[Mass Combat] Deciding who died.

Tyneras · 06-01-2012, 04:11 PM

In a battle where both sides had a wide variety of units involve in the battle, how do you distribute the casualties? Evenly spreading the damage is simple and fair (50% loses = 50% infantry died, 50% tanks died, etc.) but rather boring. I'd like something that is a bit more random, and I was wondering if anyone had come up with such a method? It changes the narrative a bit if you lost all your fighters, but your battleships are unscratched, compared to an even distribution of losses.

thulben · 06-01-2012, 04:47 PM

The section "Alternative Casualty Determination" on p 38 might be up your alley. Failing that, you might assign a survivability statistic to each unit modified by how heavily they were engage. In your example, maybe fighters have a survivability of 12 while battleships 15. In a land skirmish, the fighters would have a -4 whereas the battleships would have +2. Vice versa for a naval battle.

ericthered · 06-01-2012, 05:29 PM

well, if it really depends on how much math you want to do.

You could roll for each element and take the highest rollers until the damage has been allocated.

You could additionally give elements bonuses. Survivability would have some funny effects. poor quality troops are much more likely to be causulties, but much less likely to die. Fanatic troops are likely to be causulties. Calvary are likely to survive. Hero units.... either are determined separately under misfortunes of war, or have fantastic survivability.

If you want to do even more math, you can take this further: If you take advantage of impetuous units, they get a penalty to survivability. Elite and veteran units get a penalty if you use a determined manuever. If you take substantially causualties during a raid, calvary and air get penalties. You can even assign penalties based on type and numbers: If you have air inferiority, air units have less survivability. I can on, but you get the idea.

And each unit has a chance of fleeing, dying, or being wounded, that can be modified.

you can do the math.... but thats a LOT of rolling. even for a computer. I wouldn't do this without a spread sheet or a program made for such a situation.

vierasmarius · 06-01-2012, 05:31 PM

I think you need to mostly rely on GM discretion here. Logically, most battles in which both naval warships and infantry are involved will obviously have one serving in support of the other - ie, naval artillery during an amphibious assault. In such a case, it should be clear which elements will bear the brunt of the casualties.

You could combine such adjudication with a random die roll to distribute the majority of the casualties among the heavily-involved elements. Since every army is different, I'm not sure how that would be handled. Maybe just divide the army into six segments of roughly even TS, and roll one d6 every time the army takes damage - or 1d6 per 5% (the minimum casualty value in Mass Combat).

gilbertocarlos · 06-01-2012, 07:22 PM

If 50% of the units died, roll 3d6, where the percentage of succest says how much of the unit survived, so, a 10 would save 50%, a 12 75%, a 16 98%, a 5 only 2%, but GM discretion should be much better to have exact numbers.

06-01-2012, 04:11 PM	#1
Tyneras Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Kentucky, USA	[Mass Combat] Deciding who died. In a battle where both sides had a wide variety of units involve in the battle, how do you distribute the casualties? Evenly spreading the damage is simple and fair (50% loses = 50% infantry died, 50% tanks died, etc.) but rather boring. I'd like something that is a bit more random, and I was wondering if anyone had come up with such a method? It changes the narrative a bit if you lost all your fighters, but your battleships are unscratched, compared to an even distribution of losses.

06-01-2012, 04:47 PM	#2
thulben Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: SF Bay Area, CA	Re: [Mass Combat] Deciding who died. The section "Alternative Casualty Determination" on p 38 might be up your alley. Failing that, you might assign a survivability statistic to each unit modified by how heavily they were engage. In your example, maybe fighters have a survivability of 12 while battleships 15. In a land skirmish, the fighters would have a -4 whereas the battleships would have +2. Vice versa for a naval battle.

06-01-2012, 05:29 PM	#3
ericthered Hero of Democracy Join Date: Mar 2012 Location: far from the ocean	Re: [Mass Combat] Deciding who died. well, if it really depends on how much math you want to do. You could roll for each element and take the highest rollers until the damage has been allocated. You could additionally give elements bonuses. Survivability would have some funny effects. poor quality troops are much more likely to be causulties, but much less likely to die. Fanatic troops are likely to be causulties. Calvary are likely to survive. Hero units.... either are determined separately under misfortunes of war, or have fantastic survivability. If you want to do even more math, you can take this further: If you take advantage of impetuous units, they get a penalty to survivability. Elite and veteran units get a penalty if you use a determined manuever. If you take substantially causualties during a raid, calvary and air get penalties. You can even assign penalties based on type and numbers: If you have air inferiority, air units have less survivability. I can on, but you get the idea. And each unit has a chance of fleeing, dying, or being wounded, that can be modified. you can do the math.... but thats a LOT of rolling. even for a computer. I wouldn't do this without a spread sheet or a program made for such a situation.

06-01-2012, 05:31 PM	#4
vierasmarius Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: Oregon	Re: [Mass Combat] Deciding who died. I think you need to mostly rely on GM discretion here. Logically, most battles in which both naval warships and infantry are involved will obviously have one serving in support of the other - ie, naval artillery during an amphibious assault. In such a case, it should be clear which elements will bear the brunt of the casualties. You could combine such adjudication with a random die roll to distribute the majority of the casualties among the heavily-involved elements. Since every army is different, I'm not sure how that would be handled. Maybe just divide the army into six segments of roughly even TS, and roll one d6 every time the army takes damage - or 1d6 per 5% (the minimum casualty value in Mass Combat).

06-01-2012, 07:22 PM	#5
gilbertocarlos Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: Caxias do Sul, Brazil	Re: [Mass Combat] Deciding who died. If 50% of the units died, roll 3d6, where the percentage of succest says how much of the unit survived, so, a 10 would save 50%, a 12 75%, a 16 98%, a 5 only 2%, but GM discretion should be much better to have exact numbers.