Thread by @JohnsonJeffro

Honestly, I wouldn't blame anyone that threw these books against the wall at this point and then made Tunnels & Trolls instead.

Chainmail has three different combat systems in it. D&D has two systems in it right out of the gate, with more on the way via the supplements. Enrage 1-8 turns.

Okay, sure. A hero is worth four "men" and a super-hero is worth eight "men". What type of "man" that is depends on whether you are equipped as heavy foot, armored foot, light horse, or whatever.

Now pay attention. Let's say our hero is equipped as heavy foot. He walks up to some knights-- heavy horse. He rolls one six-sided die and a six comes up. That's a kill. And just like that, 20 armored knights are slain!!

A hero walks up to a giant and attacks. On an 11 or 12, the giant is totally killed. He kills ghouls on 6+ and dragons on a natural 12.

Or maybe you use the man-to-man system. Cross reference his weapon vs the armor to get the number on two dice that he needs to roll to score a hit. It takes four "kills" to kill him. But does he get FOUR chances to make his target roll when he's attacking? Hey. why not?!

There are no hit points in Chainmail. So they are only relevant to the D&D combat system where each hit does 1-6 points of damage. But how can this make any sense without weapons vs. AC adjustments, weapon length, and weapon speed?!

Now... enter Greyhawk where fighting men (and only fighting men) get bonuses to their to-hit and damage rolls. But hit has to be their NATURAL strength roll. You don't get to rob intelligence to raise strength for this.

Greyhawk adds in the weapon vs. ac adjustments because the D&D combat system was clearly INFERIOR to Chainmail without them. Meanwhile, the chainmail ratings are still used to detail high level clerics, magic-users, and the thieves.

Many pages are given over to updating the monster attacks for variable weapon damage. A major overhaul to the system! But checkout out these modifiers for ranged weapons. This is taking "weapon vs ac" to a whole new spergtastic levels!

I told you all that so I could tell you this. The Judges Guild Ready Ref Sheets break out the weapons in their order from Chainmail's man-to-man rules so that you could use the Chainmail parry rules with D&D. CHAINMAIL WAS KING!