Who’s better? The 9th edition Patriarch or the 10th edition Patriarch? There’s only one way to find out… Fight!
Thanks Harry. Yes, with 10th edition almost upon us, I’m coming out of blogging hibernation and warming up with a slightly less than serious comparison between Patriarchs old and new. For our purposes here, we’re running both Patriarchs as bare-bones – no warlord traits, creeds, relics, or new-fangled enhancements. Just basic data-slate into basic data-slate.
As is usually the case, we’ll pit them both against Guardsmen, Marines and a Gravis Captain, before letting them go head-to-head in a grand finale.
THE CONTENDERS
Patriarch 9 hits on 2s, with 6 attacks at strength 5. The claws are AP-3, 2 damage. He can reroll any failed wound rolls, and 6s to wound boost the claws to AP-6 and 3 damage.
Patriarch 10 still hits on 2s, with 5 attacks at strength 6. His claws are AP-2, 2 damage. With Twin-Linked and Devastating Wounds, this Patriarch can still reroll any failed wound rolls, and 6s inflict 2 mortal wounds instead of regular damage.
So, our new overlord has slightly less attacks at a slightly higher strength (useful into T3 guardsmen and a T5 captain). He has less AP, although that AP-6 was always overkill; and gains a chance at mortals, which is helpful into invulnerable saves.
The following maths will be using the average damage, rather than trying to calculate the chances of each specific outcome. It’s a more generic method, but still useful for broad comparisons, and does accurately reflect utility over an extended period. I’m also assuming that we’re not fishing for 6s here. We could, but it’s more complicated, so I’m not.
vs GUARDSMEN
First up, Guardsmen: T3, 5+ save, 1 wound.
Patriarch 9 kills 4.4 guardsmen. His bonus AP and damage are wasted, as he was killing guardsmen outright anyway.
Patriarch 10 kills 4.9 guardsmen. The mortals aren’t hugely more effective, as the guard weren’t getting a save anyway; but because it’s two mortals, it’s a whole extra dead body every time it goes off (rather than overkill).
So into lightly-armoured chaff, 10th edition does better.
vs MARINES
Moving on, Marines: T4, 3+ save, 2 wounds.
Patriarch 9 kills 3.9 marines.
Patriarch 10 kills 2.8 marines. The mortals are helpful because they bypass the save, but still only kill one marine when they do. Otherwise, AP-2 is a noticeable downgrade into power armour, giving marines twice the chance of making a save (from 1-in-6 to 2-in-6).
Into standard power-armoured targets, we’ve taken a nerf. 9th edition wins this one.
vs GRAVIS CAPTAIN
And finally in the preliminary rounds, a Gravis Captain: T5, 4+ invulnerable, 7 wounds.
Patriarch 9 causes 4.4 wounds. The AP-6 boost (and AP-3 in general) is negated by the invulnerable save, so the Patriarch tends to bounce a bit here.
Patriarch 10 causes 4.6 wounds. Wounding on 3s makes a big difference here, and the mortals ignore the invulnerable save which helps too.
Into heavy infantry with invulnerable saves, the new boy just edges it (although neither manage a kill).
So much for reduced lethality – the Patriarch 10 wins two out of three scenarios here. On the other hand, this is about as good as it gets for the newer version: as an Epic Hero, he can’t take any enhancements (unlike the 9th edition version, who always had a warlord trait, maybe a relic, and usually benefited in some way from the cult creed). 10th also loses out in terms of psychic damage, although it’ll be interesting to see how Cosmic Horror plays out.
IN THE PURPLE CORNER...
It's not a fight that could ever take place, but we're not going to worry about that here. What we really want to know is, who wins in a Patriarch vs Patriarch smack-down. We already know what they can do against other targets, but defensively, Patriarch 9 has toughness 5, 7 wounds and a 4+ invulnerable save. Patriarch 10 also has toughness 5 and a 4+ invulnerable, but only has 6 wounds.
9th Patriarch causes 4.4 wounds.
10th Patriarch causes 4.6 wounds.
Yup, the same as against the Gravis Captain (because the key numbers (T5, 4++ save) are identical). As before, the older version of the Patriarch struggles against an invulnerable save, which in this case negates his regular AP and completely ignores the jump to AP-6 (although the 3 damage is still helpful). The newer version benefits significantly from the mortals generated by Devastating Wounds, making him better into invulnerable saves just as he gets worse (at AP-2) into regular saves.
In a straight fight, Patriarch on Patriarch, it comes down to whoever can get the first punch in. That’s more likely to be the 9th edition version, due to his having advance and charge, which seems to have disappeared from the Patriarch and Genestealers in the new edition. That said, Patriarch 10 has a chance of causing battleshock, which would prevent any shenanigans via the Counter-Offensive stratagem on the part of Patriarch 9.
[Side-bar. That’s interesting. Say Patriarch 9 charges Patriarch 10. 9 fights first, then 10. Both are wounded, neither is dead. In 10’s turn, neither is fighting first, so 9 gets the first swing again, and will win the fight. But if 9’s player has any Fights First units in combat elsewhere on the table, 10 would be able to counter-charge after that unit fights and kill 9 before he gets a go. Normally, as the inactive player, you wouldn’t have units fighting in the first phase of combat because you’ve not charged, so the active player can’t use counter-charge until at least one of your not-fighting-first units has had a go. That may be worth bearing in mind, from both sides of the coin.]
CONCLUSIONS
Overall, I think Patriarch 9 is stronger. I know that 10 has come out on top in 3 of the 4 examples, but that’s with 10 at full strength, and 9 without any traits, relics or creeds, and without the chance to Smite a few wounds off first. A properly tooled-up 9th edition Patriarch was a blender into a lot of targets, and we definitely look like we’ve lost that.
But it’s not all gloomy. Patriarch 10 comes with a couple of key upgrades. Strength 6 is valuable into a range of targets, giving a better chance to wound (over strength 5) into toughness 3, 5, 6, 10 and 11 – that covers a lot of infantry, and even some vehicles. Not only that, but the often wasted AP-6 has been replaced by mortal wounds; much more useful across a wide range of targets. These two bonuses are what gave patriarch 10 the edge in most combats, even against 9’s extra attack.
So, have we lost out? Yes. Have we gained something interesting in return? Also yes. And I’m looking forward to trying him out with Genestealers – assuming that ours look like the Tyranid ones, a brood of 10 gets 40 attacks hitting on 2s, and triggering mortals on 6s to wound (with at least reroll 1s and maybe full rerolls). Into marines on an objective marker, that’s 19 wounds (including 8 mortals) before the Patriarch swings. Can’t be sad about that (unless you’re a marine, I guess).
Anyway. 10th edition is almost upon us, and like it or not we’ve got a whole load of new tactical challenges coming our way. I hope you enjoy it.