Sell me on Sniperborn

After some differing uses of Trueborn with Blasters I am considering using a unit of 3 with 2 Dark Lances. I'm interested in peoples opinion and experiences of them, as well as how they compare to/work alongside the classic Blasterborn.

I noticed on Faeit the other day that he takes sniperborn, 3-man with 2 DL's for 86 pts, but I have to say it's not an option that really appealed to me, too many other fun options in the elite slots.

86 points for 2DL and 3 very squishy guys ...
A ravager costs 105 and can fire 3 DL after moving up to 12" with aerial assault right ?

They don't stand a chance against a ravager, really.
You can put them in a transport, but then you can't move it => no jink save and it costs the price of the transport in addition.

Don't feel like playing it personally.

I have used these quite a bit recently in lists where I go completely for shooting. For trueborn in general I run 3 with 2 lances plus a raider, or 3 with 3 blasters and a raider. Essentially the same point cost. With the lance squad I deploy them out of the raider in the best cover that I can find, hopefully giving them a 4+ save. They sit in place all game and fire. I haven't run into a problem with them ending up out of or range or with no targets. Their raider floats around and shoots. I will usually use this raider to screen the other boats as it is empty and not as much of an issue if it blows up.

The lance squad is vulnerable to assault by fast units and deep striking units that land near them usually mean they die, as they really can't redeploy. They don't have to get as close as the blasterborn and need not worry about an exploding transport killing them all. Interestingly, some opponents have completely ignored the three man lance squad while almost everyone who knows about blasterborn has specifically targeted them until they are gone.

The longer range is to their advantage and means they can camp out in cover and fire away and not have to worry about having their transport blown out of the sky and being stranded inside enemy lines and possibly without cover.
Also ends up being cheaper than the blasterborn as they require a transport.
Lances are the safer route I think, but not necessarily better.

Then again for 20 more points you can have a ravager with an extra lance and better mobility.

Trueborn with Lances worked fine in 5th, but I'm not sure yet about 6th. I usually used 5-man groups to simply have enough wounds to live more than a turn. That dude Natfka plays in my area (we have the same circle of friends, generally) but I've literally never seen him play his DE; always GK or IG, so take whatever he says with a grain of salt. I can tell you from playing 300+ games of DE that 3-man squads with lances die PDQ, so either invest in some bullet catchers or stay the blasterborn route and use mobililty to survive.

It's a trade-off, really: sustained fire for a couple turns from lances or 1, maybe 2 turns of zappage from blasterborn (assuming they are gunned down AFTER they fire instead of before). The ability to strike targets early with lances is what made them useful, but they are very counter to how DE are "supposed" to play, IMO.

Lanceborn arent made to replace Ravagers, but more as a suppliment. Their job is to be low key threats in for the long hull, while Blasterborn are there for a quick, high impact AT option.

Lanceborn's strength is being 3 models. Most people ignore them thinking "oh, I can take care of them later" and will only shoot them when they have access AI lying around somewhere. This normally doesnt happen till like T3 or later. So that means you have 3 turns of shooting out of them. While Blasterborn are normally the enemies first target to slow down your amount of fast AT.

I would say give them a try Sky, and see how they fair you

Be careful about giving away first blood with them though.

I've been enjoying these squads they bring a nice, cheap dose of extra anti tank when my HS is already full ( I run 4 HS) the range is nice in an all shooting list.

I run them occasionally, it’s part of the “As many Dark Lances as humanly possible” stratagem. Mix it up with full Ravager slots and DL Raiders, and you put out a staggering amount of lance shots.