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I'm finishing my read of the new warscrolls, and am in complete disbelief at the damage potential of mangler squigs.

Here's a comparison of the approximate expected wounds caused vs. models with a 5+ armor save, for some top contenders across the warscrolls:

10 Swordmasters: 8.6
Zombie Dragon & Vampire Lord: 8.6
Necrosphynx: 8.9
Dark Elf Dreadlord on Black Dragon: 9.0
4 Ironguts: 10.0
Hell Pit Abomination: 10.3
High Elf Prince on Dragon: 10.7
10 Chosen: 11.7
Mangler Squigs: 12.9 (!)

This thing has it all: huge number of attacks, each with high damage, high rend, and good odds to hit and wound. It's not even that slow, and its damage profile stays pretty good until it's taken 5 of its 10 wounds.

It can't fly, only has a 5+ save, and doesn't have decapitating strikes or dragon breath or wound halving or healing. But still. It hits really, really hard.

Hilariously, the only unit I've crunched numbers on that hits harder pound-for-pound is... you guessed it, night goblin fanatics...

Its all about synergies... With the right units and synergies anyone can be defeated, people need to mix things up for proper play...

Indeed have you tried Blood Knights with the Vampire Spell that gives them extra melee attacks - when they charge in stuff dies, alot even without the spell they are pretty hefty and a minimum 6" charge

Agreed. You need to incorporate synergies, which are very difficult to quantify, into your calculations. Many Heroes and other units work as force multipliers. Sure, the High Elf Prince on Dragon can't do as many wounds himself, but he can potentially increase the wound output of those around him.

Imagine my army is a High Elf Prince on Dragon, 3x High Elf Princes on Steed and 3x units of 10 Elyrian Reavers. The High Elf Dragon allows all three other Princes to use their command abilities. They do so and nominate the 3x units of Reavers. Without the High Elf Prince on Dragon, the 3x units of Reavers will do 15 damage in the Shooting phase against an enemy with a 5+ save. With him, they instead do 22.5 damage. In my mind, the Prince on Dragon deserves credit for the extra 7.5 damage.

If you instead have 3x units of 20 Reavers each, the numbers double with the Prince on Dragon generating an additional 15 damage through effective command of his army.

No matter how charismatic that Squig is, he's not making anyone else fight harder. Age of Sigmar isn't a game of one on one gladiator combat. You need to take synergies into account when choosing your units. Doing so is critically important, but very difficult to quantify.

There's no doubt AoS is all about unit interactions - theoretical unsupported damage output means very little on its own, and is just one of many factors for determining a unit's value.

I just think it's endearing that O&G get the model with the theoretical highest pound-for-pound damage out of the box, and it's by a sizable margin. Some unit buried somewhere in the warscrolls had to win that contest, and I never would have guessed it would be this one. Gun to my head I'd have guessed a bloodthirster or a dragon, and I'd have been wrong.

The point of the post is to laugh at that, not make any serious argument about the balance of mangler squigs (or any other units!)

Dont liberators have a abilty that deals with monsters?