A number of my loyalist-playing opponents seem to fear Khorne Berzerkers being anywhere near their terminators -- particularly a unit of thunder hammer and storm shield terminators. I have often wondered why this is. The most frequent reason given is that the berzerkers have bucket loads of attacks and go before the terminators in combat. So I decided to sit down and run a quick and dirty calculation.
Here's the question at hand: How many Khorne Berzerkers does it take to (statistically) kill 5 terminators on the charge?
The basic computation goes as follows:
When charging, the Khorne Berzerkers have 4 attacks each, at WS=5 and S=5.
They will therefore roll to hit on 3+ and roll to wound on 3+.
Each terminator will get a 2+ save.
Hence the probability of 1 attack killing a terminator is 4/6 * 4/6 * 1/6 = 0.074 (=2/27 as a fraction). Or to put it another way, 13.5 attacks will be needed (on average) to down a terminator.
Therefore to remove 5 terminators will require 5 * 13.5 attacks = 67.5 attacks.
If each Khorne Berzerker performs averagely and they get to charge, then the unit will need to be 67.5 / 4 = 16.875 members strong to pull off this feat on the charge.
That's a whole load of Khorne Berzerkers. I personally don't field Khorne Berzerkers in such large numbers. Eight is obviously a fluffy number to have, but I mostly stick with about ten. But I also add in to the mix a Skull Champion with a power fist or power weapon. And I've ignored subsequent rounds of combat. But those considerations are a story for another day.
Here's the question at hand: How many Khorne Berzerkers does it take to (statistically) kill 5 terminators on the charge?The basic computation goes as follows:
When charging, the Khorne Berzerkers have 4 attacks each, at WS=5 and S=5.
They will therefore roll to hit on 3+ and roll to wound on 3+.
Each terminator will get a 2+ save.
Hence the probability of 1 attack killing a terminator is 4/6 * 4/6 * 1/6 = 0.074 (=2/27 as a fraction). Or to put it another way, 13.5 attacks will be needed (on average) to down a terminator.
Therefore to remove 5 terminators will require 5 * 13.5 attacks = 67.5 attacks.
If each Khorne Berzerker performs averagely and they get to charge, then the unit will need to be 67.5 / 4 = 16.875 members strong to pull off this feat on the charge.
That's a whole load of Khorne Berzerkers. I personally don't field Khorne Berzerkers in such large numbers. Eight is obviously a fluffy number to have, but I mostly stick with about ten. But I also add in to the mix a Skull Champion with a power fist or power weapon. And I've ignored subsequent rounds of combat. But those considerations are a story for another day.
6 comments:
8 including a champ with powerfist should down a squad of 5 terminators easy
Power fist on the charge: 4 attacks at S9. That's 3+ to hit, 2+ to wound and 3+ to save (thanks to the storm shields). On average, that results in 0.74 dead terminators. To remove the extra 4.26 terminators will require an additional 58 (rounded up) attacks.
This means the skull champion will need 14 or 15 friends to help out.
Against 5+ invulnerable save terminators, the Skull Champion generates about 1.5 wounds ... he'll need about 12 extra friends there (if my brain is functioning).
But again, I'll emphasize that I've ignored combat resolution, Ld tests, I tests and so forth and just gone for the pure killiness.
The fear might just be a holdover from the old heavy CCW max 4+ save days of zerkers. Even though the units have changed, their brains are still wired to avoid them...
Good point, sonsoftaurus!
Ah yes, my Orks miss those days. Here Termie, Termie, Termie. I'z got somefing for ya!
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