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..and to all types of Infantry, for that matter..

Pretty new to the game, so I apologise if any of these questions seem 'dumb' or 'stupid'.. Just hit me, and I'll shut up.. 

1: In the rules book, it says that Jump Infantry can move 12" in their movement phase. And in the Warp Spiders rules, it says to treat them as having Jump Packs (plus their own Warp Packs rules). Does the 12" movement still apply? Am I reading it all wrong? Or does the 12" movement mean something else is forfeited?

2: Picture this scenario. My Warp Spiders are 2" away from a line of Guardsman 5" thick. Behind my Spiders, a unit of Howling Banshees is 4" from the Guardsmen. In the assault phase, I choose to jet my Spiders over the top of the Guardsmen, so my Banshees can do their thing. Now..

2a: I roll my 2D6, and get a 6 and a 5, giving me a healthy 11" extra movement. Do I have to move the full 11", or can I choose to move enough to get past the Guardsmen, so my Spiders can assault the rear next turn? In effect, can I choose how far I move? Plus, can I still assault the same turn, after performing the Warp Jump?

2b: I roll my 2D6, and get a 2 and a 1, giving me only 3" to move. Can I now disregard that, go back on my plan to jet, and simply assault them instead? Can I choose to Warp across, and let my Banshees past anyway? Do I have to nominate my moving direction before I roll? Do I even have to move at all? If I do, what happens to my Spiders whom land ON the Guardsmen?

3: Assuming I take the Withdraw ability; does Hit and Run allow me to fall back at the end of my opponents Assault phase, thus possibly allowing me to re-charge on my turn, and gain the extra attack dice?

4; Is Deep Striking really worth it, for something that can potentially (depending on the above answers) move 30" a turn (12" movement, 12" Warp Jump with one dead Spider, and 6" assault) ?

 

Sorry for the long post, and mass of probably n00b-ish questions. I just like to know everything, and be 100% sure of what everything can do, before I spend unrefundable hours of my life building, modelling, and painting.. Thanks in advance. I'll try not to be too annoying in the future..

Posted By xero on 02/11/2007 9:16 AM

1: In the rules book, it says that Jump Infantry can move 12" in their movement phase. And in the Warp Spiders rules, it says to treat them as having Jump Packs (plus their own Warp Packs rules). Does the 12" movement still apply? Am I reading it all wrong? Or does the 12" movement mean something else is forfeited?

Yes, Jump Infantry all move 12" in the movement phase, instead of their regular 6" movement.  I'm not sure what you think they might lose.
 

 

Posted By xero on 02/11/2007 9:16 AM

2b: I roll my 2D6, and get a 2 and a 1, giving me only 3" to move. Can I now disregard that, go back on my plan to jet, and simply assault them instead? Can I choose to Warp across, and let my Banshees past anyway? Do I have to nominate my moving direction before I roll? Do I even have to move at all? If I do, what happens to my Spiders whom land ON the Guardsmen?

 In the assault phase, in place of the normal 6" move used ONLY to get into close combat with an enemy unit, Warp Spiders may INSTEAD choose to make a second jump.  Note that you do this in place of assaulting anyone, so once you make the roll it's too late to go back and say "You know, I'd rather assault". 

Instead of the safe and reliable 12" move they get in the movement phase, when making the second jump they nominate a direction and roll 2d6.  Each model "may" move "up to" the distance rolled in the nominated direction, though they must remain in coherency and any model ending up in Impassible terrain will die.  Since you can choose to move up to the distance rolled, this is rarely going to happen.  Most likely if you're jumping over a large piece of impassible terrain, and most of the squad makes it safely but one or two guys couldn't quite make it.  Of course since 0" is less than whatever you roll on the dice, you could always choose not to move, but it may be worth it to lose a guy or two in order to get the rest of the squad behind cover. 

Note that enemy models are treated identically to impassible terrain for the purposes of the Deep Strike and Summoning rules, so while the warp jump rules don't specify what happens if you 'port into an enemy unit, the most consistent way to play it would be for spiders to die. 

You could certainly choose to try jumping behind the IG to let the Banshees assault them.  But you would need to roll high enough to clear the unit.  The other option, of course, if you are obstructing the Banshees, would be to jump sideways.

 

Posted By xero on 02/11/2007 9:16 AM

3: Assuming I take the Withdraw ability; does Hit and Run allow me to fall back at the end of my opponents Assault phase, thus possibly allowing me to re-charge on my turn, and gain the extra attack dice?

 Yes indeed.  This is one of several good tactical uses for it.

  

Posted By xero on 02/11/2007 9:16 AM

 4; Is Deep Striking really worth it, for something that can potentially (depending on the above answers) move 30" a turn (12" movement, 12" Warp Jump with one dead Spider, and 6" assault) ? 

 It totally depends on the scenario, opponent, and terrain.  Sometimes there is no safe way to reach a given area of the table even with that rapid movement.  Most of the time you're looking at a 12" move, and average of 7" jump.  19" a turn is great, but a regular infantry unit has a potential (not allowing for terrain and other units) 24" assault threat radius- 6" move and 6" assault in any given direction.  Faster assaulters (like enemies with Jump Packs) can deny you a safe place to land in an even larger radius.   Being able to skip past or over your opponent's entire army to contest a quadrant or objective otherwise hard to reach is a good use for Deep Strike.  Of course, the strong chance that the unit will arrive on turn 2 or 3 can make it tough to take best advantage of the rule; early in the game, you often don't know yet which quadrant will be hard to reach by the end of the game.   Deep Striking can also allow you to drop a squad full of S6 guns facing the weak rear armor of an important or expensive enemy tank, without the enemy being able to do much about it.

Long story short, Deep Striking is not generally going to be your first choice, but it can certainly be a useful option in some circumstances.

 

 

 

1. Yes, you are reading the interaction of rules correctly. Warp spiders move 12" in the movement phase.

2. This is not a noobish question--several rules from several places in the books interact on this one.

Jump infantry, including warp spiders, move like regular infantry when they assault (i.e. they don't use their jump packs). Also you have to declare a charge before you can launch the assault, and the warp spider rules specify that you make the 2d6 move "instead of" assaulting.

What this all boils down to is that, in the assault phase, you have to declare that your spiders are assaulting the guardsmen in order to assault them. If you do not declare, then you can make the 2d6 move (but can't assault). If you declare the assault, then you can make it, but you move the regular 6" modified normally by terrain instead of the 2d6.

3. Yes. That is the accepted and effective tactic.

4. This is a matter of opinion, but IMO deepstriking is seldom worthwhile for warp spiders.

Thanks Mannahnin and Flavius, cleared up alot of my issues there. Ever since I saw the Warp Spiders, I've had this weird obsession with them (not sure what it is, really, I just love them to bits), so I naturally wanted to make sure what they could do, before going out and buying a load of them, to find that, generally, they arent as cool as they appear to be..

Now all thats sorted out, I can begin preliminary work on an Eldar army.. Thanks again!

They are quite cool and very effective. One or two units could serve quite well in almost any Eldar army.

I agree with Flavius that the best Eldar armies tend to be ones with minimal repeated units. Repeated units lead to tactical inflexibility and reduced synergy. Most Eldar units have unique and interesting things they do and work well in combinations with one another.