In Hammer of Math, we look at key units and rules in Warhammer and other wargames, with an eye on statistics, probability, and their impact on the table. In this week’s article, we’re looking at the new Vongrim units from the Kharadron Overlords Battletome, and how they stack up into different targets.
The new Kharadron Overlords Battletome gave us some new warscrolls in the form of the Vongrim Harpoon Crew and the Vongrim Salvagers, each of which have their own strengths and preferred targets. In particular, the Vongrim Harpoon Crew are “a supreme monster-hunting machine,” as reinforced by their Anti-MONSTER (+1 Rend) rule. Meanwhile the Salvagers pack a powerful punch in melee. So it stands to reason: Which of these units is more effective, into monsters and any other targets?
Vongrim Harpoon Crew
Vongrim Harpooners come in units of five or ten and do most of their talking with Skydrake Harpoons or Firearms. These are ranged weapons with a 12″ range and two attacks each, hitting on a 3+ with a 3+ to wound and Rend 1, Damage 1. They also tack on Anti-MONSTER (+1 Rend). They’re not necessarily designed for combat (they can’t shoot while they’re in combat), but they pack two attacks each there at 4+ to hit, 3+ to wound with Rend 1 and Damage 1 and notably do not have Anti-MONSTER (+1 Rend).
Against regular targets with a 4+ save, each member of the Harpoon Crew will do 0.6 damage with their harpoons in shooting and tack on another 0.4 if they have to fight in melee. Across five models that’s an expected damage count of 3 and 2.2, respectively. Against a MONSTER target with a 4+ save that’ll up the rend by 1, changing their save from a 5+ to a 6+ and upping the expected damage on shooting from 3 to 3.7.
So each time you shoot five of these guys, expect to do 3-4 damage, with closer to 4 against MONSTER targets (provided they don’t have a Ward save to act as a back stop against your Rend). If you then fight with them in melee, they can knock off another two attacks. And if you reinforce the unit to double their size, just double those totals.
Vongrim Salvagers
Next up are the Vongrim Salvagers, who come armed with Privateer Pistols and Cutlasses. The Pistols can shoot in combat and are 10″ range, 2 attacks each, hitting and wounding on 4+ with no rend and 1 damage. The Cutlass is 3 attacks at 4+ to hit, 3+ to wound, Rend 1, Damage 1, and it’ll do 2 hits on a crit. On top of that they have the Spotter’s Flaregun rule, which can buff all friendly Skyfarer units on an objective within 9″ with an extra buff for friendly Vongrim units. Let’s put that aside for now and come back to it.
A Salvager shooting a target with a 4+ save will score 0.25 wounds on average, meaning five of them will average 1.25 damage. In melee is where things get interesting: With three attacks each, a Salvager will average 0.89 damage per activation, and a unit of five can expect to push through 4.44. That’s higher than the Harpoons total, even against monster targets. And that’s just because +1 attack is much, much better than +1 to rend. About 20% better, in fact, and it has the benefit of being always useful – having an extra attack is always better, while ward saves can make it so that +1 Rend just doesn’t help as much. Here the fact that the Cutlass only hits on a 4+ is mitigated by that Crit (2 hits) rule, which is statistically the exact same as having +1 to hit as long as you don’t have ways to score critical hits on lower values.
Spotter’s Flaregun
The flaregun is used in any combat phase and lets the Salvagers player pick an objective within 9″ of the unit to be the target, then they roll a d6. On a 3+, they get the following effects:
- SKYFARER units get +1 to hit for combat rolls against a unit contesting the target objective.
- Vongrim Salvagers and Harpoon Crew units targeting a unit contesting the objective get +1 Rend.
This is a big buff. For Harpoon Crew units, their expected damage against a target with a 4+ save jumps to 4.6 with the harpoons and 5.6 against MONSTER targets, while they’ll average 3.7 damage in melee. That comes out to a 58% increase in output.
For Salvagers, this means they’ll average 2.2 damage on their pistols and 6.9 with their Cutlasses against targets with a 4+ save, bringing their total to 9.2. This makes them better against non-MONSTER targets and only slightly worse into MONSTER targets, as at higher accuracy and rend values, Harpooners can turn things back in their favor if their target isn’t allowed a save and ultimately, their melee is better than Salvager shooting.
Final Thoughts
The Harpoon Crew may be “supreme monster-hunting machines” but it seems like for all intents and purposes the Salvagers are going to do more damage most of the time – and buff other units when they do so. Of course the challenge here is that they have to get into melee to do it, while the Harpoon Crew can pick targets off from a distance. Your playstyle is going to dictate which will provide more value against Monsters.
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