Sunday, May 11, 2014

Eldar Weaponry: Monofilament Webbing


One of the cool, seemingly low-tech yet gracefully deadly weapons at the Eldar's disposal is the mono-molecular, razor-sharp filaments cast by warp spiders and heavy weapon batteries.  The 6th edition version is certainly effective (no complaints about that), but to me, it's not very fluffy.  Meaning, the stats of the weapons don't really match the description.  And while no one actually asked for my version or opinion, I'm going to give it anyway.

The weapon is described as a cloud of near-invisible line that is cast into the air to float down on top of enemies, and the raw power of gravity bringing this oh-so-light fishing line of death to the ground is what delivers such a high strength attack.  Really?  That graceful cloud of string falls that fast and furious?  Doesn't make sense.


So this is my version.  It may not always be as deadly (or maybe more so?), but it certainly makes more sense:

Monofilament: The enemy becomes entangled in line cast at them by Warp Spider death spinners, or find themselves trapped by drifting clouds of razor-filaments thrown over the battlefield by shadow weaver artillery and night spinner-mounted doomweaver weapons.
   * Non-Vehicle Targets: Because it is the target's own strength that causes the monomolecular line to slice through them as they struggle, the weapons Strength is always the target's own Strength +1.  (Most often, this will wound on a 3+.)  The attack is AP- (nil) unless the to-wound roll is a 6, in which case it becomes AP1.  In addition, being so entangled, the next time the unit moves all models suffer from both Difficult and Dangerous Terrain as they struggle to free themselves from the deadly web.
   * Vehicle Targets: Often times vehicles (including walkers) will ignore the entangling line, snapping it with the great strength of their mechanisms.  The razor-thin filament does occasionally find weak spots, however, slicing hoses and cutting into vulnerable areas.  For each hit against a vehicle, roll a D6.  If the result is 1-3, nothing happens and the filament is broken harmlessly.  On 4-5 treat as a "crew shaken" result.  On 6, treat as "crew stunned" with a hull point of damage.  (Note that special abilities that might normally allow vehicles to roll against or ignore crew shaken/stunned results, like possession, do not apply, as this is not affecting a crew but simply has similar effects by entangling the vehicle.)

(my spiders -- have to paint them someday...)

And for the life of me I can't imagine what a "spinneret rifle" would be.  How do you focus and fire monofilament so that it hits harder???  While I love to give my Spider Exarch a guaranteed AP1 weapon, fluffily-speaking, I think I'd have to remove this as a choice from the codex.

But since GW didn't ask me, I guess I'll just keep using them as-is. :)

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