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I'm thinking about adding a 5 man Warp Spider unit to my army, but i'm unsure of what to equip him with.

Due to the static-ness of the rest of my army, Deep Strike is a must, and the Hit and Run rule is also a delicious option, but im not sure on the weapon upgrades.

Is it worth going for the Spinneret Rifle to get that AP1 Pinning and extra range or are the extra shots with the twin death spinner better (especially with the abundance of cover saves in 5th)

Cheers for any input

Even without cover saves, 2 Spinners is always statistically better unless you are shooting at terminators or vehicles.

i guess, but if you have the 18'' gun you could deep strike further from the enemy avoiding that nasty mishap table :p

I think warp spiders are one of the most underrated units in the Eldar codex. I almost always field a squad, and they perform brilliantly.

A 5-man warp spider squad is probably not worth it, as you need a lot of shots and the ability to suffer a casualty to the warp. I find that an 8-man squad works well.

The 18-inch range on the spinneret rifle is pointless, as you will want to be with 12 inches anyway, lest you give up the rest of the squad's shooting. Against almost everything, the dual death spinner is superior.

Dual death spinners and withdraw I consider compulsory upgrades for the exarch. Surprise assault and powerblades are both good too, but not as necessary. Buy them if you have extra points to spend.

Problem with Warp Spiders (and to a much greater extent, Scorpions) is they are very vulnerable in 5E.

I see, you die.

You better bring SA and PB on your Exarch, else you are going to get pummeled and run off by a tactical squad beating you by 4.

I've had great success with my Spiders, as well.

Full mob with the withdraw and PB have worked for me. The PB are needed to get the wounds on the marines, I've found. The rest of the squad just can't be counted on to get through the armour.

Jump them in, fire and then assault. You may not wipe out the unit in one go but with the WD you can tough it out for the opponents round, hop out, and whack him again. (or another unit).

I use my spiders to thin out hordes or engage heavy weapons. Just don't expect them to work well against assault units with power weapons.

I wasn't impressed with SA but I do want to try the spiders with one or two warp packed Autarchs. I don't have the greatest luck with reserve rolls.

I'll defer to Stelek on 5th tactics. The loss of consolidating into fresh units can leave them in the open and, for sure, makes them more vunerable.

Deep striking spiders seems like a silly idea to me. Sure they can probably do heavy damage to their intended target, but then they are all bunched up nice and close to the enemy asking to get shot/assaulted on the enemy's turn. This goes even more so with the new increased lethality of template weapons.

In addition to that, the best use of the warp jump is to avoid assault. These guys are S3 T3 with 1 attack. They can't hang in hand to hand with anything that has resonable numbers or a power weapon. If you are jumping in to finish off the last 2 marines left in the squad you were shooting at, then by all means do it (particularly if your exarch has power blades). However if there are 5 or 6 of them left, you're much better off getting the heck out of dodge (assuming you got somewhere to go).

The new casualty removal rules (you can hit the whole squad if just one guy is in range) will really help out the short ranged spiders quite a bit though.

Regardless, the dule spinners is a much better choice than the spinneret.

Phoenix wrote:Deep striking spiders seems like a silly idea to me. Sure they can probably do heavy damage to their intended target, but then they are all bunched up nice and close to the enemy asking to get shot/assaulted on the enemy's turn. This goes even more so with the new increased lethality of template weapons.

I don't agree. Deep striking can allow for opportune shots. In 4ed, I killed falcons by deep striking my warp spiders behind one and hitting its rear armor with a large number of S6 attacks. Also, the disadvantage of the deep strike is significantly mediated by the fact that spiders can use their assault phase movement to reposition themselves.

Doesn't the Eldar FAQ allow them to jump after they have deepstruck?

I used to agree with Pheonix about deepstriking them however with this addition to their rules it opens up a lot of interesting possibilities.

Plus DS isn't as risky anymore.

Shirou beat me to it.

Yes, they can jump after they DS, as per the FAQ. Being bunched up should be a none issue. If you are going to DS I would recommend taking an Autarch or two as the bonus to the reserve rolls helps.

I disagree to some extent about not assaulting with them. Don't assault *real* assault units but tactical marines and most troops/heavy weapons are easy enough to tie up. I go for AT units that threaten my WG. The I 5+ on the unit plus bonus attacks on the charge should thin out whatever is left from the shooting phase.

In 5th we lose torrent of fire but now smaller units will have their power weapons making armour saves so you may ace that pw/pf before you assault.

You will have a hard time wounding the marines with their higher toughness and their armour but most people don't run a full squad of ten MEQ, anyhow. By the time you have shot and resolved your cc attacks you shouldn't be facing more then a few attacks.

My basic logic is, prevent them from shooting your spiders and get the charge bonus instead of giving it to them. Survive your assault phase and thiers and hop out, if need be.

Just pick your battles and use terrain and cc to mitigate shots against your guys (they are pricey).

Cheers.

Brother Bartius wrote:Doesn't the Eldar FAQ allow them to jump after they have deepstruck?

I used to agree with Pheonix about deepstriking them however with this addition to their rules it opens up a lot of interesting possibilities.

Hummm, didn't realize they had FAQ'ed it so spiders could jump after deep striking. That is an interesting proposition. In general, I really don't like deep strike (for just about any unit) because it leaves you bunched up and (in most cases) too close to the enemy to avoid being killed on their turn. That or you are left so far away from the enemy that you can't do anything useful on the turn you show up. However with the ability to land in a decent position, fire, and then move to someplace safe (possibly), deep strike for spiders may be worth checking out.