Re: 4E's hit point philosophy
 

Mass Combat should still work.

I still really don't see the difference between "Lets have our 700 guys fight their 700 guys!" and "Lets have our 1st rate Ship fight their 1st rate ship." You wouldn't try to do the former with the tactical combat system, would you?

Re: 4E's hit point philosophy
 

Doesn't Action have Chase rules?

Re: 4E's hit point philosophy
 

Sometimes! I have run battles where I only handled the common-soldier-PCs and their immediate opponents in detail, and handled the larger battle by fiat and a few skill rolls (the heroes were barbarian mercenaries not generals or staff officers). In an epic game, one might well handle a battle as a duel between the heroes and the enemy champions- Kromm says that he has done that.

I don't think that a fight between one vehicle and one or a handful is the intended scale for GURPS Mass Combat, and MC doesn't really have rules for anachronistic weapons.

Re: 4E's hit point philosophy
 

MC doesn't have unit prefabs for e.g. 'lorica segmentata + assault rifle' units, but it does have units across TLs, so you can pit them in anachronistic battles.

Re: 4E's hit point philosophy
 

The ToC says so, but they were published in 2008, in a supplement for a genre which I don't play.

Re: 4E's hit point philosophy
 

You could do the same thing with naval engagements. The problem with the low DR/HP wouldn't be an issue there either.
With vehicles that large (and with such large crews) it's clearly closer than the intended scale of the regular tactical man-to-man combat system! It does have rules for different TL units. If you've got a TL8 Light Infantry Fireteam on a TL5 Ship of the Line, you can do that with Mass Combat.

Re: 4E's hit point philosophy
 

Unliving and Homgenous reduce the damage from impaling and piercing attacks.
This works similar to a limited form of IT:DR
IT:DR can have Cosmic round to 0 so why not slap Cosmic on the Unliving or Homogeneous for the same effect?
that I think will at least help with the Musket ball problem.
Especially when combined with more IT"DR or some of the other rules proposed.

Re: 4E's hit point philosophy
 

Observe my requirement: "in a way that produces similar results to resolving them one at a time". It's possible to come up with rules that actually work for those purposes, but it produces very odd results.

Re: 4E's hit point philosophy
 

Still means it not a hole, just means it not in the basic set

Re: 4E's hit point philosophy
 

Well, it is an issue if the heroes are a gun crew, and they score some hits. Or if there is a pursuit, and they man or lay the stern chasers or the bow guns. Indeed, firing that one special shot is a common role for heroes.

I checked, and Mass Combat does have rules for transported troops with the Marine trait participating in a naval battle.

Which rule are you objecting to? I think that the "use average Crewman skill" rule works excellently, and I think that "treat many guns as an attack with high RoF" rule is flawed.

I also think that the most important thing is that rules for actions at both large and small scales reasonably describe reality (whether our reality, or that of a literary genre). Sometimes the right simplifications at one scale ("damage is all-or-nothing" and "everyone in a fight has limited control over their actions" for mass combat) are the wrong ones for another (basic combat has detailed damage rules and gives each player full control over their character).