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The Fluffiness Test

by Avian

How fluffy is your army? Is it abusive? Do you take nothing but Chaos Knights and Chariots and then complain about others taking too little Core?

Let me first say that I intensely dislike traditional comp scores. Not only do they not stop abusive lists, but they also encourage same-ness and seldom work well for all armies.

This is different.

 

How does it work?

There are six more-or-less simple steps (had they been simple it would have been a bad system) to follow. In each step you insert some numbers that describe your army and you get a fluffiness score which is usually a number from -5 to +5. Total up your total score and read off the result on the table on the end and you get your verdict.

 

What do you need to know to use this test?

Apart from your army list you need to calculate a few things to use this test.

There is a couple of formulas below that tell you how a normal army of your type should look. For most of the released armies all relevant numbers have been calculated, but if you use a special army you will need a few facts about your army list.

 

Step 1 - Characters

Characters are important to all armies, but tooling up too much is not good generalship. Take the percentage of points you have used on characters (including all equipment, magic items and mounts, but not a chariot if this is bought as a separate unit choice) and look it up on the table below to find your fluffiness score for this step.

% Chars Light Char Medium Char Heavy Char
0 - 14 +2 +3 +4
15 - 19 +1 +2 +3
20 - 24 0 +1 +2
25 - 29 -1 0 +1
30 - 34 -2 -1 0
35 - 39 -3 -2 -1
40 - 44 -4 -3 -2
45 - 49 -5 -4 -3
50 - 54 -5 -5 -4
55+ -5 -5 -5

 

What column do I use?
For standard lists, find your army on the table below. For non-standard armies you can calculate this yourself.

Army Armies of 2000+ pts Armies below 2000 pts
Bretonnia Light Character Light Character
Chaos Beasts Light Character Medium Character
Chaos Daemons Heavy Character Heavy Character
Chaos Dwarfs Medium Character Light Character
Chaos Mortals Medium Character Medium Character
Dark Elves Medium Character Light Character
Dogs of War Light Character Light Character
Dwarfs Medium Character Light Character
Empire Light Character Light Character
High Elves Medium Character Medium Character
Lizardmen Heavy Character Medium Character
Orcs & Goblins Light Character Light Character
Skaven Light Character Light Character
Tomb Kings Medium Character Medium Character
Vampire Counts Medium Character Medium Character
Wood Elves Medium Character Medium Character

Armies of 1000 points or less that have more than one compulsory character choice (such as Bretonnians and Tomb Kings) shift one column to the right (maximum: Heavy Character).

If you use a special army list, for example a back-of-the-book list, or you use a special character that alters your army composition you'll have to calculate what column to use yourself (see below).

 

Step 2 - Core

In all armies the Core units are the Core of the army, but some armies rely on these units more than others and will therefore be expected to spend more on Core than other units. Look up the percentage you have spent on Core units and cross-reference it with your type of army to find your fluffiness score for thsi step.

% Core Light Core Medium Core Heavy Core
0 - 14 -4 -5 -5
15 - 19 -3 -4 -5
20 - 24 -2 -3 -4
25 - 29 -1 -2 -3
30 - 34 0 -1 -2
35 - 39 0 0 -1
40 - 44 +1 0 0
45 - 49 +2 +1 0
50 - 54 +3 +2 +1
55 - 59 +4 +3 +2
60 - 64 +5 +4 +3
65 - 69 +5 +5 +4
70+ +5 +5 +5

 

What column do I use?
For standard lists, find your army on the table below. For non-standard armies you can calculate this yourself.

Bretonnia Light Core
Chaos Beasts Medium Core
Chaos Daemons Heavy Core
Chaos Dwarfs Medium Core
Chaos Mortals Heavy Core
Dark Elves Light Core
Dogs of War Medium Core
Dwarfs Medium Core
Empire Heavy Core
High Elves Light Core
Lizardmen Light Core
Orcs & Goblins Heavy Core
Skaven Heavy Core
Tomb Kings Medium Core
Vampire Counts Medium Core
Wood Elves Light Core

If you use a special army list, for example a back-of-the-book list, or you use a special character that alters your army composition you'll have to calculate what column to use yourself. Go here.

 

Step 3 - No Special or Rare?

Every army has some Special or Rare units and amassing a force consisting of nothing but Characters and Core is not fluffy at all.

Core score minus Char score Fluffiness
6 or 7 -1
8 or 9 -2
10 -3

So if your Character score was -2 and your Core score was +5 you get 5 - (-2) = 7, which means you get -1 to your fluffiness score for this step.

 

Step 4 - Unit Strength

Obviously, the more expensive your average model is, the smaller your army will be. If you use a standard army just look it up on the table below to see how high Unit Strength your army should have per 500 points.

Cost index Armies (typically) US per 500 pts
17+ Chaos Daemons (Undivided, Tzeentch) 18
15 - 16 Chaos Mortals, Chaos Daemons (Khorne, Nurgle, Slaanesh) 22
13 - 14 Bretonnia, High Elves, Lizardmen 24
11 - 12 Dark Elves, Dwarfs, Tomb Kings, Wood Elves 26
9 - 10 Empire, Chaos Beasts, Chaos Dwarfs,
Dogs of War, Vampire Counts		 28
1 - 8 Orcs & Goblins, Skaven 40

To find your fluffiness score first divide the point size of your army by 500 (ex: 2000 divided by 500 is 4) and then divide the total Unit Strength of your army by this number to get the US index. So if you had a 2000 point Orcs & Goblins army with a total Unit Strength of 173 then your US index is 43.25.

So in the example above the US index is higher than the norm, but it is not six points more, so it gets a fluffiness score of 0 for Unit Strength. Had the US index been 36 or lower it would have been -1 and had it been 32 or lower it would have been -2.

If you use a special army list, for example a back-of-the-book list, or you use a special character that alters your army composition you'll have to calculate the Cost index yourself. Black Orc Performance.

 

Step 5 - Nothing but Core Chariots?

Loading up on the most expensive Core units you can get your hands on is not fluffy. Therefore your fluffiness score for Core is weighed against your US score.

Core score minus US score Fluffiness
2 or less 0
3 to 5 -1
6 to 8 -2
10 -3

So if your 2000 point Chaos Mortal army has 68% Core (+4 fluffiness) but only a total US of 79 (-2 fluffiness) you will get -2 to your fluffiness for this step because your Core score was 6 pts higher than your US score.

 

Step 6 - Upgraded units

When a unit is upgraded it's because they represent the elite, they should not be treated as the common option. This step deals with upgrade units. Examples of this are: Empire Inner Circle Knights, Empire Huntsmen, Chaos Chosen Warriors and Knights, Orc Big 'Uns and Skaven Tunneling Teams. Basically anything with the text: "One unit may be..."

For each upgraded unit you have compare how many upgraded models your army contains of a type with how many non-upgraded models you have of that type.

  Fluffiness
None non-upgraded models -2
Some non-upgraded, but fewer than upgraded -1
About the same number 0
Twice as many or more non-upgraded models +1

So if your Empire army contains one unit of Inner Circle Knights Templar and one unit of Inner Circle Knights of the White Wolf and no other knight units you get -4 fluffiness for this step.

 

The End - How fluffy are you?

Got your total fluffiness score? Good, just look it up in the table below.

Fluffiness  
-13 or below Go shave for God's sake!
-12 or -10 Very very abusive
-9 or -7 Very abusive
-6 or -4 Quite abusive
-3 or -1 A bit abusive
0 Average
+1 to +2 A bit fluffy
+3 to +4 Quite fluffy
+5 to +6 Very fluffy
+7 to +9 Very very fluffy
+10 to +12 Superfluffy
+13 or higher You've got to be kidding

Remember that a total score of 0 is average and that if you got a negative score you can always make up some lame excuse ("It's themed!").

 

Calculations for the Fluffiness test

Useful when using lists other than the standard 6th edition ones.

 

Characters - Calculating what column to use

If your army is below 2000 points take the base cost (ie, the cost before adding any options) of the cheapest Hero available to your army.
If your army is 2000 points or more take the base cost of the cheapest Lord available to your army. For Bretonnian armies of 2000 or more points this is a Duke with a base cost of 100 points.

Secondly subtract the total of the base cost of the cheapest Core unit model and the most expensive Core unit model (not including Swarms, War machines and Chariots other than Khemrian) to find the Character index. For a Bretonnian army the cheapest model is a Man-at-Arms with a base cost of 4 points and the most expensive is a Knight of the Realm with a base cost of 25 points. 100 - (4 + 25) = 71, so the Character index is 71.
To find what column to use just look up the Character index on the appropriate table below.

Character index Armies of 2000+ pts
1 - 89 Light Character
90 - 179 Medium Character
189+ Heavy Character
Character index Armies below 2000 pts
1 - 39 Light Character
40 - 79 Medium Character
80+ Heavy Character

Looking at the table we see that the Bretonnian army is Character Light for armies of 2000+ points.

 

Core - Calculating what column to use

Total up the available number of Core units available to your army. Dark Elves, for example, have 3 (Warriors, Corsairs and Dark Riders). Do not count units that are upgrades from other units (ie, Knights of the White Wolf is one unit, but Inner Circle White Wolves is not a second unit).
Secondly total up the available Special and Rare units. Here Dark Elves have 10.

Then see how large part of the total number of units your available Core units represent. To continue the example 3 out of 13 total units 23%.
Look up this percentage on the table below.

  Key number
1- 29% 1
30 - 39% 2
40 - 49% 3
50+% 4

We see that for Dark Elves the Key number is 1. Then add your number of available Core units to get your Index number. For Dark Elves 1 + 3= 4, so their Index number is 4.

Index number Column to use
2 - 5 Light Core
6 - 8 Medium Core
9+ Heavy Core

We see that Dark Elves are a Light Core army, so it is not unexpected for them to spend more on Special and rare units than on Core.

 

Unit Strength - Calculating the Cost index

To find your Cost index take the base cost (ie, the cost before any options are added) of the cheapest Core unit model and add the base cost of the most expensive Core choice and the most expensive Special or Rare choice (not including Swarms, War machines, Ethereal creatures, Monsters and Chariots other than Khemrian). For an Orc & Goblin army the cheapest is 2 pts for a basic Goblin and the most expensive is 18 pts for a Boar Boy, giving a total of 20.

Secondly add the cost of the Core unit that is worth the most points per point of Unit Strength (not including Swarms, War machines, Ethereal creatures, Monsters and Chariots other than Khemrian). For the orc army this is an Arrer boy, because at 7 pts for a US1 model his cost per US is higher than a Wolf Rider, which is 10 pts for US2. 20 + 7 = 27
Thirdly divide this by their combined Unit Strength and round off the number up to get your Cost index. In the example above the US of the gobbo is 1, while the wolf rider and the boar boy both have US2. 27 / 4 = 6.75, which rounded up becomes 7.

 

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