Combat dice rolls

[bjba]

Is there another way to resolve combat with dice rolls other than how you are instructed in the manuals. Isn’t there a method to use that counts attack and defend values as hit points, and every 6 hit points creates an automatic hit?
Thank you.

[knp7765]

What you are describing is called Low Luck gaming. It is exactly they way you described it. You add up all the attack points and defense points then divide by 6. For every whole 6 you record a hit and roll 1 die for the remainder.
EXAMPLE:
3 infantry, 1 mech, 1 artillery, 2 tanks, 1 fighter and 1 Stuka attacks 5 infantry, 1 artillery and 1 tank.
Total attack points = 20. That is 3 hits plus roll 1 die for a 2.
Total defense points = 15. That is 2 hits plus roll 1 die for a 3.
Then after removing casualties, you do it again for combat round 2 for the remaining units. You keep doing this until one side is eliminated or attacker retreats.

This method I think makes combats a little quicker and takes out any chance of weird rolls that get you more or less than usual hits. Some people like Low Luck because you have to plan your battles more carefully and more of your strategy comes into play. There’s not so much left to chance.
Personally, I like rolling the dice because I like the chance.

[Young Grasshopper]

What about hits that apply or don’t apply to specific units?

For example: 5 subs and 5 destroyers attack 5 fighters and 2 cruisers. Just because the attack value adds up to 20, doesn’t mean the fighters should go down because we don’t know if the hits came from subs or destroyers… right?

[bjba]

Thank you knp7765. I think I like this method, will try it out on global 1940. I know it goes against the rules, but I can get frustrated when chance rolls go horribly bad. An example, once my fleet of a 2 cruisers and a destroyer were attacked by a carrier with 2 planes, a battleship, and a destroyer. They attacked with 3 hits, and I returned with no hits. Just doesn’t seem fair that 3 ships wouldn’t even get 1 hit back. This method of low luck gaming alleviates that, and helps my blood pressure!.

Also, Young Grasshopper brings up an excellent point, how do you deal with that situation?

[ColonelCarter]

In situations like YG’s, you would split the rolls. The five subs would give you 1 hit and 1 @ 4, (and those cruiser casualties would not return fire) and the five destroyers would also give 1 hit and 1 @ 4. Then the 5 fighters would get 3 hits and 1 @ 2 targeting the destroyers, and a cruiser, if it survived the surprise strike, would get 1 @ 3 to be applied to whatever the attacker chooses.

[knp7765]

Yeah, I forgot about those weird situations where you have certain units that can’t hit other certain units - like planes and subs not being able to hit each other if no destroyer is with the planes.
In those situations, you have to do a little more figuring than usual. Still, even with rolling dice you still have to roll separately in those instances so it’s not that much different.

By the way, Low Luck can also be used for things like anti-aircraft rolls. Say you have 6 bombers attacking an IC. In regular dice, you would roll 6 dice trying to get ones. However in Low Luck, you can simply remove 1 bomber as an automatic hit.
The drawback here is that now the attacker still has 5 bombers to plaster your IC. If you rolled dice, you have a chance at getting anywhere from 0-6 hits.