Revised Chainmail combat tables

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I guess this could be posted either here or in the Chainmail subforum.

I've almost always used Chainmail-style combat for OD&D, but pretty quickly we saw that there was little point in characters equipping anything other than one or two different types of weapons (off the top of my head, I think it's the mace if you're going one-handed, and the two-handed sword if you're going Conan). The other weapon's combinations of length and hit numbers just didn't compare.

So over the years I've tinkered with a few different revisions to the table, and for my new campaign ended up with this. The layout is still a bit messy, but it gets all the information. Weapons are now described by length, weight and 'genre' (so a standard mace might be an average, medium-sized blunt weapon). If you throw a melee weapon, you just use the appropriate weapon on the thrown table.

I also added a quilted armour class to add some nuance—this isn't just a standard gambeson that is worn under a suit of plate, but a quilted jack that is thick enough that you can't really wear it with other armour types.

Attachments:

Combat tables first draft.pdf (60.46 KB)

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Here are the three tables in the pdf. For those who are familiar with the Chainmail rules, hopefully you'll see where I've tried to keep as many of the basic concepts that make Chainmail what it is (simultaneous movement, weapon size factors built into the initiative system, etc.), but reduce them to very simple procedures.

MELEE WEAPON TABLE (2D6)

Weapon	Size	None	Quilted	Leather	Chain	Plate
Unarmed	Light	8	11	10	11	12
Edged	Light	6	8	7	9	11
—	Med'm	6	7	6	8	10
—	Heavy	6	6	5	7	9
Puncture	Light	7	7	8	9	10
—	Med'm	7	6	7	8	9
—	Heavy	7	5	6	7	8
Blunt	Light	8	10	9	7	8
—	Med'm	8	9	8	6	7
—	Heavy	8	8	7	5	6

Attack modifiers:

• against shield: -1
• defender without helm: +1
• defender is a lower character level: +1
• mounted vs foot: +1 (if standing combat), +2 (if charging)
• foot vs mounted: -1
• flanking/rear attack: +1 (might negate shield)/+2 (negates shield bonus)

THROWN WEAPON TABLE (2D6)

Weapon	Size	Range	None	Quilted	Leather	Chain	Plate
Edged	Light	6	6-7-8	6-8-9	7-8-9	9-10-12	12-x-x
—	Med'm	6	6-7-8	6-8-9	6-8-9	9-10-11	11-12-x
—	Heavy	3	5-6-7	5-7-8	6-7-8	8-9-10	10-11-12
Puncture	Light	6	5-6-7	6-7-8	7-8-10	9-10-11	10-12-x
—	Med'm	6	6-7-8	6-7-8	6-7-8	8-9-10	9-11-12
—	Heavy	3	4-5-6	4-5-7	5-6-7	7-8-9	9-10-11
Blunt	Light	6	5-6-8	9-10-12	7-8-9	9-10-11	11-12-x
—	Med'm	6	5-6-8	8-9-11	6-7-9	8-10-11	10-11-12
—	Heavy	3	5-6-7	7-8-10	6-7-8	7-8-9	7-8-9

RANGED WEAPON TABLE (2D6)

Weapon	Size	Range	None	Quilted	Leather	Chain	Plate
Puncture	Light	12	6-7-8	6-7-9	8-9-10	8-9-10	11-x-x
—	Med'm	15	6-7-8	6-7-8	7-8-9	7-8-9	11-12-x
—	Heavy	21	5-6-7	5-6-7	6-7-8	6-7-8	7-9-11
Blunt	Light	10	6-7-8	9-10-12	6-7-9	8-10-12	12-x-x
—	Med'm	12	5-7-8	8-9-11	6-7-8	8-9-11	11-12-x
—	Heavy	15	5-6-10	7-8-10	5-6-9	5-6-9	5-6-9
Blackpowder	Light	15	8-10-12	8-10-12	7-9-12	6-8-12	5-8-12
—	Med'm	18	7-7-12	7-7-12	6-7-12	5-7-12	4-7-12
—	Heavy	21	6-6-12	6-6-12	5-5-12	4-4-12	4-4-12

Initiative and attack order (melee)
The 'weapon size' feature in Chainmail has been reduced here to only four levels of weapon length: Short, Medium, Long and Very Long. When two characters attack each other in melee, the initiative order is based on a simple consideration of weapon length:

1. Whoever has the 'length advantage' attacks first (note that having a considerable height or terrain advantage adds '+1' to your effective length); if both are tied, then…
2. Edged weapons attack, then Puncture weapons, then Blunt weapons (editorial note: I'm undecided on this. Perhaps it should be blunt first, then puncture, then edged?); if both are tied, then…
3. The declared attacker goes first, then the defender.

'Length Advantage' is determined in the following way:

• At the start of the melee, the longer weapon has the length advantage.
• Afterwards, if in a single round the longer weapon misses then the shorter weapon hits, then the advantage is switched to the shorter weapon (the character 'got inside' the other's reach). This switched advantage stays until the combatants break off.

Initiative and attack order (ranged)

1. Ranged weapons shoot in the following order:
   • blackpowder weapons (e.g., musket)
   • puncture weapons (e.g., bows)
   • blunt weapons (e.g., sling)
2. Thrown weapons shoot in the following order:
   • puncture weapons
   • edged weapons
   • blunt weapons
3. Artillery shoots

• Note that in ranged combat, all weapons shooting in the same sub-phase do so simultaneously.

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And here's a short list of weapons found in Chainmail/OD&D, and how I might classify them in this system:

SWORDS	TYPE	SIZE/LENGTH*
Dagger	light edged	small/short
Sword	medium edged	medium
Large sword	medium edged	long/large
Great sword	heavy edged	large

MACES	TYPE	SIZE
Staff	light blunt	large
Club	light blunt	medium
Mace	medium blunt	small
Flail	medium blunt	medium
Maul	heavy blunt	large

AXES	TYPE	SIZE
Hand axe	light piercing	small
Battle axe	medium piercing	medium
Great axe	heavy piercing	medium
Pole axe	heavy piercing	large

SPEARS	TYPE	SIZE
Javelin	light piercing	medium
Spear	medium piercing	large
Halberd	medium edged	large
Pike	medium piercing	very large
Lance	heavy piercing	large

BOWS	TYPE	SIZE
Short bow	light piercing	—
Long bow	heavy piercing	—
Horse bow	medium piercing	—
Light crossbow	medium piercing	—
Heavy crossbow	heavy piercing	—

*I haven't yet decided if 'short-medium-long' or 'small-medium-large' is the best terminology to use.