Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Statistics: How Many Daemonettes?

With daemonettes of Slaanesh, I want them to primarily be rapid moving infantry killers, with a secondary suite in light tank busting. So how many of them do I need to accomplish each of those tasks with a reasonable chance of success?Against Infantry.
We'll use the same situation as with the bloodletters: a ten man strong space marine squad armed with bolters, a multi-melta and a flamer. How many daemonettes might I lose before they reach their target? Well, firstly I'm going to suggest that they can completely avoid the flamer due to their fleet special rule. With luck, they may also be able to avoid rapid fire range of the bolters (depending on the opponent and the gaming situation at hand). Hence, we have 8 bolter shots and a multi-melta shot to weather before close combat ensues. The bolters hit on 3+ and wound on 3+. The multi-melta wounds on 2+. In total, I might expect an average of 3.56 + 0.11 = 3.67 wounds. Each daemonette gets a 5+ invulnerable save, leading to 2.45 unsaved wounds. Let's round that up and say 3 daemonettes may die before getting in to melee with the space marines.

In close combat, the daemonettes strike first due to their high initiative. They have 4 attacks each on the charge, hitting on 4+. Hence 2 attacks will hit on average. Of those hits, one in six will cause a wound and a further one in six will rend (i.e. no save). Therefore the marines take 0.33 "normal" wounds and 0.33 rending wounds, on average. With a 3+ save against the normal wound, the typical daemonette causes 0.44 unsaved wounds on the charge. Even with 20 daemonettes, I'm not going to be able to alpha strike the space marines out of existence. But for a smaller squad of, say 5 marines, 12 daemonettes will take care of them in an alpha strike on average. From experience, this feels about right given that I usually have to back my daemonettes up in close combat with another unit.
Light Tank Busting.
Remarkably, daemonettes can pose a problem to AV=10 tanks. This is due to the rending special rule. If they roll a 6 on their armour penetration, it means they get an extra d3 to roll. That extra d3 results in at least a glancing hit (penetrating two thirds of the time). Assuming that the daemonettes charge the tank, they will get 4 attacks each. Hence even two daemonettes should be statistcally enough to result in a glancing hit if the tank has not moved. Three daemonettes would be needed if they are only hitting on 4+ to cause a glancing hit. At flat out speed, they will be hitting on 6+. To cause a glance (statistically), we will then need 9 daemonettes.

Of course, I haven't spoken about the result of the glance or penetrating hit. That's another die roll entirely. But against tanks that haven't moved, or have only moved a "normal" amount, daemonettes in small numbers can pose problems. Hence I think I will take about 12 daemonettes in a squad: not only is it fluffy, but they can also handle a small combat against marines and pose issues to light tanks.

No comments:

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

Facebook

Sequestered Industries