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Does anyone have the numbers on whether the executioner's plasma or the standard's battle cannon is better at opening a Rhino. I understand that neither is ideal but my guess is one is better then the other.

Well, both have the sam chances of hitting, as only the center hole matters for either.

This isn't rigorus, but with S8 plus the highest of two dice means that you need a 4 to pen, giving a 3/4 chance of penning. That's 3/4 of a pen per hit.

The executioner needs a 5 to pen, for 1/3 chance per shot, but there are 3 shots, for an average of 1 pen per turn of shooting.

Well, let's do some quick-and-dirty math vs. front or side armor. Since any given shot from both weapons is equally likely to have the center hole on the vehicle, let's simplify it out, and assume everything hits.

Battle Cannon: Strength 8, rolls two dice, picks the highest.

27/36 penetrating hits. (4+ on at least one dice.)
5/36 glancing hits.

Plasma Executioner: Strength 7, three shots.

36/36 penetrating hits. (5+ to penetrate times three shots.)
18/36 glancing hits.

Thus, the three shots of the plasma makes up for the extra strength and the re-roll of the battle cannon.

Obviously, this is very quick-and-dirty math: Reliability tilts in the plasma's favor, but "overkill" tilts against plasma. And there's a chance that the battlecannon will scatter behind the Rhino, inflicting a S 4 Ordinance hit on rear-armor. But I'm far too lazy to do all the math / measure a Rhino's rear arc.

EDIT: Beaten to the punch!

Dave47 wrote:let's simplify it out, and assume everything hits.