In studying missiles to get the missile equations down, I had to look at the Cluster Hits Table several times. Like, 8. It sucked.
I hate the Cluster Hits Table. In the words of Madeleine Wool, "That's inelegant."
It's also weird how SRMs land with each missile hitting a different location and LRMs land in groups of 5. Even if they're using Dead Fire Missiles. Every missile in the Inner Sphere--even the Clans' Advanced Tactical Missiles--land in groups of five.
Thunderbolts don't count!
So the Hive Missile, which doesn't use the Cluster Hits Table and lands in groups of six.
Name Size Dmg/Msl ClSize MinR SR MR LR Tons Crits Heat Shots/Ton
HiM 6 1/msl C6 3 6 12 18 3.0 1 2 22
HiM 12 1/msl C6 3 6 12 18 5.5 2 4 11
HiM 18 1/msl C6 3 6 12 18 8.5 4 6 7
HiM 24 1/msl C6 3 6 12 18 11.0 5 8 5
HiM 30 1/msl C6 3 6 12 18 14.0 6 9 4
HiM 36 1/msl C6 3 6 12 18 16.5 1 11 3
When rolling to see how many missiles hit, you just roll some D6's.
HiM 6 - Roll 1D6. A number of missiles hit equal to
The result.
HiM 12 - Roll a large 1D6 and a small 1D6. A number of missiles hit equal to
[The large die result / 3 (round up) - 1 ] * 6 + the small die result.
HiM 18 - Roll a large 1D6 and a small 1D6. A number of missiles hit equal to
[The large die result / 2 (round up) -1 ] * 6 + the small die result.
HiM 24 - Roll a large 1D6 and a small 1D6. A number of missiles hit equal to
[The large die result (reroll 5's and 6's) -1 ] * 6 + the small die result.
HiM 30 - Roll a large 1D6 and a small 1D6. A number of missiles hit equal to
[The large die result (reroll 6's) -1 ] * 6 + the small die result.
HiM 36 - Roll a large 1D6 and a small 1D6. A number of missiles hit equal to
[The large die result -1 ] * 6 + the small die result.
Alternatively, you can roll 1D6 and multiply by the rack size/6. It's
disappointing when your HiM 36 only does 6 damage, but them's the
breaks.
AMS and AMS-like systems which reduce cluster rolls will divide their maluses to each die. Round down for the large die and round up for the small die. (Rounding negative numbers is done according to nearness to zero, not magnitude...-1.4 rounds up to -2)
4 comments:
>"it's inelegant"
>gives each HiM rack its own chart anyways
Would be funnier if you'd managed to extract whatever equation the official chart uses and written that out for each launcher.
It is interesting that the official chart gives you the total missiles hit, instead of breaking it into clusters (e.g., "16" instead of "5+5+5+1"). More concise, certainly, but maybe also another thing which forces the target demographic to practice their arithmetic.
-skiltao
PS: hitting with LRMs (and size 10+ racks of LRMs to boot) is probably more common than SRM hits. Grouping LRMs into clusters of 2 would mean an awful lot of location rolls.
PPS: maybe the cluster hits and hit location could be combined somehow into a single roll.
LOL, yeah. The original plan was just to use the 6's, 12's, 18's, and 36's. Bracketed 1D6 for groups of 6 and then another 1D6 for 1-6.
Total missiles hit makes the chart more versatile. I can't argue with that. But I'll never complain when TT games teach math skills.
You don't have to make LRMs land in clusters of 2. 3 is a number between 0 and 5. So is 4. I feel like 5 is a 'solid hit' in the game. It's low enough that it won't punch through anything on its own, high enough it will cause concern if two of them hit, also doesn't risk a headcap on the rare two-fer, and high enough that it's not really crit-seeking either.
If you put a cluster weapon, a hit location table, and 2D6 into a blender, I feel you get either templates or Warhammer Fantasy dice out. You've got 21 distinct results (36 if you two different-colored dice) and a lot of those will trend with more clusters hitting.
A cluster roll of '2' would always hit the same location and a '3' would hit one of two locations (assuming you have grids like 'white 1' and 'red 2'). White 1-2 could always hit the closest arc location (arm, ST, leg, CT, oST, oleg). 3-4 could be off, but favoring the near side slightly more than the opposite (CT, ST, oST, Leg, oLeg, arm). 5-6 as a 'high shot' (arm, ST, CT, oST, oarm, head). The red side just moves along that list of locations from 1 to 6.
You'd have to do all that, adjust for front hit tables, rear attacks, and keep the overall odds about the same. It'd require a bunch of work and still have issues where rolling a 1 & 6 still doesn't get you to the back of the 1-2 list because a '7' doesn't give you that many clusters to work with. And rolling 12 on an MRM 40 would leave you with a guaranteed headshot and 2 extra clusters to navigate.
I think it's doable, but it's a lot of work. I'd rather use the Big Red Die instead.
Re: LRM cluster size: I was responding to your "weird how SRMs land with each missile hitting a different location and LRMs land in groups of 5" remark.
Re: cluster location blender: the simplest version is to roll 3d6; the regular 2d6 hit location roll, plus 1d6 where pips = missiles in that cluster.
-skiltao
3D6 per location would save the cluster hit rolls. You would roll once per 6 missiles? Because each cluster is going to hit with 1-6 missiles from the pips->missiles 1D6? It's an interesting idea.
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