Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Pink Horrors Point Efficiency (part 1)



While screamers and flamers are the damage dealer in an all Tzeentch army, you have to take Pink Horrors to round out the army.  I like taking them in squads of 10-20 to keep them alive and deal some damage.  I routinely run squads of 20 horrors, which is a mixed bag.

Pros:
Survivable
Massed fire (60 shots at 18")

Cons:
Large deepstrike footprint
360 points that can mishap

The most recent rumors suggest:

Pink Horrors - 9pts each (minimum 10)
ws 3 bs 3 s 3 t 3 w 1 i 3 a 1 ld 7
Psychic tests on a 10
Brootherhood of sorcerers
Blue horrors: if a pink horror is slain place a blue horror marker.. at initiative 1 the blue horror attacks causing the enemy unit to suffer one s2 hit with ap -

horrors can only cast change dicipline, not divination.
horrors get 1 warppoint, 2 at unit strength 11-15 and 3 at 16-20. they generate psychic powers at the start of the game like normal psykers but can only roll on tzeentch lore.

primaris: 24" s 5 ap 4 assault 2d6, warpflames, soulfire. 1 warpcharge.
for each additional warpcharge you gain a additional d6

So I wanted to see how the "new" units stacks up to the old as an MEQ killer.

Aside from the range difference (now 24") and the fact that the new horrors will have more random results (pschic test, deny the witch, and random number of shots) what I found is that point for point the new (when taken in a squad of 20) has about a 20% worse first turn killing efficiency vs MEQ than the old Pink Horrors.  This does not factor in taking a Herald with divination.

The unit is almost 40% worse at killing Guard Equivalent in a 5+ cover.



So, on the numbers the unit is cheaper, giving you more flexibility, but not quite as good at these tasks.  You can buff with a Herald if you want (see above right).  As soon as you take a wound you shooting drops of by 75% immediately, rather than in a linear fashion (model by model) but you have access to other powers as well beyond the normal Bolt of Tzeentch and you range is extended by 6" giving you some more holding power and reducing the risk of deepstrike mishaps.


7 comments:

  1. Your comparison is flawed. First of all, old horrors cost 17pts per model.

    Second of all, if you start with a 20-large squad of new horrors, it takes 5 models killed to drop a level.

    Third, you're comparing the effectiveness of two units with vastly different points cost. If you ignore all the extra options, you can get almost 40 horrors for the price of those 20 you had. This can be a blob you put in front of the enemy and several 5 horror squads you drop on objectives in the backfield.

    Also, those 5 horror squads will actually be more points effective than a blob in terms of killing power (since you roll 2d6 shots for every 5, instead of 4d6 for 20).

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    1. Adjusting the point cost makes the old Horrors slightly better (68.1 points per MEQ wound).

      I didn't actually factor turn 2 shooting in to the analysis (so dropping to 15 models is helpful, but didn't factor into the math).

      Point to kill an MEQ is the levelling factor. It ignores the unit cost advantage of the new Horrors and compares the cost to kill an MEQ (assuming at least 15 horrors in a new unit).

      Can you post rules that show 2d6 per 5? This isn't what has been posted elsewhere. I'd gladly re-do the analysis.

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    2. If it is indeed 2d6 for each 5 then you wouldn't get 8d6 until you have a full unit of 20 and you would loose shots at 19.

      Regardless, if a unit of 20 gets 8D6 shots, then they are about 14% more efficient at killing MEQ on avergae and 3% more efficient at killing at GEQ than the old unit. Iguess we'll know for sure once the Codex drops or someone posts actual pictures...

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  2. They have mastery level 1 until they're 15 strong. So 5-14 Horrors will roll 2d6 shots. Having mastery level 1 from the get go they will always have the option to take the primaris, they just won't have versatility in spell casting.

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    Replies
    1. If that is the case, then they REALLY suck by comparison.

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    2. Look at it this way - horrors aren't there to kill marines. There are screamers, lords of change, daemon princes and even flamers that do that better (through sheer volume of wounds). Not to mention the other gods (bloodletters and daemonettes ahoy!). Horrors hold objectives, kill other small gribblies and occasionally will kill a marine or two. Which is exactly what they did for me up until now, too.

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  3. I would use that argument to say that we other units to take objectives...Plaguebearers! I don't think we've got the full picture as yet though...I can't believe Phil Kelly would allow us to spend 180 points to get 20 termagants with potentially just 4 s5ap4 shots...

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