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Alright, I've been playing around with list ideas and I remembered back in 5th ed vypers saw little to no play outside friendly battle reports (ie not competitive). So my question is now in the new codex and 6th ed, are the vyper squads any good and how are they generally taken now in 6th? Aesthetically speaking, they appear to go well with my jetbikes, and coupled with my high strength firepower (usually in the form of wraith units) would lend some mobility to otherwise slower units like the gaurd and lord. My main opponent is a tau player who runs pretty heavy on the markerlights (3 units of 10 each), 2 riptides usually and throwign in some broadsides and the new R'varna to boot; would vyper units just be too squishy of a choice to go against that? Any thought and ideas would be appreciated.

Vypers suffer the same problems as Marine land speeders and War walkers. they are a good plat form but squishy. You have to either A present a bigger target else where or B make sure you get and can pass saves.

aaaaaaaaaand against 30 pathfinder, thats gonna be nigh impossible to get a cover save...in the 2 games ive played his newest list so far, i have rolled a single cover save...

Really minimalist Vypers can help add in extra hitting power. Stick with the basic Shurikan Cannon and then add an underslung cannon and the Vyper is only 60pts. If you have plenty of Wave Serpents and/or other big, scary targets chances are the Vypers aren't going to be a priority. If you have the points to spare taking Scatter Lasers on them is good for improved dakka...but that brings them to 70pts which seems a bit on the pricey side for an AV10 squishy.

Do you mount your Wraithguard in Serpents, by any chance?

The main issue I find is that they compete with warp spiders on the chart... Who are vastly better...

Well, they can fill gaps in the gun line and if you play Serpent spam, they will not be the first targets. I'd keep them as cheap as possible, with shuricannons or scatterlaser/shuricannon.

I've been having some success with a squad of 3 in my mech list. I think the range on the scatter laser is the key factor to making them work with the cannon they tend to get picked apart . The 36" range really helps them float around back field and get good targets.

I also run several serpents and 2 warp spider squads so there are other better targets for my opponents most games. That being said Str7 in large quantities makes a mess of them and I've given up first blood a couple of times thanks to them. But I think they are alright if you use them more opportunistically

Surprisingly, they are a good platform for starcannons. It's a cheap upgrade and boosts their range to safer levels. And its pretty useful to have extra AP2

Answer: No.

ive never really liked warp spiders as a model, and they dont really fit my "slow march of wraith units flanked with jetbikes" theme. And yes, my 2 (and only ever 2 just to not make it overly a cheesy list) WS to carry my guard into range.

War walkers are much better. Their 5+ is an invul, so a little more durable there. They can shoot and fleet/battle focus out of LoS. Nail in the coffin is that they can have 2 scatter lasers for only 70 points.

If you are looking for a fast attack choice, check out the forge world hornets. Rules are in the new IA: Apoc. 80 points gets you an AV 11 fast skimmer with 2 pulse lasers, and unlike the Vyper, it is NOT open topped! Thats 4 S8 AP2 shots at 48 inches. Also comes stock with star engines and a special rule that allows you to fire snap shots on the same turn that you flat out. I run all 3 of mine with holfields for a grand total of 95 pts a model and they are golden