This week’s Hammer of Math looks at the differences between the shooting and melee output of Kharadron Overlord Grundstok Thunderers and Arkanaut Company.
Kharadron Overlords in Age of Sigmar have always intrigued me. Professionally I’m an engineer, so anything to do with science and technology is always fun. I’m also 6’9″ and have a beard, so that’s 2 out of 3 things that I can relate to these airship flying dwarven privateers.
Local AoS aficionado Bair asked me to take a look at something which has been apparently up for debates in the beer halls of the Overlords; how the Arkanaut Company matches up against the Grundstok Thunderers. Arkanaut Companies form the core of a Kharadron Overlord force, raining fire upon their foes with their pistols, skyhooks, and volley guns before diving into combat with hand weapons and skypikes. Their pistols also feature the ability to shoot in combat, allowing them to be even nastier when stuck in. The Grunstok Thunderers are purely ranged, featuring aetheric decksweepers, rifles, and mortars but only smacking their opponents with butt stocks in melee. Fortunately Thunderers also gain the ability to shoot in combat with all of their toys, which certainly helps a bit. A full Arkanaut Company is 220 points while 10 Thunderers cost 280 points, so the Thunderers need to show a 28% improvement to justify the price difference.
Shooting
I compared the output of a full Arkanaut Company containing 2 volley guns, 2 light skyhooks, and 16 pistols with the Grunstok Thunderers equipped with 4 fumigators/decksweepers, 4 mortars/aethercannons, and 2 rifles. There are a lot of options which can alter the effects, including bonuses to hit and wound as well as rend, but to reduce complexity I focused on the baseline.
We quickly see that the Grundstok Thunderers have a decisive advantage over the Arkanaut Company in shooting across all Save characteristics, and ranges from 20% to 40% more wounds. Against every Save characteristic except for a 7+ the Grunstok Thunderers make up for their points difference.
Melee
Here things are a bit simpler. The Arkanaut Company has access to 18 hand weapons and 2 skypikes, while the Grunstok Thunderers only have their 10 heavy gun butts.
The contrast here from the melee is stark, with the Grunstok Thunderers hopelessly outclassed by the melee output of the Arkanaut Company. The median values are particularly telling. Assuming a full round of two Combat Phases and one Shooting phase, the median output of the Arkanaut Company in melee exceeds the combined melee and shooting output of the Grundstock Thunderers.
Wrapping Up
Comparing the Arkanaut Company to the Grundstok Thunderers shows that the difference isn’t necessarily cut and dry. The Arkanaut Company sacrifices some shooting for a considerable improvement in their melee abilities, to the point where even with the ability to shoot in combat the Thunderers are outclassed. However if the combat remains at a distance then the Thunderers have the advantage and more than make up for the difference in points.
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