"Dice Mechanic Modification to Thomas' OHW" Topic

Has anyone done any experimenting with modifying the die mechanics to Neil Thomas' One Hour Wargames? My specific complaint has not been that Neil has abstracted the combat down to one die ROLL, but that he has distilled it down to one DIE. That makes for a wildly variable game and smacks too much towards luck.

I have been playing with the dice probability calculator on anydice.com.

I decided to try the following calculation:

function: evaluate ROLL:s {
SUCCESSES: ROLL = 6
result: SUCCESSES
}

loop DICE over {10..16} {
output [evaluate DICE d6] named "[DICE]d"
}

If you calculate this in a table view you can see the probability of rolling 0 or more hits for rolling 10 to 16 dice, requiring a '6' to equal a hit. The idea is instead of rolling 1D6 to see how many hits you get (1 hit per die pip), roll a bucket of dice looking for a '6' (or a '1', if you prefer) with each success counting as a single hit.

Looking at the chart (paste the formula above into the calculator and hit 'Calculate') you can see some interesting shapes to try. I was thinking about trying 15 dice. Granted, that is a lot of dice, but it helps smooth out the wild variations.

Alternately, I was looking at throwing fewer dice (like 6) and looking for '5' or '6'. The probability can be seen by running this:

function: evaluate ROLL:s {
SUCCESSES: ROLL >= 5
result: SUCCESSES
}

loop DICE over {4..8} {
output [evaluate DICE d6] named "[DICE]d"
}

I realize that I am changing the probabilities; that is actually the point. I want to allow the extremes (including 0 hits), but I want the odds clustered towards 2–4.

Thoughts?

Dale

Kaptain Kobold has done some variations on his blog:

hordesofthethings.blogspot.com

Roll three, pick the middle :-)

Easy enough to do on the fly, leaves exceptional results possible but skews things towards the centre.

Sadly, I don't even know any dice mechanics. And some of my dice are past due for services.

Dale:

Okay, how many buckets of dice per unit?

McLaddie: One bucket per unit. All firing is unit to unit, after all.

Dale:

I was being somewhat facetious, but you are suggesting 15 dice per combat? Or 6? I guess I am wondering about hits amounting to 7 to 15. Suddenly units can take hits amounting to half or all of their strength [15] Obviously, the chance of a unit taking more than six hits with one bucket throw is much, much greater, speaking of extremes.

Do you see that kind of dice throw [or have found] making the game finish up even quicker than one hour?

Use average dice?

@Big Red: 16%, 33%, 33%, and 16%. Still pretty volatile, if you ask me, but not as bad as D6. Did you try the program and look at the results?

@McLaddie: yes, I was offering two suggestions, and two programs where you could look at the probabilities for yourself.

[q]Obviously, the chance of a unit taking more than six hits with one bucket throw is much, much greater, speaking of extremes.[/q]

You did not run the program, did you? That is what these programs are for, to test your theories. It is not a "much greater" chance. The chance to roll 7+ hits is less than 1%. Not 1% for 7, 1% for 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, and 15 hits total. Can wiping a unit out in one shot happen? Yes. Ever hear of a unit historically running on the first volley? That said, there is actually a greater chance for 0 hits (6%). As it turns out, the game would probably take longer than normal not less, because the average number of hits is less than with a D6.

I think that rolling 15 dice is probably excessive, simply because it is more than a comfortable handful. Yes, it does offer the chance of wiping a unit in one shot, no matter how obscure that chance is, but that does not concern me so much as the physical mechanic of counting out 15 dice, rolling them without them scattering to hell and gone, and then counting out the '6's.

I think rolling 6 dice looking for 5+ is probably more comfortable, mechanically. But the probability curve does not look as good as 15 dice @ 6.

Yep, I was thinking of 1% for 7, 1% for 8 etc.