N18 Spyrer Observations

[Banjulhu]

So I'm now three games into our local campaign and getting a feel for what the Spyrers can do.

Out of the gate they feel strong but not in a busted way, at least to my mind.

They have a very scary threat range and thanks to the two activations per round they will not be hitting their targets head on. On the flip side they are T3 with a 5+ save for the most part and so they will fall over to weight of firepower from standard weapons just like any normal ganger in mesh will.

Orrus and Yelds can pick their firing lanes and defensible ground early and hold them well whilst and Naga Blade wielding Hunt Masters and Malcadons once they get the charge off should be able to put out enough Injury dice to OoA their target without needing a coup de grace meaning they will likely be consolidating back to cover after a charge and hiding. What Spyrers are certainly not reagrdless of their fluff are lone killers. This gang requires overlapping threats and coordinated attacks to shine

What I have enjoyed most is that because of their threat ranges the usual tactic of getting champions or gang leader to alpha-strike early does not work well against them and instead it becomes about careful activation planning and baiting with disposable models.

Assuming relatively balanced player skill this means that the gangs they can really screw over most at the start of a campaign are the tooled up leader and champs with minimum ganger/juves lists from the top tier house gangs prefer (Van Saar and Goliath I'm looking at you) and the ones they will really struggled to handle are the normally weaker gangs that pack in more bodies with normal guns (Chaos, Orlock and Scum etc).

All in all they are probably at the bottom end of the the games strongest gangs but in a good way.

 

[Scabs]

For those of us that faced Spyrers back in the day (1995-2001), we still hates them! So OP! And, by "We" I mean ME, and my imaginary coterie of other Spyrer survivors. Hard to adjust to the new paradigm. So, the notion that modern Spyrers are not all-powerful is difficult to adopt.

So, sure, your post is thoughtful, well-written, and compelling. BUT, our one Spyrer player in our first Underhells campaign (4 games so far) is also dealing with fielding 3, and sometime only 2 fighters, depending on the breaks. So, kinda streaky. And, their upgrades are not overwhelming. Instead, tastefully applied. The GW Necro designers struggle a bit with balance and restraint. I think they might have finely designed Spyrers here. Maybe.

Again, nice post!

 

[Fishjam]

So I have played one game as cawdor vs spyrers, and i had no issues in fighting them. Apparently mass autopistols does really well.

 

[Aulenback]

Original (1997) Spyrers were glass cannons - both individually on the table (high damage output, but massed fire can put them down one by one), and also as a gang (lose a fighter and it's not easily recoverable). The new seem very similar in that regard, even over the very short campaign lengths of the new editions.

 

[Banjulhu]

Things are hotting up in the Hive. This week I got to be the "underdog" against a intentionally well balanced anti-cheese Van Saar list (I was technically 600 credits in the black because the boarder dispute tactic cards rule is stupid but we chose to ignore it).

As suspected I could body basically anything that did not have a 4+ or better save but decided that rolling 1s was a good idea against a leader with an energy shield and an ogryn, which was balanced out by the Van Saars deciding to fail ammo checks and roll 1s to wound with all their good guns.

The general conclusion mid campaign is that the Spyrers feel oppressive in turn one and two but once the wounds start getting through and 1 model goes out of action the threat falls off big time making the opening moves a bit of a race.

Our next bit of testing will involve an Ash Waste scenario which I suspect ends badly for the Spyrers given their lack of vehicles and weapons with the capacity to hurt vehicles.

 

['Nickname' O'Shea]

Sounds a lot like playing Custodes in 40k...I played a game on Sunday where I had a 14 model army, and while I was at full strength I was churning through genestealers like nobody's business - however as soon as I started losing guys I was in deep trouble as my damage output dropped dramatically.
That's the thing with turbo-elite factions, you really feel each loss heavily as you don't have any 'sacrificial' units you can afford to lose.

 

[Banjulhu]

Spyrers also very notably have no turn one unpack/grace period for your opponent to setup themselves up in. They feel intended to have very reliable turn one OoA capacity in a world where even the dreaded triple plasma Van Saar no fun builds often have to use up turn one preparing their alpha strike.

I'm now stuck trying to pick between a 2nd Malcadon or Yeld as my free 300 addition.

My head tells me take the Malcadon with paired whips because those things rack up OoA like nobody's business, but the ten year old in me is demanding the Yeld because knock backs are hilarious.

 

[Aulenback]

Flying knockback is especially hilarious. But yeah. Spider Man or the Green Goblin was always a tough choice in N'95 too.

 

[Banjulhu]

I always went for multiple malcadons back in the day, their stupid climbing rules allowing them to charge up walls has always stuck with me because my local GW store cracked open 5 2000 rerelease core sets to make a very multi-level hive board.

I'm also trying not to be ultra efficient in my gang build these days because as may evident in my previous posts I'm of the opinion that Necromunda is best played as a beer and pretzels game rather than the usual sweaty affair a lot of GW games become (actually I'm of the opinion that all GW games are better as beer and pretzel games but that is a hard sell in many places).

 

['Nickname' O'Shea]

I was always a big fan of the old Spyrers and yes particularly the Malcodon just because they were cool and sinister wall-climbing, web-spinning, predator claw-wielding monsters.
I was really looking forward to the re-release and would have bought a full set despite not playing Newmunda, but sadly the new sculpts left me cold.