Using the Mass Combat tables to rate monsters

[Finarvyn]

I posted this on Dragonsfoot and thought I'd toss it out here as well to see if there is any interest.

I took the tables on p.40 of Chainmail and did some number crunching. What I did was to:
(1) make a grid which is 6x6 with each axis having LF, HF, AF, LH, MH, HH.
(2) Then I multiplied the number of attacks times the damage per attack (for example "1 die per 3 men" was 0.33 and "5,6 kills" was 2).
(3) I averaged the six numbers to get a single number for a given type of attack.
(4) Finally, I took each single number and divided by 0.5 (the number for LF) to get a comparative value for each type of unit.

For example:
LF v. LF = 1*1 = 1
LF v. HF = 0.5 * 1 = 0.5
LF v. AF = 0.33 * 1 = 0.33
LF v. LH = 0.5 *1 = 0.5
LF v. MH = 0.33 * 1 = 0.33
LF v. HH = 0.25 * 1 = 0.25

Average those six numbers to get 0.5 and divide by 0.5 (the LF number) to get a value of 1.0 combat strength.

Here's what I got:
LF = 1.0 (defined as "one man")
HF = 1.6
AF = 2.7
LH = 3.0
MH = 5.5
HH = 8.6

Now, think about the wizard:
If the wizard is defined in Chainmail as 2 AF, then the wizard would be approximately worth 2*2.7 = 5.4 men.

In the same way, other monsters could be rated. A Balrog in Chainmail, for example, does damage like "two heavy horse" (p.34). This would be roughly 17 men.

What do you think?

[Finarvyn]

The first thing that came to mind after posting was "what about monsters who attack as X and defend as Y?"

My solution here is actually pretty simple. Remember that I calculated the value of a LF to be 0.5, then scaled it to become 1? I notice that the 0.5 (attack) and 0.5 (defend) add to be 1, and can use this to rate monsters.

Here are the numbers from above, only halved again:
LF = 0.49 --> 1/2
HF = 0.75 --> 3/4
AF = 1.31 --> 4/3
LH = 1.47 --> 3.2
MH = 2.67 --> 8/3
HH = 4.17 --> 25/6

Rate some monsters:
Dwarves (attack as HF, defend as LF) = 3/4 + 1/2 = 1.25 men

So, a 3rd level dwarf would be 3(1.25) = 3.75 men (I'm not sure if it would be good to round or trunkate here...)

Heroes (suppose HF attack but platemail so AF defend) = 4(3/4) + 4(4/3) = 3 + 16/3 = 8.33 men

Wizard on foot = 2 AF attack + 2 AF defend = 2(4/3) + 2(4/3) = 5.33 men.

Wizard mounted = 2 MH attack + 2 MH defend = 2(8/3) + 2(8/3) = 10.67 men.

And so on.

[aldarron]

That is sooooo cool. Funny, as I just posted not 5 minutes ago, I guestimated the Wizard was worth about 5 men when I did the OD&D doc.

Keep at it Marv!

Its interesting to see how this is translating to Hit Dice. It looks like your combat strength rating is about roughly twice HD, just looking at Balrogs and Heroes in your examples.

[cooper]

Finarvyn, perhaps I'm reading it wrong, but doesn't the fact that a hero is 8 men and not 4 show that it is indeed the heavy foot that is the baseline and not the light foot and that your numbers are twice too much? Also considering that in greyhawk the "light" weapon of the dagger did 1/2 of a hit die? d4 damage and baseline hd is d8 for monsters and fighting men?

Look at the giants. In Chainmail they are 12 HF and in d&d they have 12hd. 4 HH Dragons certainly don't translate to 32HD in 0d&d! kobolds are light foot and low and behold they have 1/2 hd in d&d.