Varghiests or spirit hosts ?

[Dragon10]

Looking to run with 2 x 3 varghiests or 2 x 3 spirit hosts.

 

i will have a vampire lord on zombie dragon to help spirit hosts but I'm worried about the lack of speed which varghiests bring.

i want a combat threat 

 

cheers

[mmimzie]

Damage wise varghiest and spirits do statistically the same amouny of damage

 

Spirit host expected damage:

Mortal wounds: 3x6x(1/6)=3 mortal woulds

Normal wounds" 3×6×(1/6)(only counting exactly 5 to hit)x (1/2)= 1.5 normal wounds

 

Varghiest:

Normal damage: 3x3x(4/6)×(4/6)=4 wounds -1 rend

 

After armor i think against most thing spirit host will do more damage due to mortal wounding.

 

Alsl the VLoZD command ability works best on spirit host as thier loe chance to hit means lots of rerolls into mortal wounds. Also the varghiest are gonna die to any sort of teleporter shooting. 

 

My vote is spirit host.

[Tizianolol]

i prefer spirit hosts , if you give shild to them they are really scary

 

[Payce]

It depends largely on the opponent, I find. Anything that gives you a negative boni to hit makes Spirit Hosts virtually useless offensively, making them more or less just stand there as anti-rend tanking walls. I generally think they are one of the best "bang for buck" units in the Death range, but if they're neutered, they're going from decent to useless fast. Having that said, I rarely leave home without at least 2x3 with me, either on the table or for my summoning pool. They're good, ocasionally really good, but require some finesse.

Vargheists to me aren't really comparable; they fulfil an entirely other purpose. Their worse save doesn't really make up for the extra wound at their points costs, so they can't tank the same way the Spirits can. What they excel at is board control and clearing out chaff, fast. Not being a summonable unit is their biggest drawback, though, and in the current shooting meta, they'll have a huge target on them unless you shield them well. I think they are a bit too situational to take in a staple list, but they definitely have a place in certain builds that doesn't rely on Mortis/Morghast summoning tactics.

[Squirrelmaster]

6 hours ago, mmimzie said:

Damage wise varghiest and spirits do statistically the same amouny of damage

 

Spirit host expected damage:

Mortal wounds: 3x6x(1/6)=3 mortal woulds

Normal wounds" 3×6×(1/6)(only counting exactly 5 to hit)x (1/2)= 1.5 normal wounds

 

Varghiest:

Normal damage: 3x3x(4/6)×(4/6)=4 wounds -1 rend

 

After armor i think against most thing spirit host will do more damage due to mortal wounding.

I think you've overlooked that vargheists have damage 2. They also get an average of 1 additional attack for every 6 casualties, against unarmoured one-wound opponents they will average roughly twice the hitting power of spirit hosts.

Armour tips the balance towards spirit hosts around about a 3+ save (I can't be bothered doing the exact maths, but against a 4+ vargheists are better, against a 2+ SHs.

I'd still agree with @Payce that vargheists are situational and SHs better all-rounders, but it does depend an whether you want a decent anti-armour combat threat, or something to carve through cheap hordes.