Evaluating the Cost/Benefit of Armor in Fallout Wasteland Warfare.

 

FWW is the game I've barely played which I love to think the most about. In returning to the game, there's been one major change that I want to wrap my head around:

Non-Robot and Creature models lack armor, and must buy it if they want it. This makes sense - frankly, I'm surprised this wasn't standard - and makes equipping models an interesting choice. At what point is the damage mitigation from the armor worth more than the ability to take more models?

First, the math. Don't worry, it's VERY simple; d12s are pretty easy.

Armor	Ignore% 1DMG	Ignore% 2DMG	Ignore% 3DMG	Ignore% 4DMG
1	33%	hah	hah	haha
2	58%	25%	nuh	uh
3	83%	50%	25%	naw
4	100%	67%	42%	17%

Several things to note:

1. Anything higher than 5 is just hedging against extra Damage or AP results from dice.
2. Average base Weapon damage is 2.
3. Black and Yellow dice have a 58% of increasing Damage against targets with Armor, Greens have a 33% chance. Absent armor, that turns to 50% for Blacks, 8% for Yellow, and 17% for Green.
4. While I haven't surveyed the weapons thoroughly, more weapons deal Physical damage, with many factions having limited access to Energy damage. Radiation damage is ignored by so much that it should be considered unimportant.

Armor 3 would be the sweet spot, as it gives you the biggest chance of ignoring 2 damage altogether while providing some safety against spikes from additional damage and not being extremely expensive. However, it should be noted that going armorless actually nerfs Yellow dice, which are quite common, and the other dice have AP as well.

Armor 4 is helpful for it's 100% chance of ignoring some damage. But consider the price difference (to non Super Mutants):

x/x	Caps
1/1	3
2/2	8
3/2 or 2/3	15
3/3	22
4/4	45

That's 23 extra Caps you're paying, which is a significant amount. 4/4 Armor's almost as expensive as Heroic, which is a much better upgrade all around. I'm not saying that more Armor is bad, anyone who's fought Frank Horrigan knows that. But anyone who's killed him knows it can be done, if you keep fighting him - and he's only one model. In a game based on AP, it's better to have more of it spread across multiple models.

There also exist these items that modify Armor: Army Helmet (+2P) 14 Caps, Assault Gas Mask (+1R) 2 Caps, Ballistic Weave (+1B) 7 Caps, BoS Hood (+1E) 7 Caps, Dissipating (+1E) 7 Caps, Lead Lined (+1R) 4 Caps, Vault 111 Jumpsuit (+1E+1R) 9 Caps.

In my opinion, it comes down to three choices for important models: The 2/2 armor with the Army Helmet to hit 4/2 for 22 Caps, Sturdy Metal Armor to hit 3/2 at 15 Caps, or the 3/3 armor if you fight a lot of Enclave/BoS/Institute. Since a fair bit of damage is slanted on the Physical side, it makes sense to slant Armor in the same direction and either avoid or remove enemy models that deal Energy damage.

If you have the Caps, putting the 1/1 armor on everyone is acceptable; a 33% to mitigate 1 damage will mathematically do something if spread across a half-dozen models and should only come to 20ish Caps. The 2/2 armor, however, could come to 40-60 Caps, which in most factions is the cost of an equipped cheap model!

Also: Don't bother with Radiation Armor. The reason is that Radiation damage is very weak - with many models ignoring it entirely - so from a competitive point no one would ever take Radiation weapons. Even the Radiation terrain is weak, only dealing damage 50% IF you're within 4" of it.

Last: This makes Yellow Dice the worst in the game. Green and Black dice have AP results, true, but with the option to take no armor, or take 1 point of armor for super-cheap, it makes them very matchup dependent, whereas before you could at least get some value from them. Anything that has or adds Yellow dice is probably a bit overpriced right now.

POWER ARMOR
I'm sure that you're wondering how Power Armor stacks up mathematically too; is it worth the price? The answer is yes, except the T-51 - but most of the time T-45 is your best bet.

First, Power Armor (except NCR Salvaged) will ALWAYS raise Str, which is valuable to melee models with Str 5-6 for the bonus Black die, along with anyone who uses Str as a base for Heavy Weapons or Melee. Some models (Enclave) use it for Throwing as well. Each extra point adds either 5% or 10% to a model's success rate with those skills (6, 7, 8 give +10% each, 9 and 10 give +5%) which adds to the quality of a PA model's activations.

Second, even the T-45 will ignore at least 4 points of damage entirely with its Strong Armor and Endurance, and might ignore as much as 6 before degrading. Even after degrading, PA still provides its Str bonus and some Armor, which has even more value now.

The reason that I don't rate the T-51 as worthwhile is that for +11 Caps it provides only +1 Physical Armor over the T-45, and +1/+1 after degrading. This doesn't seem like a worthwhile spending of Caps. While the T-60 and X-01 cost significantly more, they also add more End and +3 Str over the T-45's +2, making them useful on some models - the Sole Survivor Tech, for example, then has a decent Melee skill.

However, the T-45 gives the most bang for the Caps. An Initiate (Blade) with T-45 and a Baton costs 94 Caps and has an 83% chance of hitting with 2 +1 Black damage, and will take 8-10 Damage to kill. Changing to a T-60 gives him 93% of hitting, but he only takes 1 more Damage to kill and costs 127 Caps - yes, with base 3 Armor he might take more hits, but you could take three T-60 or four T-45 models equipped thusly.

SUPER MUTANTS
Super Mutants are in a weird place in Battle Mode, as they pay more for their armor than other models. Buying Cowled Armor at 7 Caps is probably their best deal; Body Armor lets them hit the 3/2 threshold but at 21 Caps versus the 15 that normies pay.

They also pay more for the armor increasing items. The Aviator Cap is especially interesting, as it gives +2 Per and +1/+1; but it's also very expensive.