Who is the alpha spider unit?

[Private Pyle]

Dread
Hunter
Vampire
Frost

I got a hero with beast trainer and you can recruit vampire hatchlings and dread hatchlings !

[PlutonArioch]

In my opinion, Vampire. Causes bleeding, and life steal (on the web too, once they evolve).

[Telos]

I prefer vampire myself, for the life-steal self sustain. If you keep one alive long enough, it evolves into a matriarch who auto-summons another hatchling each battle (very useful!) and is a pretty potent force herself, with a lot of self-sustain since her webs do AoE life-steal. I also prefer her T3 upkeep to the T4 imperium upkeep of the evolved versions of the bigger spiders.

The hunter and frost versions are notable for having webs from the beginning (at the cost of being Tier 2), and for evolving into Tier 4 monstrosities that may or may not be worth their high upkeep.

Spiders become a lot more useful if you have Tome of Beasts (to get wildspeakers to buff them and reduce their upkeep, and to modify your race to get increased damage from standing next to spiders, and also allowing some more spider recruitment from the province improvement) and Tome of Vigor (for a very useful animal enchantment, also gives the Supergrowth alternative to Spawnkin for your ordinary race members).

In all, it's a bit tricky to say whether spiders are worth it. Webs (on the T2+ spiders) can definitely be useful. But generally animals are a bit on the weak side for their tier, especially compared to units that enjoy your racial traits, so they often contribute less density to a stack than would available alternatives. But they do have lower upkeep (especially with wildspeakers) and can enjoy some animal-specific buffs, so definitely can be strong in the right context.

[Aunty Herbert]

Originally posted by Telos:

In all, it's a bit tricky to say whether spiders are worth it.

At the moment, they are definitely worth it. Constant crying and moaning about webs seems to have goaded Devs into nerfing them, though, ("fixing" they call it) so we'll have to evaluate HOW weak they get.

[Private Pyle]

Theres something about leveling up your animals like pokemon that i just love.

I really with there was wonder recruitment for each breed mostly i just see snake , ogre and ghost.

[Chthonic Guardian]

Originally posted by Aunty Herbert:

Originally posted by Telos:

In all, it's a bit tricky to say whether spiders are worth it.

At the moment, they are definitely worth it. Constant crying and moaning about webs seems to have goaded Devs into nerfing them, though, ("fixing" they call it) so we'll have to evaluate HOW weak they get.

Anything that might force the tanky players too have to pull a tank or 2 out of their stack t counter a enemy unit is BAD and must be nerfed!
Biggest babies ever.

[Neonivek]

In my opinion the Frost Matriarch is the best of the bunch... because its web attack freezes enemies.

[Telos]

If you want to really abuse webs, probably better to get spider mounts and spam out scouts or barbarian archers.

[Midas]

Frost. AoE freeze is some mad CC

[HozzMidnight]

I imagine they will just take the damage off the web ability.

[Aunty Herbert]

Can you even get Frost Spiders recruited? I don't want to start a new campaign with Tome of Beasts into Ice Magic, to find out I can't.

So, let't get this straight: When OP mentions they can recruit vampire spider hatchling, I assume, that's from a wildlife sanctuary underground. Does a wildlife sanctuary in an arctic province give frost spider hatchling?

And, while you are at it and have a game file to check, can you post the entire recruitment list for underground and arctic sanctuaries? I would be curious what other beasties can be spawned from there?

Are there any tricks to finagle sanctuaries into yet another rype of terrain? I mean, it's a special province improvement, so I should be able to pop it down on almost any province I own.

[DesertRose92]

Originally posted by Chthonic Guardian:

Anything that might force the tanky players too have to pull a tank or 2 out of their stack t counter a enemy unit is BAD and must be nerfed!

Currently the Web ability is bugged and deals like 2-3 times more damage than it should be.
That's quite game-breaking if you can get said ability on your cheapest unit.

[Private Pyle]

Originally posted by Aunty Herbert:

Can you even get Frost Spiders recruited? I don't want to start a new campaign with Tome of Beasts into Ice Magic, to find out I can't.

So, let't get this straight: When OP mentions they can recruit vampire spider hatchling, I assume, that's from a wildlife sanctuary underground. Does a wildlife sanctuary in an arctic province give frost spider hatchling?

And, while you are at it and have a game file to check, can you post the entire recruitment list for underground and arctic sanctuaries? I would be curious what other beasties can be spawned from there?

Are there any tricks to finagle sanctuaries into yet another rype of terrain? I mean, it's a special province improvement, so I should be able to pop it down on almost any province I own.

I got the vamp spider through a hero trait, beast tamer.

Wild life sanctuary gives you hunters.

Have been able to recruit frost but i know they exist.

[Aunty Herbert]

Originally posted by Private Pyle:

I got the vamp spider through a hero trait, beast tamer.

Wild life sanctuary gives you hunters.

Oooh, sad face smiley. I had hoped, that the sanctuary would change its recruitment options on different terrain, like the Summon Animal spells, but I haven't yet come to testing that faint hope.
When you said, you had a vampire spider to train, My mind jumped to that dream. sniff.

Have been able to recruit frost but i know they exist.

Yeah, they certainly exist, but they lack the big upside, that makes Hunter Spiders and Dread Spiders the bestest of all spiders: Those can actually be reliably recruited.

Frost Spider, you can probably get from Summon Animal on arctic terrain, if you cast it often enough or savescum hard.