8th ed number crunch

when i started playing, i saw an excel document that numerically proved what units should be taken based on a cost-benefit analysis of point-for-effectiveness.

i thought it was boring, and took away much of the motivation i had for building a fluff-based army. later i realized that that's a part of the hobby for a lot of people, and that it has its time and place like anything else.

i have not done that. it's not my thing.

but in early discussions of 8th ed, the "even a lascannon can hurt a land raider?!" discussion came up. and i got curious: just exactly how effective is a lasgun versus a landraider?

so i did an analysis of my own.

here are my thus-far results. i took a few units as examples -- Landraider, Dreadnought, Stompa, Leman Russ, Landspeeder Vengeance, Knight, Monolith. I used the same metrics for all decisions: rounding, what d3 and d6 meant, not accounting for cover, etc. this way i could have some raw data to start with.

i used the following weapon statistics: SM lascannon, SM krak missile, IG battle cannon, IG lasgun, SM bolter. i really should add the Melta as well, for funsies.

but to know the "lasgun rating" of a vehicle really puts into perspective just how beefy it is. and to know the lascannon-to-melta ratio helps understand how nasty the armor is.

anyway... here's my initial findings:

Land Raider
vs Lascannon (SM) 18
vs Lasgun 1152
vs bolter 864
vs krak missile (SM) 32
vs battle cannon 32

Dreadnought
vs Lascannon 7
vs Lasgun 576
vs bolter 432
vs krak missile 12
vs battle cannon 12

Leman Russ
vs Lascannon 11
vs Lasgun 864
vs bolter 648
vs krak missile 18
vs battle cannon 18

Landspeeder Vengeance
vs Lascannon 8
vs Lasgun 162
vs bolter 97
vs krak missile 10
vs battle cannon 10

Stompa
vs Lascannon 41
vs Lasgun 3240
vs bolter 2430
vs krak missile 68
vs battle cannon 68

Knight
vs Lascannon 22
vs Lasgun 1728
vs bolter 1296
vs krak missile 36
vs battle cannon 36

Monolith
vs Lascannon 18
vs Lasgun 1440
vs bolter 1080
vs krak missile 30
vs battle cannon 30

- - - Updated - - -

i know it's simplistic, and i haven't had to use Excel or take a statistics class in nearly 20 years, so forgive any errors.

full document: