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So, I thought I'd work on a spreadsheet to see what loadout was optimal for death company: all power weapons and less guys, or all ccws and more guys, or a mix. I've plugged in my results below for my proposed BA army list, which has a 245 pt allocation for my DC.

All the numbers are based around the entire unit being able to fire off with their bolt pistols/bolters and execute a flawless charge, with them accompanied by a chaplain/reclusiarch for rerolls on tohits and towounds. I've charted the average amount of unsaved wounds per weapon, corresponding with different enemies - mainly th/ss termies, normal termies, MEQs, and all the above with FNP added into the equation. I haven't done anything else with less than T4 or a 3+ save because your death company is probably going to mulch the living hell out of anything less than a strongly armored unit, anyway.

Given my results, you can clearly see that less bodies/power weapons are drastically more effective than more bodies/ccw against most things except th/ss termies - a unit of 6 DC with 5 PWs and 1 PFist can utterly wipe or rout a full 10-man squad of terminators on average. A unit of 10 DC with CCWs doesn't really lag that far behind in performance as the numbers would show, though; 7/14 unsaved wounds against termies/MEQs as compared to 13/20 is still going to mop the floor and force a retreat/tons of extra wounds on any non-fearless unit that doesn't strike at I5 or higher. Once you add FNP into the equation, however, power weapons vastly outshine CCWs, shredding through like a hot knife through butter.

Of course, one thing you have to keep in mind is that extra bodies with CCWs provide ablative wounds for your DC in case they attract heavy fire after they charge and wipe a unit (which they probably will) and let your power weapon guys survive to mulch again - although given a similar unit of . In this respect, I think a mix of PWs and CCWs (for example, option 3 on my list) is the most pragmatic - it still wrecks face, but you have a couple more guys to throw in the way of lascannon fire or similar. Of course, remember that even with the difference in numbers of unsaved wounds between all of my four example options, ANY of them are going to cause serious hurt/MASSIVE OVERKILL to your enemy at the very least, so ultimately, you can still go for what you like most. Unless you're fighting paladins or deathwing apothecaries, in which case load up on the PWs and go wild (I'd still be pretty damn apprehensive about charging pallies, though, especially if they have halberds).

(UPDATE: Depends on how much damage you think your death company's going to take. As long as you've still got power weapon guys left, you tend to do about as much damage (or more) with a mixed squad than a full-CCW one that's taken the same number of wounds.)

Also, keep in mind wound allocation - if you have a mix of PWs and CCWs, your opponent can just shove the less likely-to-be-saved PW wounds on non-essential models and the CCW wounds on more expensive ones (such as apothecaries, for instance) - but then, this is SPARTA the Death Company we're talking about here. You're still going to cause ridiculous amounts of damage anyway.

I'm pasting my spreadsheet in plain text below, and attaching it for your own usage if you want to. Just plug in appropriate values under the 'ATTACKS' rows for each of your weapons, and the machine spirit's autosenses will do the rest.



HUGE WALL OF UNFORMATTED SPREADSHEET THAT WILL HURT YOUR EYES FOLLOWS BELOW. FOR A *MUCH* NEATER LOOK OR IF YOU WANT TO USE THE SPREADSHEET YOURSELF, DOWNLOAD THE ATTACHMENT




DEATH COMPANY MATHHAMMER: 245 POINTS
CHARGE + REROLLS TO HIT, TO WOUND

SHOT CCW PW PF REC/PW
CHANCE TO WOUND 0.3333333333 0.7901234568 0.7901234568 0.8641975309 0.5925925926

OPTION 1: REC, 5x PW/BP, 1x PF/B, 1x CCW/BP (240 POINTS)
SHOT CCW PW PF REC/PW TOTAL UNSAVED WOUNDS
ATTACKS 9 4 20 3 5
T4/2+/3++ 0.5 0.5267489712 5.2674897119 0.8641975309 0.987654321 8.146090535
T4/2+/5++ 0.5 0.5267489712 10.5349794239 1.7283950617 1.975308642 15.2654320988
T4/3+ 1 1.0534979424 15.8024691358 2.5925925926 2.962962963 23.4115226337
T4/2+/3++/FNP 0.25 0.2633744856 5.2674897119 0.8641975309 0.987654321 7.6327160494
T4/2+/5++/FNP 0.25 0.2633744856 10.5349794239 1.7283950617 1.975308642 14.7520576132
T4/3+/FNP 0.5 0.5267489712 15.8024691358 2.5925925926 2.962962963 22.3847736626

OPTION 2: REC, 1x PF/B, 10x CCW/BP (245 POINTS)
SHOT CCW PW PF REC/PW TOTAL UNSAVED WOUNDS
ATTACKS 13 40 0 3 5
T4/2+/3++ 0.7222222222 5.2674897119 0 0.8641975309 0.987654321 7.841563786
T4/2+/5++ 0.7222222222 5.2674897119 0 1.7283950617 1.975308642 9.6934156379
T4/3+ 1.4444444444 10.5349794239 0 2.5925925926 2.962962963 17.5349794239
T4/2+/3++/FNP 0.3611111111 2.633744856 0 0.8641975309 0.987654321 4.8467078189
T4/2+/5++/FNP 0.3611111111 2.633744856 0 1.7283950617 1.975308642 6.6985596708
T4/3+/FNP 0.7222222222 5.2674897119 0 2.5925925926 2.962962963 11.5452674897

OPTION 3: REC, 4x PW/BP, 1x PF/B, 3x CCW/BP (245 POINTS)
SHOT CCW PW PF REC/PW TOTAL UNSAVED WOUNDS
ATTACKS 10 12 16 3 5
T4/2+/3++ 0.5555555556 1.5802469136 4.2139917695 0.8641975309 0.987654321 8.2016460905
T4/2+/5++ 0.5555555556 1.5802469136 8.4279835391 1.7283950617 1.975308642 14.2674897119
T4/3+ 1.1111111111 3.1604938272 12.6419753086 2.5925925926 2.962962963 22.4691358025
T4/2+/3++/FNP 0.2777777778 0.7901234568 4.2139917695 0.8641975309 0.987654321 7.133744856
T4/2+/5++/FNP 0.2777777778 0.7901234568 8.4279835391 1.7283950617 1.975308642 13.1995884774
T4/3+/FNP 0.5555555556 1.5802469136 12.6419753086 2.5925925926 2.962962963 20.3333333333

OPTION 4: REC, 3x PW/BP, 1x PF/B, 5x CCW/BP (240 POINTS)
SHOT CCW PW PF REC/PW TOTAL UNSAVED WOUNDS
ATTACKS 11 20 12 3 5
T4/2+/3++ 0.6111111111 2.633744856 3.1604938272 0.8641975309 0.987654321 8.2572016461
T4/2+/5++ 0.6111111111 2.633744856 6.3209876543 1.7283950617 1.975308642 13.2695473251
T4/3+ 1.2222222222 5.2674897119 9.4814814815 2.5925925926 2.962962963 21.5267489712
T4/2+/3++/FNP 0.3055555556 1.316872428 3.1604938272 0.8641975309 0.987654321 6.6347736626
T4/2+/5++/FNP 0.3055555556 1.316872428 6.3209876543 1.7283950617 1.975308642 11.6471193416
T4/3+/FNP 0.6111111111 2.633744856 9.4814814815 2.5925925926 2.962962963 18.2818930041

I assume you were going far enough to see wounds unsaved, in which case how did you factor in wound allocation with the power weapon hits against a variety of common opponents? It would grossly affect how many Power Weapons are useful in a mixed wargear unit.

Can't really mathhammer wound allocation - like I said, it can still be a thing. It highly depends on your meta, I guess.

Unless I am mistaken I don't see any calculations for plasma pistols in there. Are plasma not advised?

~Lion~

PS ~ Thanks for the awesome spreadsheet... always like to get knowledge from other people hard work

I wouldn't really recommend plasma pistols on DC since the main purpose of taking a pistol on them would be to bust open transports (you already have really good anti-infantry CC) - and the infernus does that a lot better than the plasma pistol, unless you're more than 6" away, in which case you probably aren't gonna get your charge off in the first place. :(

Terrible layout. If you want people to understand your ideas, annotate them better and explain what you're doing. Wall of numbers help no-one.

Joey wrote:Terrible layout. If you want people to understand your ideas, annotate them better and explain what you're doing.

That is exactly what he did in the OP. Maybe you missed the bolded warning in caps ?

Joey wrote:Terrible layout. If you want people to understand your ideas, annotate them better and explain what you're doing. Wall of numbers help no-one.

Uh, download the excel worksheet ? that was easier on the eyes for me at least.

~Lion~