Re: [Epic] [E40k] Some Observations

From: J. Michael Looney <mlooney_at_...>
Date: Sun, 20 Apr 1997 10:52:37 -0500

Alan Brain wrote:
>
> There appear to be a number of ... differences ... between E40K and Epic
> that may cause a few changes in tactics.

Yeah, Epic 40,000 makes you use something like real world command arms
tactics.
>
> 1. Void Shields. It used to be that 12 Orc Battlewagons (Bonecrushas or
> similar) would be able to strip the shields off a Warlord, on average,
> in one turn. 12 shots at 4+.
> But now... it takes an average of 48 of them. ( 48 shots at 6+ )
> Translation: No massed anti-tank shots/Death Ray shots = Untouched
> Titans
I think your something is odd with your math, as I have had my sheild
striped by less than 48 ork vechices.
Lets not forget that an E40K game last more turns than a Epic 2nd game,
on the average, the need to drop shields in one turn is not as important
as it used to be.

> I can see Titans being very, very popular against Orks now, especially
> since....
> It used to be that Void Shields were great, and apart from a 1/6
> leakiness, the Ork Shields were as good - even though they couldn't be
> repaired. Now they are 1/2 as good (you need 5s to hit).

Wait a min here. Those 2 factors are self cancelling. 1 in 6 shots
missed the field. Now 1 (more) in 6 effects the field. This works out
BETTER for the gargant, not to mention that on the average a Great
Gargant has 10 shields, vs 6 for a warlord.

>
> 2. Deathstrikes. These used to be Fantastic vs Infantry, and very good
> against Titans without shields. You could shoot them on troops hiding in
> woods, assassinate command units etc. Well, you still can, just not at
> troops BEHIND woods. They're not artillery. And of course, a single 53
> pt Deathstrike missile has close to a 100% chance of taking out a 225 pt
> Lord of Battles with 1 shot now. But they're useless vs Engines of Vaul.
> OTOH they'll take out a Dominatrix quite handily.
>
??? 1D6 death ray attacks = 3.5 death ray attacks = 2.9 hits (let call
that 3 hits). All death ray hits do critical damage against war
engines. You have a 58% chance per hit of making a Engine of Vaul go
"boom". That works out to a 93% chance of a kill vs a Engine of Vaul,
and that ignores the fact that only 1 in 36 critical hits against a EoV
does +0 extra hits. Even if you don't make it go boom you will kill it
with staight damage. On the average a no Boom bit will cause 1.2 points
of extra damage. This works out to 6.6 points of damage, assuming that
you have some how managed to miss doing a catastrophic hit. A EoV only
has 4 points. It's dead Jim.

A Lord of Battle, on the other hand only has a 3 in 36 chance per hit of
going boom. This works out to 75% chance of it NOT going boom after 3
critical hits. In truth that number is not quite right as it really
only
has a 1 in 36 of going boom, but "chain reaction" is weird enough to
count as a boom result, as I really don't feel like working out the
exact odds of it being a kill. For this I will count is as a kill, even
though it is NOT a 100% sure kill effect. Now of the 33 results of a
hit that are NOT a kill, you get, on the average 2.5 points of extra
damage, so with 10.5 points of damage per missile hit, well, he's dead
too Jim, however you don't have that 93% chance of watching it go up in
really massive flames.

Vs a Dominatrix...
Well, lets not forget that 1/2 of all hit on this evil thing are ignored
(4+ save), so we are looking at 1.5 hits here. Ok, we have a 1/36
chance of a SSK. That works out to about a 5% chance of a catastrophic,
after taking the save into effect. Extra damage is 2.6 on the average,
so that works out to 5.4 points of damage per missile hit. Its not
dead, its pissed and it's coming this way Jim....

All of this DOES add up to the fact that the Vortex Missile is a NICE
toy, if you can get one, because even the single case that I worked out
that doesn't result in a dead thing, the will not be in good shape.

> 3. No War Engine appears to be able to fire except at targets within
> LOS. None of the weapons has that magic 'artillery' designation.

This, as it happens is true.
Received on Sun Apr 20 1997 - 15:52:37 UTC