DE Troop Comparison: Wracks v Warriors (Pt I)

I still can't decide on which type of troops to use. I want to take warriors, but there's this little part of me nibbling away at my resolve that keeps saying wracks might be too good not to use. Let's see what we can see.

For this I am comparing a single squad of warriors and a single squad of wracks:
10 Warriors - Splinter Cannon - Raider
5 Wracks - Liquifier - Venom + Splinter Cannon

These are very much not equal in cost, but they are the units that I would be taking in my list. Comparing them at equal point levels wouldn't help me any if I don't plan on taking them in whatever configuration that would be. My list would have either 4 wracks or 3 warriors, so the final conclusion will likely include that. For my liquifier, I am calculating the chance to wound per single model. Since it is a template weapon and auto-hits, it is more useful this way. It allows me to figure out how many hits I need to get on the template in order to make things even.

First, let's take a look at some shooting stats:

Ranged Combat: Warriors v Wracks
	10Warriors + SC(min)	10Warriors + SC(max)	5Wracks + Liquifier	Venom + 2SC
	v MEq	v MEq	v MEq	v MEq
h	8.666	16	1	8
w	4.333	8	0.5	4
k	1.444	2.666	0.333	1.333
	v GEq	v GEq	v GEq	v GEq
h	8.666	16	1	8
w	4.333	8	0.648	4
k	4.333	8	0.555	4
	v 5's	v 5's	v 5's	v 5's
h	8.666	16	1	8
w	4.333	8	0.333	4
k	0.722	1.333	0.185	0.666

Alright, so what does this tell us? Well, 12 SX shots are almost as good as 13, but 24 are twice as good. Just in case there was ever any question of that. Liquifiers are pretty good too. Let's see, some more quick math:

	Warriors(min)	2SC + 1 Template hit
	v MEq	v MEq
k	1.444	1.666
	v GEq	v GEq
k	4.333	4.648
	v 5's	v 5's
k	0.722	0.851
	Warriors(max)	2SC + 4 Template hits
	v MEq	v MEq
k	2.666	2.666
	v 5's	v 5's
k	1.333	1.407
	Warriors(max)	2SC + 7 Template hits
	v GEq	v GEq
k	8	8.537

In all cases, a venom + a single model under the template will cause more wounds than the whole warrior squad shooting on the move. That's pretty neat. Compared to the warrior squad at max shots (rapid fire and Heavy 6), the wracks need 4 MEq's or 5's under the template to come out on top, or 7 GEq's. That's a bit trickier to manage, but still not bad.

The main (unquantified) kicker here, though, is range. Moving around to try to stay between 24 and 36 inches, the wracks still have two cannons where the warriors only have the one. So in that range, the wracks are better. Between 12 and 24, the warriors get everything but the wracks still only get the 2 cannons, so the warriors are better. At point blank, if the wracks can bring their template to bear well enough, they can come out on top. It sort of seems like a wash, overall.

Squad vs squad, the numbers are pretty even. For the same points, though, I can have 4 wrack units but only 3 warriors. Increasing killiness by 33% is cool, but not exactly no-brainer territory.

How about assault? Warriors are nothing scary in CC, but wracks are pretty sweet with their 2 poisoned attacks. Let's see:

Close Combat: Warriors v Wracks on the charge
	10Warriors + SC	5Wracks + Liquifier
	v MEq	v MEq
h	10	7.5
w	3.333	3.75
k	1.111	1.25
	v GEq	b GEq
h	13.333	10
w	6.666	5
k	4.444	3.333
	v 5's	v 5's
h	6.666	5
w	1.111	2.5
k	0.370	0.416

So again, they're somewhat close. The wracks are clearly superior, but not by a huge amount. They're both likely to kill 1 MEq, or about 1 5's ever 3 combats. The weight of numbers of the warrior squad kills more GEq's, but so what? Everything kills GEq's. How about outside of the charge or against something with grenades?

Close Combat: Warriors v Wracks general combat
	10Warriors + SC	5Wracks + Liquifier
	v MEq	v MEq
h	5	5
w	1.666	2.5
k	0.555	0.833
	v GEq	v GEq
h	6.666	6.666
w	3.333	3.333
k	2.222	2.222
	v 5's	v 5's
h	3.333	3.333
w	0.555	1.666
k	0.185	0.277

I think that for these units, generally speaking, if you are in CC without your bonus A, something bad is happening. Well, that's not true. Hanging out in cover and shooting guys until they charge you isn't an especially bad option. They aren't as good at it as, say, Space Wolves, but it's still at least a decent tactic if your raider gets shot out from under you. Still though, it isn't exactly something I'd like to rely on. Maybe if I'm running on foot with max squad sizes, but otherwise, meh.

Anyways, wracks pull ahead a little bit, but there still isn't really a clear winner yet. Let's look at durability and see if anything becomes more apparent. If they are at least mostly equally killy, but one is significantly more survivable then the choice will be obvious. This has gone on for a while already, though, so I think I'll append a "Pt I" to the title of this and tackle that in part II. (this post isn't especially long, but all the table stuff takes some effort so I'm going to take a break for a while)