Re: [WW] Sherman Tank vs. Purple Worm

[Matt Smith <mdsiii@nts-online.net>]

>Why? A Purple Worm might -hit- the Sherman, and swallow it - maybe, but it
>would take a while to digest, even if it did. 

Hmmm. What you seem to be suggesting here is that the worm can't hurt
the Sherman. That is indeed the result you get if you make no
adjustments to the combatants' abilities. The worm's bite does 2D8+12
for a maximum of 28 damage, less that the Sherman's armor every place
except the deck. I just don't buy it: the worm is Gargantuan, the tank
is Huge; the worms outmasses the tank several times, and has teeth
that can chew through solid rock. The worm should have some reasonable
chance beyond a critical to hurt the Sherman. Weapons in the WW2 lists
that do about the same average damage as the worm's bite have PV's
ranging from zero to 100. You can just assume that no monster attacks
ever get a positive PV rating, but this means that armored vehicles
are very, very, tough against even the largest of monsters. If you
want a little more of an even match up then something needs to be
adjusted.

By the way, a Sherman is too big for a standard purple worm to swallow
:)

>A Sherman's main gun damage
>should just be applied to the PW's hit points. And yeah, that's a big owie.
>Should be.

>Noah

Mostly agree here. The problem isn't the amount of damage the gun
does, it's the problems the Sherman has in hitting the worm in the
first place. A standard purple worm has an AC of 19, 15 of that
natural armor. If it were a vehicle instead of a monster, with an
Armor rating instead of natural armor, it would have an AC of 4! None
of the gun's penetrative ability is factored into the Sherman's To Hit
bonuses to make up that 15-point difference, meaning the tank crew
will have much harder time getting a hit on the worm than it should.

Do you see why I think some translation is necessary? Otherwise a
vehicle/monster combat is skewed, in extreme cases with the monster
unable to damage the vehicle and the vehicle unable to hit the
monster.

Matt Smith