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Folks,
Now it's been a while since the Eldar Night Spinner has been released, what is the general oppinion on it now many of you have been able to see how it performs on the tabletop? Have people who thought it not to be much use now warmed to it, or visa versa perhaps?

My nids have played against one a few times. While not th most devastating thing in the world it was annoying in making me take terrain tests over and over again. In fact I think I lost more models to dangerous terrain than to the initial hits. It does better against footslogging lists by far I would say.

I have both used it and had it used against me. I don't think it's as effective offensively as a fire prism. It is however, an awesome defensive tool. It keeps dangerous units away from your fire base and can lock down jump infantry especially well.

I've seen it deployed against hordes, and it looked like it worked out quite well... That and being a fast skimmer, it can always move 12" and fire the ord template? Tough to catch one when it decides to shoot and scoot...

I've had it used against me once, and wasn't all that terribly impressed. It seemed like you got what you paid for: a cheap way to change your opponent's movement patterns.

A support unit that I can't imagine doing all that much to non-horde armies.

I have faced 2 of these on a couple of occasions. They didn't seem that great although playing blood angels it did slow me down a bit but nothing too drastic

:-) Yes... I'm pretty sure I wouldn't use 3... I like the AT firepower way too much... But one as a "well, maybe this will work out"... 'course, mine would be magnitized for an easy swap...

I would suggest using the tried and true method of "trying it out and seeing how it goes". ha ha. As with all things warhammer, ymmv.

They give you some interesting movement control abilities but have no place in any kind of competitive Eldar list. Mech Eldar is already the (tied) fastest army in the game so have no need for it, and being vehicles they are out of place in a Footdar list. The anti horde is nice, but not much better than the pie plate the Prism already offered, it simply can't compete with the Prism as far as anti tank options go and completely loses out as far as flexibility/versatility goes. In any case the Eldar HS is already pretty packed, there is no way anyone would take 2 Nightspinners over 2 Prisms and most lists take at least 1 Falcon which doesn't leave much space. You could possibly justify taking 1 Spinner over 1 Prism if your list really needed anti horde, but most of the time the flexibility of the Prism is going to win out. Just the options the S9 template give you (remove FNP etc) is enough for me.

Actually, now that I think about it, they're sort of like imperial guard griffons. They don't do very much, and they're sort of a waste of a slot, but they're very cheap, so you can include more of them in low-points games. That and when you KNOW you're fighting hordes (or are one of the three eldar players that doesn't load up on either guardian spam or bladestorm serpents).

It is twin linked, comes with a big pie plate, has rending, barrage (so it is harder to get cover saves) and in makes dificult terain. It would work in many ways like a whirldwind. Shoot open a transport and land a pie template in there. I have not played eldar, but if you do not use all your heavy suport it would help fire dragons out a bit.

dragons shoot down a transport or what-not and the poit plate lands on whatever was inside. I have not played eldar, but you do have anti tank other places then in heavy suport. It just seems that the internet list paradigem involves fire prisems because they are easy to play/understand. Since all lists must have troop choises I do not se anything bad with having 2 provided you have ebough anti tank elsewhere. And you would be abel to provide a screen by bombing the units that are closest to charge range, forcing some losses to rending, some to dangerush terain and preventing them from charging you due to the difficult terain. Also, they would not be a high prioraty by your oponent.

It would at least be a fresh lelief from the regular internet spam lists.

Kind of the problem, the "if you aren't using all of your heavy support slots" part :-) Most Eldar players, including myself, use all 3 slots and typically fill them up first... I'd have a hard time justifying a "maybe I'll use it" for something like this in general...

:-) Ailiaros, I'm probably one of the few "oddball" Eldar players... I like some of the non standard units...

I run two in tourney's in a WS spam list.

While I agree they don't kill as may on the direct, twin-linked blast of the fire prisms, they do lots to the enemy, MEQ and Horde alike.

Plus, you have to twin link the prisms to get twin linking and the better AP, which then costs as much or more than the Night Spinner, and you only get one shot.

It causes a number of effects. I will break down each stat, not to explain what they do, but how they affect the bad guys.

S 6(With potential rend): this means you can engage anything. THis device is best used against 10+ model infantry units and up, but it can still hurt MCs, and vehicles. Not to the effect of other weapons, but it does give you some flexibility if needing to stall.

Rending: ok, now you are alreay wounding on 2's with the S6, but any lucky 6's mean dead bad guys. It happens nearly every turn a coulple of 6's roll out and those terminators or that forward command squad have to make some choices.

Difficult terrain: Once a unit has a marker, the player has to starting making choices. An automatic move 6, shoot, and charge is now not longer as easy. Plus this works against vehicles as well, in fact anything the template hits.

Dangerous Terrain: This is the best one. Everygame I've used these things in, the Dangerous factor causes the most cost chaos for the bad guys. People freez up and will simply not move troops that they would otherwise be advancing with. When they bite the bullet and decide to move, often times they toast one of their own men. This is especially fun since they choose to do it and it's in their turn. Also, you can assault them, tank shock them, make the fall back, etc and all these actions trigger the dangerous terrain if they haven't already.

Pinning: If the kills from shooting don't break them, there is always a chance they will be pinned as well.

Range, Twin Linked and platform: They have awesome range, come with twin link on a large pie plate, and are a fast tank. That means full fire effect at 12inch move! Plus, if you don't like where you hit, you just pick it up and roll again. I'll take hitting two guys in two squads over 10 guys in 1 just for the markers.

Summation: is it as good as the Prism at Anti-Tank? No. But I feel that Falcons and Fire Dragons are better than Prisms anyway and take 2 dragon squads and 1 falcon and scatter lasers on everything else. Light vehichles, check, medium, check, heavy check.

I run them all the time and since there are so many foward units and target priorities, the Night Spinners are always way in the back and have pretty much freedom to fire at will. If I have the points, I slap on holo-fields but rarley have to use them.

Try them and you may!
Try them and you may I say!