The broad changes to the function of ranged units in addition to the changes to really both W'adrhun ranged infantry options create some interesting choices in list building. This article seeks to examine the math for slingers against a relatively generic target. I'll be looking at the output at long range with and without using Take Aim and at close range with and without using Take Aim as well as looking at the impact of the Flint Knapper upgrade.
Let's start with what the Slingers do. They are a March 6 Volley 3 base unit with 18" barrage (4) per stand. The minimum 3 stand regiment will set you back 170 pts but with the included leader will be making 13 ranged attacks per turn at full range. They also come with two very powerful special rules - Torrential Fire and wounds caused by this regiment at ranged still cause Morale Tests. Both of these rules have the potential to greatly amplify the damage slingers can do particularly to lighter targets as they lack any armor piercing. Now that that is out of the way let's jump into some math.
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Starting with a generic target lets use Defense 3 and Resolve 4 as a baseline
With a March and Volley activation we have the potential to take 13 attacks at a starting distance of 24" with Volley 3 we should hit roughly half of those attacks yielding 6 to 7 hits. Our generic target has defense 3 so should also save roughly half of those shots leading to an expected output of 3 to 4 wounds. Because we also still cause morale tests we can expect our target to take 1 to 2 additional wounds from failures leading to and expected output of 4 to 6 wounds.
While not an incredible number this is likely to remove at least one stand and has done so from potentially 24" away with no buffs. Now lets look at a Take Aim and Volley Activation.
We increase our Volley to 4 from take aim and now we are generating 8 to 9 hits. Again our generic target will save roughly have of those resulting in 4 to 5 wounds. Adding resolve tests should generate us an additional 1 to 2 wounds as before. Our expected output has pushed to 6 to 7 wounds.
This should reliably remove one stand from our generic target and while it is less than a 50% chance to do 8 wounds there is a possibility of doing so threatening an additional stand of 4 wound models and a potential break of a small unit. 6 to 7 wounds also puts us in the realm of removing a stand of many Brute and Cavalry models.
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Now that we've looked at long range let's dive into half range. At half range regiments gain +1 barrage per stand leading us to 16 attacks. This also brings our other special rule, Torrential Fire, into play. Torrential Fire causes an additional automatic hit for each hit made from within half of barrage range. This is an incredibly powerful special rule resulting in double output of Slingers shooting at targets within 9" so lets get into what that output looks like.
Lets start with a march to within 9" and then a volley so we will use Volley 3 for now. Our increased 16 attacks should yield approximately 8 hits. This will be doubled by Torrential Fire to 16 hits. Our defense 3 target will again save roughly half resulting in 8 wounds. Resolve still kicks in on these attacks adding another 2 to 3 wounds. Within half range we are expecting roughly 10 to 11 total wounds. This should threaten to immediately break a large array of small units including some brutes and cavalry.
That escalated quickly. Slingers within half range are definitely a highly dangerous unit. Let's take a look at the increased output if we can manage a Take Aim and Volley activation within 9" of our target.
We continue to start with 16 attacks but now at Volley 4 we should expect 10 to 11 initial hits doubled to 20 to 22 hits. Our generic target will again save half so will start with 10 to 11 wounds. The resultant morale tests should add an additional 3 to 4 wounds. This leads to a total expected output to be in the 13 to 15 wound range. At this point we can see that the slingers aren't just threatening to break a small unit but outright remove it from the table as well as threatening to break or destroy a number of Brute and Cavalry units.
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At this point we can see that Slingers are a potentially devastating ranged unit especially if we can leverage their Torrential Fire special rules. We have yet to examine the potential buffs we can add to the unit in the form of the Flint Knapper upgrade. The Flint Knapper costs us 15 pts bringing the 3 stand regiment to 185 but it provides two benefits. The first is we now ignore the Hardened rule. Hardened allows a unit to ignore at least part of incoming effects such as Cleave that reduce defense. As our slingers have no armor piercing we don't actually care about that part.
The second benefit is the one we care more about - we now reroll any 6s on our volley hit rolls. Typically I look at rerolling 6s as more of a normalizing factor than necessarily as adding wounds. The reason for this is the low number attacks means a small percentage increase in successes. In a perfect distribution you'd expect about 16% of the dice rolled to be 6s so rerolling those should net roughly 8 to 12% additional successes depending on whether or not take aim was available. Let's take a look at our biggest output scenario - take aim and volley within 9"
16 attacks should yield 10 to 11 initial hits and likely 2 misses on a 6. We should hit at least 1 but possibly both of those jumping us to 11 to 13 initial hits doubled to 22 to 26 hits after torrential. So now we are at 11 to 13 wounds from the volley and an additional 3 to 4 still from resolve yielding 14 to 15 wounds with an reasonable chance for 16+. This isn't a big change but the percentage distribution should be much more in the middle of the curve with the lower end being pushed up by the reroll.
To conclude this rather lengthy and hopefully helpful dive into Slingers we see a viable ranged superiority unit that should put positional pressure on opponents because the threat of not just removing light units but putting pressure on heavier units like brutes and cavalry especially if they can leverage the torrential fire rule. Solid base Volley stats and some rather unique rules make Slingers a prime reason to run a predator warband in version 2. I may examine the predator directly in a later post to see what those additional quality shots can add to the regiment.
As always Thanks for Reading
-Kauzu
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