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I have two units that I love, Warp Spiders and Swooping Hawks. I have an upcoming friendly match against some Black Templars and was wondering which units fare better against them. Anyone had any experience with these two? I'll be playing against some new players, so I'm not overly concerned with an uber-competetive list, building the list more on the rule of cool than anything else. Thanks!

I'm not a fan of either unit, but mostly avoid swooping hawks. Sorry I can't be more help.

I actually like WS. Sure their weapon is AP- but its str 6.
It can instagib IG/Eldar and if they are in cover the AP dosent matter anyway.
Vs marines its wounding on 2+ and if you can manouver behind a vehicle it they can even pop transports.
Hit and run with their Exarch is nice, Ive used a few times to avoid being hammered in hth.
Take a 6 man unit with exarch (with dual DS's) and thats 16 str 6 shots with the potential to get out of comabt next turn if charged. I dont think they are optimal vs marines but if you want to use them they can be effective.

As a general rule for those units:

Hawks for IG, Orks, Tau etc. Anything that's not very tough, and has lots of models.

Warp spiders for SM, CSM etc. Anything that's for smaller numbers and is tougher.

In this case you would use warp spiders

I use my Spiders a fair amount... Jumping around a lot and hunting transports or artillery hiding in the back fields... Deep strike if you really feel like it, another little thing that changed with 5th ed (all jump troops can now, so one of the Earch powers is useless)... Massed Str 6 shots are nice, even with the AP -. The (risky) extra movement and withdraw are nice... I can't bring myself to field the poor Hawks against Marines these days... Template on the drop is nice, but it's only Str 4 and their guns are Str 3... Random stray HB rounds just kill them too quickly... 'course, just my opinions/experiences YMMV

I field my spiders a lot, (they are definitely my favorite aspect) and I agree with the above posters on them, they can cause a lot of unexpected damage and their mobility and high strength weapon give them a surprising amount of versatility.

They can devestate hordes and do enough damage against MEQ to still be at least manageably efficient. They can also get behind vehicles and do fairly well at tank hunting, but this tends to leave them pretty exposed so you have to be careful about how you move them so that they aren't left in the open.

I've also had some success hunting Demon Princes and other Monstrous Creatures with them, with their massed S 6 shooting they can put out enough wounds to take down a DP in a single turn and then warp to safety if you've got a full squad. They won't expect that.

Their main downside is that if you are fielding a mostly mech list they will be exposed just because they will be the only unit on foot, and they tend to be pretty high priority targets due to their high cost and damage potential. An ordnance blast will really ruin their day and turn them into a huge chunk of wasted points.

I also agree with everybody on the Hawks. Their weapons are only good against weak troops, and there are other things in the list that are more effective in that role anyways. You can get some use out of them hunting tanks with their haywire grenades, but they are far to frail and less mobile than the warp spiders to make this anything but a suicide mission. I have a squad and they never make up their points, they are just too expensive.