mass combat for D&D situations when a hero takes on a bunch of 0-level mooks.