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Well for starts my ex-freind (as of last game) played a game with me with his tau, he brought alot deep strikers, 2 devilfishes, 2 hammerheads, 2 pirahnas al having drones.

His other drones were shield drones for his broad sides, and sheild drones for his shas'o's.

During the game he dropped off all his vehicle drones (apparently the ones on the devil fishes count as troops) and he zoomed them towards my objective and his ovjective (we each had one)

The problem is, when the game was near its end (turn 5) his surviving drones from the devil fishes, one was on my objective and the others were near his,

I was planning to lash the ones off his objective to charge/consolidate onto it, spell failed miserably. so i ran another group of chosen to contest it instead.


now the problem is.. his drones weren't on bases (he said they were too fiddly) and his ONE SINGLE drone that was sitting on my objective was going to be blasted off by four krak missiles from my havocs.

He told me to check line of sight I looked and i could barely see the tip of the dron (WITHOUT IT'S BASE) he declares i can't see it, so he wins YET AGAIN.

then i realise drones HAVE TO HAVE THEIR FLOATING BASE! (the things don't have legs OR LANDING GEAR) so i told him put it's base on.

He refused and said "it's landed, TFB". I was angered by this and said "Where in the book does it say your drones can magically take off their base and avoid being seen?"

again "TFB It's landed"

I am further miffed "What? You have to cheat cus you don't want to lose?"

He retorts "I've been playing for 7 years longer then you, TOO fething BAD. THEY ARE LANDED"

I begin yelling "Drones CAN'T land! This is just like you! ALWAYS PLAYING TO WIN! can't you ever play fair for once?"

I speak again "Since drones are FLOATING i can see him, you get a cover save since your in ruins. Im firing my krak missiles now"

his tone drops "No you aren't, you can't see it"

The argument gets heated, I offered a roll off to end it and he retorts "Your such a sore loser, get the hell out, just stop playing warhammer"

By then i was insulted, angry, AND PISSED "Me!? a sore loser!? EVERY GAME WE PLAY YOU ALWAYS PULL THIS gak, ALL BECAUSE YOU LOVE TO STROKE YOUR EGO WITH WINS"

He got pissed "If you don't get out in 2 secs im calling the cops"

by then i was picking up my models "You want to win? fine you win, consider this the end. also the gaming club doesn't accept cheaters" (theres a local club every sunday, he barely goes but he wants to play there)

again "Just get the feth out, I don't need your fething club and you bad mouthing me all the fething time behind my back (I told the club members he likes to *play to win* which hes doing right now"

I left, fustrated and tired.

now on topic... DRONES

question 1: Do drones of any kind HAVE to be mounted on their floating base for purposes of LoS rules? or can they some how *Land* on non existant legs to avoid being shot at?

question 2: are drones from certain vehicles (such as devil fishes) count as the type the vehicle was? (troop, fast attack, heavy) for purposes of capturing objectives.

question 3: am I a sore loser because he cheated?

1) Models must be glued to the based they came with. Page 3 BRB

2) Yes. However, the Tau codex says Drones dropped from vehicles cannot take objectives.

3) You did overreact.

1: Yes, drones have to be on their bases, they cannot land (tau vehicles can) but the drones cannot

2: Drones from devil fish bought specifically for Firewarriors are in fact units of edit: I was wrong... see above

3: You are not a sore loser, be he definitely is. You both overreacted. You don't have to play him, and I see you are not anymore. Let the group know he cheated so they can make the call. If you happen to play him in a tournament, have a TO on standby.

Hopefully he calms down and will apologize so you don't lose a gaming partner, but time will tell.

Edit: Gwar with the ninja move...

Which then begs the question - does the Devilfish set come with separate flying bases for the drones? If not, then the drones don't need bases, right? I mean, the guy is still being a dick, but, RAW, if they don't come with bases, they don't need bases.

And yes, Gwar, you're right, Tau Codex states that they never count as a 'Scoring Unit', pg30. So they can never hold objectives anyway.

This is a forum for asking rules questions. All the added drama was uneccessary.

bucketwalrus wrote:question 1: Do drones of any kind HAVE to be mounted on their floating base for purposes of LoS rules? or can they some how *Land* on non existant legs to avoid being shot at?

All models are supposed to be mounted on the base with which they are supplied. There is no option to remove the base during the game.

question 2: are drones from certain vehicles (such as devil fishes) count as the type the vehicle was? (troop, fast attack, heavy) for purposes of capturing objectives.

Don't recall off the top of my head if disembarked drones have any special rules regarding what they count as, and the codex is at home...
Edit - but that's one's been well and truly answered anyway

question 3: am I a sore loser because he cheated?

No. And Yes.

Cheating isn't excusable in any situation. However, the time to question his use of drones without bases was when he put them on the table. If you have accepted him using them to begin with, then it's not cheating for them to still not be on bases later on when it suddenly matters to you.

Yes, they do come with bases.

1. Gwar is right ( I never base my vehicle drones, but I always bring extra based drones for when they hop off the Vehicle and throw the unbased drones in the box)
2. Gwar is right ( I'm not an ass kiss, he just types faster)
3. We really can't say here. It sounds like a problem that has been going on longer than 1-2 games. If someone can't show me something official (as in from GW, not INAT or anyone that is not called Games Workshop) saying "My X can do Y" when is sounds like BS, then I just don't play against them anymore.

Edit: Alot of people, Including Gwar type faster than me.

While I let others more learned in the ways of the Tau Codex point out the many ways he was wrong, I can sympathize with you with your "friend"

The guy who got me into the hobby was a friend of a friend, and we would often go to his place and play some playstation and N64 (this should tell yo how long ago this was) when I was intrigued by a stereo cabinet full of models, some of which I recognized that were Skaven. Anyhoo, lets just say me and a friend were pretty intrigued, while two other guys didnt care and just played GoldenEye. The guy lent me his amry books, some white dwarfs, etc, and the next week, I had decided I wanted to do Woodelves, though skaven were cool, in that I had 30 or so of them from Advanced Heroquest which I had bought just to use as a d&d aid. Guy says, tell yo uwhat, I have 40 clan rats, add that to your 30, and youve got a good head start.

Awesome, so the next day I hit the CLGS and drop 400 bucks. I bought one of everything, doomwheel, screaming bell, verminlord, a full unit of metal plaguemonks, the works. I then spend the remainder of that week assembling the mountain of stuff, excited for my game, and a buddy mine was hemming and hawing over chaos, and was going to watch.

Keep in mind, I had never played, and had been lent the rulebok, but with most of my time spent assembling metal models... well you get the idea.

So, my very first magic phase, my grey seer on bell casts plague with total power on his knights, and he says "AWWWWW your censer bearers are in the way, so your spell hits them instead" Im like, wtf man, its my first f-ing game, I wouldn't have put them there if I realized they blocked line of sight. Nope, he was ruleslawyering me in my FIRST TURN OF MY FIRST GAME. My first instinct was to pick up my metal screaming bell and hurl it through the wood panelling of the basement, but instead I just took it, and played through. Driving my other buddy home, he said he would play, and buy chaos, on one condition: that we never play with that guy ever again. haha

Years later in a local tournament I ran into him, and he was using what he thought was an unbeatable army. He got crushed game one by some kid who I had nurtured along in our club. I was so proud.

Moral of the story: Don't play with the guy. Unless you live in the smallest of hick towns, you can find someone else. Heck, for 18 months I lived in a small town of 18,000, and got in 5 or 6 games with people.

Lastly, I'll give a shot at the rules questions.IMHO, I'm pretty sure the only models who can legally have no bases are vehicles that are not skimmers, as under skimmers it says they MUST be on bases, and the Defiler. You're not a sore loser because he cheated, you want a fun game, and he just wants to win, no matter the cost, even a friendship. I doubt drones count as scoring, since if they truly count as what they were attached to, wouldnt they count as vehicles then? which cannot score?

Good Luck to ya

Sorry I did over react. but the fact still remains

Though i DID ask him why some drones had bases (the ones on his shas'o/s and broad sides) while his vehicles drones did not. His answer was "they are too fiddly with them on"

As for the answers, Thanks for getting those off my chest, I knew drones came with bases ( I even took his drone bases from his counter and put it on to see if I could see it. which I could). Not basing them to avoid being shot at? that's low.


This problem has been going on for far more then just a few games. As a matter of fact EVERY game we play he abuses SOME little rule or detail. but thats not a problem anymore since we won't be playing anymore.

A drone on the ground is a broken drone... Tell him thats fine, but they must take wounds per turn based on the fact they are dragging across a battlefield...


BTW, is this in NB? because this sounds alot like something one of the guys who goes to school up this way would do with his armies.

No, we live in Alberta.

I don't get why he would fight it though.. he still gets a 4+ cover save, knowing him his 60$ dice would roll no fails.

Hurr durr im not friends with somebody over 40k

Ennkay wrote:Hurr durr im not friends with somebody over 40k

Thats a bit harshe man, hes been a dick outside of gaming too.. this is just the powderkeg

So I just got off a quick chat with my buddy who plays Tau, had to log onto SC2 to get a hold of him. He told me drones don't come with bases in the devil fish box, although he still thinks the guy should have acted as though they had flying bases.

Mine game with bases...

In fact the devilfish box has both the large clear stand, two small clear stands, and about 8 clear polls...I just got one to put together, strange.

Warhammer has a rule that if the model is too fiddly, it can remain nearby to its actual position as long as LOS and cover and such are all measured from it's actual position.

The drone models came with bases, and if putting them on the bases made them fiddly, it was okay to keep them on the ground as long as they were assumed to be on the base.

MikeV37 wrote:Warhammer has a rule that if the model is too fiddly, it can remain nearby to its actual position as long as LOS and cover and such are all measured from it's actual position.

You're thinking of the 'Wobbly Model' rule.

It allows you to place a model as close as possible to where it's supposed to be if it can't actually stand there... It says nothing about removing the model's base because you find it inconvenient.

trust me. I was able to put the drone on a base, AND put it where it was meant to be just fine. The guy is just a WAAC (I guess you can chock friends onto that list of costs) with serious issues

I believe the question has been thoroughly answered.

bucketwalrus wrote:No, we live in Alberta.

I don't get why he would fight it though.. he still gets a 4+ cover save, knowing him his 60$ dice would roll no fails.

If you play him again, demand to use those dice and only those dice, since the rules actually say that any dice (no matter how precious or sanctified) which are used during a game are to be used by both players.

(Dice for luck should, of course, not be rolled ever, since the luck might shake loose and fall off)

what's a CLGS? cannuck/canadian local gaming store?

Cool story bro

I play tau, and I solved this drone and base problem.

Basically, you get a crap ton of drones, they pile up all the time when you collect the army.

So what to do with them all? Assemble some for vehicles. With no bases.

Now you have easy to use drones for vehicles, but wait the overall question was "Drone bases are fiddly", so how to fix?

Remember: You will have a crap ton of drones. Just glue them to their bases. Or use magnetic. Any permanent solution will do. My various glued to flying bases drones have somehow always shined. One even bopped a marine in the face and killed it.

asimo77 wrote:Cool story bro

What a great post for this thread. Thank you. You've clarified the whole thing up for me. Thank you.

juraigamer wrote:I play tau, and I solved this drone and base problem.

Basically, you get a crap ton of drones, they pile up all the time when you collect the army.

So what to do with them all? Assemble some for vehicles. With no bases.

Now you have easy to use drones for vehicles, but wait the overall question was "Drone bases are fiddly", so how to fix?

Remember: You will have a crap ton of drones. Just glue them to their bases. Or use magnetic. Any permanent solution will do. My various glued to flying bases drones have somehow always shined. One even bopped a marine in the face and killed it.

I don't even glue mine. The stem for the base fits in the hole pretty snugly (heh...that's what she said. ) so they just stay on there, so after game, I just remove them from their bases and throw them in a nice tupperware container I use for my unimportant models.

battle Brother Lucifer wrote:

asimo77 wrote:Cool story bro

What a great post for this thread. Thank you. You've clarified the whole thing up for me. Thank you.

Just doing my job

battle Brother Lucifer wrote:

asimo77 wrote:Cool story bro

What a great post for this thread. Thank you. You've clarified the whole thing up for me. Thank you.

Don't engage trolls on dakka mate that little yellow triangle works like magic.

ChrisCP wrote:

battle Brother Lucifer wrote:

asimo77 wrote:Cool story bro

What a great post for this thread. Thank you. You've clarified the whole thing up for me. Thank you.

Don't engage trolls on dakka mate that little yellow triangle works like magic.

Cool story bro.

In all fairness, the story is a little silly and over the top.

insaniak wrote:This is a forum for asking rules questions.

The bloke sounds like an absolute ballbag. I don't e even think you over reacted, I'd have danced a jig on his model case then dragon punched the fether down to the nearest emergency room.

If anyone tries to claim that their drone doesn't have a base because it didn't come with one, smack'em. As someone who's assembled three Devilfish, three Hammerheads, two Piranhas, a box of Stealthsuits, several Pathfinder Shas'ui blisters, and a crapton of Fire Warriors and Crisis Suits, all of which come with drones of one flavor or another, every drone comes with a small flying base and two uprights, no exceptions.

On the off chance that it doesn't, that'd be GW forgetting to package them in that particular box, which is usually something they'll rectify by sending you another box.

Now, if anyone tries to say that the drones are fiddly when on the base, that I can see. My Commander's currently unpainted shield drones love to lean every direction but the proper direction, and fall off if pushed by so much as a stiff breeze. That said, this guy's actions are still inexcusable. All I'm saying is that he may have a point about the fiddlyness of Tau drones.

The solution to that one is pretty simple, though. Glue your damn drones. (A policy I soundly ignore by being a lazy bastard, so the hypocrite hat goes on for this one. But I don't complain about fiddly drones!)

Or shave the upright stand so they fit snugly. Either way works.

So, in conclusion, 1) yes, 2) yes, but as said before, they can't cap objectives per the Tau codex, and 3) eh, not really, but I would personally be put off by the strength of that reaction. You didn't do anything wrong (in the sense that all your points were correct), but you were a little bit harsh about it. Doesn't mean he was in the right, though.