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Like the title says. I don't own one, could get one, but I just don't really see the point. It's okay I guess but as a transport it's weak and it uses up a valuable Heavy Support slot.

Does anyone ever use these things? And if so why and how?

As you said yourself, you have much better options.

Wave Serpents put out a lot of firepower, and are transports that don't take up a FOC, so they really render the Falcon as less than optimized. Keep in mind, that the current meta is really quantity of shots over quality, so the Wave Serpent beats out the Falcon in this regard.

Pretty much, everything but a Wraithlord is actually better in the Heavy support slot than a Falcon.

So, overall it is a worse gunboat than a serpent, as well as being a worse transport. There is really no reason to take Falcons over Wave Serpents.

That's what I kind of thought in regards to it just not being that worthwhile. Just wondered if anyone actually thought differently.

Curious about this part though:

 Sasori wrote:
Pretty much, everything but a Wraithlord is actually worse in the Heavy support slot than a Falcon..

Why do you say that? Wraith Knight, Reapers. Both are better heavy support options, aren't they? I also think support batteries are very good for the points.

knas ser wrote:
That's what I kind of thought in regards to it just not being that worthwhile. Just wondered if anyone actually thought differently.

Curious about this part though:

 Sasori wrote:
Pretty much, everything but a Wraithlord is actually worse in the Heavy support slot than a Falcon..

Why do you say that? Wraith Knight, Reapers. Both are better heavy support options, aren't they? I also think support batteries are very good for the points.

I am saying that, Wraith Knights, Reapers, Support battery's etc etc ARE better. I'm saying the only thing worse than a falcon, is a Wrathlord.

EDIT: I see, I mistyped my sentence there. Fixed now.

 Sasori wrote:

knas ser wrote:
That's what I kind of thought in regards to it just not being that worthwhile. Just wondered if anyone actually thought differently.

Curious about this part though:

 Sasori wrote:
Pretty much, everything but a Wraithlord is actually worse in the Heavy support slot than a Falcon..

Why do you say that? Wraith Knight, Reapers. Both are better heavy support options, aren't they? I also think support batteries are very good for the points.

I am saying that, Wraith Knights, Reapers, Support battery's etc etc ARE better. I'm saying the only thing worse than a falcon, is a Wrathlord.

EDIT: I see, I mistyped my sentence there. Fixed now.

Got it. Thought you must mean that. And amusingly enough, I'm not even sure that I agree a Wraith Lord is worse, either. It can CC quite effectively for a start. I bet there are a lot of falcons sitting on shelves, these days.

The one thing Falcons can do better than Serpents is AP2 shooting. With the Pulse Laser and a Bright Lance (or Starcannon) they give you a mobile high strength AP2 platform from long range - which the Serpent can't do because its second weapon is at best S7. I saw someone running an interesting list at the last tournament I went to with 3 Crimson Hunters and 3 Falcons, which made a huge mess of heavy infantry armies. But yeah other than that its completely outclassed by the Serpent - 145pts for a Serpent with massively superior torrent firepower, more transport capacity and better durability (even if its only for a turn since you always fire the Shield) vs 150pts for a Falcon which takes up a Heavy slot and at best can give you 3 S8 AP2 shots per turn (pro tip take a Wraithknight instead which is harder to kill and can beat peoples faces in as well or a Hunter which can put those shots into side armour and other fliers) is incredibly badly costed. I still maintain that the Serpent Shield was supposed to be range 6" (which based on the fluff for it would make sense) and GW made an epic typo and just decided to run with it - if that was the case the Serpent would probably slightly too expensive. Imo its no worse than a Wraithlord, its just the current style that most Eldar lists use make fitting in a slow model like a Wraithlord rather tricky. However its definitely worse than a Wraithknight or Support Batteries (top two), or Reapers (need Tau Buffcommander), or Prisms/Night Spinners and slightly worse than Walkers (which hit hard, but are a nightmare to keep alive).

Still waiting for a FAQ to see if falcons are really useful. Can you take an cannon as the lower weapon and then exchange that cannon for another weapon? If so 2x starcannon+ pulse laser seems pretty mean. 6x AP2 wounding on 2+ shots at 36" and two of them often ID targets seems decent to me considering the lowish point value.

Doing the math on scatter+ pulse laser, vs AV13 or lower the falcon is equal to or better than the fire prism's single shot at destroying a vehicle. Now you can argue a prism is more versatile due to the many blasts, but falcon still has the ability to hide 5 man units of DA and shoot at fliers (TL the pulse laser 4/6 of the time too)

Use them all the time...you have no idea how nice it is to be able to have that transport capacity.

My rangers would get nuked every game against tau if they didn't have a place to hide.

The damage output is great...fantastic for dealing with very elitest units. (How many T4 W2 units with a 3+ or 2+ do you see around?...I see a ton)

It's also fantastic because its generally considered less of a threat...very similar to a predator in that way...

I like it but in my opinion it's completely outshone by the prism tank.

 zephoid wrote:
Still waiting for a FAQ to see if falcons are really useful. Can you take an cannon as the lower weapon and then exchange that cannon for another weapon? If so 2x starcannon+ pulse laser seems pretty mean. 6x AP2 wounding on 2+ shots at 36" and two of them often ID targets seems decent to me considering the lowish point value.

I'm pretty certain that's not intended and I think the case for rules-lawyering it in is shaky. I wouldn't try it myself and I'd be unenthusiastic about seeing it fielded against me.

 zephoid wrote:

Doing the math on scatter+ pulse laser, vs AV13 or lower the falcon is equal to or better than the fire prism's single shot at destroying a vehicle. Now you can argue a prism is more versatile due to the many blasts, but falcon still has the ability to hide 5 man units of DA and shoot at fliers (TL the pulse laser 4/6 of the time too)

Vs. AV13... I decided to do the precise numbers. Got a bit involved when you started factoring in the Laser Lock triggering Twin-Link on the Pulse Laser. Used Binomial Distributions to get it all. If anyone is interested in more detail on the below, I'm happy to provide.

Anyway, assuming that the target is in Scatter Laser range so that can be used for Laser Lock, the chance of scoring one or more penetrating hits against different AV12, 13 and 14 are as follows:

Falcon Tank: AV12: 53% AV13: 27% AV14: 0%
Fire Prism: AV12: 44% AV13: 44% AV14: 44%

That's Fire Prism in Lance mode, of course. Basically, unless you know that you're going to be shooting at non-vehicles / light vehicles, you're almost certainly better off with the Fire Prism. Seriously - the probability of you scoring a penetrating hit with AV13 with a Falcon is actually higher if you take a Bright Lance than if you take a Scatter Laser to increase your hit chances with the Pulse Laser (with Scatter Laser, your chance to score two hits with the Pulse Laser goes from 44% to 74%, but you're still better off with the Bright Lance!).

I suppose it is a passable all-rounder.

My friend uses it because he has a squad of 6 models that fits in there perfectly. It annoys him to have un used space in his transports.

They can work well in an Eldar Corsair list, since they count as a dedicated transport and you only pay 60 points for the troops tax.

It also leaves you open to filling the HS slots with Prisims, DR or other cool stuff.

Since Corsair elites are not particularly good, it works better to use them as an allied detachment.

I like them as ductvader stated, they are great at killing heavy infantry. If you play in a non competitive playgroup who still like to play fluffy and not waac lists they still do well, with the bright lance/pulse laser or star cannon/pulse laser combo they are better at killing 2+ armour save units than a serpent.

Yes the serpent shield is AMAZING but i feel that if you want that max firepower to put out shots you need to drop that shield each turn making it the same survivability in the end. You just dont get that t1 protection that the serpent has .