Analysis of Troops: Stage two Close Combat wounds dealt

Continuing down our exploration of the 40k troop choices, we'll take a look at which units dole out the most wounds point for point.  I crunched the numbers for all the basic troops against opponents with WS3 and 4 and Toughness 3 and 4, to see how effective these units are in close combat for the points you spend. I also did not take charging into account. SO cutting to the chase here are the rankings.

No real surprise that Orks rank at the top, with 3 attacks each and WS 4 at 6 points they can really pump out a lot of punishment.  I find it interesting the Ripper swarms place so highly and most people completely disregard them as an option (due to their special rules).

Also of note, for those that argue Grey Knights are sub par in the assault...that holds true as Strike squads are point for point the equivalent of eldar guardians, and point for point their terminators are worse than tactical marines and barely better than Tau Fire Warriors.  Now GKs have other advantages that are not being looked at here, but from sheer output of wounds, they don't stack up.

Finally the last thing I find interesting, is that for wound output point for point, Summoned Lesser Daemons in the Chaos Space marine codex are better than Bloodletters (when you take other things into account, as we will later this does not hold up on the table.)

Overall rank	Troop type
1	Ork Boyz
2	Shoota Boyz
3	Rippers
4	Hormagaunts
5	Wyches
5	Templars
7	Berzerkers
8	Genestealers
9	Summoned Lesser Daemons
10	Bloodletters
10	Nurglings
12	Kroot
13	CSM
14	Daemonettes
15	Grey Hunters
16	Guard Infantry Platoon
17	Tyranid Warriors
18	Blood Claws
19	Termagants
19	Gretchin
21	BA Assault Squad
22	Penal Legion
23	Death company
24	Veterans
25	Noise marines
26	Plague marines
27	DE Warriors
28	Guardians
28	GK Strike Squad
30	Plague bearers
31	Dire Avengers
32	DA Tacticals
33	Tacticals
34	Inquisitorial Storm Troopers
35	Scouts
36	GK Terminators
37	Fire Warriors
38	Necron Warriors
39	Battle Sisters
40	Thousand Sons
41	Pink Horrors
42	Rangers
43	Guardian Jetbikes

 

So here are the numbers for those who are interested.

Overall rank	Troop type	# of Models	WS3 T3	WS4 T3	WS3  T4	WS4 T4
1	Ork Boyz	16.6666667	16.66666667	12.5	11.1111111	8.33333334
2	Shoota Boyz	16.6666667	11.11111111	12.5	7.40740741	5.55555556
3	Rippers	10	10	10	6.66666667	6.66666667
4	Hormagaunts	16.6666667	8.583333335	8.58333334	5.72222222	5.72222222
5	Wyches*	10	7.407407407	5.74074074	5.67901235	4.44444444
5	Templars**	6.25	7.407407407	6.25	5.55555556	4.16666667
7	Berzerkers	4.76190476	6.349206349	6.34920635	4.76190476	4.76190476
8	Genestealers	7.14285714	6.349206349	6.34920635	4.76190476	4.76190476
9	Summoned Lesser Daemons	7.69230769	6.837606837	5.12820513	5.12820513	3.84615385
10	Bloodletters	6.25	5.555555556	5.55555556	4.16666667	4.16666667
10	Nurglings	7.69230769	5.769230769	5.76923077	3.84615385	3.84615385
12	Kroot	14.2857143	6.349206351	4.76190476	4.76190476	3.57142857
13	CSM	6.66666667	5.925925926	4.44444444	4.44444444	3.33333333
14	Daemonettes	7.14285714	5.357142857	5.35714286	3.57142857	3.57142857
15	Grey Hunters	6.66666667	5.925925926	4.44444444	4.44444444	3.33333333
16	Guard Infantry Platoon	19.2307692	5.307692308	5.30769231	3.53846154	3.53846154
17	Tyranid Warriors	3.33333333	4.814814814	4.81481481	3.61111111	3.61111111
18	Blood Claws	6.66666667	4.444444445	4.77777778	3.58333333	3.58333333
19	Termagants	20	5	5	3.33333333	3.33333333
19	Gretchin	27.5	5.583333333	5.25	3.01388889	2.79166667
21	BA Assault Squad	5.2631579	5.122807018	3.84210526	3.84210526	2.88157895
22	Penal Legion***	12.5	4.583333333	4.58333333	3.05555556	3.05555556
23	Death company	5	5	3.75	3.33333333	2.5
24	Veterans	14.2857143	4.071428573	4.07142857	2.71428572	2.71428572
25	Noise marines	5	4.444444444	3.33333333	3.33333333	2.5
26	Plague marines	4.34782609	3.8647343	2.89855072	2.89855072	2.17391304
27	DE Warriors	11.1111111	3.703703703	2.77777778	2.4691358	1.85185185
28	Guardians	12.5	3.125	3.125	2.08333333	2.08333333
28	GK Strike Squad	5	3.25308642	2.43981481	2.59259259	1.94444444
30	Plague bearers	6.66666667	2.5	2.5	2.5	2.5
31	Dire Avengers	8.33333333	2.777777778	2.08333333	1.85185185	2.94444444
32	DA Tacticals	6.06060606	3.138047138	2.35353535	2.35353535	1.76515152
33	Tacticals	5.88235294	3.058823529	2.29411765	2.29411765	1.72058824
34	Inquisitorial Storm Troopers	10	2.75	2.75	1.83333333	1.83333333
35	Scouts	7.14285714	2.714285714	2.03571429	2.03571429	2.03571429
36	GK Terminators	2.5	2.731481481	2.04861111	2.17592593	1.63194444
37	Fire Warriors	10	2.5	2.5	1.66666667	1.66666667
38	Necron Warriors	5.55555556	2.469135803	1.85185185	1.85185185	1.38888889
39	Battle Sisters	9.09090909	2.272727273	2.27272727	1.51515152	1.51515152
40	Thousand Sons	3.6101083	2.048937024	1.53670277	1.53670277	1.15252708
41	Pink Horrors	5.88235294	1.470588235	1.47058824	0.98039216	0.98039216
42	Rangers	5.2631579	1.315789474	1.31578947	0.87719298	0.87719298
43	Guardian Jetbikes	4.54545455	1.136363636	1.13636364	0.75757576	0.75757576

* Yes I did take Combat drugs into account for the Wyches

** Templars were calculated using Prefered enemy, due to Accept any chalange because everyone takes this Vow

*** I did calculate the Penal Legion taking the chances of getting Knife Fighters

Analysis of Troops: Stage one Shooting with Standard Weapons against T4 enemies.

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.

	1 DE Warriors 2 Fire Warriors 2 Kroot 4 Dire Avengers/Shoota Boyz 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
	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.
	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.
	Here is the math for all units
	Unit Name Wounds VS T4 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