Back from the dead

Yeah it`s me and no I’m not dead. Thruth is last week I was on vacation and to be honest I completly disconnected. Every year I plan a ton of things for my vacation and end up doing none of them and this year was no different. I really wanted to finish those ravenwing bikers that have been sitting on my painting table for a while now and I ended up not doing anything warhammer. Anyway, I`m now rested and ready to get going again !

Real Value ?

How do you measure how efficient a unit truly is ? How do you calculate if that unit of ogres really paid for itself ? Most new players simply count how much carnage the unit inflicts. While this method does have some merit to it, after all how many models you kill does indicate that your unit is doing something, a 700 points lord will mow down skavenslaves for a whole game and end up being wasted even if he killed over 80 rats.

When a player realize this he will often starts to count how much points his unit kills. In the example above the lord would need to kill 700 points to pay for itself and more to make a difference on who wins the game. This method is the one I see the most often used when people talk about their army efficiency and in fact a lot of players I know stop there. And it`s a dangerous way to calculate efficiency. A lot of units in the game are worth way more than their point value not because of how much they kill but because of what they do or make the enemy do on the battlefield.

Here’s an easy example, in 40k a lot of armies have access to snipers units. Often, those have a high cost, low armor, and only manage to kill one or 2 models a turn. More often than not the same point value can get you a tank, heavy weapons, etc… who have a much higher kill ratio. Why take snipers then ? Because they can pin enemy units. If you manage to pin an ork warboss and his retinue for example not only have you killed one or two models but you have also stopped one of the deadliest units of the game from acting for a full turn. The scouts may not have killed their point cost but they have given you a huge tactictal advantage.

More subtle examples are ‘’Fluffy’’ like I discussed in my previous post or my dire wolves in my vampire counts army. I think so far my dire wolves must have killed 2 models in all all my games but they have deflected countless charges, have soaked up deadly waywatcher fire and drawn out a ton of fanatics. So while they have never killed their point value they have allowed me to control vital parts of the game and led me to victory more so than my super grave guards.

If you want to find out the real value of one your units consider not how much they kill stuff but how much of an impact they have on the battlefield.