Matrix Games Forums

https://www.desmos.com/calculator/dxn9x8r8o9

Made a calculator for determining results of tank vs tank combat. No idea how well it works, just barely tested it.

Of note, the tile the attacker is in determines what values the attacker uses for defense, and respectively, the defender uses their tile. No, the attacker does not usually benefit from attacking from a city unless they know the enemy has targeting+++ or above, and maybe against targeting++, I haven't checked. That .5 or .75 bonus to accuracy against the troops sitting in the city outweighs the 3.5x benefit from sitting in a city. Past targetting ++, it becomes a pretty good idea.

But yeah, believe that infantry combat is the same deal, just without penetration and accuracy checks, but I'm not sure, I haven't tested that. I also don't know all the bonuses, you're on your own there. Entrenchment? What does that even do?

Looks neat. No idea how close it is to TOAW results.

I think the infantry combat is resolved with different routines, but may be mistaken. There are lots of settings that impact casualty generation, and, the TOAW routines have a significant amount of variation in the results given.

If you set up a small test scenario and fight a given battle 100 times, you'll see what I'm describing.

Cheers

What does the Targeting++++, Targeting+++, etc. mean??

8.4.1.2. Combat Related Characteristics Targeting
Targeting+: The equipment has enhanced targeting capabilities. See the Appendix (19.0) for details.
Targeting++: The equipment has enhanced targeting capabilities. See the Appendix (19.0) for details.
Targeting+++: The equipment has enhanced targeting capabilities. See the Appendix (19.0) for details.
Targeting++++: The equipment has enhanced targeting capabilities. See the Appendix (19.0) for details.

This is why we often poke fun at the Manual

So let's skip down to 19.2:

Anti-Armor Chance to Hit, per shot:
Equipment Characteristics Restricted Vision Normal Open Vision
Targeting++++ 85% 100% 100%
Targeting+++ 85% 85% 72%
Targeting++ 85% 75% 56%
Targeting+ 75% 50% 25%
Everything Else 50% 33% 11%

Note that Restricted Vision locations benefit simpler weapon systems while reducing the capability of more advanced systems. On the other hand, Open Vision rewards more advanced systems (nominal chances to hit are squared). Open Vision locations have no precipitation and no terrain other than Open, Arid, Roads, Rivers, Rocky, Escarpments, Canals, or Sandy. Restricted Vision locations have Heavy Precipitation, Bocage/Hedgerow, Urban, Urban Ruin, or Forest terrain. Very few early-period weapons have enhanced targeting capabilities.

Anti-Armor Chance to Defeat Armor, per hit:
pq = 100xAnti-Armor/Defensive Armor Chance to Kill
100+ 100%
99...25 ((pq^2)/100) %
24- 0%

This means there is no chance to kill armor unless the firing weapon has at least 25% of the nominal penetration necessary to defeat the target’s armor. Because of the square involved, the chance to kill declines rapidly with decreasing pq (penetration quotient). Defensive armor values are divided by three during penetration checks when attacked by aircraft.

Examples: Chances to Kill
pq Chance
99 98%
90 81%
80 64%
70 49%
50 25%
40 16%
30 9%
25 6%

19.2.1. Example Calculation
T-34/76 (late) Anti-Armor 7 (kinetic), fires on PzKpfw V Panther armor 13 under normal conditions:
Chance to hit = 33%
pq = 100 x 7 / 13 = 54.
Chance to kill if hit = ((54 ^ 2) / 100) % = 29%
Overall chance to kill = 33% x 29% = 10%.

Now you know the answer to your questions!

For further details, open up your Manuals Folder in your The Operational Art of War IV directory, pull up a chair and gather round the Equipment List doc. Here is an example from that doc:

cathar1244 wrote: Tue Mar 08, 2022 9:22 am Looks neat. No idea how close it is to TOAW results.

I think the infantry combat is resolved with different routines, but may be mistaken. There are lots of settings that impact casualty generation, and, the TOAW routines have a significant amount of variation in the results given.

If you set up a small test scenario and fight a given battle 100 times, you'll see what I'm describing.

Cheers

It is extremely accurate with regards to tank battles, from my brief amount of testing. I might create a post to explain combat calcs to defog things a bit better, but IDK.

Also, there's a way to get the odds for infantry combat, but I forget exactly what you need to do. I *believe* infantry combat is a variation of armored combat except instead of percent chance of kill, you get percent attrition based on assault attack divided by assault defense. In this case, p^2 becomes the percent of infantry that dies, and there's very little variation from this point. I might create an infantry combat calculator, but we'll see.

But yeah I know there is variation, this calculates the odds, not the actual. Odds meaning there's possibility for weird stuff to happen in game due to the nature of randomness. However, in reality, odds will tend to match up with what the calculator spits out, due to the fact that it's likely pseudo-random number generation, and also due to the fact that the more times you roll a die, the closer it gets to expected percentages, generally. Finally, as far as I know, this is the actual formula the game uses to calculate hits, penetration, and such, just put into desmos.

The question about targeting sensors was answered, if there are any further questions feel free to ask here.

EDIT: I read through my notes, and yeah, it seems, infantry combat is generally tank combat with armor pen chance set to equal 1, skipping that part entirely. That means in an attack on an urban city with 1000 troops, you're going to get an average of 175 kills as stated in the calculator, which is approximately what I found when I tested this in the editor way back when. If you feel like it, plug in the combat numbers from your game, and check out what comes up.

Things I need to test. 1. Does defense matter with armor? 2. Does targeting matter with infantry?

My gut answer to both those questions is "yes", but I need to actually test that first.

Lastly, I might make an updated version that is more clear on what you need to do. Expect that in any time from months to years. I'm in no mood to do that right now, I'm just checking on this because I need to rebalance my Gundam mission cause I added infantry to it, and motorized infantry divisions apparently absolutely destroy Zaku IIs. Kind of a problem.