There has been a lot of talk as to whether or not the new Obliterators are worth their new points cost. They went way up from 65 points to a whopping 115 points. This points increase includes a lot of things, but most of them are combat related and many don't see this as a viable upgrade. I on the other hand, see this as a vast improvement on the unit and a total change to how it operates. Lets plug some numbers into the machine and see what kind of results we get.
So for the comparison I am going to use a number of models that has approximately the same number of points, which means we will have a unit of 4 new Oblits and a unit of 7 old Oblits for a point cost of 460 and 455 respectively. The comparison will consist of 3 sections, shooting, combat, and durability. So without further ado, lets get into the swing of it.
First up shooting, which is very "swingy" at best so I'll use the extreme range of damage from worst stats to best stats, all the while using math to determine average results. So for the old rules, we got 28 shots which will result in 13-16 dead GEQ, 6-13 MEQ, 5-31 damage to a VEQ, and 3-24 damage from a KEQ which comes out to an average of 33 points of unit to inflict 1 point of useful damage. Now to clarify what I mean by that, I took the average damage inflicted and divided it by the cost of the unit counting a 3 damage hit against a guardsmen as 1 point of useful damage. The new guys results don't surprise me that much with 24 shots killing 11-14 GEQ, 5-11 MEQ, 4-26 damage on a VEQ, and 2-21 damage on a KEQ for an average damage output of 39 points of unit to inflict 1 point of useful damage.
Lets put this into some perspective here, if we take an equal points value of Chaos Space Marines, that would work out to 3 units of 10 each with 2 plasma guns. This works out to 21 dead GEQ, 11 MEQ, 12 damage on a VEQ, and 7 damage on a KEQ for an average of 36 points of unit to inflict 1 point of damage.
In the fight phase things are different. While the new rules gift them with a little more punch, their attacks characteristic stayed the same. The new Oblits will only put out 12 attacks which will result in the slaying of 6 GEQ, 3 MEQ, and 3 damage on VEQ and KEQ. The old models will have 21 attacks killing the same number of GEQ and MEQ but only half of the damage on VEQ and KEQ. This gives us 123 points of unit per 1 point of damage vs 152. Lets face it, these guys are not meant for punching, but with their relatively short range they will likely see some combat and the newer rules will help them keep their head above water.
When comparing defence I am going to look at 3 different weapons and how many shots from each it takes to completely wipe out all of the Obliterators. The 3 weapons I will use will be bolters, super charged plasma guns, and lascannons which are basic enough to easily transfer the idea and results to many other weapons of similar profiles. I find these results interesting, yet again they don't really surprise me. The older rules will find that 378 bolter shots, 37 plasma shots, and 19 lascannon shots will kill off all 7 models. The newer rules will withstand 432 bolter rounds, 27 plasma, and 25 lascannons before bring removed from the table.
Now you'll notice that there is a weird swing where plasma takes less to kill the new models but everything else takes more. It takes 2 plasma rounds to kill both the old guys with 3 wounds and the new guys with 4, but lascannons average 3.5 damage. Which means that when you take the averages it will take 2 lascannons to kill a new guy while only 1 will kill an old one. On top of this there is the extra point of toughness which now makes successful wounds a 3+ instead of a 2+. So there is this spot of strength 8-9 weapons that deal 3 damage that the new rules are significantly better at resisting. Reaper launchers, thunder hammers, power hammers, pulse lasers, and ork rokkits are all examples of these and considering their prevalence in the game, this is a decent upgrade. Even weapons that deal D3 damage have a chance at killing an old Obliterator, but now need at least 2 hits to kill a new one.
My final thoughts are, the sky is not falling. Obliterators have changed, that much is certain, but they have not gone the way of the dodo and I am 100% certain that there is still a spot for them in your lists. While they don't quite put out the same amount of damage as they did before, they have become more durable in many ways and can actually fight their way out of a paper bag if they happen to get touched by a rogue guardsmen looking to pin them in combat. While the models are bigger, you don't need as many which makes them a little easier to deploy and hide (in some circumstances). Finally, any buffs you do cast on them will be more effective as there is more power in each unit than before. In all transparency though, any offensive buffs bring them closer to the same damage output, but not quite the same (when using the above examples). However the defensive spells take them way beyond the durability of the older models. At the end of the day I don't see these guys going away, and it's likely that you will start to see them come back as 1 or 2 man units hanging around a Master of Possession.
Until next time, keep them dice rollin.
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