Aberrants – they might be good now. I know.
New edition, new-ish idea – a quick overview of various units, including options and associated characters. And because I like them, I’m starting with Aberrants.
Baseline damage output (unit of 10): 17 Guardsmen, 11 Marines, 7 Terminators
Bolter-shots to kill (unit of 10): 405
ABERRANTS
Basic aberrants don’t get options, but the hypermorph does. He can swap out his heavy power weapon for a heavy improvised weapon – more attacks, but less strength, AP and damage. Is it worth it?
Not really. AP0 is a significant handicap and means that the stop-sign only comes out ahead into anything T3-6 with a 6+ save, or T3/5 with a 5+ save. And that’s assuming the target only has one or two wounds. Above that, the heavy power weapon averages more unsaved wounds into anything with any degree of regular saving throw.
If we assume that the target has an invulnerable save that negates the power weapon’s AP (like a genestealer’s 5+, 5++), the improvised weapon does become useful – it’s now the better option into one- or two-wound models of T3-6 and T8 at every level of save. But once we factor in the full damage of both weapons, the improvised weapon is only better into T3/5 (any save).
Finally, if the invulnerable save is one point worse than the regular save (3+, 4++ for example), the improvised weapon is better into most of T3 and T5, and lightly armoured T4 and T6 when damage doesn’t matter, and flat worse into anything with a save once damage is factored in.
So, if you’re regularly throwing your aberrants into Guardsmen or Skitarii, then the stop-sign has its uses. Otherwise, you’re probably better off with the heavy power weapon.
ABOMINANT
Using Marines as a baseline: a single aberrant with heavy power weapon will, on average, kill one marine each time it fights. So a unit of 10 aberrants will, on average, wipe out a full 10-man squad of marines in a single round of combat. The same aberrant kills two-thirds of a terminator, meaning 10 aberrants would take out 6 or 7 terminators.
Add an Abominant (for Sustained Hits 1), and we gain 5 extra hits – the equivalent of two-and-a-half extra aberrants – pushing us up to 12 or 13 dead marines, or 8 dead terminators. [All else being equal, the Chosen One makes a unit of aberrants 25% more effective.]
The Abominant himself is likely to make one marine very dead, and kills a terminator 69% of the time (he beats the save at 83%, but if he rolls a 1 for damage, the terminator lives), so we generally get more value out of his ability than his hammer. He’ll be more useful into bigger targets, where the possibility that he could drop 21 wounds on something (as remote a chance as that is) is a lovely threat to have tucked away in a relatively durable unit.
BIOPHAGUS
The other potential leader for aberrants is the Biophagus. As aberrants aren’t Battleline, we can’t combine both the Abominant and the Biophagus – it’s one or the other. The Biophagus confers Lethal Hits. Our unit of ten aberrants still scores 20 hits, but 5 of them wound automatically (netting us 3 marines), before the other 15 hits kill another 8 or 9, for a total of 11 or 12 marines. It’s less efficient than the Sustained Hits of the Abominant, because we’re already wound marines on 2s – auto-wounding isn’t so much of a bonus here.
Into terminators, we’d pick up 7.5 dead bodies – still slightly behind the Abominant’s buff. Here, though, we could trigger the Alchemicus Familiar to gain Anti-Infantry 2+, in which case we’d tend towards 9 dead terminators and we’d overtake the Abominant.
The Biophagus isn’t a great fighter – even if he triggers Biological Warfare he still kills just 0.74 marines or 0.37 terminators. As we saw with the heavy improvised weapon, AP0 hurts (us, not whatever we’re hitting). In theory, the Biophagus could drop 24 wounds in his BioWar turn – incredibly unlikely, but potentially hilarious if it ever comes off.
CONCLUSION
All of that boils down to:
Stick to heavy power weapons unless you have a specific reason not to.
The Biophagus isn’t bad.
The Abominant is usually better.
With the new points system, there’s no saving (or cost) flipping between different weapon options. It means there’s no advantage in taking the heavy improvised weapon – we’re not saving 5 points to use elsewhere, for example.
Fixed points per unit also shifts the dynamic with characters. Previously, given that the Abominant increases the unit’s damage output by 25%, we might have assessed this increase against adding the equivalent points-worth of additional aberrants. That’s gone now – we can add five aberrants or nothing. We can still use the concept theoretically – adding two-and-a-half aberrants to a unit of 10 would have cost us around 83 points; adding the same damage increase via the Abominant costs 75. From that point of view, the Abominant is worthwhile as an accompaniment to a maxed-out unit.
Should we add a leader to our aberrants? Maybe. Those points could be useful elsewhere (an Abominant could instead be a unit of five acolytes, for example), but equally, having that extra punch in what’s likely to be a decisive combat unit could be well worth the points. And whilst the Biophagus brings a bit less to the party, he also costs less, and could be a good choice if points get tight (although he has the option of leading other units, which the Abominant doesn’t).