ORIGINAL: InfiniteMonkey
Okay, so I am working on a concept for the new scenario editor (
tm.asp?m=4317059) where I try to do a better job of quantifying the combat strength of an LCU. The idea is to look beyond a mere count of devices and provide some values that look into the device stats that determine their effectiveness in combat: chiefly Range, Accuracy, Effect, Penetration, Anti-Soft, Anti-Armor, Armor, and Ceiling.
My current thinking is that I will provide some "raw" ratings for a unit in terms of 5 situations:
Land Bombardment
Land Attack
Land Defense
Naval Bombardment Counterbattery/Invasion Defense
Air Defense
To go a bit deeper into the above, each LCU might have a summary that looks something like this:
AV: 168 AFV: 6 ENG: 4 NS: 0 Sup: 140 AvS: 0 ShP: 0 McS: 0 G: 16 AA: 0
Bmbd - #:16 Rng: (3/3/3/3/8) Acc: (8/8/8/8/8) A/S: 192 (12/12/12/12/12) A/A: 140 (3/3/3/3/26)
Atk - #:168 A/S: 2088(11/11/11/12/24) A/A: 240(1/1/1/1/5)
Def - #:182 A/S: 2824(5/5/11/12/24) A/A: 416(1/1/1/1/5)
Nav - #: 0
AA - #: 0
(See picture below)
So the Bmbd: line tells you what the statistics are in the Bombardment phase of combat, Reading that line it tells you
- "#:16" tells you that the unit has 16 guns eligible to fire in bombardments
- "Rng: (3/3/3/8/9)" tells you the minimum range of 100%/75%/50%/25%/0% of guns. This has an important impact upon the effectiveness of this unit in bombardment since the longer ranged guns are more likely to fire in combat. Most of those guns are range 3 - and range 3 guns are less likely to fire
- "Acc: (8/8/8/8/8)" tells you the minimum accuracy of 100%/75%/50%/25%/0% of guns. This has an impact upon whether the gun hits it's target IF it fires.
- "A/S: 192 (12/12/12/12/12)" tells you that the combined Anti-Soft rating of all devices that have an opportunity to fire is 192, with ALL devices having an anti-Soft rating of 12.
- "A/A: 140 (3/3/3/3/26)" tells you that the combined Anti-Armor rating of all devices that have an opportunity to fire is 140, with 75% of devices having an anti-Armor rating of 3, but about 25% having an anti-armor rating of 26.
I'm also thinking that the ratings will be most useful if they are considered in relation to another unit/in the context of a battle. With no point of reference, the values above are not particularly useful. However, if I can compare two units on opposite sides of a bombardment duel, I get a clearer picture of potential outcomes:
Unit 1
Bmbd - #:16 Rng: (3/3/3/3/8) Acc: (8/8/8/8/8) A/S: 192 (12/12/12/12/12) A/A: 140 (3/3/3/3/26)
vs.
Unit 2
Bmbd - #:12 Rng: (12/12/12/12/12) Acc: (6/6/6/6/6) A/S: 264 (22/22/22/22/22) A/A: 504 (42/42/42/42/42)
Unit 1 has 12 81 mm mortars and 4 75mm T41 Mtn Guns
versus
Unit 2 with 12 10cm T91 Howitzers.
Unit 2 has a range advantage as well as an effect advantage. Despite slightly lower accuracy, Unit 2 is likely to wipe the floor with Unit 1, despite the appearance of being outmatched if a count of the guns is the only point of comparison.
I intend to make it possible to define an Allied Force and a Japanese Force, then set leaders, HQ bonuses, supply situations, attack types, terrain, fortifications, detection levels, etc. and calculate a guess of the relative power of the stacks and try to project a range of outcomes. Obviously, I don't know the combat routines, but I think I can at least provide a better estimate of relative combat power than Assault Value.
Once completed, I can pretty easily pull that part out and make it available via an Android/iOS app.
I wanted to ask two questions:
1. Is anyone interested in the above?
2. Any thoughts on the kinds of information to include/what kinds of calculations you'd like to see for an LCU?
