Lifting the (monofilament) shroud on the Night Spinner
The Night Spinner has (up until recently) been an overlooked and underused Craftworld unit… and with some good reason. In prior editions of the game the tank was fantastic, boasting an optional flamer style alternate fire mode alongside its barrage attack and was also reasonably priced. Fast forward to 8th edition and the new Craftworld codex and not only has this alternate fire mode vanished but the points on the tank at codex release were within a stones throw of the fire prism and falcon and even comparable to the amazing Wave Serpent. That saw this somewhat interesting tool to languish on the shelves.
Fast forward to Chapter Approved 2018’s release. The points on the Night Spiner are now a nice cheap 112 points for the minimum basic build – some 30+ points cheaper than most of the other grav tanks on offer and while still not having that amazing fire mode option from years gone by, its now cheap enough and has a unique enough weapon profile to make Aeldari players consider them again… lets take a closer look…
Before we delve to deep, its important to recognise the other options for grav tanks in the Craftworld list. Between the Night Spinner plus Falcons, Fire Prisms, Wave Serpents and the Warp Hunter all boast similar profiles and cross over in battlefield rolls with at least 1 other tank in the group. We have talked about the Falcon in depth in a prior article HERE in terms of damage and output to a couple of the others but at the time, the Night Spinner wasn’t even worth a mention!
The first thing the Night Spinner shares with the basic Grav Tank range is the chassis profile. Move of 16”, T7, W12 and a 3+ save is standard (the serpent gets 1 extra wound on this basic profile) so the Night Spinner is just as tough as any other choice (save when compared to the aforementioned serpent). The underslung twin shuriken catapult, with option for a single shuriken cannon as an upgrade are also standard for all the tanks in this range. Like the other tanks, it’s the weapon payload that makes this tank unique.
The main weapon of the Night Spinner is the Doom Weaver, an upgraded version of the Shadow Weaver support weapon platform. The Doom Weaver is 2d6 shots with S7, Ap0, 2 damage with 48” range and the monofilament rule (meaning 6’s to wound are Ap-4). More than a fairly decent profile it boasts a rule that “This weapon can target units that are not visible to the bearer”.
This takes a decent profile and makes it a fantastically useful tool in the Craftworlds range. Indirect fire as its colloquially known is amazingly useful in a world of line of sight blocking terrain and ‘magic box’ style buildings. The 3 primary Aeldari factions boast very few options that have this rule and of the most common 3 (the Night Spinner, Shadow Weaver and Dark Reaper Exarch) – only the reapers saw regular use. As 8th as gone on, terrain has gotten denser and more blocking so these options now take on more importance. All 3 of these options are also heavy support choices so compete for the same slots in a detachment.
Let’s do the direct comparison with the 3 options.
A Night Spinner is 112 points with a doom weaver and twin shuriken catapults. A unit of 3 Support Weapons with 3 Shadow Weavers and 3 shuriken catapults is 111 points. A unit of 3 Dark Reapers including the Exarch with 2 Reaper Launchers and a Tempest Launcher is 107 points.
Durability
Here the Night Spinner is the clear winner. With the highest toughness and only 3 less wounds than the support weapons combined but still having a better save, its hard to look past for durability. There is an argument for the support weapons as they become 3 separate units upon deployment (so you have to target and kill each separately) and the Dark Reapers despite having just 4 wounds at T3 are much easier to hide but when its common to see mortars and similar small arms style artillery the Night Spinner is going to take the most punishment before it goes down. The other part of the Night Spinners durability often comes from target saturation. When there are 5+ grav tanks on the table the Spinner will often be overlooked by opponents!
Mobility
Again the Night Spinner is the number 1 choice. Its fast – more than twice what the other 2 units are capable of. The Dark Reapers don’t suffer the move and shoot penalties, which is a powerful ability, but all 3 options shouldn’t need to move to much if used for indirect fire purposes.
Damage Output.
Assuming all 3 units are deployed to make use of the indirect fire options (and thus the other weapons are going to be useless) we can actually compare them pretty well. 2 of the 3 are 48” range – though the Tempest is only 36” – with no minimum range (another bonus for these sorts of indirect weapons) and all 3 are base BS3+ to hit. We used Mathhammer 8th to check these numbers.
The Tempest Launcher Exarch boasts 2d6 shots at S4, Ap-2 and damage 1 with reroll 1’s to hit built in. The Shadow Weavers total 3d6 shots at S6, Ap0 and damage 1 and the Night Spinner is 2d6 shots, S7, Ap0 and damage 2 as we have already covered.
VS a light infantry (T3, 5+, 1W) – All 3 options kill between 3 and 4 models – its decimal points of difference.
VS a medium infantry (T4, 3+, 1W) – Again, all 3 options kill around 2 models. When you add an extra wound to the defensive profile (ala a primaris marine) then the kill count halves for the Exarch and Support weapons while the Night Spinner keeps his 2 kills.
VS a typical vehicle (T7, 3+, 10W) – The Night Spinner starts to pull away in this area thanks to the 2 damage – boasting more than double the average damage of the other 2 options.
Vs a Knight (T8, 3+/5++, 24W) – We are back to an average of 1-2 failed saves at best which leaves the spinner up in terms of overall damage, again thanks to the 2 damage in its profile.
For the points, it’s hard to go past the Night Spinner when you are looking for indirect fire! It does equal to or greater than damage of the other 2 options for the same price, is more durable and more mobile if needed.
Suggested Stand Alone Build
Spearhead Detachment – 403 Points
Warlock Skyrunner with Witch Blade, and Protect/Jinx
3x Night Spinners with Twin Shuriken Catapults and Doom Weavers
Option – Autarch on foot with Star glaive, force shield and plasma grenades (+77 points if added to the detachment or +10 points if swapped for the Warlock)
Whats it do?
The Night Spinners are obviously there to rain indirect shots on targets. The choice of the HQ is a complex one. Each has viability. The Warlock brings a hyper mobile platform to cast jinx from which supplements the damage profile of the night spinners, especially when focus firing them on a single target. The autarch gives you the potential for a nice safe warlord who can deal with small units that might come looking for the tanks all the while giving them reroll 1’s to hit which ramps up their damage output as well. The Autarch can also have more points spent on him in the form of a Skyrunner Jet Bike or even older index options (event/opponents permitting). I like the cheap option because he is there to make the Tanks work more efficiently and he does so at a reasonable cost.
Craftworld wise it’s easy to pick Alaitoc for them to make them even more durable or Ulthwe for similar reasons. Siam-Hann does nothing for them and Biel-Tan is in the same boat (save for the warlord trait). Iyanden can help them as they degrade but not degrading via the first 2 choices is probably better. Its also worth mentioning Ynnari – this detachment gains nothing by going down the Ynnari path but as a plug in for the aforementioned Ynnari while staying craftworld its got plenty of value, helping to trigger soulburst in the early parts of the game.
What about the other gunship tanks?
Yes, when compared to the Falcon, Fire Prism and even the Wave Serpent with some weapons, the Night Spinner just doesn’t match the damage. What sets it apart is the low points and indirect fire. You can get 3 night spinners for almost the same cost as 2 of the other tanks available. That skews the damage point for point to more of an even keel in some cases. The trick is the ability to engage units that the other 3 can’t. When you have units out of line of sight, screening for characters in the open or need to take out hidden artillery choices or need to clear blobs of enemy – take another look at the Night Spinner… you might be surprised at the results