After reading
Distaste for Vanilla Space Marine Troops over on the 11th Company forums I got to thinking, how bad are Space Marine Tactical Squads really? How do they stack up against the other codices as far as troop choices go on a point for point basis?
For my first analysis I decided to see how the various troop choices (there are 42 different troop options in the whole of 40k not counting troops unlocked using special characters, troops unlocked through some other means: Tervigons for example, and I also excluded the Death Company Dread for ease of comparison) did in shooting at a T4 opponent with their standard load out (no upgrades taken, except the weapons platform for Eldar Guardians because it is mandatory, I took the Shuriken catapult as it was the least expensive option.)
For this analysis I compared the shooting of 100 points of each type of troop, to make it a fair comparison from a points aspect (of course 200 points of marines shoot better than 50 points of Gretchin for example.). I also broke down shooting into 3 Categories Range Greater than 24 inches, Range from 13-24 inches, and Range of 12 inches or less. This does leave a little grey area at 18" as some units have 18" range guns which are no good at 24", but I decided to not get even more complex so this is obviously a little Skewed.
That said here is what I came up with for the final ranking.
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1 DE Warriors |
2 Fire Warriors |
2 Kroot |
4 Dire Avengers/Shoota Boyz |
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5 IG Veterans |
6 Battle Sisters |
7 Guard Infantry Platoon |
8 Pink Horrors |
9 Grey Hunters |
10 CSM |
11 Inquisitorial Storm Troopers |
12 Penal Legion |
13 GK Strike Squad |
14 Templars |
15 DA Tacticals |
16 Tacticals |
17 Termagants |
18 Gretchin |
19 Necron Warriors |
20 Tyranid Warriors |
21 Guardians |
22 Scouts |
23 Blood Claws |
24 Noise marines |
25 Thousand Sons |
26 Plague marines |
27 Rangers |
28 Wyches |
29 Ork Boyz |
30 BA Assault Squad |
31 GK Terminators |
32 Death company |
33 Guardian Jetbikes |
34 Berzerkers |
35 Bloodletters |
35 Daemonettes |
35 Genestealers |
35 Hormagaunts |
35 Nurglings |
35 Plague bearers |
35 Rippers |
35 Summoned Lesser Daemons | | | |
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| Now it is obvious why the units that tied for 35th overall did so as none of those units can shoot at all. What I found interesting was just how high Kroot placed, with only BS 3 and a bolter that is AP 6, they also end up just as good as Fire Warriors (better if you discount the high placement of Fire warriors in the shooting over 24" category, as only 2 squads have standard firepower over 24", Fire Warriors and Eldar Rangers.) Now of course accounting for AP could be important but T4 Could mean Marines, or it could mean orks so I just wanted to look at total number of wounds caused. |
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| Also interesting keep in mind is that if you make the Ork Boyz shoota boyz (a free upgrade) they are equivalent to Dire avengers, so point for point Orks shoot better than any of the marines using standard/free upgrades. |
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| Here is the math for all units |
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Unit Name |
| Wounds | VS T4 |
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| Number of models | 25"+ | 13-24" | less than 12" |
BA Assault Squad | 5.263157895 | 0 | 0 | 1.754385965 |
Battle Sisters | 9.090909091 | 0 | 3.030303 | 6.060606061 |
Berzerkers | 4.761904762 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Blood Claws | 6.666666667 | 0 | 1.666667 | 3.333333333 |
Bloodletters | 6.25 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
CSM | 6.666666667 | 0 | 2.222222 | 4.444444444 |
DA Tacticals | 6.060606061 | 0 | 2.020202 | 4.04040404 |
Daemonettes | 7.142857143 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
DE Warriors | 11.11111111 | 0 | 3.703704 | 7.407407407 |
Death company | 5 | 0 | 0 | 1.666666667 |
Dire Avengers | 8.333333333 | 0 | 5.555556 | 5.555555556 |
Fire Warriors | 10 | 3.333333 | 3.333333 | 6.666666667 |
Genestealers | 7.142857143 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
GK Strike Squad | 5 | 0 | 3.333333 | 3.333333333 |
GK Terminators | 2.5 | 0 | 1.666667 | 1.666666667 |
Gretchin | 27.5 | 0 | 0 | 4.583333333 |
Grey Hunters | 6.666666667 | 0 | 2.222222 | 4.444444444 |
Guard Infantry Platoon | 19.23076923 | 0 | 2.705128 | 5.965811966 |
Guardian Jetbikes | 4.545454545 | 0 | 0 | 1.291322314 |
Guardians | 12.5 | 0 | 1.25 | 4.375 |
Hormagaunts | 16.66666667 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Inquisitorial Storm Troopers | 10 | 0 | 2.222222 | 4.444444444 |
Kroot | 14.28571429 | 0 | 3.571429 | 7.142857143 |
Necron Warriors | 5.555555556 | 0 | 1.851852 | 3.703703704 |
Noise marines | 5 | 0 | 1.666667 | 3.333333333 |
Nurglings | 7.692307692 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Ork Boyz | 16.66666667 | 0 | 0 | 2.777777778 |
Penal Legion | 12.5 | 0 | 2.555556 | 4 |
Pink Horrors | 5.882352941 | 0 | 4.411765 | 4.411764706 |
Plague bearers | 6.666666667 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Plague marines | 4.347826087 | 0 | 1.449275 | 2.898550725 |
Rangers | 5.263157895 | 1.754386 | 1.754386 | 1.754385965 |
Rippers | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Scouts | 7.142857143 | 0 | 1.785714 | 3.571428571 |
Shoota Boyz | 16.66666667 | 0 | 5.555556 | 5.555555556 |
Summoned Lesser Daemons | 7.692307692 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Tacticals | 5.882352941 | 0 | 1.960784 | 3.921568627 |
Templars | 6.25 | 0 | 2.083333 | 4.166666667 |
Termagants | 20 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
Thousand Sons | 3.610108303 | 0 | 1.786703 | 2.656738869 |
Tyranid Warriors | 3.333333333 | 0 | 2.5 | 2.5 |
Veterans | 14.28571429 | 0 | 3.174603 | 6.349206349 |
Wyches | 10 | 0 | 0 | 3.333333333 |
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Neat article!
ReplyDeleteI'm not surprised that tac marines come out mostly in the middle; they are the basic unit-of-measure for all things 40k, after all.
I am a bit surprised that Tau troops came out so high as I've never had that much luck putting wounds on things with fire warriors or kroot, particularly against marines.
Are you measuring unsaved wounds or just successful wounds rolled?
Just successful wound rolls, which for standard weapons is mostly what matters. (most are Ap 5 or worse). The issue in game terms (which I will get to in a later part of this analysis) is that the Tau lack special guns, so their shooting never gets any better, and never ignores marine armor.
ReplyDeleteEven the most sucessful shooting on the list (DE warriors) will only kill about 2.47 marines per turn of shooting. Kroot and Fire warriors are about the same. This also requires that you get those marines out of their transports.
Looking at it you'll notice that nost of the better shooting troops are aroudn 10 points per model. More shots = more wounds, irregardless of BS.