Damage Efficiency

Last week I talked about a simple way to calculate the "funcitonal damage" that basic attacks can do. I've calculated a spreadsheet of all 313 200pt figures (not 314, King Snurre isn't legal in non-epic or non-extreme formats). So who comes out on top melee wise? Not a suprising list, but not a list that gives insight into the DDM meta-game.

Single Attack	Full Attack	Attack Average
Fire Giant 25.00	Fire Giant 43.75	Fire Giant 34.38
Frost Giant 21.00	Eye of Gruumsh 37.50	Eye of Gruumsh 28.13
Frenzied Berserker 21.00	Stone Golem 36.00	Frost Giant 27.75
Eye of Gruumsh 18.75	Frost Giant 34.50	Frenzied Berserker 27.75
Stone Golem 18.00	Frenzied Berserker 34.50	Stone Golem 27.00
Orc Champion 16.25	Drizzt, Drow Ranger 30.00	Aspect of Bane 21.75
Hill Giant 16.00	Clay Golem 28.00	Orc Champion 21.25
Aspect of Bane 15.75	Aspect of Bane 27.75	Clay Golem 21.00
Ogre Ravager 15.00	Aspect of Orcus 27.00	Drizzt, Drow Ranger 20.6

Yes, those sure are some big hitters, but how many of them do you actually see in a tournament? Roughly half. Clearly functional damage alone isn't telling the full story. But if we take the functional damage, and divide it by the cost of the figure we get a much more telling table...

Single Attack	Full Attack	Attack Average
Abyssal Maw 0.75	Eye of Gruumsh 0.85	Abyssal Maw 0.75
Orc Warrior 0.67	Abyssal Maw 0.75	Orc Warrior 0.67
Orc Brute 0.66	Orc Champion 0.67	Orc Brute 0.66
Orc Berserker 0.56	Orc Warrior 0.67	Eye of Gruumsh 0.64
Mountain Orc 0.50	Frenzied Berserker 0.66	Orc Berserker 0.56
Orc Spearfighter 0.50	Orc Brute 0.66	Orc Champion 0.54
Krusk, Half-Orc Barbarian 0.47	Grick 0.60	Frenzied Berserker 0.53
Ogre 0.46	Ogre Ravager 0.59	Mountain Orc 0.50
Half-Orc Barbarian 0.44	Red Samurai 0.58	Orc Spearfighter 0.50

Seen those figures in a tournoment before? I have, except for the Orc Spearfighter (yes, I played against a multiple Ocre Jelly, Grick, Shambeling mound warband, thank goodness for the Gith Renegades ranged attack!).

Where does the Fire Giant stand effeciency wise? 0.21/0.37/0.29 ranking 78/38/53.

So to answer the obvious question of "Why don't we see too many Fire Giant Bands?" The effeciency is just so low that regardless of the skill level, you will likely do better with an Orc Hoard or a Bezerker Band. For goodness sake a Stonechild (0.38) is a better buy!