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<blockquote data-quote="Philotomy Jurament" data-source="post: 4663550" data-attributes="member: 20854">Well...Chainmail is a miniatures wargame.&nbsp; It includes three different systems of combat: standard (i.e. mass combat), man-to-man, and fantasy.&nbsp; All are slightly different.&nbsp; OD&amp;D refers you to Chainmail, but doesn't really explain how you're supposed to use it.&nbsp; OD&amp;D also present the &quot;Alternate&quot; combat to-hit system, but even if you choose to use the Alternate system, you'll find that it lacks some information (e.g. the order of the combat turn), and Chainmail can be used to fill in those gaps.Your first choice is whether to use the Alternate system or the Chainmail system for rolling &quot;to hit.&quot;&nbsp; The Alternate system is the familiar &quot;roll a d20&quot; system, and models increasing skill by lowering the target number.&nbsp; Chainmail uses 6-sided dice, and typically models increasing skill by increasing the number of 6-siders (an exception is the fantasy table).If using Chainmail to determine &quot;to hit,&quot; you'll use the &quot;Fighting Capability&quot; that is listed in the OD&amp;D books.&nbsp; For example, if you're a Level 2 Fighting Man, your Fighting Capability is &quot;2 Men + 1,&quot; which means you'll roll 2d6, adding +1 to one of those dice.&nbsp; The dice are considered individually against the Chainmail table (either the standard or man-to-man table, in this case).&nbsp; In Chainmail, a hit is a kill, but in OD&amp;D, a hit means 1d6 hit points of damage to the enemy.Whether you use Chainmail or the alternate system for determining &quot;to hit,&quot; it is still useful to reference Chainmail for the rest of the combat rules (e.g. moving, order of combat, initiative and melee first strike, morale, etc).&nbsp; Personally, I use the alternate system along with a combat sequence derived from Chainmail and Swords &amp; Spells.&nbsp; You can find a description of the <a href="http://www.philotomy.com/combat_sequence.html" target="_blank">full combat sequence, here</a>.&nbsp; There is also a <a href="http://www.philotomy.com/simple_sequence.html" target="_blank">simplified version of the sequence</a> on my site.&nbsp; The full sequence is nice if you're using minis and want some detail, and the simpler version is good for streamlined or mini-less play.&nbsp; I started off using the full sequence, but now that I've absorbed it, I find myself running combat more like the simple sequence, which judgments and rulings informed by the details from the full sequence.&nbsp; (You might also want to take a look at the <a href="http://www.philotomy.com/#multiple_attacks" target="_blank">multiple attacks</a> musing on my site.)</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Philotomy Jurament, post: 4663550, member: 20854"] Well... [i]Chainmail[/i] is a miniatures wargame. It includes three different systems of combat: standard (i.e. mass combat), man-to-man, and fantasy. All are slightly different. OD&D refers you to [i]Chainmail[/i], but doesn't really explain [i]how[/i] you're supposed to use it. OD&D also present the "Alternate" combat to-hit system, but even if you choose to use the Alternate system, you'll find that it lacks some information (e.g. the order of the combat turn), and [i]Chainmail[/i] can be used to fill in those gaps. Your first choice is whether to use the Alternate system or the [i]Chainmail[/i] system for rolling "to hit." The Alternate system is the familiar "roll a d20" system, and models increasing skill by lowering the target number. [i]Chainmail[/i] uses 6-sided dice, and typically models increasing skill by increasing the number of 6-siders (an exception is the fantasy table). If using [i]Chainmail[/i] to determine "to hit," you'll use the "Fighting Capability" that is listed in the OD&D books. For example, if you're a Level 2 Fighting Man, your Fighting Capability is "2 Men + 1," which means you'll roll 2d6, adding +1 to one of those dice. The dice are considered individually against the [i]Chainmail[/i] table (either the standard or man-to-man table, in this case). In [i]Chainmail[/i], a hit is a kill, but in OD&D, a hit means 1d6 hit points of damage to the enemy. Whether you use [i]Chainmail[/i] or the alternate system for determining "to hit," it is still useful to reference [i]Chainmail[/i] for the rest of the combat rules (e.g. moving, order of combat, initiative and melee first strike, morale, etc). Personally, I use the alternate system along with a combat sequence derived from [i]Chainmail[/i] and [i]Swords & Spells[/i]. You can find a description of the [url=http://www.philotomy.com/combat_sequence.html]full combat sequence, here[/url]. There is also a [url=http://www.philotomy.com/simple_sequence.html]simplified version of the sequence[/url] on my site. The full sequence is nice if you're using minis and want some detail, and the simpler version is good for streamlined or mini-less play. I started off using the full sequence, but now that I've absorbed it, I find myself running combat more like the simple sequence, which judgments and rulings informed by the details from the full sequence. (You might also want to take a look at the [url=http://www.philotomy.com/#multiple_attacks]multiple attacks[/url] musing on my site.) [/QUOTE]

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