(Research) Large Ground Support Vehicle Hit Location Table

[CarcosanDawn]

I am very confused by the what the double "S" note on this chart (P.g. 206 of my copy of Total War) is trying to say - it was clear to me, until it very suddenly wasn't anymore as of today. There appears to be 2 issues with the chart and the footnote, as follows:
Issue 1: Asymmetrical Damage
If such a vehicle is being shot at from the front (directly ahead):
- 0% chance of being hit on the front left side
- ~6% chance of being hit on the front right side
- ~77% chance for front armor
- ~17% chance of turret

The same is true of the rear, except it's REAR LEFT side (instead of front right) - if shot at from directly behind; with no chance of being hit at the rear right.

This means that evenly distributing armor across those locations is worse than slightly weighting the armor tonnage to one side - right front and left rear - by about a 6% difference (matters when you have nearly 100 armor bubbles like the Soarece!).

Issue 2: What the "double S" footnote says
The double-S footnote appears to be saying something about this, but also may be saying something totally unrelated; it is not clear to me. The "double S" note is at the top of the Front Side and Rear Side locations columns, and says:
"If the attack hits the front right side, all Front Side results strike the front right side armor, while Rear Side results strike the rear right side armor. If the vehicle has no turret, a turret strikes the armor on the side attacked."

This statement can be parsed in any one of three ways:
- An "If-then" statement that's a logical one, but became garbled (since it begins with if and there is no such thing as a "Front Side result" or "Rear Side result" - those are column headers, not results.)
- An "example" statement showing the intent of the rule (that the Side result simply hits the facing where the shot is coming from; i.e. if you roll Side on the Rear Side result for an impact on the Rear Left Side Facing, it impacts the Rear Left Side; conversely, if you roll Side on the Front Side facing, it simply hits either the front or rear side depending on where the shot is coming from.) Unfortunately, there's no real reason to have a second column in this case; just use the Combat Vehicle "side" column and say "the shot impacts the front or rear hex-side facing" or the like in the footnotes.
- A reference to a column structure that does not currently exist; it would make far more sense if there were simply a "Left Side" and "Right Side" column, and then the row results said whether it was Front Side or Rear Side. The footnote would make sense in this context, as if the front right (hex) facing is impacted, you'd roll on the Right Side column and get Front Side and Rear Side results. This best matches the language in the footnote, which speaks of Front and Rear Side results rather than Front and Rear Side Columns, as the table is currently organized.

Altogether, I find this table rather confusing, both in its asymmetry and whatever that footnote is trying to impart.

A revised example table is here, based on what I think the footnote is trying to say (side crits (a la Vehicle Effectiveness rules) and motive hits omitted for brevity); I've also tried to reduce the asymmetry in the front and rear side hits from rear-facing and front-facing impacts; the cost of making the table make more sense was a tiny adjustment to turret impacts and turret criticals from the sides; just trying to help.

2d6 Roll	Front	Rear	Right Side	Left Side
2	Front (critical)	Rear (critical)	Front Right Side (critical)	Front Left Side (critical)
3	Front Right Side	Rear Right Side	Front	Front
4	Front	Rear	Front Right Side	Front Left Side
5	Front	Rear	Front Right Side	Front Left Side
6	Front	Rear	Front Right Side	Front Left Side
7	Turret	Turret	Turret	Turret
8	Front	Rear	Rear Right Side	Rear Left Side
9	Front	Rear	Rear Right Side	Rear Left Side
10	Front	Rear	Rear Right Side	Rear Left Side
11	Front Left Side	Rear Left Side	Rear	Rear
12	Turret (critical)	Turret (critical)	Rear Right Side (critical)	Rear Left Side (critical)

Only issue is the lack of a Turret critical - if that is desired, it will require revision again, and becomes much more complicated (which might be why it's asymmetrical and confusing in the first place) - and reduced chance of a Side crit. If that's truly desired, can put side crit in at Row 8 as well and put a footnote to roll on the Turret Critical chart if a 12 is rolled (call it a rear side armor weakness or something, haha!).

Total Probabilities vs. Original Table - assuming Option 2 for the footnote is correct (it is an example only)

Hexside Facing Hit Location:	Chance of final Hit Location (crit) for Offered Revision:	Chance of final Hit Location (crit) for Original:
Front:	Front - 66.67% (+2.78%) Front Right Side - 5.56% Front Left Side - 5.56% Rear: 0% Rear Right Side - 0% Rear Left Side - 0% Turret - 16.67% (+2.78%)	Front - 75% (+2.78%) Front Right Side - 5.56% Front Left Side - 0% Rear: 0% Rear Right Side -0% Rear Left Side - 0% Turret - 13.89% (+2.78%)
Rear:	Rear - 66.67% (+2.78%) Front Right Side - 0% Front Left Side - 0% Rear Right Side - 5.56% Rear Left Side - 5.56% Turret - 16.67% (+2.78%)	Rear - 75% (+2.78%) Front Right Side - 0% Front Left Side - 0% Rear Right Side - 0% Rear Left Side - 5.56% Turret - 13.89% (+2.78%)
Right Side / Front Side on the original chart (assumes shooter is standing on the Right side):	Front - 5.56% Front Right Side - 33.33% (+2.78%) Front Left Side - 0% Rear - 5.56% Rear Right Side - 33.33% (+2.78%) Rear Left Side - 0% Turret - 16.67%	Front - 5.56% Front Right Side - 75% (+2.78%) Front Left Side - 0% Rear - 0% Rear Right Side - 0% Rear Left Side - 0% Turret - 13.89% (+2.78%)
Left Side / Rear Side on the original chart (assumes shooter is standing on the left side):	Front - 5.56% Front Right Side - 0% Front Left Side - 33.33% (+2.78%) Rear - 5.56% Rear Right Side - 0% Rear Left Side - 33.33% (+2.78%) Turret - 16.67%	Front - 0% Front Right Side - 0% Front Left Side - 0% Rear - 5.56% Rear Right Side - 0% Rear Left Side - 75% (+2.78%) Turret - 13.89% (+2.78%)

[Hammer]

What are the specific questions? It's difficult to parse with the wall of text.

[CarcosanDawn]

What are the specific questions? It's difficult to parse with the wall of text.

Really it's basically:
"How does this location chart actually work" - mostly because the double-S footnote doesn't make sense to me.

[CarcosanDawn]

Just a quick bump - been playing with the rules a good bit lately and that double-S footnote has confused a few of us. The chart seems to work if one just ignores the footnote mostly - though we have still had to house rule a few situations that don't seem covered if we ignore the foot ote.