Well, I have begun the arduos journey of collecting my first Necron army, my question posed to other players is how useful are Tomb Spyders? They seem to be overbalanced, in that for every good thing they can do/have, there are some serious side effects.

Creating Scarabs for instance seems cool, but every roll poses a one in 6 chance of failure, and after one wound is inflicted, it lowers confidence in the models intial cost.

Then there is the rather annoying BS-2 (what the hell?!?!), apparently GW boyz thought that large machines are far worse at being able to target enemy, interesting design flaw methinks. This wouldnt normally be an issue, untill you size up the score against all the other units in your army that can fire (4 across the board) and the fact that it comes with the best Assualt weapon avalilble to the Necrons. S5 ap3 X3 is quite a nifty weapon.

And finally it's CC ability's. S6 T6 3A 2W would normally have people heading for the hills against this being, till they read the rest, WS2 I2.

The only two things I feel this creature has going for it is that it's point cost is so-so and that ut has a 3+sv.

This thread is designed to prove me wrong, as I would love to hear some reasons why Tomb Spyders are a good army option.

how many other 55pt models do you know that can (with plenty of luck) tear through 2, 10 man tactical sqauds and still survive the battle (ok alot of luck).

The ability to create scarabs is handy although the postioning of scarabs is a slightly tricky affair but as a rule of thumb at range place scarabs at the front when at range, so they can soak up heavy weapons fire but when closing in drop them back behind so that the rapid fire shots have to be put against the tomb spider, of course using terrain effectivly also saves you from this problem, and remember if you roll a 1 when creating scarabs you still get a save, and the scarab is created on a roll of a 1 any way, yes i agree with the bs2 being low but what do you expect, the only time i would take this is if i had 6 of them, and jsut formed a devastating CC launching wall of AP3 shots before charging in with somehting more dangerous along with the spiders and any attached scarabs

Thank you for your reply Meaphet, I shall take that into consideration, but what I will ask you is how often do you field them? Again, simply curious, not trying to start a flame war :)

you seem a little to anxious about flamming when your posts are fine KB, don't worry I don't think a simple enquiry is going to start a flame war. ;)

As a newish Necron player I took a Tomb spider early. I find their helpful in smaller games because not muc can really handle their T6, and so they can usually last a while unless there is a Power Fist about. They can be helpful for holding up none CC squads for a couple of turns if their accompanied by scarabs.

I agree that the BS2 is rediculous, as I have never actually hit anything with the Particle Projector. <_< ...your better off with the two claws.

All that said, Flayed Ones are probably a better option than a tomb spider for rushing into CC anyday. Tomb Spiders are more just hang back units that aid the Warriors WBB and sacrifice themselves so your warriors don't end up in CC.
Then again, their points cost is pretty good, for something that could hold up and potentially destroy other units almost 3 times its points cost.

Meaphet is probably the better one to answer this question as a more experienced player, but thats just my two cents.

Cheers, Cal

spot on Cal, your even less likely to because i dont mind assisting the masses with their questions

in responce to your question, quite often, i actually feilded 5 in a 1000pt game before after people telling me to try playing without a res orb, so i did and they said it was cheesy, because i created mass scarabs and just tied them all down in combat. plus he had a few tanks so they were torn apart, when i reached them.

i have never feilded them with a particle projector, although it may be handy if you had 5 because with 15 shots your bound to hit something.

as Cal said they can make good sit back units but i prefer the more agressvie style of play which is why i always asdvance them trying to hold up anything for a turn or 2