How KT Calc works
KT Calc is open about its math. These pages explain the logic behind the numbers — the surprising results worth a closer look, and the Kill Team 2024 rules the engine is built and validated against. Read through if you want to check the calculator by hand or understand why a result came out the way it did.
Deep-dive notes4 docs
Lethal + Relentless: why kill chance can rise as BS gets worse
Walks the math for a scenario where the reported kill chance is higher at BS 5+ than BS 2+. Not a bug — Relentless feeds every failed die back into a fixed crit band, and kill chance is a tail probability, not an average.
Mystic Scry Buff + Rending: why the best choice depends on what you rolled
The "retain a fail as a norm, or a norm as a crit" decision is not fixed. Explains when each choice wins and how the calculator models it.
Why Punishing can lower your damage
Switching on an ability that only adds a hit can reduce reported damage. Punishing retains the fail, locking it, where another effect would have left it promotable — so the promotion is stranded.
Comparing weapons by power level
Which weapons are actually the same power level, measured against a fixed slate of targets — plain and with the buff that upgrades them, because a set that looks even can still come apart once everyone is buffed.
Game rules reference5 docs
Combat rules — defense & the shooting save sequence
Defense dice, saves, cover, Feel No Pain, Piercing, and Saintly Relics — how the shoot calculator resolves saves.
Fight rules — how melee is resolved
The alternating strike/parry sequence, what a parry can cancel, the engine’s strike-vs-parry decision logic, and hand-verifiable scenarios.
Retained vs modified dice — why cover saves cannot be promoted
A dice can only be retained once. Sorts every effect into the ones that lock a dice (cover, Accurate, Punishing) and the ones that can still change it (Severe, Waaagh), and explains what the calculator does with each.
When not to take cover saves
Cover is optional, and occasionally worth declining: with norm→crit save promotions against a mostly-critical attack, rolling the dice beats a locked normal save. Measured numbers, plus why the calculator always takes cover.
Weapon rules — all weapon rule effects
Reference for the weapon rules the calculator scores: Accurate, Balanced, Brutal, Ceaseless, Devastating, Lethal, Piercing, Punishing, Relentless, Rending, Severe, Shock. Heavy is a movement restriction with no dice effect. Saturate is represented by setting cover saves to 0.