So this is more of a filler post than anything else. I've a couple of posts needing finishing off but we're going through a bit of a lull at the moment. The new SM codex is out and looks good but I'm not going to write anything on that yet, as I don't have a copy and lots of people out there have written or are writing some very good reviews using the actual book (St Andrews wargaming). I will get the books eventually, just not yet, I'm waiting for all the supplements to.come.out first and figure what I actually want for my new marine lists. Talking of Marines, a second eBay purchase has come through, the marine half of Shadowspear. This means that I now own all the Dark Imperium and Shadowspear Space Marines and am well.on the way to for filling all my 500 point marine armies. The Dark Imperium Marines are built but Shadowspear Marines are still on sprues. When I got them all built and primed I'll post them up here but that could be a while!
I have also, almost finished the last few Hjaltland LI models, to complete the army but I need to finish them before I can post up pictures. Only a few models to finish, so hopefully that won't take to long. I also have some lore to post up, as I have my sister's of battle kill team built and primed and ready for painting. These are on the list, fairly near the top, so I need to get the lore written up and posted. I should also probably write something for my Deathwatch and Grey Knights as well but I've nothing prepared for them. Hopefully the sisters lore will be up over the next couple of weeks.
Apart from that little lot, there really isn't much going on in my hobby love right now. Lack of time and, in some respects, motivation means that the blog is going through a bit of a dry spell right now. Hopefully we'll get a new guard codex soon after Christmas and I'll be back in the groove again.
Anyway, the main point of this blog was supposed to be about blast weapons. I was watching a battle report on DZTV earlier and a discussion about blast weapons came up, which got me thinking. As it's stands units less than 5 it's just the straight Dx (D3 or D6 usually) roll but if the unit is 6 to 10, it's a minimum of 3 shots and if the units 11+ then it's the maximum number of shots. Now for most units this is great but there are some exceptions. I mention this when I looked at the wyverns during GW's faction focus posts but now I've had time to think about this and I've come up with an issue for my at selection.
Now as I said in that post, wyverns fire 4d6 shots, meaning a straight up 4d6 for a unit 5 and under but also for units 6 to 10, as it's a min 3 shots per weapon, not per dice and as the stormshard mortar is a single weapon, it's a minimum 3 shots, (on 4d6!) Only when the enemy is over 11 models does the blast rule really kick in, resulting in a straight 24 shots.
Now the issue arises when you look at mortar teams. A basic wyverns cost 135 points and for 136 point you can get 8 mortar teams. Ok, you need 9 for 3 heavy weapons squads but you could also have some in infantry squads, which will still do the same job. Anyway, 8 teams is 16 wounds compared to 11 for the wyverns. Yes the wyverns is T6 I stead of T3 and has a 3+ save rather than a 5+. Then again, it can't benifit from cover and the +1 to save, it's profile degrades, hitting on 6's by the end. All in all there is not a great deal to separate these units and there's not, in my opinion, a clear winner.
When you look at the amount of shots there is a real disparity between the two. A wyvern, as I said is looking at 4d6 up to 10 models and 24 for an 11 plus unit, while 8 mortar teams are looking at 8d6 up to 5 models, 8d6 with a minimum of 24 shots on units 6 to 10 and a massive 48 shots on a unit 11+. This may sound good but it's not as clear cut, as the wyvern fires all at once, where as the mortars all shoot individually. There for not all the mortar squads will be shooting at a unit that is 11+ models, some will be shooting at a unit that is 6 to 10 models strong, meaning that there won't be a full 48 shots but somewhere between 24 and 48 shots. Then there is the fact that the wyverns rerolls to wound, which will also make a difference to the amount of models that are killed, as in theory, more wounds will result from fewer hits.
So with all this in mind, I've tried a little bit of mathhammer to see what the difference actually would be. First up the wyvern, as it's the easiest to calculate. (A note to mention, <5 models is taken as the average number of shots, 6-10 is based on the minimum number of shots and 11+ maximum number of shots, all number are rounded down to nearest whole number as well)
Wyverns;
Against T3 Sv5+ models (eg Guard)
<5 - 4 dead
6-10 - 4 dead
11+ - 7 dead
Against T4 Sv5+ models (eg Orks)
<5 - 3 dead
6-10 - 3 dead
11+ - 6 dead
Against T4 Sv3+ models (eg Marines)
<5 - 1 dead
6-10 - 1 dead
11+ - 3 dead
Now, this isn't spectacular but is decent. In terms of the T3 and T4 5+ save models there will be morale issues at the end of the turn. T4 Sv3+ models are always going to be hard to remove and also unlikely to be in units of 11+.
But how does this compare to a mortar team or 8? Well a lone mortar team looks something like this;
Against T3 Sv5+ models
<5 - 0 dead
6-10 - 0 dead
11+ - 1 dead
Against T4 Sv5+ models
<5 - 0 dead
6-10 - 0 dead
11+ - 1 dead
Against T4 Sv3+ models
<5 - 0 dead
6-10 - 0 dead
11+ - 0 dead
Yeah, not great is it? To be fair it's one mortar, but how does this stack when 8 are used?
Against T3 Sv5+ models
<5 - 6 dead
6-10 - 5 dead
11+ - 10 dead
Against T4 Sv5+ models
<5 - 4 dead
6-10 - 4 dead
11+ - 8 dead
Against T4 Sv3+ models
<5 - 2 dead
6-10 - 2 dead
11+ - 4 dead
As you can see it's better than the Wyverns scores, even with the minor discrepancy with the T3 models! So what does this tell us? Well, taking 8 mortar teams is better than taking one wyvern in terms of killing power, possibly. As I said, it's not quite as clear cut as this. For example on the first two options, T3 Sv5+ and T4 Sv5+ the numbers killed would most likely drop the unit down a bracket and reduce the number of shots, resulting in less wounds and therefore less kills, meaning that the difference would be less and there maybe no difference at all. This is especially so when you consider that most units will not be 20 or 10 strong in anything but the first round of shooting. Out of interest I also did 6 teams or two complete squads, to see what the results would be;
Against T3 Sv5+ models
<5 - 4 dead
6-10 - 4 dead
11+ - 8 dead
Against T4 Sv5+ models
<5 - 3 dead
6-10 - 3 dead
11+ - 6 dead
Against T4 Sv3+ models
<5 - 1 dead
6-10 - 1 dead
11+ - 3 dead
Now this was a surprise! These are almost exactly the same as the wyverns tally! This definitely gives me pause for though, as two squads of mortars are just over 100 points, a saving of over 30 points. Again some caveats apply but I may have to reevaluate my ideas a bit. There is no doubt the wyvern is a great vehicle but it definitely needs a little extra something, such as -1ap or an extra point of strength to really push it past the mortar teams. I will probably keep on using the wyverns as I like them but I think that they are getting out classes by plain old mortar squads. Also, I do realise that wyverns also have heavy bolters as standard but they mortar teams also have lasguns, so maybe once these are included things may change a little but most of the time both units are going to be hidden away and not able to use them.
Wow, that turned in to something I wasn't expecting from a short filler post! Got kinds carried away there. I hope this was of interest to someone and maybe was a bit of an eye opener to the new blast rules.
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