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I'm not exactly an eldarplayer, but before I took up gkI looked into them and can't help but notice they seem like a pretty effective hit and run unit similiar to interceptors but much lower on cost and faster with there ability to double jump, making them seemingly very easy capable of tying up units/ mass harrassment. Why don't you guys use them? It'd seem like 2 squads of them running together hitting on 3s and wounding on 2s would make for a pretty strong and very versatile shooting core. I know that bikers are very prevaliant so why not 2 WS and 1 unit of Bikers?

Because eldar have the highest quantity of S6 fire already. War walkers with scatter lasers are 24 S6 shots for 180 points. With cannons they are 120 points for 18 shots.

Warp spiders are 22 points for T3 models. Throw in an exarch and it can be nearly 28 points per model. The double jump kills a model 1 in 6 times. They are cost effective, but dont really fill a role thats heavily needed for eldar. Therefore they are 2ndary units rather than primary.

but don't war walkers go down easier than warp spiders from just normal shooting because they are easier to see? as opposed to warp spiders having the ability to shoot a target and jump behind cover afterwards to keep from being shot up? making them most survivable and cost effective?

It might be the fact it's $50 (can) for 5 of them, and you probably need 10 to be effective with them.
Where as you can get the war walkers for as low as $20 from ebay discount sellers, which don't tend to deal in finecast.

The problem with spiders is that they have to be 12" or less away from their target and it can get tricky to escape from charge range of their target. Hitting on twos and wounding on threes is lovely against MEQs except they get an armour save, which 4 times out of 6 they will make. Plus, war walkers put out so much fire power in one round of shooting, it's gonna be pretty hard for any unit to survive those shots. As zephoid mentioned, they are T3 and expensive per model. Oh yeah, don't forget the price for 5 guys.

They can deep strike which is useful

My bro in law uses them to tie up my long fangs or big gun teams.

I normally counter this by having grots in the way or a supper killy wolf guard in the team.

While very fast and packing high S guns with a decent armor save, their range is painfully short coupled with only being T3 really hurts. On top of that, while yes their guns are S6, they just don't put out enough shots to make it work well, especially with AP- and at 20something points each.


Being expensive and metal also doesn't help.

War walkers can generate cover pretty easily and are far enough back that they can get fortune thrown on them. With ruins thats a 75% save (3+ is 66%) which bolters could only glance on 6s. They even have scout to get them into position easier.

Deepstriking warp spiders is tricky. 12" range means you have to chance misshaps or terrain very often. Even then you arent guarenteed to get in range.

For the same reason I don't really use War Walkers: they're expensive (in £) to buy and I don't have any room for them in my lists.

Well, mostly it's the price to toughness ratio I think.
Yeah, they have a nice S on their gun. On their 12" gun.
It's not that easy to be in position to shoot and at the same time to safely escape from the enemy retaliation. Especially when the jump distance is random.
At least 6th edition helped them immensely.

They are not so great in CC. A pimped Exarch is ~50 and he will kill ~1 MEQ when assaulting while being easier to kill than one.

Not enough AP to reliably kill tougher opponents. Too pricey for two shots against horde. Not bad at those but not good either.

5 interceptors are only 8 points more than 5 spiders plus Exarch. They are tougher, stronger, have twice the shooting range, MUCH better in CC, numerous grenades, shunt move, ATSKNF, power weapon and can take incredibly good psycannon.


I personally love the unit and use it quite often. But my gaming buddies are light on the competitive.

Their guns do have pinning though, iirc.
Of course, that only really matters when pinning works.

In my experience:

Reason 1: 50 bucks for 5 a pop and finecast

Reason 2: Uuuuugly.

We dont? News to me... I run 30 of them regularly... they are also an awesome tarpit.

I use two squads to drop in behind problem vehicles or units.

I run one unit of 6. It's never failed to frustrate my opponent yet...

I have a hard time paying the points for them when I could instead get more heavy support, elites, or rangers. I typically run a big unit of harlequins and a couple of units of pathfinders as the core of my army. Then I take the obligatory squad of fire dragons in a serpent, 2 fire prisms, possibly a Wraithlord and as many farseers as I can afford. Since I usually play 1500 point games, there simply isn't enough room in my force for a unit that has a good chance of mishaping, or landing out of their weapon range and then getting shot to pieces by a single squad (Seems to happen to me a lot). If I'm taking spiders, it's usually just for the lawlz, but if you want a fast attack choice that can really dish out the hurt, look into FW hornets. Fast skimmers that can each take 2 scatter lasers, have scout, get free star engines, are bs 4, and have higher front and side armour than war walkers, making them immune to small arms fire (other than from tau). They're pricier, but they have added mobility, a jink save when they move (which you'll be doing a lot), and they don't compete for a coveted heavy support slot.

Warp Spiders are situational. Its a semi-competitive unit since its too vulnerable with cover save reduced to 5+ and T3. An Eldar army should first fill (besides troops) HS and Elite, and you'll not have enough pts for FA.

Eldar units have a critical mass. This critical mass is the point where, generally, they go from being overkill to struggling. It's really obvious and you get a feel for when a unit has been decimated to being useless after using it for a while.

For Fire Dragons the critical mass is around 4 models.
For Harlequins the critical mass is around 7 models, provided the psycher is still alive.
For Warp Spiders I've found that it's around 6 models, provided the Exarch is still alive. Hit and Run is just so very important.

The interesting thing I've noticed with my Warp Spiders, and I tend to use them a lot, is that the Exarch is the single most important model. As long as he's alive they aren't useless. Sure, they may not be overkill which is what you're aiming at with Eldar, but as long as he's alive they can threaten nearly anything on the board.
I just have to use them semi-aggressively. If I'm too aggressive a Tyranid Tervigon will eat them alive, while if I'm too defensive they die to flashlights or some other non-heroic hazzard.

I don't find cover to be critical on a unit with 3+ save. They usually die to power swords (can't get cover in melee), AP3 flamers or pie plates that ignore cover, or they die to massed bolter-grade fire.
Although, invariably, I will loose at least 3 times the statistic average of models per game to the warp.

Well, I've used Warp Spiders. Once vs. Nids, the first wave of Gaunts was close to my front ranks, my full unit of Warp Spiders moved inside the swarm, shot a Warrior brood at the other end of the swarm, and them moved inside of a building. My opponent got nuts.