Drukhari Damage Output Analysis

Here is a resource I hope will provide people with a useful analysis of how points efficient the units in the Drukhari index are.

The analysis considers a range of potential targets you might want to consider in list building:
1) Guardsmen or Conscripts (GEQ)
2) Ork Boyz
3) Space Marine (MEQ)
4) Terminators (TEQ)
5) Space Marine Bikers
6) Scout Sentinel (low toughness vehicle)
7) Crimson Hunter (medium toughness flyer)
8. Rhino (high toughness vehicle)
9) Land Raider

For each target, a wide range of unit options have been considered and their effectiveness in shooting and in melee (on the charge) has been assessed, with the average number of unsaved wounds calculated. In order to provide a useful comparison between the different units the damage output has been normalised by dividing by the cost of the unit and multiplying by 100 to get the average damage per 100 points.

For example, against Guardsmen, Mandrakes deal 4.81 wounds in a round of shooting, which normalised per 100 points is 4.81 / 95 × 100 = 5.07 unsaved wounds per 100 points.

There are a number of key assumptions involved in the calculations. I suspect this list will be updated as questions arise. Here is the current list:
1) All weapons are in range, even short range weapons like grenades
2) Models are stationary, so no penalties for heavy weapon movement
3) Targets are not in cover
4) Drukhari get to charge
5) No losses to overwatch
6) Void Mine and Ossefactor bonus damage not included

The lists are sorted by the combined (shooting and charging) unsaved wounds per 100 points. This is not a 'best unit' list as such, as there are a number of other important factors to consider, such as resilience, mobility, objective secured and so on. However, it does cover one of the most important factors, of how much damage the next 100 points of your army list can deal.

Hopefully the lists are easy enough to understand and help the community with army selections. Any feedback to improve the analysis or outputs, or any errors you can spot (there will inevitably be some with the amount of data involved) are happily received.

Google sheets link

That's really useful, thank you!

I'm assuming that the Scourges (Haywire Blaster) entry isn't including the mortal wounds they can deal, but it's still darkly hilarious that our specific anti-vehicle squad is literally the second worst unit in our entire army at killing Land Raiders.

Burnage wrote:

I'm assuming that the Scourges (Haywire Blaster) entry isn't including the mortal wounds they can deal, but it's still darkly hilarious that our specific anti-vehicle squad is literally the second worst unit in our entire army at killing Land Raiders.

Right ^^

I knew there were likely to be errors. At least this one had some minor comic value as well

Will get that corrected and updated later today.

Nice work!

So you're saying I need to buy some Mandrakes? I still haven't tried them. This edition or previously.

Rhameil wrote:

So you're saying I need to buy some Mandrakes? I still haven't tried them. This edition or previously.

Previous edition : very bad.

This edition : nice little swiss army knife. Good against a variety of targets, and the ability to DS.

Tables updated to fix the missing mortal wounds for Haywire Blasters.

Added in the Reaper and Tantalus.

As for Mandrakes - they are points efficiency wise the best single unit for their damage output we have available. However, they are fragile against Bolters or similar and if you mis-use them they wont impress as much as they could. If you had some Craftworld units in your army, then Doom from a Farseer scales superbly with Mandrakes, as the reroll improves their mortal wounds output. That especially applies to tough targets with invulnerable saves, such as a Leviathan Dreadnought. Mandrakes have been horrible for several editions, then slightly interesting in recent times, and now suddenly they are really strong.

Yeah I've liked the concept of them since the 3rd edition codex, but they have always been a joke unit. Until now...

Quite interesting to see hellions and wyches being much higher in these charts than what I expected against meq and guardsman. We just need to wait for a stratagem or two to get them into combat and then we might be able to do something with them.

Thanks for putting these up!
That is quite some work!

I'd be very interested in the google doc when you get it rolling, as my troops in their raiders will never leave it unless they have to, so I only really experience one of those columns at a time.

Mandrakes! Thanks for including them naked and them in a Venom.
I expected as much, but it is a great way to start the conversation about, should we be looking to mandrakes in a Venom as our fast, survivable mainstay anti troop/swiss army knife unit?
With the additional utility of being able to decide to Deep strike them if strategy dictates?

Thank you for the hard work. Spreadsheet format will definitely be appreciated. Great stuff. Merits much further study.

Interesting find with the Mandrakes already. Definitely worth experimenting with. Also look at that Reaper go. I love that unit and have long wondered why it is not more popular.

Kantalla wrote:

As for Mandrakes - they are points efficiency wise the best single unit for their damage output we have available. However, they are fragile against Bolters or similar and if you mis-use them they wont impress as much as they could. If you had some Craftworld units in your army, then Doom from a Farseer scales superbly with Mandrakes, as the reroll improves their mortal wounds output. That especially applies to tough targets with invulnerable saves, such as a Leviathan Dreadnought. Mandrakes have been horrible for several editions, then slightly interesting in recent times, and now suddenly they are really strong.

Something else to consider regarding Mandrakes is that their efficiency relies on them being able to shoot *and* assault, which may not always be possible/desirable.

That said, it's still interesting to see how high they come in terms of damage/efficiency.

Actually it isn't. If you compare the shooting of the mandrakes with the shooting of other things they come out close to the top for most targets, although they are outclassed in most segments by a unit that is more specialised than they are, such as shard carbine scourges (infantry) and dark lance scourges/ ravagers (vehicles).
In a similar way to dissies their strength lies in being good against multiple targets. After all, Of units in a venom shooting 1wound targets they are the top. And they remain close ish to the top of the list even against their "bad" targets like vehicles.

Pity we could never doom their targets as ynnari won't let you take mandrakes.

LordSplata wrote:

Pity we could never doom their targets as ynnari won't let you take mandrakes.

You can run them in an Aeldari list with no issues, or just stick them in a Patrol detachment with a Haemonculus if you really want to run them alongside Ynnari.