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Advanced QF Combat Chart
Guide
Introduction
This guide helps players to quickly understand how the different parts of the combat chart are used to resolve gunfire, calculate damage effects and
check for sinking. For tables which require die rolling, a note in
the upper right corner will show how many twelve-sided dice are used to resolve the action. Hence 1D12 means that one twelve-sided die is used for each die
roll, and 2D12 means two twelve-sided dice are used for each roll on that table. Game play requires using two different colors of dice, but the actual colors used are optional. For sake of clarity the rules text always uses black and white dice for its examples. |
 GUNFIRE & HITS
These tables are used to score damage from ship's guns.
Resolve these gunfire hits by rolling two twelve-sided dice for each round of fire; one die will be the black ROF die, and one will be the black Battery Fire die.
ROF Table – Details
The result of the black ROF die will decide whether the ship fired this turn. If the modified number rolled is equal to or less than the firing ship's current ROF value, the ship is considered to have fired this turn and the Battery Fire results can be checked for effect (or lack thereof). If the modified ROF number is greater than the current ROF rating for that ship, it has failed to "put enough lead in the air" that turn and is considered not to have fired. This does not mean the ship did not fire at all, just that it did not fire enough to warrant calculating. There is one modifier that may apply to the die roll, and this can improve the chance for a ship to succeed on the ROF die portion of the next roll attempt.
ROF Example #1: The HMS Sans Pareil is firing. She has slow-firing guns that will "fire" only on a 5 ROF roll (black die). If she rolls a 6 or higher, her guns failed to fire often enough during the turn to justify calculating. Player Note: Ships with very low ROF ratings should not be pitted against more rapid firing vessels unless players are aware of the risks to the slower firing ships and how to balance those risks within the greater scenario.
ROF Example #2: An armored cruiser with an ROF rating of 11 for Light Gunnery is firing. Last fire phase it missed firing by rolling a 12 on the ROF die. Now that this is its second attempt to fire, it will automatically succeed because even if the player rolls a 12, there is a minus one (-1) modifier for having failed the previous ROF roll. |
 Battery Fire Table – Details
This table is used if the black ROF die shows that the ship fired.
Start Battery Fire by comparing the attacker's respective Gunnery Rating (heavy or light) against the target vessel's corresponding Armor Rating. (number one). The resulting percentage difference (number two) is used to find what die roll is needed to score hits. Note that Page 2 of the combat chart includes a gunnery reference table to help quickly calculate these percentages.
Scoring Hits: Once you know your percent difference, refer to your white gunnery die roll. If the total falls within any of the matching Die Roll numbers shown in the middle field (number three), apply the number of hits shown at the top of the matching column, which will be one, two or three hits.
Hit Types: Once the player knows if there was a hit or hits, the type of first hit will correspond to whether the white Gunnery Die is odd or even
(number
four). Even results will always give Speed (S) hits first, and odd results will always give Gunnery (G) hits first. In both cases, the hit types will alternate as more points are scored. So for example, if a player rolls an odd number for three hits, he will score a G hit, an S Hit, and then another G Hit - so two G hits and one S Hit total. If only one hit is scored, then the odd/even number is the decider of that one, first hit.
If all eight speed boxes of a ship are filled with regular S hits, any further S hits from Heavy Gunnery cause existing repairable S Hits to become unrepairable SX Hits. Instead of a simple "x" to show damage in one corner of the box, cross-out the box entirely to show it is now unrepairable. Additional S Hits due to Light Gunnery convert to Fire Hits instead.
Battery Fire Example #1: The French battleship Massena with a heavy gunnery value of 16 is firing on the US battleship Ohio which has a heavy armor value of 11, which is a 125% advantage over the target for the Massena - meaning that the Massena can score a hit if the two white dice total 9 or less (if the ship actually fires, as decided by the black ROF die). The French player rolls a 4 on the ROF die (the ship fires) and a 2 on the white gunnery die, so the Ohio suffers one Speed (S) hit. The S hit should not be confused with an SX hit, which is unrepairable.
Battery Example #2: The Ohio fires back at the Massena with a heavy gunnery rating of 19 points against the Massena's heavy armor rating of 12. The US player rolls a 7. Ohio has an ROF of 6, so the ship does not fire this phase and the result of the white die does not matter. On the next gunnery phase, Ohio will get a -1 on its ROF die roll because it missed the roll this turn.
Default Targeting - The default targeting note is simply a reminder that in general, Heavy Gunnery fires at Heavy Armor and Light Gunnery fires at Light Armor. This is due to a few different factors: Light gunnery will generally be firing common shell, which will have little effect on heavier armor. Lighter guns could try armor piercing, but the effectiveness would generally be poor, as noted in several period sources. Heavy fire is similar, although with some added flexibility. But generally if you had heavy guns, you would be firing rounds built to affect heavy armor. But, not always! And this is where the Heavy Gunnery Bonuses come into the picture.
Heavy Gunnery Bonuses - The pre-preadnought period saw a great deal of change in both design and deployment of ordnance and armor. So our attempt to cover the entire period within one set of rules actually ends up being rather challenging. But a general trend at this time was the realization that just getting in close and punching the enemy's armor was not always the way things were going to turn out. At longer ranges, where armor piercing might see its least effectiveness, even heavy guns might fire a generous amount of common shell or even more specialized high explosive rounds intended to wreck the more lightly protected areas of the target. Such areas could include upperworks amidships or thinly armored zones of the waterline. Either way, this is modeled directly into the rules by letting Heavy Gunnery target either Heavy Armor or Light Armor when firing at long range. At Medium range the default targeting rule applies to both Heavy and Light Gunnery. Once within the Point Blank range bracket, Heavy Gunnery also receives a one-line elevation on the Battery Fire table. So for example, if it started at 150%, it rolls for effect on the 200% line. Also, once a target vessel's speed boxes are completely filled-in with S Hits, any further S Hits caused by Heavy Gunnery will count as SX Hits and be applied accordingly. This is with Heavy Gunnery only, not Light Gunnery. |
 Blast Damage Table – This
table is used to cover low-odds critical hits to external and internal areas
of a ship that happen as a result of gunnery damage.
Start by totaling both dice rolled for the ROF and Battery Fire tables (do not re-roll, use the original die roll that decided the gunnery hits, if any). Take that value and cross reference it with the Range line that matches the current distance between ships. The result Hit Code(s) are applied to the ship as of the end of the current gunnery phase (keeping in mind that all gunnery within a phase is considered simultaneous). Blast damage can only happen if the ship actually fired and also scored hits on the Battery Fire Table.
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Damage Table – This table decides the effects of existing damage, and the odds/success of making repairs with Repair dice. Use the table by rolling one twelve-sided die and cross-referencing the result (shown under Die Roll) with the line that corresponds to the damage or repair attempt in question. The cross-referenced point will show either a result code or codes, or "n/e" which means no effect. Below are some details for the respective lines:
Explosion: For any E result, roll 2D6 on this line and apply the result codes shown. Note that some explosion results cause repairable S Hits, and others cause unrepairable SX Hits. Each explosion also causes one additional F Hit (fire).
T Hit Effect: For any Torpedo Reload Hit on a ship which had a torpedo rating to start with (not to be confused with the act of being struck with a torpedo) roll 1D12 to check for an additional Fire Hit. The T Hit Effect is a one-time test at the time the hit occurs, not a recurring risk check like those from fire hits.
Fire Check: Recurring damage test. Roll on this line every turn for each active fire and apply the results: B causes one boat gun hit (mark off one boat gun point on the ship log), out means that the Fire Hit in question goes out (cross out the fire) and E means the fire has caused an explosion, immediately roll for effects on the Explosion line. An E result due to Fire does not cause the triggering fire to go out - that remains to possibly cause more problems next turn.
SX Check: Recurring damage test. Roll on this line if any of a ship's Speed Boxes are marked with SX Hits (unrepairable Speed Hits). It does not matter how many there are, having any SX Hits triggers the recurring die roll test for further hits. A die roll of 12 results in the addition of one more SX Hit to that vessel's Speed Boxes (ongoing flooding).
Repair G, B, S, D: To attempt repair of a Gunnery (ROF), Boat Gun, Speed or Direction hit, roll 1D12 on this line. A die result of 3 to 7 results in a repair of that hit. Cross out the hit to restore the previous value, or cross out the Direction hit for the ship to regain course/directional control.
Repair S+P: To attempt repair of a Speed hit (regular S hit) on a ship with +P speed protection, roll 1D12 on this line. A die result of 1 to 7 results in a repair of that hit. Cross out that hit to restore the previous value. Even ships with +P speed protection cannot fix unrepairable (SX) speed hits.
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Torpedo Hit Table – Torpedo capable ships that are within point-blank range of enemy ships may roll on this table to see if they successfully launched torpedoes and scored any hits. Start by rolling two twelve-sided Hit Dice (2D12); one black Hit Die and one white Damage Die. Modify the black Hit Die with any applicable die roll modifiers. A torpedo strike happens on any modified result of 1 or less. Below is a description of the hit die roll modifiers:
Converging Target - Subtract one (-1) from the die roll if the courses of the firing ship and the target ship are converging (moving toward each other in any way). Even "almost parallel" courses in which the two ships are aligned slightly toward each other can be considered as converging.
Static Target - Subtract one (-1) from the die roll if the target ship is not moving. A target ship is considered not moving if it used one speed
box or less of its movement during the current game turn.
Destroyer/TB Firing -
Subtract one (-1) from the die roll if the firing ship (boat) is a destroyer or torpedo boat. If small enough and fast enough, torpedo gunboats (TGB) may count, although this should be decided before game play starts if TGBs are going to be used.
If a torpedo hit does occur, the ship's torpedo reload rating is not automatically affected just because the hit took place, see below.
Torpedo Damage Roll - If the Roll to Hit scored a torpedo strike, add the white die result to the natural (unmodified) black die result. The total of these two is the
number of damage points to that will establish the number of actual Unrepairable Speed (SX) Hits suffered by the target ship. The size of the torpedo (as listed in the ship log) controls how many hits are inflicted by the damage point pool. Hence, the great number of points needed to create a hit, the smaller number of hits that will result (14" torpedoes are least dangerous, 21" torpedoes are most dangerous):
14" Torpedoes - Inflict one SX Hit per 10 damage points.
15" Torpedoes - Inflict one SX hit per 7 damage points.
18" Torpedoes -
Inflict one SX hit per 3 damage points.
21" Torpedoes -
Inflict one SX hit per 2 damage points.
Out of Torpedoes - If a hit is scored, compare the natural Damage Die result (white die) to the launching ship's Reload Rating. If the white die's natural roll is equal to or greater than the vessel's current Torpedo Reload Rating, the ship has run out of spare torpedoes - cross out the entire Torpedo line, the ship may conduct no further torpedo attacks. This means that vessels who start the game with very high reload ratings like 11 are considered to carry numerous reloads for numerous launch tubes, and vessels with lower ratings are considered to carry few or no reloads for fewer launch tube sets. Ships whose reload ratings have been knocked down by damage are considered to have lost part of all of their ability to launch and reload for further attacks. A ship that started the game with a torpedo launch capability (Torpedo size and reload rating) which has had its reload number reduced to zero by damage events may not attempt torpedo attacks. |
 Boat Gun Fire – Any ships with boat gun points may use them to fire at light vessels that approach to within point-blank range. Light vessels count as anything Size 1 or smaller, with less than one point of armor rating (i.e., 1/2 point or Zero armor). To fire boat guns, simply roll 1D12 per current boat gun point that is available to the vessel (not including points marked out due to damage). Boat gun points may be used once per turn (one gunnery phase only, not both) in any direction and they may be split among several targets. If firing two or more boat gun dice onto one target, if all dice roll the same number (doubles, triples, etc.) then the target boat also suffers an explosion, even if the die roll results themselves caused no effects.
Boat Gun Fire Example: A battleship with three boat gun points has an enemy destroyer within point-blank range of it. It rolls all three dice against the one ship and rolls a 2, and 5 and a 9. The destroyer suffers one Boat Gun hit and one Torpedo Reload hit. The destroyer rolls 1D12 for extra damage due to the torpedo rating hit, rolling an 11, which starts a fire. It will mark three points off of its current Torpedo Reload rating (an 8 goes down to a 5, etc.) and mark off one speed box with a repairable S-hit. |
 Sinking Table – Ships which have two or more SX hits must roll on the Sinking table at the end of each turn to see if they sink. Refer to the SX Hits column and cross reference the number of current hits to the Die Roll number next to it. If the ship rolls equal to or less than the number shown, it sinks and is removed from the playing area. If the ship has suffered additional SX hits (beyond the eight which blocked out its existing speed boxes), subtract one point from the die roll for each extra SX hit showing (extra hits should be recorded in the ship log margin).
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