# Autocannon vs Missile Launcher, Combat Calculator



## Snowy (Jul 11, 2009)

Hey all.
Ok, I'm not the best Guard player nor am I the best list builder.
But, I love HWS, and as alot of people tell you, you cannot have an IG gunline army without imbedded HWS, so while building my most recent list I came across the problem:
Which Heavy Weapon: Autocannon or Missile Launcher

The Autocannon has a high rate of fire to sythe through things likes Orks, but then the Missile Launcher has the ability to fire Frag missile's.
The Missile Launcher has the Krak missile which can rip through tanks and MEQ alike, but the Autocannon has one more shot, sure it doesn't pierce MEQ armour and it doesn't instakill, but when going against transports it's the best thing.

I decided to delve deeper into this problem and I gave a thought to Heresy's own Combat Calculator.

Here are the facts, we are considering that there are three teams and the blast are hitting 2-3 people

Ok, Missile Launcher first

Eldar (Unit of 10 Dire Avengers.)
Krak: 1.25
Frag: 3

Nidz (Unit of 30 Termaguants.)
Krak: 1.25
Frag: 6

Orkz (30 Boyz.)
Krak: 1.25
Frag: 4.5

MEQ (10 Tactical Marines.)
Krak: 1.25
Frag: 1

GEQ (Blob of 30 Guardsmen.)
Krak: 1.25
Frag: 4

Monstrous Creature (T6 Tygron.)
Frag: 0.028
Krak: 0.5

Ok, we can see that Krak consistantly kills 1.25 men where the Frag kills so many depending on certain conditions (Armour, Toughness.)

Now for the Autocannon

Eldar: 2.5

Nidz: 2.5

Orkz: 2.5

MEQ: 0.833

GEQ: 2.5

Monstrous Creature: 0.333

Now we see that the Autocannon nearly always kills 2.5 men, except when fired at MEQs were it only kills 0.833

Now for Vehicles

Missile Launcher
Armour 10: 1 Penetrate and 0.25 Glance

Armour 11: 0.75 Penetrate and 0.25 Glance

Armour 12: 0.5 Penetrate and 0.25 Glance

Armour 13: 0.25 Penetrate and 0.25 Glance

Armour 14: 0 Penetrate and 0.25 Glance

So due to the low hit chance of the Missile Launcher it only hits 1.5 out of the 3 shot's and that lessen's the chance of a Penetrate or Glance.

And the Autocannon
Armour 10: 1.5 Penetrate and 0.5 Glance

Armour 11: 1 Penetrate and 0.5 Glance

Armour 12: 0.5 Penetrate and 0.5 Glance

Armour 13: 0.5 Glance

Armour 14: 0

I think you can all draw your own conclusions from that. But personally, I'd go with the Autocannon


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## Katie Drake (Nov 28, 2007)

Yup, just goes to show that more shots at a slightly reduced Strength is better for dealing with vehicles, especially when the weapons have the same range.

I'm not sure the statistics for the missile launchers are accurate, though. Assuming I'm understanding correctly, we're talking about _each_ blast template hitting 6 people? That seems a little unrealistic considering frag missiles use the small blast template. Unless targets are terribly bunched up with bases practically overlapping (which is illegal) I can't see it being possible to hit so many models with any regularity.


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## maddermax (May 12, 2008)

As Katie says, unless in perfect conditions (when enemies are clustered together for some reason), you'll never get 6 hits per missile, and even then, you'd have to assume that at least one missile will scatter so far off target, it won't do anything. I think average 3 hits per is a good estimate, but even that doesn't take into account the fact that you'll miss a lot of the time. Going on BS3, we're looking at

Direct Hit Chance:	38.89%	
1" Scatter: 5.56%
2" Scatter: 7.41%	
3" Scatter: 9.26%
4-6" Scatter:	27.78%	
7"+ Scatter:	11.11%

That means that any one shot will probably hit the unit, (but maybe not be in the best position) about 50% of the time, and once you get to more than 4" scatter, the chances are you're usually missing anything but the biggest units (though you might get a lucky scatter along that unit, or onto a different unit).

So, when working out Frags, I'd say number of hits depends on the type of unit you're firing at, as larger units tend to cluster up a lot more. Orks/Termagaunts? 3-4 hits. Marines? maybe 2 hits average. Ideal conditions can give you more than that, but on average, that's probably about right.

One thing I've always found is that Krak usually works out better than Frag against MEQ most of the time (if they're not highly clustered for some reason, and barring cover-saves - personal experience, opinions may vary). If you're working out Frag being far better on average against MEQ, then you're probably overestimating the number of hits.

The vehicles bit is good though - up to armour 12, the autocannons are much better, over that the missiles make their worth. That's why Autocannons make excellent Anti-transport units, while missiles are better all-rounders, for heavy vehicles, and all types of infantry.


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## Snowy (Jul 11, 2009)

Yeah, I guess I may have done that bit slightly wrong, I grabbed one template and laid it on top of my neatly ranked up Marines and went "That shall be 6 hits for each template." I didn't check in the rulebook either so I guess it was just what I do best, a spur of the moment decision.

I'll edit it tomorrow


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## Chumbalaya (May 17, 2010)

Yep, autocannons end up superior against most armored targets due to the extra shot.

Thanks for going through all the number crunching, saves us a lot of time.


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