This is a question that might be of interest to chaos players. As previously explained, mighty blow can either give you +1 to the armor or the injury roll. Claw, on the other hand, virtually reduces the armor of the opponent to 7 if it was greater.
For opponents with armor 7 or less, claw doesn’t help you. For opponents with armor 8, it is not as good as mighty blow as it will not help you during the injury roll. Let’s explore this question with the chaos warrior, and let’s pit him against an amazon linewoman (with armor 7 and dodge), a human lineman (with armor 8), an orc lineman (with armor 9) and a dwarf blocker (with armor 9, block and thick skull). All the calculations will be based on a classic two dice roll for the chaos warrior.
Here are the important results :
| Chaos warrior | Opponent | Turnover prob. | Injury prob. | Casualty prob. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | Amazon linewoman | 8/9 (88.89%) | 35/216 (16.20%) | 35/1296 (2.70%) |
| Standard | Orc lineman | 8/9 (88.89%) | 23/216 (10.65%) | 23/1296 (1.77%) |
| Standard | Dwarf blocker | 8/9 (88.89%) | 5/54 (9.26%) | 5/324 (1.54%) |
| With block | Amazon linewoman | 35/36 (97.22%) | 25/108 (23.15%) | 25/648 (3.86%) |
| With block | Orc lineman | 35/36 (97.22%) | 1/8 (12.50%) | 1/48 (2.08%) |
| With block | Dwarf blocker | 35/36 (97.22%) | 5/54 (9.26%) | 5/324 (1.54%) |
| With MB | Amazon linewoman | 8/9 (88.89%) | 49/216 (22.69%) | 217/3888 (5.58%) |
| With MB | Orc lineman | 8/9 (88.89%) | 115/648 (17.75%) | 161/3888 (4.14%) |
| With MB | Dwarf blocker | 8/9 (88.89%) | 25/162 (15.43%) | 35/972 (3.60%) |
| With Claw | Amazon linewoman | 8/9 (88.89%) | 35/216 (16.20%) | 35/1296 (2.70%) |
| With Claw | Orc lineman | 8/9 (88.89%) | 115/648 (17.75%) | 115/3888 (2.96%) |
| With Claw | Dwarf blocker | 8/9 (88.89%) | 25/162 (15.43%) | 25/972 (2.57%) |
| With Claw+MB | Amazon linewoman | 8/9 (88.89%) | 49/216 (22.69%) | 217/3888 (5.58%) |
| With Claw+MB | Orc lineman | 8/9 (88.89%) | 115/432 (26.62%) | 1495/23328 (6.41%) |
| With Claw+MB | Dwarf blocker | 8/9 (88.89%) | 25/108 (23.15%) | 325/5832 (5.57%) |
What is interesting here is that the amazon, even with her low armor, performs better than the human because of her dodge ability. The other interesting thing here is that claw gives you a small injury probability boost over mighty blow against heavy opponents (armor 9), and a small casualty probability boost.
This means that unless you plan on meeting a lot of heavy opponents, mighty block is the way to rack up XP.
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