[Epic] Revenants vs. Warhounds

From: Erik K. Rutins <snowdo1_at_...>
Date: Tue, 29 Jul 1997 14:40:47 -0400

With all this discussion, I thought I'd see what two warhounds and two
revenants could do to each other in shooting. I'm no statistical
wizard and I did this in my head, so if I screwed up, let me know.

They have the same range, so we'll assume they open fire at the same
time. Say the Eldar fire first:

Two revenants = 8 FP and 8 Anti-Tank shots (on average). They'll aim
at one warhound, which means the FP should take down 1 Void Shield and
the AT shots should inflict four damage. One warhound gone.

One warhound = 12 FP. Aiming at one Revenant, this means the FP should
hit 3 times, 50% chance of 1 hit getting through and auto-critting.
This is pretty much guaranteed to take down the revenant. If the
revenant rolls a 2-5 and isn't destroyed, the warhound will almost
certainly die next turn. If not, we're down to 1 vs. 1.

So if the Eldar fire first, it's likely that they will win the duel,
but they have around a 40% chance of losing a revenant.

What if the warhounds fire first?

Two warhounds = 24 FP. They'll aim at one revenant, which means the FP
should hit 6 times. 1 hit should get through the holo-fields and cause
an automatic critical. This is almost guaranteed to either immobilise
the revenant and/or take down the holofields (results of 6,7,9 take
down holofields, 8 immobilises, 10-12 kills). Unless the crit roll is
a 2-5, the Revenant is pretty clearly toast. Let's assume it bought
the farm.

One revenant left = 4 FP and 4 Anti-Tank shots. The 4 FP has a 50%
chance of taking down a void shield, the AT shots should take down both
Void Shields if the FP failed, or take down the other Void Shield and
inflict 1 Damage. There's a 1/6 chance that this will be a critical
and likely hose the Warhound. Very unlikely that this will happen, so
let's assume that the Revenant takes down two void shields and inflicts
one damage.

Warhound regenerates a void shield. At this point the other revenant
will die in the next shooting phase.

So if the Imperials fire first, they should take down both revenants
with probably only around a 15-20% chance of losing a Warhound.

On the surface, the Warhounds seem to be better than the Revenants.
However, the Revenants do move slightly faster, which may mean that by
turn 2 one of the warhounds will be out of arc and the Eldar strategy
rating means that the Revenants are slightly more likely to shoot
first, all other things being equal. The main advantage the Warhounds
have is that they don't generally die if a hit gets through, whereas
most Revenants will be basically out of commission after one failed
holo-save. If the Eldar player rolls poorly for Holofields, the
Revenants will die very quickly. OTOH, excellent rolls can frustrate
the Warhounds. That's the tough part - the holofields are not truly
quantifiable since there's always the possibility of some excellent
rolls on the Eldar's part. The law of averages should kick in sooner
or later, though, and give the Eldar player his due.

Regards,

- Erik

"Look within. Within is the fountain of good, and it will ever bubble
up, if you will ever dig."
- Marcus Aurelius
Received on Tue Jul 29 1997 - 18:40:47 UTC