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Here's a quick comparison. Many people think the Vampire Hunter is too powerful. It has a role similar to the TS. Obviously, this has the normal cross-army comparison potential for issues, but aircraft tend to hold up better than ground units because their operation is usually more similar.
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Pts - 250 v 175
Defensive - DC2, 5+RA v DC2, 5+
Defensive flak - all around @ 45cm v fixed
Volume of fire - Avg 2 MW hits + .67 other v 1 TK hit + .5 other (better with MLs and potential MW)
Range of fire - 30cm for primary v 45cm for primary
Initiative 1+ v 2+
Both have restrictions on the formation size - Hunters come in (big, 500 point) blocks and TS come singly.
So, figuring factors for using the square root rule...
Defensively that puts the Hunter at ~1.3x as tough on straight saves. I'd say the flak shot is worth about a 1.1x factor. I estimate the extra range on the primary weapon at 1.3x for the TS because of the ability to avoid ground flak shots.
Volume of fire, the Hunter somewhere in the 1.7x range sounds about right, depending on MLs.
Initiative is worth another 1.15x
175 * SQRT(1.3*1.1*1.7*1.15/1.3) = ~260
So that's a bit more costly proportional to the Hunters, but not much. Obviously, this is quite a rough estimate and I'm sure some people would take issue with some of the thumb-in-the-air estimates I used (probably mostly the range factor for defense if I had to guess).
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Another comparison would be 3 TS v 2 Hunters
500 pts v 525
Hits to kill: 9 v 9
4 MW hits +1.5 normal v 3 TK hits +.5 MW (unmarked, 1MW if marked) +1 normal
Range 30cm v 45cm
Intiative 1+ v 2+
1 activation v 3
Flak is still definitely better for the Hunters.
Looking at that comparison, one factor for considering defense would be whether I expect to face ground flak or interceptors. Ground flak makes the TS better. Interceptors makes the Hunters better. The other factor would be total flak environment. In a heavy flak environment the Hunters would be better. In moderate or less, I'd take the TS.
Similarly, I think the balance of offense depends on potential targets. Against hard targets, the TS is slightly better. Against medium or light targets, the Hunters are slightly better.
So, again, to me it looks like the TS is slightly more expensive for roughly similar abilities, but still pretty close - within ~5% or so.
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Neal
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