I'll analyse these too if you don't mind:
- I'm guessing that both the Carnosaur and Treeman killed each other, making it a draw? If that's the case, there's nothing more that can be said about that.
- I'm not sure what to make of the Chimera - is it another monster killer? If so, then I understand why the Carnosaur lost - it does cost more points after all - but perhaps the Carnosaur should be buffed to make it not so much a thrashing as more of a pyrrhic victory.
- No contest here - The Warsphinx is a dedicated infantry killer, so is always going to struggle against a monster killer like the Carnosaur.
- This is a much closer one, but I can understand the Carnosaur losing to Heroic Killing Blow - nothing much can be done about that.
- The Shaggoth is a monstrous character as far as I remember, and Monstrous Characters don't have that many wounds. More like Monstrous Infantry than monsters.
- I can understand the Carnosaur losing to the Arachnarok - one of the biggest monsters in the game with 8 wounds and has Venom Surge that deals Multiple Wounds (D6) with one of its attacks. This chap was always going to be a difficult one for a significantly smaller Carnosaur to kill.
- Now first of all, did the Stonehorn charge the Carnosaur? If so, I'm not surprised it won (the Stonehorn was designed to have all its attack power on the charge), while if not I am slightly surprised at how it could have beaten the Carno, but maybe Stonehorns were meant to be the Ogre monster killers.
- Like the Warsphinx, no contest. The Thundertusk is again an infantry killer that relies on forcing targets to strike last and relying on its S4 Ogre riders to deal a high quantity of infantry-killing attacks.
- I'd say that this win is fine - from my memory of its profile, the Flamespyre again looks like an infantry killer. Was it reborn from the flames in your fight, or did you leave this out? I ask because of course a Carnosaur on his own quite understandably wouldn't be able to keep taking on the resurrected Phoenix and win.
- Like the Thundertusk this chap relies on forcing opponents to strike last, but has more attacks with a higher Strength. However, he still must have killed the Carno first time as otherwise I'm pretty sure the Carnosaur could still mincemeat him on the returning attack.
- I'd say there was little contest here because Sun Dragons are pretty weak, all the more galling in that they cost more than the Carnosaur yet have less attack power for jack-of-all-trades monsters like Dragons. They must have nerfed Dragons in the High Elf book in support of the new Phoenixes.
- This was actually pretty funny and all but confirms my last statement - the Moon Dragon is 70 more points than the Carnosaur yet still loses.
- Now again, I can understand the Carnosaur losing - the Star Dragon is the big daddy of the High Elf dragons (with 7 or 8 wounds I think) so like the Arachnarok was always going to be a toughie to beat.
- Stegadon and Ancient Stegadon - these chaps are once again infantry killers and the Carnosaur quite rightly is able to beat them.
All damage is the average, and the Carnosaur is listed with averages when it has 4 and 5 attacks.
the Carnosaur only wins half of these fights, and some of them only barely. That is not what I call impressive for a unit that should be geared towards killing other monsters.
I can understand that this looks bad, but I think you should look at the Carnosaur in the light that it should be able to kill all (or most) monsters with around 5 or 6 wounds, especially infantry killers - they are around the same size and there are very few reasons why the Carnosaur shouldn't be able to kill monsters around its size - but it shouldn't be too powerful against monsters with 7 or more wounds - these monsters are much bigger and understandably have size to their advantage and cost notably more points (especially the Star Dragon). While it shouldn't be impossible for the Carnosaur to kill them, it should have a rocky time trying to kill them - otherwise, why would players bother taking such huge monsters as the Arachnarok or the Star Dragon if they can be easily killed by a monster noticeably smaller than they are?
Although that is pretty ridiculous I have to admit, but I'd say that is more due to the Kharibdyss and Hydra being far too cheap. GW showed horrendous favouritism toward Dark Elves in 8th (giving them two White Dwarfs' worth of reinforcements coverage rather than the standard 1), and certainly Dark Elves are one of the biggest candidates for a nerf-bat in my Unofficial Ninth Edition (but I'm going to nerf them to bring them back down to Middle Tier). indeed I'm going to try to bring all Higher Tier armies down to Middle Tier and bring all Lower Tier armies up, because this game's supposed to be balanced and what's the point in marketing a game as balanced if some armies become Higher Tier due to favouritism and others become Lower Tier due to lack of it, making the game completely unbalanced?
All of the mathcups was done in as only close combat, and no charges for either side.
1. Maybe, but is the Treeman really a monster killer?
2. Regarding the Chimera, it seems to be good at most things, since it has lots of attacks, at S6, so it will chew through infantry and a lot of monsters since it has WS4, and against infantry it of course has the thunderstomp as well; It also has access to a breath weapon, so it might be 10 points more than a Carnosaur, but it does basically everything better, and comes with swiftstride since it has fly.
3. sure it struggles, but the Carnosaur does not fair much better, and with the Warsphinx being an infantry-killer, it seems very close all things considered.
4. These are equally matched, but the Necrosphinx has the slight edge due to HKB.
5. The Shaggoth has S6, T5 and 6 wounds, so very much a monster.
6. It is fair that it wins, but it wins in just one turn, and it gets lots of 'free' upgrades in comparison the the Carnosaur.
7. No charge, straight up combat.
8. Yes the Carnosaur is the winner, but barely.
9. With the Phoenix, I did not take into account that it could be reborn.
10. Yes the carno CAN 'mincemeat him', but statistically really absolutely does not, not even a single wound per turn, on average.
11. Okay fine, the sun dragon is weak, but it does have a free breath weapon, that is not factored into the fight (for none of the dragon in fact), and does have fly, which is a big deal for monsters, and so again has swiftstride, which the Carnosaur needs to pay extra for.
12. True, but this is the only fight where the Carnosaur shows that it can kill monsters. In general it should kill other monsters above its points, otherwise whats the point of having it be "specialized" in killing monsters, reality is that it doesn't.
13. The star dragon is fair, it is so much more expensive, but with its statline is a killer of everything.
14. Correct, although if the Ancient Stegadon has sharpened horns, it becomes a better monster hunter than the Carnosaur, provided it can get the charge, since it will then do 6 wounds on average against Toughness 5 on the impact hits alone; even against Toughness 6 it would do 4.5.
It is true that the Dark elves have underpriced monsters, but still, the Carnosaur does lose.
