Dwarf Warriors vs Bloodletters

Welcome to the first installment of the revised Mathhammer!


So this time I am pitting around 420 points of Dwarves and Bloodletters against each other. That is a 40 man unit of Dwarves with full command and Great Weapon against a 33 Bloodletters strong unit with full command.


First things first... lets look at how likely the Dwarves are to hurt the Bloodletters.


Hit Chance: 50%
Wound Chance: 83%
Failed Bloodletter Ward: 66%


All of this combines to a 27% chance for each Dwarven attack to cause a wound.


On the other side of the combat we have the Bloodletters. Now these guys have the following chances:


Hit Chance: 66%
Wound Chance: 66%


No armour save for the Dwarves though as the Bloodletters strength is just too high! This means that for this article we can ignore the Killing Blow mechanic as any wound already ignores armour saves.


Scenario 1: Horde vs Horde.


Horde vs Horde this means that both units get maximum number of attacks and truly get to duke it out.


So first things first are the Bloodletters attacks, at a higher initiative they get to strike first. In total they get 31 attacks.


These 31 attacks cause a total of 14 wounds.




By response the Dwarves get to attack with every model left, for a total of 27 attacks. These attacks kill 7 Bloodletters.




Here is a snap shot of the two units at the end of the 1st round of Combat.


Both units have two ranks, both units have a standard, this means that the combat resolution is -7, +/- 1 when taking into consideration who charged whom.


This means the Dwarves need a significant chunk of good luck to be able to win this combat, or even to pass the test at the end of the first round.


Scenario 2: 5 Wide

This time the Dwarves (sensibly in my mind) form up only 5 wide and as deep as they can go. This way they know they will be steadfast at the end of combat.

Once again the Bloodletters strike first with 19 attacks. They cause a total of 8 wounds.



Now it is the Dwarves turn, they get 11 attacks back and manage to kill 3 Bloodletters.




Here is the overview of the two units at the end of Combat.





So what does this mean for the Dwarves? Well not a lot of good news to be honest. They lost combat by 4 this time. Although they are Steadfast so shouldnt be going anywhere quickly.

Conclusion
Well in conclusion the Bloodletters win both of these combats very convincingly, and if by some miracle the Dwarves dont break and run when they are 10 wide they end up losing combat in a little under 2 more rounds of combat just due to a lack of models.

The second formation is better... but only a little as they will still lose 8 models a turn for the next two turns (on average), which means they may not even be steadfast after two more rounds of combat.

However... if you do happen to have a unit of Dwarves with Great Weapons being charged by Bloodletters I would strongly advise using them in the 5 wide formation. This way they are not going to be running anywhere and -4 requires a smaller swing in luck your way than the previous formation.

Next time.... Longbeards. We will see how much better or worse they fair than the Great Weapon Dwarves. 

Comments

RTGamer said…
Nice work. I would expect the Longbeards to do slightly better than the normal Dwarves. Slightly.
Kraggi said…
Don't forget this is Dwarf Warriors with Great Weapons, instead of Hand Weapon & Shield (which is my preferred equipment)