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Sheild Drones. yes the bane of all existence on both sides of the fench. However I use em. And I really need some rule calls here. I get to many conflicting
answers and they all side with the other guys and nothing good comes to the Tau from them. So i'll put the question an check back later.


1. Do sheild drones "Take the Hit"? Meaning, when A Crisis suit is going to take a wound and all the drones have passed their saves, can that drone be subbed in for the hit on the crisis suit? I was told that's how to do it. I don't trust my peers enough to believe that since I can't find anything in both the rule book and the Codex.

2. The 4+ Inv. sv. Does this save extend to other units, such as crisis suits, or does it only count for the sheild drones?

3. Sensor Spines. Since a Skimmer now has to land at the end of it's movement phase. Do to the Sensor spines still Negate all dangerous terrain? Will I have to make a roll of any kind for moving and landing in dangerous terrain?


4. This isn't really much of a tau question but more of a question on sportsmanship of others. Since I am new to playing Warhammer really. I've had a lot of Fast ones pulled on me. And I don't catch them right away because I don't really have the Rule book memorized. How would I make a rule call on someone I don't know anything about? Especially people I'm not sure would take it the right way if you know what I mean. The people with the Competitive attitude that makes you take a step back and say "this guy will do ANYTHING to win" including call coherency on my kroot but then moves his terminators 16inches without a tape measure and when I'm not looking. Really guys I don't know what to say or do in that situation. Should I just call the game and walk away or keep playing?

I'm a girl, I got sucked out of my happy go lucky korean MMOs so my experience is minimal. I just paint really well and got my Tau for show. I love to paint and have just started learning to play. It's harder then i thought!

Von.

i dont have the tau dex, so sorry about 1,2 and 3.


but as for 4:

if they do something you dont like the look of or think is a little weird then ask them to explain it, using the rule book or a codex rather than a simple verbal answer.
alot of new players get this, and ive helped a new player in my LGS before when someone tried it.
dont worry about asking them, if what they have done is legit, then they wont have a problem proving it.

1. 40k is a permissive ruleset, so it should say that they "take the hit" much like tyrant guard, so no they cant take the hit per say and suffer from normal wound allocation.

2. as per RAW it only goes to the drones.

1.
No, they don't. At that point, you'd need to take a hit on the crisis suit. Shield drones are mostly useful for keeping your suits from being wasted by lascannons and such, not from huge volleys of fire.

2.
it's only for the drones.

3.
a skimmer does not need to land at the end of it's move phase I believe, so the question is irrelevant.

4.
... well, obviously, it will actually help to read the rulebook, since it will let you know what's up, but honestly it seems like from you're saying that the people you're playing with are cheaty bastards. The best solution is not to play with those people, or get a 3rd person familiar with the rules (who you trust) to act as a "referee." But really, knowing the rules will help you to defend yourself when people pull fast ones on you.

oh in number 4: for wargear issues make sure they state what they're units have at the start of the game to prevent from "surprise"war gear" to show up during the game. And please dont walk away on a game its quite discouraging and gives a bad name for us.(with the opposite sex) just bring the little AOBR rulebook if you can get a hold of one.

Thank you on the #4. I walk into a game thinking it's going to be cool and fun. and suddenly the guy gets all competitive and scary. I played only 3 games Prior to my first Tournament. I got 4th place out of 30 people. But the top 3 winners were these guys from a little town 4 hours away from mine. All buddies and what not. One smelled like he hadn't showered for days.. maybe months. The one I wound up playing was playing Chaos Space marines. and they all had some kind of lobbed bomb or something. I didn't understand how he could get four hits with four small blast templates. it was all very very confusing. I killed his demon prince with a Ion cannon though! and My one pathfinder managed to take out an entire squad of some kind of space marine something or other with a rail rifle still standing in the crator of the blown up devilfish. But he just overwhelmed me with these long range bombardments. My kroot didn't even get to move 6" before they were ALL dead. and that's a squad of 20 with a shaper.

well it could have been obliterators that could bring out blast templates and im surprised you got 4th place! thats a great thing considering you're kinda new to the game., and if you have doubts about people and their armies, you can just purchase the codex or find it online. Knowing your enemy is half the battle.

As a Farsight Enclave separatist, I have the newest codex so this is my interpretation.

1. No, if it has gotten to the point where the drone(s) and their owner have all been hit, then they must all must save per rules. The purpose of shield drones is to allocate stronger shots, such as plasma, laz, missle etc into themselves so the owner has a better chance of surviving.

2. No, only the drones benefit from this. If you want an invulnerable save then you'll have to spring for a shield generator for the owner.

3. Skimmers do not have to land at the end of its movement phase, so no you wont have to take DT tests of any kind while choosing to use sensor spines. The part of the rulebook that says, "Skimmers can move over friendly and enemy models alike, but they cannot end their movement on top of either," means that you simply cannot end the skimmers movement over any other model. This does NOT mean it has to land as skimmers NEVER land.

4. Sounds like you play with some audacious mother-f*ckers. But I'm not there so I cannot hold bias. First off, if it is that bad of a group, then forget them and find another one to play with. However, competitive attitude is what makes you better, this does NOT permit cheating though.

Secondly, familiarize yourself with the rules. If you don't have a rulebook, I suggest getting the Assault on Black Reach starter set, its a fantastic deal and has over $300 worth of material for a fraction of the cost.

And lastly, NEVER walk out on a game. Finish it to the bloody end. No matter how painful. Show your opponent that you are better than them and that your moral compass isn't f*cked up like their's is.

Ko'Vash Tau'va and welcome to dakka!

Yeah I should Look into that. But other then what Little itty bitty money I make on painting other peoples armies. I don't have a lot of extra cash. It took me a year to scrape all the stuff for my Tau army together. I got lucky one day at the local gamestore and pulled out almost 2000 Points of Tau figures from the Bits box for 50 bucks. I was just looking for figures for my husbands D&D campaign and bam there they were. 2 devilfish, 70 kroot, 50 firewarriors, A broadside, 10 drones, 3 crisis suits, 18 pathfinders, and 8 stealth suits.

I try to play smaller games around 1250 points now. The boys say I have great tactics. I don't think so. I think I'm just getting creative. I got them all to just paint cause I love to paint. Then they got me to playing. my First game was against the Champion with his Necron army. I won! but I don't think I was playing appropriately. Alot of stuff that seems against the rules in the tau book are coming to light. And then My 2nd Game the fella I played Gifted me a Booklet from the Assualt on Black Reach so that's the rulebook I have. Under that book It says that Skimmers must land when done moving. while Sensor Spines allows you to Ignore Dangerous terrain, I had an unfortunate arguement because in that Tournament the chaos player kept saying I had to roll for dangerous terrain. and he said my Tau Codex was out of date and I shouldn't be using it.

AunShova

I'm a creative type of person. I don't do well to some smack talking smurfer. It just kinda freaks me out and I ball up in a cocoon and prey they leave me alone. But what plays horribly worse upon my mind. when they huff and sigh cause the game isn't going fast enough for them.

But on the note of Creativity. I wanted to make my own Sept. But I have no Idea how to do it with getting it accepted by GW. My color scheme is Black and blue with ice blue to white highlights on all the hand painted tribals I put on them. I'd love to show you all pictures but My Iphone isn't the best in photographic technology. It's gonna take months anyway for me to finish the whole thing. But when I finish it I hope to create more around it.

Thusly why I don't really fit in among the players at the game store I play at. Most are Normal football loving men that really don't understand putting depth into a creation. It's kind of like MMOs where you have the PVPer saying how RPers Suck. well I'm an RPer, with a slight desire to be a great tactician. But i'm a girl, that's a little unnerving for these boys too sometimes. Although there are 5 or 6 that are the best that can be found. They always explain things to me carefully so I understand them and they made me write things on 3x5 cards so I remember what to use for what unit and what order I should use them. One round of forgetting Markerlights and they had me fixed up. And the fella who ran the Tournament, said Afterwords that if the Chaos players two buddies weren't trying to keep him distracted with odd conversations he would of been over my shoulder the whole time. He felt bad for what happened and really was happy I did come in 4th despite the whole incident. I won't stop playing. I'll win a Tournament one of these days and then I'm gonna get me some Vampire counts so I can learn Fantasy too!

1, 2, and 3 have been answered (correctly) so no need to cover that again.

I find that the best approach whenever you're unsure of the rules (regardless of whether or not you believe someone is trying to cheat you) is to just say "Hmm, I am not familiar with this part of the rules" or "Hmm, I don't remember how this part works" and then just suggest you both look it up. I do this with my friends, strangers, in tournaments, whatever. Just be polite, and don't act like you think you're right, just that you don't have any idea and you'd like to see the rule. Some people will still get annoyed (what you don't trust me?!) but those people aren't worth playing with. Most people will either quickly and politely show you if they really know what they're talking about, or you can both look it up and say "oooh, so it works THIS way, interesting" and not feel like you're arguing with them or showing them up.

Mashira wrote:Alot of stuff that seems against the rules in the tau book are coming to light. And then My 2nd Game the fella I played Gifted me a Booklet from the Assualt on Black Reach so that's the rulebook I have. Under that book It says that Skimmers must land when done moving. while Sensor Spines allows you to Ignore Dangerous terrain, I had an unfortunate arguement because in that Tournament the chaos player kept saying I had to roll for dangerous terrain. and he said my Tau Codex was out of date and I shouldn't be using it.

Alright, taking from what you've said, this man is filled with enough hot air to power a blimp. First off, the Tau codex is still a strong one, albeit there are some minor flaws as is with ALL codecies.

Also, let me try to clear up the skimmer problem:

1) I'm reading from the same Little Red Book as you and NOWHERE does it state that a skimmer lands. I think you are just misinterpreting the part on page 71 that says "Note that the skimmer must be placed down on the table and left in place at the end of it's move - it cannot hover in mid air!" This is just referring to the fact that you cannot place your skimmer on top of other models, as it would most likely damage them.

A skimmer will only have to take a dangerous terrain test if, and only if, it ends or starts it's movement while in difficult terrain or the possibility of impassible terrain. To circumvent this, go around or find a better way over the terrain. Note that the model counts as being ABOVE the terrain and not actually IN it.

If, however, you are using the sensor spines to move INTO the difficult/impassible terrain, and thus claiming and "obscured vehicle" bonus like other vehicles can, you still DO NOT have to take a dangerous terrain test, as this is the entire purpose of purchasing sensor spines, to avoid the dangerous terrain test.

The only problem I have with this rule is that now a skimmer with a sensor spine can now "magically" move through impassible terrain as it could go through walls or something. Kind of ruins aesthetics. Must be powered by Nightcrawler.

Hope that helps. If I missed anything or I'm completely incorrect then by all means show me up for it, but I'm pretty sure I'm right.

Welcome to the game. Just keep in mind that 1) you out to have fun. If there out to win then just think of low little it must happen if there that eager to exploit rules on you. he he. 2) Don't feel afraid to say "Show me how that works." and don't take "Its some wargear i have," or "Thasts just the way it works out." Explain that your new and so i need things explained. If there a good nice player that wont mind it. 3) TFG can not always be ignored or reasoned it. Just go with the flow and ask you next opponent or a judge.

aunshova wrote:

Mashira wrote:Alot of stuff that seems against the rules in the tau book are coming to light. And then My 2nd Game the fella I played Gifted me a Booklet from the Assualt on Black Reach so that's the rulebook I have. Under that book It says that Skimmers must land when done moving. while Sensor Spines allows you to Ignore Dangerous terrain, I had an unfortunate arguement because in that Tournament the chaos player kept saying I had to roll for dangerous terrain. and he said my Tau Codex was out of date and I shouldn't be using it.

Alright, taking from what you've said, this man is filled with enough hot air to power a blimp. First off, the Tau codex is still a strong one, albeit there are some minor flaws as is with ALL codecies.

Um, maybe the guy meant the codex was literally out of date? There are two editions, you know.

The first thing you have to do is familiarize yourself with the rules. If you aren't sure you won't know if they are being a jerk or you are.

Otherwise you'll just have to find people who don't mind helping you out a lot, not tournaments where people expect everyone to know the rules well.

Sorry if that sounds a bit negative

Agamemnon2 wrote:Um, maybe the guy meant the codex was literally out of date? There are two editions, you know.

No, he's definitely using the current codex. The old Tau codex doesn't have sensor spines or rail rifles.

It looks like people answered 1-3 already. As for number 4:

4.This is one of those games where 80% of the players don't know what they are talking about. It's not always their fault. The rules are really complicated. If you can spot the players in the other 20% you can follow them around and learn how things work pretty quickly. Ask around about people. Players build reputations quickly on this scene. Other people will know if they know their stuff or if they don't, or if they are just some cheating delusional hambeast that never showers.

Thank you Guys a whole Bunch! Now I'm not just some girl in that "Hello Kitty" t-shirt that plays Tau. Today some of the better players, well the nice ones, actually remembered my name! And I had A much better game. I had my little pocket book in a cargo pant pocket and pulled it out only once. Course I was playing smurfs and understood a lot more on their rules. the Autocanon thing sucks cause it took out my Crisis suits in one go cause I didn't think it was that powerful.. but My Broadside took care of that when I realised that 4 small blast templates at 8 hits per template was horrible. The guy was cool at first but then tried to pull every rule he could to make sure I wouldn't win. But I didn't really care, I know he was doing that because he was a loser. I still took out 75% of his army by the time the game ended. I had one objective and was 3.1 inches away from the 2nd objective. and he had two objectives. But he was really rude and said I didn't get the 2nd objective because of that .1 of an inch. He couldn't live with a Draw. He had to win. I felt sorry for him. God forbid a Girl almost beat him. tehee tehee.

Remember Timmy, when you hear the alarm, Duck and Cover. OR in your case hide your suits behind things in assault phase.

hehe. Well I have a good army list for the people I play around here. I even beat Necrons with it! and Hoon, whom is the best player we have, but didn't make it to the tournament ::glare:: Taught me to play against his necrons. If I could give this dude an award for being the coolest teacher for Warhammer I would. My tau beat his necrons. Not by claiming objectives. but by obliterating all he had except that pesky monolith.

OH the thing with the 4 small blast templates and a lot of hits with it. I'm not really sure what it was. It might be that I don't remember what it's called or the guy just never told me when I asked. I don't remember now. But the figure was like a huge canon on treads with four barrels. He was playing Smurfs. And it ignored covor so Hiding my crisis suits wouldn't do any good. What is that device exactly? And does it really work like that?

The four barrel thing is a Thunderfire Cannon. One of the space marine's new toys.
Your suits don't need cover against it. It has 3 firing modes, with AP5 being the best AP it can get
Yes, it fires 4 small blasts, and can cause all sorts of pain.
However, It is very easy to kill. The cannon and the techmarine with it is a unit. For every hit on the unit, a d6 is rolled. On a 1-4 it hits the cannon, which counts as an armor 10 all-around vehicle that is destroyed by any glancing or penetrating hit.
hope this helps.

Ok so when those are fired at my Crisis suits-
1. I don't get a covor save
2. Drones are worthless in this situation
3. a 3+ armor save does nothing? Still not understanding the AP negates armor thingy
4. the Drones 4+ Inv. sv. doesn't get a save?

The Thunderfire Cannon has 3 different firing modes.

Mode A, he wounds on 2+, but you get your armour save.

Mode B, he wounds on 3+, you get your armour save but cannot take coversaves (not that you need it, your armour is better).

Mode C, he wounds on 4+, you get your armour save, but move as f in difficult terrain the next turn.

you dont get a 4+ invul because your armor is better than your invul save. and good job getting some wins. I think we,(the opposite sex) have a bright future at 40k gaming.

1)It's second firing mode ignores cover
otherwise you would if it's in cover
2)yeah, kinda. drones are just more things to end up under a template. They are useful, just not here
3)AP 5 negates a +5 or worse armor save the weapon needs to be AP 3, 2, or 1 to disallow a crisis armor save
4)the drones could use their +3 armor save or their +4 invul save.

Wait a minute. I"m seeing a conflict here!

This guy took out my ENTIRE crisis squad. 2 drones, 3 crisis suits. with his thunderfire. Because I missed saves and it supposidly does enough to OUTRIGHT kill a 2 or 3 wounds unit.

I would have only taken one wound on a Crisis suit. He said that because of the strength of the Canon I don't take a wound I just die outright.

Then he's ignorant or a liar. Instant Death requires a weapon with a strength at least twice the toughness of the wounded model. A thunderfire cannon has a max str of 6. A crisis suit is T4, not low enough for Instant Death.

I'll call him on it next time then. Cause he was saying that it's ment to take out vehicles so it does so much damage or something that it kills non vehicle units.

He also had a Tank with an Odd canon on it. I think he called it an Autocanon. Does that do the same thing as a Thunderfire or is that different?

if you look at the autocannon entry. its different.