The rise and fall of the Night Spinner

[Karhedron]

For a brief moment, the Night Spinner looked like the rising star of the Heavy support section. 2D6 shots with Blast that ignored LOS and wounded Marines on a 3+ while reducing their save to a 5+.

 

Now all non-LOS weapons have been nerfed such that their targets always count as being in cover if out of LOS. Furthermore, Armour of Contempt has given Marines and Sisters a big boost in terms of survivability. Taken together, this has halved the Spinner's killing power vs Marines. Now granted there are other armies out there but it seems to me that the Spinner has definitely lost some of its appeal.

 

Falcons with their ability to drop from Reserves and Fire Prisms with their stratagem to burn through Invulnerable saves now seem like better uses of our coveted Heavy slots. What are other peoples' take?

[Xenith]

Like, it's still a decent tank, maybe try direct fire with it? I think night spinners v shadow weavers has come down in favour of the night spinner now, one spinner was about the same as 3 weaver platforms, however I think the weavers lower movement so wont be as good in getting direct LOS shots. The higher number of shots might be better, though - great if you're facing down a 20 gaunt blob.  You'll still get ~9 hits, then 8 kills. 

 

As for the BS penalty, that's what guide is for.

[Halandaar]

Like, it's still a decent tank, maybe try direct fire with it? 

 

Well obviously you could, but I don't feel like we're short on ways to kill infantry up to and including Marines, so hovering a Night Spinner out into the open ignores the niche it seems to exist for; namely doing it's killing from a safe position. You're having to sacrifice either it's accuracy or it's durability, which on the face of it seems like a pretty reasonable trade-off, but it hasn't been costed with that trade-off in mind.

 

As for the BS penalty, that's what guide is for.

 

Night Spinners don't have <CORE>, so you can't cast it on them anyway.

[Xenith]

Both true. I guess a drop to 115 would be worth it! 

[Prot]

When I sold my last Eldar army I frankly got sick of using the spinners in every list. Granted the codex was dated but in my mind I honestly thought there’s no way these tanks go untouched in the new codex…. I didn’t think it would really happen this way but I never reinvested in the tanks. Instead I got three new Artillery units and really I’ve give back to the humble vibro cannon. 

[Xenith]

It's more that it doesn't even penetrate flakk armour in a ruin now - out of LOS and with a guard unit in area terrain/light cover, the guard get +2 to saves, cancelling out the -2AP

[MegaVolt87]

It's more that it doesn't even penetrate flakk armour in a ruin now - out of LOS and with a guard unit in area terrain/light cover, the guard get +2 to saves, cancelling out the -2AP

 

Look at it this way, you won't be oppressed with guard arty either. Its give and take. 

[9x19 Parabellum]

I mean it's still a good gun with 48" range...so it can be out of range even if it's not out of LOS. then you save your Star Engine for when a melta squad is getting close and you LOS him using battle focus. 

 

Also crystal targeting matrix for the Indirect fire problem.  I still wouldn't use it against Marines in cover, but any T3 body with 4+ armor native...it's still gonna kill some things.

[Tyriks]

 

It's more that it doesn't even penetrate flakk armour in a ruin now - out of LOS and with a guard unit in area terrain/light cover, the guard get +2 to saves, cancelling out the -2AP

 

 

Look at it this way, you won't be oppressed with guard arty either. Its give and take.

Guard ignores the new rule completely.

 

I think this is a classic case of GW overreacting. I think reducing BS should have been done first on its own, and if certain guns are still too good give them the penalty to AP. But doing both at once (almost) universally is a huge swing, in my opinion.