CRT (Combat Results Table)

Because...
Well, I am sure you can think of all the reasons.

So, if it is only 12 or 17 columns.
You would have doubts already??

Or do you consider even 12 columns too much.
I have seen CRT that have 15 columns for some reason.
I only asked what a good number would be that players are still comfortable with.

And I am planning on translating the number of projectiles with 2d6 or 3d6 into a number of hits.

But O said before, 1d6 is too flat/short. And I am referring to the options.

This CRT is putting in a number with the die roll result. Amd returns a number of hits to the player.
In such a way that an army could easily have like ocer 30 soldiers.

Current goal:
36 projectiles with riflemen.
64 projectiles with machinegunners.
80 projectiles with flamethrow infantry.

But it can easily be possible that icut these numbers in half or a third.

O wow, one of my very first games 2 decades ago.
That one is ehm.... has a big mistake in the cost calculation, hahahaha.

good memories.

But a CRT is actually that you roll something or compare something. Then get a result from it.
Some games simply look at how many troops face each other.
Other games seem to be needing a roll of d6 or 2d6 from both players. And the effects are special. Like, something starts to burn or can't move anymore or is injured. Stuff like that.

So, if d6 is either 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6.
And the table then asks for how many soldiers you have.
You could get damage from it.

The pro of a CRT seems that you can do something different than what you normally expect.

If 1 soldier would be doing 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6 damage.
With a CRT you could turn it into 0, 0, 1, makes a flip, insta kills, makes a flip + explodes. Kind of result.

***

As for why I want more columns is that if you roll 80 dice. You can have a lot of different results.
And I know that subtracting 10 can be the average, with plus or minus 5 on that. In that regard, those special cases simply can't happen. But are extremely rare anyway.

2d6 or 3d6, that is still a question for me. But perhaps 1d10 might do.

I still need to find the time to make something.
I start with 2d6, maybe it goes well. Maybe not.
Then I could see if 1d10 is better or perhaps 3d6 is also a good option.

The main goal remains, going from 80 to 2 to 3 dice.

When I use CRT, there are some changes needed in the special combat mechanics.

I only looked at those additional mechanics that have die rolls in them.

There are 5 mechanics in total.
Without going into detail I summarise it for you.

2 are no problem. These simply de- or increase the penalty value.
Terrain ignoring weaponry and assault units fall in this category.

1 needs adjustment, but the same CRT can be used, "twice" now.
Velocity altered weapons fall in this category. It is a matter of having certain hits or certain misses before the normal CRT is used.

1 needs adjustment, but the same CRT can be used, "unlimited" now. Until the 6th CRT, the damage CRT shows that the number of projectiles will do sufficient damage already.
Explosive weapons fall in this category.
It is a FUN! category.

1 needs to be completely discarded. Always had trouble with that mechanic. Know that every damage type has its own roll through the CRT. This mechanic simply adds dice pools since they are a damage type on themselves.

Specific damage, sigh...
Damage types depend on the type of targets. They need to be re-evaluated once the type of targets changes.
Specific damage is simply a layer on top, regarding attributes like organic, mechanic, unit and structures.
It was supposed to be a subtle but needed mechanic.
Now it is just a hard mechanic by multiplying the damage dealt by a solid factor.

I made 2 CRT. With a limit of 20 projectiles for each.

https://boardgamegeek.com/image/7909298/imx3m
https://boardgamegeek.com/image/7909300/imx3m

How to use these?

It is regarding a wargame.
Let's say you got a group of 3 flamethrowers.
Each has 6 projectiles.
This means 18 projectiles in total.

The original prototype game would roll 18d6.
The last public attempt had the player calculate a new number of dice...

Now we use the CRT.
How? We consider the terrain effects, default penalty for a particular weapon and other effects like perhaps an event card that is used.
The penalty in this example turns out to be 3.
A penalty of 3 means we need to use the CRT P=1 AND the CRT P=2.

We decide to roll P=2 first.
We roll a 2d6. The roll shows 9.
At the 18th row of P=2, we see that this results in 14 projectiles remaining.
Now we roll 2d6 again. The roll shows 7.
We look at the 14th row of P=1, we see that this time, the result is 12.
I still need to design the damage CRT. But lets say the damage roll will be showing 20 damage in total.

If we had 6 flamwthrowers. We would be having 36 projectiles.
In that regard. I would simply suggest to the player to use half. Roll. Then double it up again. With these rolls, the damage of 20 would result in 40 at the end.

Only 4 flamethrowers? The number of projectiles would be 24. But half of them is 12.
Do you have 7 flamethrowers? With 42 as total, we can divide by 3, and have a roll for 14 projectiles. The end result is multiplied by 3.
Maybe this is too mathy again. And we could also opt for tracking on the CRT, that can also be used as tracking maths. This way, the player has 2d6 rolled multiple times. And some acrylic cubes are used which are added up in scores later on.

I would love to hear your oppinion about them.
What would you do different?
Maybe you have other idea's?

That is a nice suggestion.

BAT: Battle Analysing Table.

Or...

CAT: Combat Analysing Table.

FAT: Feasable Analysing Table.

ET: Examinating Table.

PET: Penalty Examinating Table.

WET: War Examinating Table.

I can think of some more. But those would really be insulting. :)

Either way, someone also responded in a way that he completely understood what I was saying. And, I will respondse with a thank you to that guy.

I did some more testing. And it is time for my Combat Overview Negating Table level 4 to be calculated and created.

***

Either way...
Do you think that 20 rows is enough?
I already determined that rolling 2d6 for over 20 projectiles, multiple times is better than calculating.

You are right about simply rolling 3 times.

They also kept complaining that i didn't post the whole explanation. Which I did, especially for the topic.

One said its me who thinks another guy is toxic.
And also said I don't explain.

So I laid an example out for all of them. I bet they will not read it or burn it down. Or both...

They are predictable.

When I have the time, I will make some more DRT's: Dice replacement tables.

Not sure if 2d6 really is the best, but it is much better than the replacement by player calculations.

I will probably think of more possible names.
Just randomly throwing then in, like dice.

TT, termination table.

Roll TT-2 2 times.
Sounds funny :)

As for support. It declined due to bucket of dice.
It simply became a bother. "Lots of work". They were fair in this and I agreed. Once i find a solution, they want to try again. It was up to me to find a faster and easier way. But they offered options that i took note of. That is how you support.

In the example given on BGG. It sure looks like a lot without pictures.
But does it make sense to anyone?

I also realized that the Combat cUmulative Negation Tables can be used WITH the cover mechanic.
I realized that a big portion of the strategy is gone. When I removed the cover mechanic.
It was some more handling, but the cover mechanic remains one of the best. And perhaps I shouldn't remove it at all. Meaning that the balance is once more back to basics and well. Then again specialists have always been the targets of Event cards, so I might as well keep the new balance. The one that I use for the new RTS.

I need to change the attribute system for this.

Then we got the overkill effect removed. Making low health units worse again.
It was always funny to deal with 1 health units. Rolling 4 damage on each die, the realising it was 300% overkill per target. And even more fun when the special designed weapons for these came into play. Good memories.
The CNT on the other hand would show 4*4 damage as 16 and thus 16 of 1 health units would die...
That is bad...

No, I don't expect positive pats on my back.

But I don't accept (wrapped) insults either.

Especially with the intense of not reading, then asking for the exact same that was already posted.
If it was unclear, that is a different story, but then they could have asked that. And be more specific about it.
Some didn't at all. And luckily someone noticed this too, someone who did read.

Not talking about the complete BGG, only a few.

I am done with trying to remain nice to certain people in that regard.

And somehow, someone, decided that people should hate my game. While in reality, my players only got tired of rolling so much dice.
And getting 40 to 80 dice down to 2 is a great way imho.
The downtime got reduced so much already.

***

True that there is also great help on BGG. Also in regards to that topic. So I decided to go with what I could use the best for my game. In combination of what they showed.

The goal is a simple output of a number that can go through the CRT once more if needed.

If they think it should be done otherwise...well, that is not how the rest of the game works.
There are no after effects, the game is to big for that.
Tracking is limited to one piece per type, otherwise it would be to much again.
There is no copying history of battles either.
Having the CRT show losses on both sides...the game is to big for that.

No problems for my current player base. But that was to be expected from them. (They like the results so far).
They seem to know asap how to use the CRT. But lets figure out a way to make it even simpler.
For starters, they told me that the other coloured columns and rows make it a bit confusing at first. And I should have those in greyscale.

What exactly is fiddly in the CRT that I shared? Can you please elaborate?

You also mention a single die roll.
In that regard.

- If you mean 1d##. Then it could be done. I would prefer a d20. But d10 or d12 are also optional. Probably the d12 as the mid ground.

- If you mean that you roll the dice only once.
I have no idea how to pull this of.
I already have the need for penalties plus a damage roll.
I could put them both in one CRT. The results alongside each other.
But having the different penalties together in one CRT. I don't know how to do this properly.

Having only 1 CRT would be great indeed.
And shifting columns, unfortunately it doesn't work with the penalty system. Still searching for possible solutions that I can use or make use of after adjustment.

Cheers...?

When I crunched down the bucket of dice into my version of a CRT. I roughly got the same.

Since the units on the board will be having different ammounts of health. The default is 5. But 4 and 6 are very common. I cannot include this in the CRT. I am really left with an ammount of damage, based on the number of projectiles.

So, I have been thinking about the INPUT and OUTPUT.

The output should end at an ammount of damage.
Simply because I cannot include all the health value's.
Agreed?

The inputs are:
- a number of projectiles.
- But also the punishment for terrain effects and accuracy. Also known as penalties.
- And another input is the bonus damage.
- And lastly, the roll of a die. Regardless of what I want to use here. Let's assume we agreed on the die.

Either way, the goal is 1 roll. And the rest is done by looking at the CRT.

Now, this bonus damage. I could tell the player what the unit will look like when it is "outnumbered".
This is in accordance to not having to use multiple CRT's, ok? The goal here is to keep cutting in the whole mechanic. Making it simpler for the player.
So...
For example, if a rifleman has 1 projectile with an accuracy of 5. Outnumbered level 1 would normally mean +50%, or the damage roll was not removing all 5 and 6, to only remove any 6.
No, instead I could say that the first level is 2 projectiles, with an accuracy of 4 and 5.
Well, this would be 2 dice pools. A penalty of 1 and 2 are rolled parralel.
And the 2nd level is simply adding 1 more projectile.

And to make sure that other designs fit in normally with an universal damage addition. I could make changes to the statistics if the units are outnumbered or not. Meaning that a flamethrower that has 3 normal damage and 3 reduced damage. Would now have 5 normal damage. And then at the next level an extra bonus.

Ok, what do you think about the following?
The CRT makes use of 1d6. But all penalties are involved on the same page. That would mean, 30 columns.
I could leave out 1 or 2 different level of penalties. So, 24 or 18 columns. Still, it is only 1d6 that is rolled.

If the penalty is 3, 5, 6 or 8, you roll twice.
If the penalty is 7, 9 or 10, you roll trice.

The factors that matter for the CRT are:
- number of projectiles
- accuracy
- cover (terrain effects)

The result is damage, which would be different on the different types of armor. And thus health reduction. And thus casualities.

As for the last part about how the game plays well.
The balance and tactics were "perfect".
The downtime with all those dice and rolls took a long time.

And while a bell curve is created. It is often the gamble in the last few battle's that made the game fun. You constantly fight to have the upper hand in that last battle.

Obviously, I am going to see if I can apply a CRT to my "public" version. Because there the number of projectiles goes down, and the risk goes up. And a CRT will make more sense.

Thank you.