Splash damage with d6 rolls, in wargames

- Splash is, and should be, divided over multiple targets.
- Splash cannot be focussed on 1 target.
- Splash is more effective against a group of weaker individuals than a singular target.
- The attribute splash should be able to be combined with other attributes. You can leave this part to me.

How would a cardgamer do this with a card vs multiple cards?
Maybe I could get idea's from that.

***

I had one idea that I am not particular happy with.
We don't sort the dice like the normal dice.
But we DO add up all the results. And divide them as evenly as possible among the targets.

That 20 damage that I mentioned. Over 5 targets could be 4 damage each. But if one of the projectiles as a cannon shell, dealing 36 damage times 4ex, a damage roll of 3. Then with the sorting, you need to have the list include a tank as target at the right time.

But with splash, I don't know how to do this. Allowing that particular roll hit the tank? And have the other 2 portions hit other targets? That might work.

So, allocating the total damage over the possible targets is an option. But this mechanic would be very close to focus or concussive. I will keep it in mind. But want to expand my mind to other options.

You made me realize that we often roll to hit.
(Keep in mind, the default health is 5)

But what if we don't hit, yet the weapon still manages to deal damage?
I see the same in Xcom(2).

I also see this with force fire on the ground in RTS. And then the target not being a target, still receives damage.

That is what splash does.

So, what if we look into something that doesn't hit, but does some damage?

***

My rolls consist of 2 parts.

1: Accuracy, it is a hit or miss. Some weapons have 100% hit chance.
2: Damage, it can still deal 0, but it can go up to 4. And other weapons have a bigger modifier. Thus going from 0 to 1 on one end. In the middle we have 1 to 6. And the other end is 1+x to 6+x.

If [1] is a miss. Can we have [2] still deal damage?

Ok, that is a part of the weapons.

The other part is that is should (or must) be divided over multiple enemies.

So, perhaps combine the both?

The projectile is a mis or hit.
If it hits. It deals full damage to the target. Then another roll for a next target is an option. But not sure how much.
Maybe combine this with the "explosive" mechanic.

If it is a mis. It rolls for damage. But it is less.

***

Yet another option.

We roll.

a hit? We roll normally.
And we keep rolling this die.
But each roll needs to roll the previous roll or less to be extra damage.

a miss? We do the same.
But the first one is discarded.

001234.
A 4 would remain "a hit".
But for example, we roll a 2.
It is over.
If we roll a 3. We roll again. If it is a 3 again, we add 1 damage.

Now then.... in order to have splash.
Each roll is another damage die.

So, if we have for example 1334. And we roll 2 splash dice resulting in 310 and 220. Which is 1223. Which makes the total into 11223334.
We can then allocate the splahs together with the normal dice.

Still, would be interesting to have the splash happen AFTER the normal dice.

Then have the splash also being distributed over multiple targets. But..... the 0 damage is not used. And the dead targets are not used. So, having all the damage being sorted and then allocated. Would be good.

And in order to prevent extra downtime. We only allow the player to have correct RPS targets to line up.

We could do the same as above. But have a roll just being worth much more. And the damage to each new target is -1.
Thus 4 has a total of 10. 3 has a total of 6. 2 has a total of 3. And 1 remains 1.
One die roll of d6 -2 Would have not an average damage of 10/6. But an average damage of 20/6. Thus twice as much.
Given....that there are mutliple targets.

Since the latter would be a yes/no situation. Splash would be weighing 150%. And thus in a good situation have an efficiency of 133%. And in a bad situation (thus 1 target) an efficiency of only 50%.

Not sure yet if it should be sorted or not.

Not sure, but what do you think? I feel I am getting closer.

I will try to come up with some more idea's. But 3 new tests are planned:

1. Splash comes after Normal. It will only target the remaining units. With kills, damage goes to a next target.
Survivors get hit by only 1 splash die. So, focus and concussive need to come in after.

This mechanic is kinda complicated. But slightly different than a last test. The difference is that overkill is re-used.

2. Splash comes after Normal. But also after concussive and focus. The total damage is allocated freely. This latter is very easy, but the focus dice might be removed from the game, since they are almost similar now. While splash is slightly better.

3. Splash comes after Normal. The total damage is distributed equally over the targets, including the dead ones. Armor specific rolls can still be freely allocated.

How the target with armor goes? Example, you have a total of 7 splash vs armor. The average splash damage per target is 4 to 5. The target might have only 3 health. Then 1 to 2 damage is lost. The target might have 4 health, clearly you select this unit as a 4 damage, and another as 5 damage. And if this target has 5 health, well, you will assign 5 damage to it.
6 health? Sorry, the maximum was 5.

(120%) Focus can fill in the bigger gaps.
(90%) Concussive the smallest of gaps.

Not sure about the weight of splash.
But I think it should be 150%, when compared with concussive.
Where the total damage per 6 "dice" is 6 for concussive and 10 for splash.
This is the matter for all 3 tests.

Before looking at splash. We need to remove the sorting from the explosives.

I will allow the following:
When a player rolls the normal dice, explosive dices are included as a one time roll as well.

All these dice are sorted from low to high.
The concussive and focussed weapons are added to the list.

Then, the succesfull explosive dice are rolled again.
But first their accuracy rolls are used. After all, the accuracy rolls are what matters for the explosion to increase in the number of damage rolls.
This will be a new sorted list from low to high.

There can be concussive and focussed versions of the explosive dice. These await their turn. In a sense, they go for synergy while not partaking in the optimasation on the previous roll.

An example is having 4 different types of dice:
10 normal, 10 explosive, 10 focussed and 10 explosive+focussed
The normal are used for a sorting, together with whatever the explosive one rolls. So, we sort 20 outcomes from low to high.
Then the 20 focussed dice are rolled and are used to optimise the first 20. The outcome will be used to make sure that targets are eliminated as optimal as possible.

If both type of explosive dice are succesfull on average, they are of course rerolled. The normal explosive dice would be sorted from low to high again. The explosive+focussed die will now be used to optimise this roll.

***

With that rule in place. There is not much use for having a splash roll...

The most logical would be. It is a roll like the others (except concussive)

The die roll however, works differently.

The damage should be spread out as much as possible. As said before, I had several options. But I am going to refrase them.

I got a challenge here.

What if we have different types of damage?
A projectile deals less damage on lower armor targets. And with the sorting, the dice are assigned according to what target the player wants to destroy. Thus there the extra damage is treated differently.

What I mean is that if a normal roll has 6 dice of 1 damage and 6 dice of 36 damage. The dice are sorted from low to high.
11223344. With 1 of the pairs being a 36 damage at most.
If we target an infantry unit first. We waste 1122 on that. Not only do we have overkill here. We have 3x36 damage that was better spend on a tank. Might as well target a tank instead. But then we got 1+36+2+72+3+108. And then a tank dies.
Well, an average of 100 for infantry and 600 for that particular tank. I think that wasting anti infantry damage here is the best thing to do tbh.

More accuracte would be 6 dice of 36 damage. And 36 dice of 1 damage.
Every group of 6 times 1 damage times the die roll. Has 1 time 36 damage times the die roll.

So, our roll would be 111111/36,222222/72,333333/108,444444/144
We can decide if we use a 1 or 36 at any time. But the 36 is better used on a tank. However, once we shoot a tank. The 2's are also aimed at that tank. And we need 180 damage in total on an average tank in this example.

Now.... I think it would be better to target an infantry first, with 5x1. Then 2 more infantry with 1+36(=1)+2+2 and 2+2+2. A tank with 2+72+108. Then 3 more infantry with 6x3. And finally a tank again with 6x4+144. Where we deal 168 damage.
Are the infantry and tanks worth 6 and 216 health. We get a different situation.
6x1 for 1 infantry. We use the 36 on a tank and thus are forced to waste 6x2 on this tank. But....we can still kill it with 72+108 on top. Then we target probably another tank again.

Either way. Despite sorting. We got some analysis paralysis. And having concussive and focussed on top, doesn't work that well.

I have 2 options here:
1. We always allow optimising. And thus the different attributes are null.
2. We sort...and this is actually the answer i guess. The damages as if they are maxed out.

So, the roll I mentioned in the 2nd option is now:
6x1, 6x2, 6x3, 6x4, 36(1), 72(2), 108(3) and 144(4).
We target infantry first here. 5x1, 1+2+2, 2+2+2, 2+3, 3+3, 3+3, 3+4, 4+4, 4+4,8 infantry die here.
Then 4+36(1) either we kill 1 more infantry. Or we use this for the tanks. Let's see.
4+36+72+108=220 with 40 overkill.
or... 4+(1), 72+108. Ok, we kill a 9th infantry unit here. Then a tank. That is better.
We always deal only 144 damage here on a next target.

The problem with splash is that the weight factor is problematic to be determined.

While other dice mechanics give a sure way efficiency.
Splash will be super bad or good, given certain situations.

The test situation needed adjustments.

As weird as it sounds. 50% as a weight factor only yields a 54% efficiency. This is compared to the normal dice rolls. AND with the situation given. 180 of 1 health, 90 of 2 health etc. And a 40% as a weight factor, suddenly jumps to a 106% efficiency compared to normal.

There also seems to be a negative synergy.
If half of the weapons are normal and half are splash. Compared to a full set of normal dice. We only reach 75% efficiency.

This is due to the splash also targetting units that are destroyed due to the normal dice.

I feel that I need to keep this in. So we got situations where the player needs to sort their troops. And add some, but not to many splash damage units. Thus damaging some targets. But no overkill during combat. In a next round, the damaged units by splash can actually die sooner due to a previous round.

I don't like the fact that I have to add another dimension to my tests tbh. But perhaps I should.

We got 4 types of dice mechanics.

100% - Normal
Default roll is d6 -2.
Bonus effects are allowed.
Attributes are allowed; + - x

The dice get sorted from low to high in the damage list.
Depending on the chosen rule prior:
A. [RPS] damage multiplied with the rolled damage gets sorted in the list: 1x[1], 3x[1], 4x[1], 2x[25], 3x[25].
B. [RPS] damage multiplied with the rolled damage gets sorted in the sub list: 1x[1], 2x[25], 3x[1], 3x[25], 4x[1].

((We need to playtest both, there is no down time on both rules))

Overkill is possible on the rolled damage and [RPS] damage.

90% - Concussive
Always 1 damage.
Bonus effects are NOT allowed.
Attributes are allowed; only x

The 1 damage can be placed anywhere in the damage list.
[RPS] damage value's can also be placed anywhere in the damage list.
Overkill is possible on the [RPS] damage.

120% - Focussed
Default roll is d6 -2.
Bonus effects are allowed.
Attributes are allowed; + - x

The rolled damage can be placed anywhere in the damage list.
[RPS] damage value's can also be placed anywhere in the damage list.
Overkill is possible on the rolled damage and [RPS] damage.

The first 3 dice mechanics are applied first
Only then is the 4th dice mechanic allowed.
The reason is that the splash damage will also have to hit units and structures that are initially destroyed in this turn.

120% - Splash
Default roll is d6 -2.
Bonus effects are allowed.
Attributes are NOT allowed.

The rolled damage is transformed into Splash damage of 1's.

These 1 damage can now be placed anywhere in the damage list.
The damage is spread out as much as possible, a difference of 2 or more damage is NOT allowed.
[RPS] damage value's can also be placed anywhere in the damage list, a difference of 2 or more [RPS] damage is allowed this way.
Overkill is possible on the [RPS] damage.

***

Effects and synergies:

---> 36 Normal efficiencies:
100% vs 12 hp
_93% vs _8 hp
_92% vs 11 hp
_90% vs _6 hp
_87% vs _4 hp
_85% vs _3 hp
_83% vs 10 hp
_82% vs _7 hp
_75% vs _5 and _9 hp
_70% vs _2 hp
_40% vs _1 hp

Average is 81%.
The worst target is 1 then 2 hp. The best target is 12 hp.
The default health of 5 comes in third with the worst targets.

The rest is as if the Normal average is at an average of 100%

---> 40 Concussive efficiencies:
167% vs _1 hp
_95% vs _2 hp
_89% vs _5 hp
_80% vs _9 and 10 hp
_77% vs _4 hp
_76% vs _3 hp
_71% vs _7 and _8 hp
_67% vs _6 hp
_60% vs 11 and 12 hp

Since the Normal roll is all over the place. So are the comparisons.

The worst targets are 11 and 12 hp then 6 hp. The best target is 1 hp. Concussive is also a better choice for 1 hp targets than Normal.

---> 18 Normal + 20 Concussive efficiencies:
133% vs _1 hp
111% vs _5 hp
100% vs _7 and _9 and 10 hp
_95% vs _2 hp
_92% vs _4 hp
_89% vs _6 hp
_88% vs _3 hp
_86% vs _8 hp
_80% vs 11 and 12 hp

The worst targets are 11 and 12 hp then 8 hp. The best target is 1 hp, but to a lesser extend. Then 5 hp. Which is actually better than purely Normal dice. This synergy against the default health, is why I decided to have 90% weight instead of 100% weight on the Concussive weapons.

---> 30 Focussed efficiencies:
111% vs _5 hp
100% vs _7 and _9 and 10 hp
_92% vs _4 hp
_91% vs _2 hp
_89% vs _6 hp
_88% vs _3 hp
_86% vs _8 hp
_83% vs _1 hp
_80% vs 11 and 12 hp

Almost...the same as 18 Normal + 20 Concussive.

Versus 1 and 2 hp, these 2 drop in the ranking.
The worst targets are 11 and 12 hp then 1 hp. The best target is 5 hp. This effect is just as much as the synergy between Normal and Concussive.

---> 18 Normal + 15 Focussed efficiencies:
122% vs _5 hp
120% vs _9 hp
100% vs _4 and _6 and _7 and 10 and 11 hp
_94% vs _3 hp
_92% vs _1 hp
_90% vs _2 hp
_86% vs _8 hp
_80% vs 12 hp

Thanks to the synergies between the 2 dice mechanics. We got the worst targets being 12 hp then 8 hp. The best targets are 5 hp, then 9 hp. The latter 2 score only 75% in the 36 Normal. A reminder, those are relative scores. The true score is only 92% and 90% for 5 and 9 health. But it is higher than the 81% average of the Normal dice.

---> 20 Concussive + 15 Focussed efficiencies:
125% vs _1 hp
100% vs _5 and _9 hp
_86% vs _7 hp
_85% vs _4 hp
_82% vs _3 hp
_81% vs _2 hp
_80% vs 10 and 11 hp
_78% vs _6 hp
_71% vs _8 hp
_60% vs 12 hp

Multiple rounds
Splash is relatively useless in the first round. In the second round its cumulative effect starts to rise. And finally, in the third round we can see the effects. This is due to the dice mechanics. And the efficiencies being based on the number of destroyed targets.

---> 30 Splash, over 3 rounds
208% vs _1 hp
_98% vs _3 hp
_95% vs _2 hp
_74% vs _6 hp
_59% vs _9 hp
_50% vs _5 hp
_38% vs _4 hp
_33% vs 12 hp
_24% vs _8 hp
__5% vs 11 hp
__0% vs _7 and 10 hp

Indeed, even 0% is still possible. And compared to Normal, these value's don't show logic either.
Worst targets seem to be 7 and 10 hp. However, I had to include a number of targets in this test as well. And the players can use a little trick that works well on certain health value's.

The best target is 1 hp. And it showed it is even higher than the Concussive one.

The next list is the 30 Splash, relative to 40 Concussive

---> 30 Splash, over 3 rounds, compared to 40 Concussive
125% vs _1 and _3 hp
100% vs _2 and _6 hp
_75% vs _9 hp
_58% vs _5 hp
_50% vs _4 and 12 hp
_33% vs _8 hp
__7% vs 11 hp
__0% vs _7 and 10 hp

Overall, splash is a worse choice than concussive. But this is over 3 rounds. Against 1 hp, players almost certainly should choose splash. Splash even can destroy 1 hp targets in just 1 round.

If players look at the total average damage. And without considering overkill.
60 Normal
24 Concussive
50 Focussed
50 Splash

You can see that Splash is twice as powerfull than concussive.

The synergy damages are more like:
42 Normal + Concussive
55 Normal + Focussed or Splash
37 Concussive + Focussed or Splash
50 Focussed + Splash

As the most optimal targets, relative to 100% normal:
_1 hp: 208% S > 167% C > 133% N+C > 125% C+F
_2 hp:
_3 hp:
_4 hp: 100% N+C
_5 hp: 122% N+F > 111% F and N+C > 100% N and C+F
_6 hp: 100% N+C
_7 hp: 100% N+C and F and N+F
_8 hp:
_9 hp: 120% N+F > 100% N+C and F and C+F
10 hp: 100% N+C and F and N+F
11 hp: 100% N+F
12 hp:

Players need to pay attention at the 1, 5 and 9 hp. Where a better efficiency might take place.
When facing 2, 3, 8 or 12 hp, the player best options are the normal dice.
Facing 4, 6, 7, 10 and 11 hp, the player has multiple options.

-Normal dice are overall good, but that is how I designed the rules and weight factors.
-Focussed dice come in second. They offer synergy with Normal against the default health of 5 and accidental 9 health.
-Concussive were the best option against 1 health targets. But with the current mechanics of Splash...
-Splash is the best option against the lowest health value of 1.

I wished there were more situations. But then I would be making mechanical RPS, linked to health value's.

Concussive is perfectly fine tuned. Having Splash surpass it at the 1 health means I need to see if I nerve Splash by increasing the weight factor. Or test out other mechanics.

I did some testing on the 6th option. And started with 200%. Wanted to share the results.

For now. Splash dice will be placed in the list, sorted. But the result will have the "rolled" and then extra dice added as "rolled"-1, "rolled"-2 etc.

d6-2 could roll a 4, and we get 4,3,2,1
If we mix normal with splash. And we roll a couple of 4's.
The Normal go first. Then the splash.
8 Normal is:
44444444
But the 4 splash better be sorted as, versus 5 health:
4321
4321
__4321
____4321

Where the vertical list shows the damage assigned to a target. The normal kill 4, while the splash kill 5.

I forsee a heck lots of down time here. I rather not use this mechanic.

As for the efficiency?

Compared to 36 Normal. With 200% weight, we may have only 18 Splash.

Again, the splash is good against 1 health, and a good second option against 5 or 9 health.

However, this time, splash is only 125% efficient. While 40 concussive remains 167% efficient.