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'Sup my fellow Dakka-ites!

Have got my self some solid Eldar lists at the moment and have been looking again at the units we have available and one stood out to me that I haven't tried yet (mostly cos I don't have the models atm) the ol' warp spiders!

Just wanted to quiz my fellow craft world brethren on what's the best tactics for these guys and configurations, exarch powers and equipment? Squad size?

Cheers!

I've only proxied them in smaller games, so I'm not very experianced with them (borrowed a friends Eldar which he never uses). The way I use them is 4-5 regular and an Exarch with Dual Spinners. Sometimes I add powerblades and withdraw too, but I dont want them in combat anyway.

They jump up through cover pretty quickly, meaning I can hace them fire at a troop squad about turn 2-3. I jump them in to range, shoot, then out of range and back to cover. Of course, they always end up being chased by Khorne Berzerkers or similar (my firend really isn't much of a tactician), but considering their mobility this has yet to become a problem. They will be a lot harder against mobile armies, though, so be careful.

Hope this somehow helped!

I love me some spiders! I think 7-8 is optimal for them, as they put out a butt-ton of S6 shots. A lot of people say they are overcosted, and that may or may not be true, but S6 shooting Jump Infantry with a 3+ save that can Jump-shoot-Jump cannot be underestimated. They are auto-include for my lists. I always take an Exarch, and I give him Poweblades in case they get caught in CC. I personally am not sold on whether the Dual Spinners or the Spinneret rifle are a better choice, though mostly I lean toward Dual Spinners. If I have points to spare and I'm running a big squad of Spiders I'll give them Withdraw. Spiders ftw!

I love mine. Super fun to use, and my squad is my best painted squad, so they fight harder. Dual spinners and ever blade for my exarch. I always take withdraw, but havnt used it yet, (2 games with them). I am fielding an autarky with them in my next game, which should make them much more assaulty

8/10. Good enough to run in average games and some competitive lists. Good at popping vehicles and



With warp spiders, its one of the only squads where the exarch upgrade always increases the damage output.
For 22 points you get a warp spider
for 17 points you get the exarch and dual spinners. Therefore you gain WS5 and BS5 for essentially free. You have one less body, but that can be an advantage when jumping out of range.

I run 5+exarch+ dual spinners. Running 3 squads is expensive, but helps diffuse target priority. Better than running large squads. However, running a single squad can also be helpeful as he can often find a place to JSJ and hide out of LOS. Dont be afraid of dangerous terrain or using the assault jump. If you lose a guy, so be it, but it will save you more from rapid fire.

If I'm deep striking, I run 5 as it's less points to get killed.
If I'm using them as a squad, then 10 as it's far more fun

I almost always run them in my Eldar lists... 7 with Withdraw, dual spinners, and power blades. Come is just under 200 points and has never once let me down.

I like the Dual Spinners but I don't take any options. Keep them cheap and small and take multiple uniits.

264 points of S6 love that I can deliver with Deep Strike or inate mobility then jump away to prevent charges,

My problem with Withdraw and the Dual Blades is that a couple of S3 power weapon attacks is just not going to make you into a close combat monster and the withdraw ability just isn't worth it when you figure you have to survive a round of fire and a round of HTH combat... At T3 with AP 3 you still are going to have a greatly reduced squad. I would just write it off and take multiple cheaper squads.

The Anti-tank weapon for the exarch kind of goes against the powers of the rest of the squad... Hmm 4 almost auto hit S6 attacks or one anti-tank weapon backed up by at least 4 AP - weapons... I think the only way I would consider it would be if I attached an Autarch with a Fusion gun and Warp Generator and I am still discounting at least 6 S6 AP- shots from the rest of the squad.

They aren't bad, but they aren't all that great. I would say 6-7 Spiders is best--no Exarch, no upgrades. You need them to jump forward, shoot with lots of strength 6, and then warp jump out of assault range. Don't bother kitting them for close combat.

I may be the odd one out here, but I really don't care for 'em. Sure, you get a bunch of S6, but they're like 150pts for a squad of 7. That's 14 S6 shots at 12". For that price, you can (almost) get 3 WW with Scatter lasers. Almost double the shots, 3 times the range, and on a (in my opinion) more durable base. If you're stuck for Heavy slots, fine, run Hornets. Two hornets with Scats put out 16 shots at 36" for about the same amount of points. Plus they're faster and again (imo) more durable. If you love the whole "death from a thousand cuts" weaponry, use a Nightspinner. TL Barrage, S6, rending? Very effective at sniping important characters, and plus, with a (I believe) 72" you can sit out of LOS and drop them all game. And its on a AV12 Falcon chassis, its fairly durable with cover saves.

It just seems to me that for everything they do, someone does it better, cheaper, longer ranged, etc. My cents, of 2.

The thing they dont do: rear armor. On Av10 rear a unit of 5 with exarch does 3 hull points quite reliably with a pen or two in there. 3 war walkers on AV12 front does 2 glances. Then possible cover. Then consider that higher-AV vehicles are becoming more common and war walkers may not even be able to hurt them.

Also, 3 war walkers are significantly easier to kill. Not only do warp spiders have warp jump generators to avoid assault, get in cover, or get out of LOS, but they are also considered to be less of target priority by the majority of players. 3 war walkers will die turn 1-2 vs almost any army. I have had warp spiders survive until game end almost 1/2 the games i use them. Deepstriking melta/plas is becoming more common, S6-9 fliers are becoming almost ubiquitous, and melee/ short range armies are pretty much gone. Everything has weapons to kill war walkers that can reach across the board.

I usually field mine in units of 7 with exarch, dual spinners and withdraw (I have 2 units kitted this way).

Sometimes I will also add one autarch with fusion gun, mandiblasters, power sword (although thinking of swapping to an axe) and jump generator.

The power weapons are in there in case I get assaulted or want to assault a backfield unit like devastators and the withdraw is there to get me the hell out of combat if I want.

I usually get them to deep strike behind enemy tanks and blow their rear armour to bits. In one game I had 2 units of 7 do this and they took out my opponents 2 vindicators in the same turn.

Warp Spiders can be great units. Fielding one or two units if you don't have Imperial Armour Fast Attack Availability(sorry, I'd take Wasp Walkers or Nightwings over them anyday).

If used, I do 8 models, one upgraded to an exarch with dual spinners. Withdrawl I'll add if I have some points to use, but only then.

rohansoldier wrote:
Sometimes I will also add one autarch with fusion gun, mandiblasters, power sword (although thinking of swapping to an axe) and jump generator.

I have played around with the use of a Power Lance as well. Making the Autarch pretty decent on a charge, and withdraw makes sure he can get out of there when things go bad.

Just for fun, I'd run them with an attached farseer on a jetbike. Warp Spiders with fortune and guide.... pretty great.

I have always been a fanboy for Warp Spiders, so I'm definitely not impartial when it comes to them.

DAaddict wrote:

The Anti-tank weapon for the exarch kind of goes against the powers of the rest of the squad... Hmm 4 almost auto hit S6 attacks or one anti-tank weapon backed up by at least 4 AP - weapons... I think the only way I would consider it would be if I attached an Autarch with a Fusion gun and Warp Generator and I am still discounting at least 6 S6 AP- shots from the rest of the squad.

The anti-tank version does have one additional bonus, it's 18" range. This will let you shoot a infantry squad from further away, like in 5th ed., making it easier to avoid assault/return fire.
I've never used it though

The errata to limit casualties from ranged shooting combined with the increased charge range on all models eliminated the effectiveness of this unit.

In order to make use of their weapons, they have to be reasonably close to the bulk of the target unit, not just near the edges anymore. After that, they only get away as far as everyone else charges. This means, any one who wishes to wipe out the Warp Spiders in assault can now do so reliably.

 DarknessEternal wrote:
The errata to limit casualties from ranged shooting combined with the increased charge range on all models eliminated the effectiveness of this unit.

In order to make use of their weapons, they have to be reasonably close to the bulk of the target unit, not just near the edges anymore. After that, they only get away as far as everyone else charges. This means, any one who wishes to wipe out the Warp Spiders in assault can now do so reliably.

IIRC I believe that the Spinnerette Rifle has an 18 inch range. Which can persuant to the errata, let you allocate the rest of the Squads Guns out to 18 inches. This means that the Spinnerette Rifle may actually become the weapon of choice on the Warp Spider Exarch despite lowering his actual damage output since it lets you still kite at 12 inches and allocate up to 18 inches in. Or at least it makes it a meaningful choice between the extra damage and percision shots of the 2 spinners, or the allocation benefits of the spinerette rifle.

Another option is to take a las blaster on your Autarch. You lose the fusion goodness, but can now allocate your Spider shots out to 24 inches. Which will cover the whole of an enemy squad as long as your spiders can touch a single model within 12.

Cheers for all the replies guys have been able to borrow 10 warp spiders to try out so am gonna work em into a list and play test em a lot in different configurations and see what I find works best!

When I run Spiders I like to get as close as possible to a full squad and I run my Exarch with Dual Spinners, Blades and Withdraw. This gives a very versatile unit that can escape shooting through assaulting, can finish off weakened targets in assault and can get out of assaults that would otherwise keep them from doing their job.

22 shots from a full squad and an Exarch rocking the dual spinners is just devastating. A Farseer on a bike guiding and fortuning them is also incredibly effective and worth the investment IMO if you can spare the points. I prefer vehicles for targets because I don't like return fire as Spiders become much less useful when their firepower dwindles.

Sometimes I deepstrike for rear armor shots or to kill backfield heavy weapons guys, but for the most part I like to start them on the table since they have the speed to shoot from turn two anyway.

My group doesn't play that long range guns boost the killing range of shorter ranged guns in the squad. To mitigate the effects of that I usually estimate how much damage I'll do and put myself in range of that many guys +1 or 2. If I know I'll want to assault I just get in there and commit (usually only if there is another unit available to assist in shooting if I botch my roll with the Spiders).

2 squads of 5 no upgrades. I don't worry about using up Fast slots since for CWE they are trash except for Spiders.

On a more tactical note 20 S6 shots from 1 squad can be overkill sometimes. With 2 squads, if you get good dice you can rear shot 2 vehicles, or 1 vehicle and a squad or whatever. If your dice are crap then fire 20 shots to glance a box dead.

Basically, it lets you split fire if you need to for the price of another Fast slot you wouldn't use anyway.

I have just one 5-man squad but am thinking about getting another one and running similar to the way Rancid runs his. I try to keep them near some impassable terrain to use the warp jump to get out sight. It works really nice you have rangers/pathfinders chilling in cover nearby to draw enemy close to the spiders. It kind of turns them into trapdoor spiders.

 DarknessEternal wrote:
The errata to limit casualties from ranged shooting combined with the increased charge range on all models eliminated the effectiveness of this unit.

In order to make use of their weapons, they have to be reasonably close to the bulk of the target unit, not just near the edges anymore. After that, they only get away as far as everyone else charges. This means, any one who wishes to wipe out the Warp Spiders in assault can now do so reliably.

I have found that warping the spiders to the upper level of ruins usually blunts the return assult charge. admittedly I don't always roll high enough on the second jump to do that but then I will at least try to put them out of line of sight.

There is also the idea of jumping them behind one of your own units that will take the enemy charge instead of the warpspiders.

Now that opponents charge just a little further, and you have to be within 6" to rapid fire, I'd leave them at home.

-Matt

Personally love spiders, I think they are one of my favorite units in the codex, and I hope the new codex for Eldar (whenever it comes out) has some more love for them (and I would love a Pheonix lord for them too (just not the one from the cs groto book)).
But I would run at least 5 w/ exarch. I do dual spinners and powerblades on my exarch, even though (and don't hate me for saying this) I like to throw an autarch in with them with a power sword and fusion gun too, just for an extra bit of kick for the squad, and in case they get in close combat, or if they are shooting at a squad and want to finish them off, the extra power weapon attacks help a lot.

Do you think surprise attack I a good power for them. I ask because I want to add some to my Deathwing who can all come in through deep strike really early on (eg turn 1)

HawaiiMatt wrote:
Now that opponents charge just a little further, and you have to be within 6" to rapid fire, I'd leave them at home.

-Matt

They have assault weapons not rapid fire weapons.

 bobtheoverlord wrote:
Do you think surprise attack I a good power for them. I ask because I want to add some to my Deathwing who can all come in through deep strike really early on (eg turn 1)

Surprise Assault is pretty much useless. All the standard games already allow DS so you are spending points to be able to do something you can already do.

warpspider89 wrote:

HawaiiMatt wrote:
Now that opponents charge just a little further, and you have to be within 6" to rapid fire, I'd leave them at home.

-Matt

They have assault weapons not rapid fire weapons.

Not to mention that it's obvious when you use them that 6" is much closer than you need to be. Mine operate fine at 9-10". Range is more of a factor now, but that doesn't change the fact that they're the most points efficient S6 hits we can get outside of Scatter Walkers. Warp Spiders are still quite useful.

rohansoldier wrote:
I usually field mine in units of 7 with exarch, dual spinners and withdraw (I have 2 units kitted this way).

Sometimes I will also add one autarch with fusion gun, mandiblasters, power sword (although thinking of swapping to an axe) and jump generator.

The power weapons are in there in case I get assaulted or want to assault a backfield unit like devastators and the withdraw is there to get me the hell out of combat if I want.

I usually get them to deep strike behind enemy tanks and blow their rear armour to bits. In one game I had 2 units of 7 do this and they took out my opponents 2 vindicators in the same turn.

I thought you could only use a power sword... Though an axe would be awesome!

It's can be be neither an axe or a sword. They are "power blades", and ignore armour saves.