Battle 2.6 — one die to rule them all

Version 2.5 of Battle had a combat system I was proud of: a 2d6 to-hit roll, hit thresholds, a separate penetration roll, critical hits, salvo dice capped by veterancy stars. It was faithful to the design document. It was also, I finally admitted, not fun.

Every exchange of fire stopped the game for three rolls and a table lookup. Playtesters (my family — the target audience is honest that way) asked the same question every time: “so… did I hit or not?”

Version 2.6 replaces the whole stack with a single d6. A roll of 1 misses, 2 weakens the blow, 5 strengthens it, and a 6 punches clean through armor. Damage is one line of arithmetic — attack minus armor, plus the die, minus range and damage penalties — and the whole thing shows on the board next to the firing ship, so nobody asks what happened.

Hit chance is now a flat 5/6 for everyone. Sounds crude, but it moved the tension where it belongs: not whether you hit, but how hard — and whether you should have been in that hex at all.

The old system isn’t deleted. It’s frozen in v1.html, playable forever, saves and all. Freezing beats migrating: old sea, old rules, no broken savegames.

— logged at the harbor, wind from the north ⚓