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There's a lot of discussion out there about what the most overpowered lists are, how to optimize a certain army, and the like. This isn't one of those threads. Each week I'll put up a set context within which to create a list. These aren't serious and actual performance is secondary to the stated objective (thus why this is in general discussion). At the end of the week I'll pull out a few of the top lists to be winners, then move on to the next scenario. I'll update this post to keep things current.

Scenario One: A 2000 point army with the highest potential mortal wound output in a single turn.
Winner: Aeonotakist! Despite some battleline discrepancies his list wins at a corrected value of 363!

Scenario Two: A 1000 point army that requires the highest average of rend -1 wounds to kill, no mystic shield allowed!

Ready, go!

Okay, I'm gonna set the bar high ;-)

Dark Aelves:

Mistweaver Saih (80) - 6 Mortal Wounds
Death Hag (60) - 3 Mortal Wounds

3x 10 Dreadspears (240) - 0 Mortal Wounds (for battleline)

8 x 10 Executioners (1600) - 336 Mortal Wounds

Executioners make 2 attacks, scoring 2 mortal wounds for each roll of a 6, with the leader making 3 attacks. That gives each unit of 10 a potential of 42 Mortal Wounds (if you rolled 21 6s).

Total Mortal Wounds - 345
Points: 1980

;-)

Actually I dont believe this is the limit...

Just in Dark Aelves I can find a more efficient army.

Caldron of Blood with Hellebron (220) - double pile-in for one unit
Mistweaver Saih (80) - 6 MW
Death Hag (60) - 3 MW
Exiled Blood Cult Battlion 80 (give all units list below 6+ hit to MW)
3*30 Witch Elf (1360) - 360 MW with one unit pile in two times
1*10 Executioners (200) - 44 MW
Total MW: 413

Points: 2000

Are you just going to let him trample you like that Bottle!?

10 Hellcannons. 20xD6 mortal wounds.

 NinthMusketeer wrote:
Are you just going to let him trample you like that Bottle!?

I'm gonna cry foul because it doesn't look like the list has battleline. :p does it have to be pitched battle legal?

The Clan Skyre "Skyrefyre" list is pretty good for GUARANTEED mortal wounds... none of this having to roll a 6 nonsense. Yes, having 80 Executioners roll 168 6's will cause 336 mortal wounds, but the chance of that happening is functionally zero. It's less than 0.000000000000000000000000000000%... (1/6)^168. Realistically, 1/6 of your shots will be 6's, so you'll get closer to 56 mortal wounds if every model attacks... which again is something that most likely will not happen. It's a nice idea, but requires such a rare occurrence (all in combat, all rolling 6's) as to be impossible.

On to the Skyrefyre list...

Clan Skyre Battalion
Arch-Warlock
2x Warlock Engineers
3x 3-man Stormfiends w/Warfire Throwers
2x Warp-grinder Weapons Teams
6x Warpfire Thrower Weapons Teams

During your first Hero phase, you can pop everything but the Arch-Warlock up ANYWHERE on the board, so you'll be in range for shooting for EVERYTHING. The Warpfire Thrower Weapons Teams have a 95% chance of being able to "supercharge" their weapon and survive, dealing D6 mortal wounds instead of D3. No to hit or to wound rolls are required for the Stormfiends or Warpfire Throwers.

You end up with a more or less guaranteed 18D3 + 6D6 mortal wounds on your first turn. That gives you between 24 and 90 mortal wounds, with ~57 being the average outcome.

Other lists can THEORETICALLY deal more, but this is pretty solid for a more or less guaranteed alpha strike.

@Kriswall - It isn't supposed to be a challenge in building functional lists, just theoretical ones! This is a fun mind game, nothing more

@Bottle - Yes, matched play legal. However, Aeon still has you beat even without counting Mistweaver & the Executioners!

At any rate, final call for entries! I'll update with a new challenge later today.

Aeon wins that one! For scenario two we are going with something a bit smaller...

Scenario Two: A 1000 point army that requires the highest average of rend -1 wounds to kill, no mystic shield allowed!

Seraphon rejoice! Or will they...

A bit late, but a single model (there are multiple varieties) can inflict potentially unlimited mortal wounds per turn due to parry on save, leaving the 363 looting insignificant. E.g 1 ogre, 1 sister slaughter.

Do you mean the army with the most -1 rend weapons or the highest rend on average?

The army that takes the highest number of rend -1 wounds to kill. So a unit of 10 1-wound models and a 4+ save would, on average, require 15 rend -1 wounds to kill (15 save rolls of 5+ = an average of 10 failed saves. Worth note that these theoretical wounds are 1-damage. All of the wounds are considered to have been inflicted simultaneously in a single phase. Basically it's a case of how many rend -1 saves does the army have to take before it will be dead (on average).

I feel like, baring magic, Flesh Eater Courts hands down win the war of attrition with the command abilities to replenish units. But that has too many variables to get a good calculation I think so I'll use this list instead:

Bonesplitterz:

Savage Big Boss: 6 wounds, 6+ save

50 Savage Orruks: 100 wounds, 6+ save

40 Savage Orruk Arrowboyz: 80 wounds, 6+ save

186 wounds total with a 6+ save that ignores rend gives:

217 saves to kill.


Fyreslayers:

Battlesmith: 5 wounds, 4+ save (allows Fyreslayers to re-roll saves)

25 Vulkite Berserkers: 25 wounds, 4+ in combat, Beserk Fury save

25 Vulkite Berserkers

5 Hearthguard Berserkers: 5 wounds, 5+ save, Duty Unto Death save

Assuming the Vulkites don't charge and are being dealt the -1 rend in combat, and all units are in range of the Battlesmith for their abilities:
(The Vulkite's save gets worse as the numbers decrease but I think I've done the math correctly, and I'm assuming the Battlesmith is killed last)

217 saves to kill

All the wounds are inflicted at the same time, but you can otherwise choose the order. Anything context-specific won't work since the wounds are arbitrary, so the in-melee-only buff to vulkite saves will not trigger.

Flesh Eaters wouldn't benefit because the wounds are all at once; they don't have a chance to bring guys back.

Kroak can absorb infinite wounds, he can only die in the battleshock phase. If you count the battleshock phase for him are you counting it for everyone else, so enough wounds to cause the survivors to run away during battleshock counts?

If it's infinite it doesn't count silly!

But yes, simple as that. Going through to figure out every weird case in this and other scenarios would be tedious.

Might have worked it out wrong, in a bit of a hurry.

Death army. with Ruler of the night. (5+ extra save for wounds, ignoring rend).

Wight king with infernal banner (another 6 save for wounds, ignores rends), and immortal ring.
10 skellies with tomb shields.
10 zombies
1 corpse cart
55 dire wolves.

Skellies and zombies just make 2 battleline fillers.

Everyone sets up so that they all get their save, followed by a 5+ save and followed by a 6 save.

Corpse cart makes the wolves 4+ save (down to 5+ with rend) but with 2 wounds each that is 110 wounds of wolves, needing an average of 292 rend -1 wounds.

The rest of the army I think adds another 63 wounds, so something like 355 wounds needed on average.

Not looked at others yet, but lizards have a lot of rerolling saves and good saves so I expect they are good

Mounghouls? No?

1 Tomb Banshee
2 x 10 Zombies
2 Mounghouls

The Mounghouls and the Banshee don't really care about your rend, and the Zombies never had armour anyway

Probably not the best list for sheer defensive capabilities, but I'd imagine they'd go down fighting, especially if the Mournghouls could heal themselves.

puree, it looks like you didn't factor in that the infernal standard save only kicks in when a model loses its last wound, I ran the numbers and got 332.3 total wounds. Still good though!

Warboss, for these the effectiveness of the army on the table is irrelevant, only the required value matters! Assuming master of the night command trait the army you listed requires a mere 132 wounds to kill :(

you are right, in my haste I missed it was only the extra save on last wound for the banner. Not recalculated or checked your figure to check the difference..