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So i've always loved Whirlwinds - say what you will, I just love Pie templates.
One of the biggest drawbacks, though, is the fact is that they took up an entire heavy slot for one easily destroyed vehicle.

Now that unbound armies are here, how would you guys feel about fielding 3 of these bad-boys to rain hot pie goodness down upon your foes in a super-cool battery formation?

Could Whirlwinds finally see some regular gaming time?

In all honesty, I think they could before. While outclassed by the TFC they were still very good at what they do for the points. Especially in low point games, they are very effective. 3 in a battery could really bring some hurt.

No. If you're going unbound, you might as well just take Wyverns instead.

You could always field the Siege Assault Vanguard army - whirlwinds come in batteries in that army (as do predators).

 Paradigm wrote:
In all honesty, I think they could before. While outclassed by the TFC they were still very good at what they do for the points. Especially in low point games, they are very effective. 3 in a battery could really bring some hurt.

This is pretty much spot on.

The fact that they sit aside the TFC in the codex is the critical issue. For a few more points, you get a tougher, more versatile that bring some extra tricks besides the pie. Now with the point reduction they got in the last codex, and the vehicle survivability changes in 7th, the humble WW did get some nice boosts. The general loosening of the FOC is another big plus, as the HS slot does have a lot going on.

As Para said, they get much better at low points. As a unit, there is nothing wrong with them, and they are cheep as chips. It’s the opportunity cost of not taking something else.

The battery of 3 often comes up as a fix. It’s one I’ve thought was a good plan in the past myself. But for some reason, as my undercaffinated brain is working though it’s first cup of coffee, today I’m seeing problems with it. I’ve some experience with the multiple barrage rules from using my TFC. While a little cumbersome, they do work OK. Now when you have to do that with large blasts, it seems that the secondary hits have a very high chance of being off target. At least the 2/3 of the time you don’t roll a “hit" on the following shots. Those times are great, you would get a lot of wiggle room to place the pie just so. But unless you are shooting at a carpet of bugs, boyz, or blobs, it seems that the second scatter would be off target the rest of the time. Even if you were on target with the first shot, rolling a scatter on the second would be a 5” miss, with no rollback. Whenever you squadron up vehicles, there are going to be trade offs. How bad is this one?

To clarify, I was talking about 3 as separate units, as Unbound or in a second CAD. Multiple barrage wouldn't be an issue unless they were a squadron in the SAV list.

As a side note, I often include on in sub-1000 point lists as there tends to be less dedicated AT in the 500-1000 range. Upwards of that, you do need armour saturation and los blocking terrain to Gert the most from them.

locarno24 wrote:
You could always field the Siege Assault Vanguard army - whirlwinds come in batteries in that army (as do predators).

The problem with seige assault vanguard whirlwinds are that the 2nd and 3rd in a squadron are 20pts more expensive than a normal whirlwind.

I've always used a whirlwind in low points games using my dark angels, I have it lob shots at my opponents troops as the walk across the battlefield. Even at higher points, I'll have bigger and scarier things for people to worry about and they tend to ignore it until it becomes a problem.

Why stop at 3? 5-6 WWs is dirt cheap for how much you get out of them, and adds a ton of chassis to a mech list.

Really I think Unbound saved mech marines. Stacking up on preds, WWs, and razors would be fun!

 Nevelon wrote:
It’s the opportunity cost of not taking something else.

Only economic theory can fix the TFC.

Another option is that you can take multiple CADs, if your running 2 HQ and 4 troops you can take up to 6 Heavy Slots. It may seem a bit of a sink to open up the second CAD but if your running 3 troops in a single cad it's not a giant leap...

Perhaps not the best option, but an option non the less.

D

 evildrcheese wrote:
Another option is that you can take multiple CADs, if your running 2 HQ and 4 troops you can take up to 6 Heavy Slots. It may seem a bit of a sink to open up the second CAD but if your running 3 troops in a single cad it's not a giant leap...

Perhaps not the best option, but an option non the less.

D

Given that it's fairly easy between Tac and Scout squads to fill up 4 troops slots, this is a good option when you consider it doubles your WW/Vindi/Pred/Dread allowance. Similarly, at 65 points an extra Librarian brings a lot of utility.

Thanks for the replies, guys. It's good to see that other people see some worth in the little tanks that could.

Some clarifications in to my mindset:

I was thinking of purely fluffy armies. I love the idea of unbound, but only in terms of if it enables players to field something that makes sense lore-wise. For example, as a Dark Angels player I've always loved Whirlwinds because I have always imagined barrage after barrage of rockets falling upon the enemy before suddely going silent before deathwing teleport, or Ravenwing advance, or pods drop en masse.
For this reason things like Vangards and Allies are useless. Meaning the Whirlwinds would indeed be fielded as seperate units.

With the way unbound currently sits, it actually means you can still include whirlwinds and still have your predators, or a landraider, or a devastator squad, of even you TFC - especially as a WW is just so damn cheap to field.

To me it just screams all sorts of fun.