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Is the Eldar Start Collecting box worth the deal with the Prism in there? I know windriders and farseer bikes are fantastic but what about the Prism?

The fire prism is not a bad tank thanks to fact that it has three firing options. It really needs guide to be a reliable anti-tank option though. However you can also build the Night spinner with it which is a pretty good anti-hoard and light armor option and less reliant on guide.

The Night Spinner seems pretty legit actually. Didn't realize they were the same kit.

You're essentially getting the Farseer for free. Prisms can be good, but they suffer from not being as amazing as other items in the codex. If you take a few (non squad) and back line them, they could output some hefty damage or act as decoys to protect other units. You can always pay a little more for them to get ghostwalk matrix or spirit stones, which can help them survive or maintain usefulness.

mokoshkana wrote:
Prisms can be good, but they suffer from not being as amazing as other items in the codex.

This sums up about 3/4 of the Eldar book. There are very few “bad” units. It’s just the solid mid-line stuff is in the same book as the crazy over-the-top power units.

Would you take the prism to a tournament? Probably not. Would you include it in a list you might actually get someone to play against voluntarily? Sure.

I only play casually so it would definitely see play.

I field a prism on casual lists. It is more than fine and sometimes it has done some pretty serious damage. Although it depends on guide to be reliable it isn't a bad choice. The nightspinner is a completely different thing and you will find that it will draw your opponents attention if he fields a hoard army really fast.

The problem with the prism is while it has three firing modes, the strongest is only a single shot weapon, the small blast is easily avoided by spreading out, and the large blast is overshadowed by a nightspinner.

It can do some damage and is a solid battle tank for sure, but it falls to the single shot syndrome we're seeing a lot now.

Both tanks are also SUPREMELY outclassed by warp hunters, sadly.

The prism is a generalist unit. If you want dedicated anti-horde, take the nightspinner. Dedicated AV you are probably better off with a brightlance falcon. But if you just want to toss a grav tank into a TAC, the prism can always do something on the table.

(Restraining my comparisons to just stuff in the core craftworld codex. Not as familiar with the FW offerings, but I know some of them are quite strong)

 Nevelon wrote:
The prism is a generalist unit. If you want dedicated anti-horde, take the nightspinner. Dedicated AV you are probably better off with a brightlance falcon. But if you just want to toss a grav tank into a TAC, the prism can always do something on the table.

(Restraining my comparisons to just stuff in the core craftworld codex. Not as familiar with the FW offerings, but I know some of them are quite strong)

If I recall correctly:
Warp Hunter: absolute beast, probably the best eldar tank on the falcon chasis
Firestorm: model is hard to get a hold of since FW is no longer producing it, but is a good AA tank
The rest are superheavies, vyper-equivalent, or flyers

My issue with the prism is that the squadron special rules are just bad for them. Falcon's squadron rules are gimmicky but can be worth if in a fun game and as other people have said the Nightspinner is really good, and the squadron rules for it are just icing on the cake.

Well thing is that you rarely want to field a falcon squadron unless you specifically intend to deep strike them with something nasty inside. Even then the amount of firepower is too much for a single target selected by the squadron.

On the other hand the fireprism squadron will create a dragon ball size kamehame mega shot but the amount of firepower isn't enough and you need guide to be sure. The fire prism is a nice tank to field outside of competitive environment.

Handiky, the box set comes with its own formation. 1x Farseer, 1x Fire Prism and 1x Jetbikes unit. It grants the FP twin linked for free, making it useful as a slap-on addition to an eldar army.

There is a formation inside that box? This thing is getting out of hand with formations flying all over the place!

 Capamaru wrote:
There is a formation inside that box? This thing is getting out of hand with formations flying all over the place!

Not that I disagree with your point, but all the start collecting boxes come with a formation for their contents. Makes a good way for a new player to put a “legal” list down on the table right away, or someone to tack it on to their existing army, be it an expansion or allied force.