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Efficiency in 40k I've seen a number of people do efficiency studies on various units in Warhammer 40k to see what units give the best return for their points. Now, statistical analysis is effective, but it has it's limits, and there are certain variables that can change the equations on you. The notes below will be in the form of (Number of Shots/attacks)x(Chance to Hit)x(Chance to Wound)x(Chance to Fail Armor Save.) A Ballistic Skill of 4 means that shooting attacks will hit on a 3 or higher on 1d6. This means that 4 out of every 6 shots should hit, giving a 2/3 chance to hit. When the Tyranid Codex came out for 3rd Edition, many Tyranid players griped about how their Genestealers had been hamstrung since they no longer had power weapons for claws. Using a marine as the target, we get this equation: 3 x 2/3 x ½ x 1 (3 attacks on the charge, 2/3 chance to hit, ½ chance to wound, No chance to make armor save. That equals one dead Marine on the charge per Genestealer. The Tyranid Codex removed the Power Weapons and gave Genestealers Rending Claws instead. On a To Hit roll of 6, Rending Claws will automatically wound an enemy and ignore it's armor, regardless of Toughness or normal Armor Saves. This leads to a more complicated equation, since we have to account for the possibility of rolling a 6 on the dice to hit. Since they have WS6, they will likely be hitting on 3 or higher. This means that on a 3,4,5 they will hit, then have to roll to wound and to save, while on a 6 they will hit, wound and ignore saves automatically. So... 3 x (1/6 +(1/2 x ½ x 1/3) which equals 9/12 or ¾ of a dead Marine on the charge. One intangible item here: initiative. All versions of Genestealers have Initiative 6, meaning they get to attack before almost anything else. When they kill the enemies in base contact with them, they are more likely to survive. Old Genestealers would, on average, each kill the enemy in base contact with them, leaving fewer attacks to strike back at them. Codex Genestealers, killing only ¾ of the enemies in base contact, leave more enemies alive to strike back at them, resulting in fewer living Genestealers. However, there is a potential solution to this. Codex Genestealers can get Scything Talons for 6 pts. This gives them an extra attack, with another chance for the Rending Claws to work their magic and everything. This brings Genestealers back up to their 1 dead Marine per charging Genestealer ratio, and also conveniently costs 6pts, making them 22pts again. Obviously, the old version of the Genestealer is much more efficient, right? There is also the issue of cost: Old Genestealers cost 22pts, new Genestealers cost 16pts. Space Marines cost 15pts each for the standard trooper. That means that the old Genestealers killed 15pts of Marines on the charge at a cost of 22, while the codex ones kill 11.75pts of marines on the charge at a cost of 16. So, the old Genestealers (or the Codex ones with Scything Talons) cost 1.5pts for every point of Marine killed, while the standard codex ones cost 1.4pts for every point of Marine killed. The codex ones are starting to look slightly better. Well, everything is fine and dandy now, but we've only taken Hand to Claw combat into account. Typically, a brood of Genestealers will be shot as it moves up. While there will normally be more turns to shoot at them, there will also normally be other targets to be shot or other things that prevent the Genestealers from being shot. Here we will take a look at a squad of Marines getting in a turn of fire at the Genestealers before they charge into close combat. The Marines will have a squad of 10, one carrying a Heavy Bolter. The codex Genestealers will get 11 in their brood, while the Scything Talon Genestealers will get 8, due to their increased cost. 9 Bolters vs T4: 9x2/3x1/2=3 dead. The Squad of Space Marines does 4.33 casualties, which we'll round up to 5. Some Marines may get to rapid-fire their Bolters, but some others may have their LOS blocked, so it mostly evens out. So, 11 Genestealers move up, 5 are cut down by the Marines, and six make the charge. These will kill 4.5 Marines. With ST Genestealers, 8 will start running toward the squad of Marines. As before, 5 of them are shot by the Marines, leaving 3 to charge into close combat. Those three will kill 3.0 Marines. Hmm, definite advantage to the standard Genestealers, but how do they stack up against other, less expensive genetic constructs in the Tyranid army? For comparison, let's look at Leaping Deathgaunts and Spinegaunts, two of the most popular genetic mixes used by Tyranid players. Leaping Deathgaunts are essentially upgraded Hormogaunts. Each has S4, T3, I5 and Scything Talons, giving them 3 attacks on the charge. They also have Leaping, meaning they get to assault 12" instead of 6" when they charge in. Leaping also means that any gaunts within 2" of an enemy get their full attacks, instead of a single, helping attack. These beasts run 12pts each, significantly cheaper than Genestealers. Each Deathgaunt gets 3 x ½ x ½ x 1/3, or ¼ of a Dead Marine per charging Deathgaunt. That means that they kill 3.75pts of Marines for 12 points. That's 3.2pts per point of Marine killed. For the same points value as above, we get 14 Deathgaunts to charge in against the Space Marine squad. 9 Bolters vs T3: 9 x 2/3 x 2/3 = 4 Dead Gaunts. Thus, 14 Gaunts begin, but 6 are cut down before they reach combat. The remaining 8 should all be within 2" of an enemy, meaning that they all get their full attacks. Since they do ¼ of a Dead Marine each, that's 2 Dead Marines. Now, the combination of Fleet of Claw and a 12" assault may mean that the Space Marines won't get a chance to fire on them, but that will vary greatly by situation. Finally, we come to the lowly Spinegaunt. With WS3, T3, S3, and only 1 basic attack, they don't sound very impressive. On the other hand, they are only 5pts each! The same points that give us 8 ST Genestealers give us 35 (!) Spinegaunts. With 2 attacks on the charge, they have 2 x ½ x 1/3 x 1/3 or 1/9 chance of killing a Marine. That means they kill 1.66pts of Marines for every 5pts of Spinegaunt, giving them an efficiency of 3pts for every point of Dead Marines. Just as with the Deathgaunts, they will lose 6 to shooting, leaving 29 to charge into combat. Obviously, not all of them will make it into Base contact. For our purposes, let's say that 10 make it into Base contact, while 20 more are within 2 inches of Base contact, giving them a helping attack. Those 40 attacks yield a whopping 2.22 Dead Marines. Well, that definitely leaves the regular codex Genestealers coming out the best, but it still fails to take some considerations into account. Chief among these, in my opinion, is that a unit doesn't necessarily have to kill the enemy to get it's points back. Units can tie up the enemy, claim objectives or distract the enemy without any killing at all, yet they are still earning their points by helping you to win. That's why I have typically used Deathgaunts, since they move very fast and can tie up the enemy quickly. If you enjoyed this, email me and let me know |