Harlequin Weapon Math - Anti Tank and Final Conclusions

Hi guys,

Next instalment and likely the final one looking at the various Harlequin Weapons and their effectiveness vs. a variety of targets.

These are the findings for the various weapon options on the charge vs Vehicles, followed by a summary of the various findings so far and my conclusions.

AV10

Weapon	Glance	Penetrate	Total	Efficiency
Caress	1	0	1	0.04
Kiss	0.44	0.22	0.67	0.033
Embrace	0.33	0.67	1.44	0.072
TM with Caress	1.25	0	1.25	0.031
TM with Kiss	0.55	0.22	0.78	0.019

As expected the Embrace leads the way here as those additional S6 hits make the difference, whilst their normal attacks are still effective for glancing on a 6 with Furious Charge making them S4. If you're going after AV10, Embrace is far and away what you want.

AV11

Weapon	Glance	Penetrate	Total	Efficiency
Caress	0.67		0.67	0.030
Kiss	0.11	0.11	0.22	0.011
Embrace	0.33	0.33	0.67	0.033
TM with Caress	0.83		0.83	0.021
TM with Kiss	0.11	0.11	0.22	0.006

Depending on what you want here the Caress and the Embrace are equally as effective, if you're just trying to knock off HP then they're both just as good as each other, you can't destroy it with a penetrating hit unless it's open topped anyway, so although you might shake/stun/immobilise/weapon destroyed, you're more likely to glance it to death. 

There is definitely a bonus in having those results vs. not having those results though so the Embrace would still come out on top here, with the disclaimer that if you're charging something with 1 or 2 HP left, you're likely to pop it either way.

AV12

Weapon	Glance	Penetrate	Total	Efficiency
Caress	0.67		0.67	0.03
Kiss	0.11		0.11	0.006
Embrace	0.33		0.33	0.017
TM with Caress	0.83		0.83	0.021
TM with Kiss	0.11		0.11	0.003

Definitely start to see the tables turn here and the Caress is twice as effective as the Embrace, still causing 0.67 glances per model while the Embrace is half of that, at this stage 4 Caress would give you 2.64 Glances, while your 4 Embraces are at 1.32.

AV13 + AV14

Weapon	Glance	Penetrate	Total	Efficiency
Caress	0.67		0.67	0.03
Kiss
Embrace
TM with Caress	0.83		0.83	0.021
TM with Kiss

Obviously no competition here, the Embrace can't touch the higher AV vehicles while the Caress is still just as effective, it's likely however that you won't see as many high AV vehicles, and if you do see them, it's quite possible you'll be shooting Haywire from elsewhere in your list into them, so although it's a big advantage to the Caress, depending on your local meta, you may not want to read too much into that.

Summary:

So what I wanted to do is to put various configurations suggested into play against a variety of targets and give you an idea of what wins out where, from that, you can come to your own conclusions as to how you'd want to include in your lists.

I'll be using 3 different loadouts that I think could be effective, namely 4 Emrace, 4 Caress and a mix of 2 Embrace and 2 Caress. In every case I've included the Troop Master with a Caress as it's the most effective weapon on him in the majority of cases.

So the end result seems to be... It depends!

If you're charging any infantry target, and expecting to be there for 2 rounds of combat, the Caress is definitely the best option.

If you're charging infantry but only expecting to be in combat for 1 round, then they're the still the best option, unless the infantry is T3 5+ save in which case the Embrace wins out by forcing lots of saves.

If you're charging a vehicle, then again, it depends on the circumstances.

If it's a single AV10 Vehicle, charge it with whatever you like, it's likely to go down through weight of attacks. If it's a multiple charge on several AV10 vehicles (Not sure how relevant that it) the Embrace wins out, but against one vehicle, it's likely just overkill.

If it's an AV11 vehicle then the Embrace is the best option, both the Caress and the Embrace average 3.5 Hull Points, but half of those from the Embrace are penetrating, so you'll likely get shaken/stunned/rip a weapon off etc. if it survives.

For AV 12 the Caress is much the better choice and a unit with 4 Caress and a Troupe Master with Caress will basically average 3.5 HP off anything, which is nice easy math. :)

Obviously for AV13-14 only the TM is contributing for the Embrace, whereas the Caress still do the same damage, so again, against high AV the Caress is the best.

Conclusion:

I think when building you'll need to think about what you'll be charging into, but hopefully this little series has given you the information you need to make an informed decision based on your meta.

If you see a lot of infantry hordes, or AV10 packed closely together, then the Embrace is great, for me, I feel that the Caress is the best option for most situations, and if I want a cheaper option I'll throw the Kiss in there with it as I like the option for Instant Death, as well as the AP2 and the fact that it's an iconic Harlequin weapon.

I can see why the Embrace seems great when you look at charging in and doing those impact hits, but I feel that in the vast majority of situations you want to stay in combat during your opponents turn, and then hit and run out to charge in again or move elsewhere, and in that second round of combat the Embrace offers you absolutely nothing.

For me, based on the above I'll likely be running a mix of Kiss/Caress, or purely Caress. Prior to doing this series I had thought of 2 of each in a 5 man unit but looking at the results I think  I'd likely go with 3 Caress and 1 Kiss.

So depending on what I'm running in (Star Weavers / Raiders / On Foot) I'll be doing something like:

5 man Troupe (3 Caress // 1 Kiss // TM with Caress) - Insert Shadowseer here (In Starweaver)

8 man Troupe (4 Caress // 1 Kiss // TM with Caress) - Insert Shadowseer and Succubus here (In Raider)

Hopefully this has been useful / interesting - If anyone has any questions or thinks any of the math is wrong please let me know.

Rich