Rethinking the Deep Strike List, Part Two

My original post was meant to be a one off with some musing about a possible change to my list.  It is a bit of an expensive change in some ways, but if there is a solid weakness in my list, it is the limited number of "shots" available over 24", although the fact that each "shot" has the potential to hit like a ton of bricks helps compensate for that weakness.  Marshal Laeroth has managed to put up a couple of posts that managed to draw some commentary and bring on some more thought.  Amusingly enough, he had a "dead" post that also did its bit.

So, what to do?  The NOVA terrain metagame is producing a lot of interesting thoughts, but one I had, along with Marshal Laeroth after he had to play in it, was "darn, this would be great for a Black Templar drop list".

Let me try a visual:  You see a pair of THDC squads marching across the field at you, missiles flying.  Land Speeders scooting around in the background doing their bit with missile and heavy bolters.  Possibly a squad of Assault Terminators moving and running forward to get in grips with you OR waiting to teleport in.  In the meantime, five drop pods of Marines are waiting to slam down anywhere to exploit any weaknesses.  They don't have to worry about terrain shifts, too narrow clear vehicle passages or jockeying around to try to get everyone who needs to shoot a spot to shoot from. 

I'm going to try to compare, using Nike's metric system (start here, then here), to run Marshal Laeroth's old and new DDP lists, his NOVA 2011 Gunline and the two variations of my Deep Strike list, plus a first cut trial of putting a heavy weapon into the Crusader squads.   Remember that the metric system does NOT give a full picture, it is simply a way of roughly measuring the offensive capability of a list.
NOTE: I'm going to ignore DLRPG (Dead Land Raiders Per Game) for all of these lists, they all have enough anti-AV14 to deal with it.
NOTE: All Typhoon & Cyclone ML are assumed to be firing Krak without frags, even though I will often fire frags into Marine squads in cover.

First, lets look at what Laeroth's Gunline looks like:
DMS:  29.297
DMCC:  18.055
DRPG(S):  77.408
DRPG(A):  33.333

Old DDP:
DMS:  22.444
DMCC:  22.144
DRPG(S):  45.417
DRPG(A): 21.813

New DDP:
DMS:  23.334
DMCC:  12.860
DRPG(S):  68.056
DRPG(A): 21.813

Original Deep Strike:
DMS:  22.667
DMCC:  42.088
DRPG(S):  53.056
DRPG(A): 55.833

Revised Deep Strike (with Castellan-led THDC)
DMS:  23.131
DMCC:  41.005
DRPG(S):  51.945
DRPG(A):   59.166

Lots of numbers, but what do they tell us?  A few things, firstly that the firepower of the DP/DS lists to kill MEQ is fairly equivalent.  The Gunline looks good, but considering a lot of its DMS stat comes from AP2 weapons ducking armor saves, it actually hurts when confronted with the level of cover saves given by the NOVA terrain meta, as can be read over on Implausible Nature.  The Las/Plas Crusaders are 2.33 DMS compared to the 1.44 DMS of Melta Crusaders.  Maybe not much, but it adds up.  The 20+ stat is considered viable.

The DMCC stat is lower for both the Gunline and both DDPs, especially the Gunline and new DDP.  However, again, between shooting and assault, all five armies have acceptable MEQ killing numbers.

All five armies have acceptable DRPG stats, although the old DDP is at the bottom end of the spectrum with ~66 total DRPG.

How do they stack up against one another in each stat?

• DMS:  Gunline, New DDP (-5.9), New DS (-6.1), Old DS (-6.6), Old DDP (-6.8)
• DMCC:  Old DS, New DS (-1.1), Old DDP (-19.9), Gunline (-24), New DDP (-29.2)
• DMS+DMCC: Old DS, New DS (-0.6), Gunline (-17.4), Old DDP (-24.2), New DDP (-28.6)

In MEQ killings, they are all fairly close in shooting, although the Gunline potentially can kill ~25% more than each of the others.  One thing I'll note: the upgunning of the New DDP doesn't do much for MEQ killing, although it does have a huge effect on DRPG as we will see later.  The 800 lb gorilla in the room is the DMCC stat.  The obvious reasons are AACNMTO and the triple Terminator squads of the two Deep Strike lists.  The Assault Terminators of the old DS list will willing court an assault with anyone, but other than that it should be noted that the rest will target non-deathstar/rock CC units.  Also remember that both DS lists are run primarily as gunlines and are more than capable of winning games that way.

• DRPG(S): Gunline, New DDP (-9.3), Old DS (-24.4), New DS (-25.5),  Old DDP (-32)
• DRPG(A): New DS, Old DS (-3.3), Gunline (-25.8), Both DDP (-37.4)
• DRPG(Total):  New DS, Gunline (-0.4), Old DS (-2.2), New DDP (-21.2), Old DDP (-43.9)

In Rhino killing, there is a wider variance.  Note that all of the lists are more than capable of handling transports and other vehicles, but both DDP lists are quite a bit weaker.  As noted above New DDP trades away some of its MEQ killing power for a hefty increase in DRPG ability which raises it from the low end of winning lists to a more comfortable number.

This is getting long and there are other areas to cover which I'll touch on in a third post.