They see me spinnin they be hatin: Night Spinner tactics.

Games Workshop saw fit to give Eldar players a new tank a few months ago. The Night Spinner was received with mixed feelings and much lamentation by forum trolls. I of course went out and bought one not to build another Fire Prism but specifically to Build a wave serpent. I now find myself scouring eBay for turrets. I really like this tank and in the 3 games I have used it in it has been very effective.

The consensus seems to be that this is a lackluster attempt at a new tank. I just say you are using it wrong. The Night Spinner is an excellent support tank. This is especially true for armies that are in a rush to get to your lines and assault you. Being strength 6 and having a large blast will wound just about anything pretty easily. Add in the Rending and you have a very nice weapon. Add in the fact anything touched by the template is treated as moving through difficult and dangerous terrain you can have some real fun.

Deployment is important. You want to keep the Spinner as far from the enemy as possible. This means moving around. Stay hidden. Since the Death Spinners are ordnance barrage weapons you can fire indirectly. Stay moving and hug terrain to make it difficult for deep striking units to land close. I guarantee they will try as soon as you start laying into enemy units.

To start off my fire I always target units that I know are going to advance. Close combat units, units with short range weapons and the like. This will make your opponent thinks twice about moving them and might even take a few out. Large units are a good target choice as the more dice you roll the better the possibility of a failed dangerous terrain test. Affected units also must take pinning tests at a -1 since its an ordnance barrage. This will keep units out of action and allow you to position your units for maximum effectiveness. Concentrating fire on units that have been affected by the Death Spinner will force leadership tests with enough casualties. This may force them to move and take dangerous terrain tests. If you are lucky and inflicted enough kills it may bring a unit below 50%.

Coordinated fire and fire discipline is key. Hit units first with the Death Spinners then regular fire. Force saves, pinning checks and leadership tests. You can slow down the momentum of an army, especially a close combat oriented one, by hitting key units. Despite the chance being slim you would be surprised how often players will not move units for fear of taking dangerous terrain tests. One thing to remember is not to fire on units you know are not going to move. If you can target multiple units do so. Your opponent will be forced to spread out and this hurts the using units and vehicles as cover strategy. Remember cover is determined from the center of the blast template so you can bypass cover easily. Vehicles and infantry are equally affected. I squared up against a plague marine heavy army this past week. He army was bunched up and ponderously advanced towards the bulk of my forces in the corner of the table. The Night Spinner was positioned behind some walls. Every turn I rained down monfiliment web on the advancing group. The template was hitting three or four units at a time. Every turn one or two plague marines died. It earned it points by slowing the advance and nickel and diming the enemy units to death. To my opponents credit though he still moved forward. Inexperienced players will freeze and not know what to do. Experienced players will wade through so you cannot rely on the Night Spinner to stop the enemy in its tracks. This is where coordinating your fire comes in.

SO I love this tank. I plan on using at least one in my Adepticon list. I have version 3 of the prototype list done for testing. I went from a tie with version one against Old School Terminator Tyranids to a 12-4 KP victory over a Plague Marine Army with version two. I look forward to testing version three this coming Wednesday.

I will be adding an author to the blog soon too. A very good friend of mine is starting into the hobby and wants to share some thoughts and ideas about 40k and Fantasy battle. So I guess its time for me to break out some high elves.

Until then..........

Blood Runs, Anger Rises, Death Wakes, War Calls!!!!!!!