survivability from marks

[Isabelle]

A Mark of Tzeetch, and a Sigil of Chaos give a 3++ on a Lord/sorc/apostle. Which isn't too shabby when people decide to hit your HQ with PF/TH, lascannon or anything else that has good AP and 7+ S. Should keep him alive through just about any challenge.

 

People are gonna be paranoid about chaos HQ's for a while and its not unusual to see them draw an absurd amount of fire when people are thinking 'golly a DEMON WEAPON!!!".

[Chimerical]

Okay, I'm no statistician, but let me try my hand at mathhammering this out for the MoN vs ‘naked’ CSM debate:

 

Let’s say we have 36 dudes*, T4 and T5, and see how they survive when they get hit by 36 shots from the most common types of small arms fire, all of which allow our 3+ armour save to be taken.

 

* 1 set has CC weapons, the other has MoN + CC weapons. In other words, the T5 dudes cost 20% more than the T4 ones.

 

Against S3:

36 T4 dudes; 12 wounds; 4 die

36 T5 dudes; 6 wounds; 2 die

T4 dudes die 100% faster the T5.

 

Against S4:

36 T4 dudes; 18 wounds; 6 die

36 T5 dudes; 12 wounds; 4 die

T4 dudes die 50% faster.

 

Against S5:

36 T4 dudes; 24 wounds; 8 die

36 T5 dudes; 18 wounds; 6 die

T4 dudes die 33% faster.

 

Against S6 (people still play eldar, right?)

36 T4 dudes; 30 wounds; 10 die

36 T5 dudes; 24 wounds; 8 die

T4 dudes die 25% faster.

 

So what are some things we can take from this?

1) You get diminishing returns as the strength increases, up to the point where S7+ gives you no benefit for taking the MoN.

2) In every case for hits that are S3-6, the MoN gives you an increased survival rate which, point-for-point, exceeds in value the 20% extra you pay per marine. However, this is pretty marginal at S6.

 

There are of course other factors involved in determining which is better overall for the points. As confused notes, more bodies are giving you more shots and attacks, and more resilience against the relatively common S7+ hits you face in the game. It also gives you greater flexibility in terms of the ICs you can run them with. On the other hand, and in addition to the greater survival against the S3-6 spectrum, giving your marines the MoN means you can fit more efficiency into a 10-man rhino squad and generally means that you don’t have to pay so many iterations of the mandatory champion cost (usually 10 points per squad).