I've been thinking of starting work on a combat rating system that would somewhat abstractly represent and rate everything from an unarmed man (or soldier) to a fully decked out aircraft carrier.
The idea being that everything would be based upon and relative to the combat rating of an unarmed soldier which would have a combat rating of one. Thus, an aircraft carrier might have a Combat Rating of say (picking a number off the top of my head) 10,000.
Also, this system would not be limited to modern warfare but retroactively and abstractly account for different kinds of weapons. Again, as a rather poor and inaccurate example, I have listed below several "units" and "ratings."
unarmed soldier, warrior etc. = 1
armed with a knife = 2
armed with a sword = 3
armed with a bow = 5
armed with a early firearm = 6
armed with a modern machine gun = 20
...and on the list would go, including tanks, planes, etc.
I don't want the system to be detailed enough that it accounts for different types of swords or machine guns etc., although at some level I guess that it could. Maybe it would be better to go into greater detail and then allow people to abstract from that as needed.
I suppose that one could integrate fantasy type elements into the system as well.
The whole idea being that I or others could use the system as the starting point for rating units in several different types of wargames, regardless of the era in which they take place.
It would be a huge undertaking that I am by no means knowledgeable enough to do myself. I'm curious as to whether anyone knows of a system such as this that might have already been developed, or you can just discuss the idea and make points. Thanks.
I'm not so much thinking about how the system would work within a combat mechanic, because combat mechanics might differ from game to game. The ratings would be a basis from which one could use various combat mechanics to determine outcomes.