Chimeras have side armor 10, so Nightspinners can take them down, even with no AP. They're not so good against higher armor, true, but hey're not that bad either. Just make a balanced army that has anti-tank in other FOC slots (Wave Serpents with TL-Brightlances, for example). And IMHO eldar have always had trouble versus Horde, and this is a great addition against them.
If you really want Fire Prisms, go for a 2-1 or 1-2 split so you get the best of both worlds.
If your plan to beat good IG mech lists is "hit the side armor" you might as well not even waste your time playing. Any plan that counts on your opponent to be bad/dumb is doomed from the start.
And what I think you're missing is that the Fire Prism is already the best of both worlds. The Nightspinner is redundant and nicheless.
The new nightspinner is possibly the best anti-horde boost Eldar have had in the fifteen years I've been playing them. Sure you can use this to take down vehicles, but I think Fire Dragons in transports will do a better job of that. Nightspinners will mince horde armies, if you don't play horde armies hten obviously it won't be a good choice for you. I do, and this is a brilliant unit as far as I am concerned.
Ask not the EldarGal a question, for she will give you three answers, all of which are puns and terrifying to know. Back off man, I'm a feminist. Ia! Ia! Gloppal Snode!
You know that as a barrage weapon, the Spinner main weapon always hits side armour?
The IG player doesn't need to make "bad/dumb" moves, the barrage of razor-mesh is simply hitting side armour no matter where either unit is facing; and with a large blast and rending, you have a chance to hit and damage several targets.
Plus the more vehicles you touch, the more danagerous terrain tests you can force.
Please, read the rules before you sarcastically attack another poster; who posted a correct and legitimate point.
It is not the combat I resent, brother. It is the thirst for glory that gets men cut into ribbons.
Thanks for all the advice everyone!
my decision is........... I am going to buy one!!!
So a bunch of GW game desighners are sitting around the table deciding what to do with the death spinner and one of them goes.
"You know know how over powered foot sloggers and jump packs are these days, lets make a vechicle with a weapon that F*cks them over and slows them down."
The other GW guys go.
"Yea! sounds great, god knows mech armies need a leg up in 40k!"
I'll give you that point, but its still horrible. Str 6 isn't even all that impressive vs. av10. My point still stands, Eldar needed a way to take out Chimeras and Rhinos reliably, not kill troops. This isn't it.
You bring it to kill hordes. Thats the one use. Vs. a horde army its a 8/10 in effectiveness. Vs mech its a 3/10. Or you can take a Fireprism which is 7/10 vs hordes and 7/10 vs mech. It just isn't useful.
Or maybe I'm wrong and I'll see some of your uber Nightspinner lists dominating the remaining rounds of 'Ard Boyz.
OK, no theoryhammer for me, but tabletop experience.
Last Night I took a pair of Fireprisms supported by a Nightspinner with my standard mechanized Scorpions - foot Guardians army.
The opponent was Blood Angels who were harrassed during the early game by the Spinner constantly dropping its template on any group of vehicles (hitting multiple vehicles per template). The direct damage is negligable, so don't even count on it. The real power was the ease of getting even a millimeter of template on a vehicle to give it a "hit token".
After 2 Blood Angels vehicles were left high and dry sitting uselessly in their deployment zone, the Marine player made the Spinner a priority target and nailed it with a deepstriking melta squad.
Still a good performance, and one that broke holes in the Marine battleline that I was able to exploit to pull off a win. I will probably consider a single one Night Spinner a staple of any mech list for a while. It was worth noting that the squads of disabled transports were easy meat for the supporting Prisms once they were forced to huff it to have any impact on the battle.
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