Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Convert them to Shield Drones with the GW Shield Drone pack.

imo, drones are of no use to man or beast, they couldnt hit a barn door 10 paces, and the very few shots that actually do hit+wound just bounce off armour and cover saves

winnertakesall wrote:imo, drones are of no use to man or beast, they couldnt hit a barn door 10 paces, and the very few shots that actually do hit+wound just bounce off armour and cover saves

That's why there's not a single Gun drone in my Tau build. A few marker drones and lots of shield drones.

winnertakesall wrote:imo, drones are of no use to man or beast, they couldnt hit a barn door 10 paces, and the very few shots that actually do hit+wound just bounce off armour and cover saves

They have a better chance of hitting then any other unit in the tau not running a targetting array, other than broadsides or commanders.

VoxDei wrote:

winnertakesall wrote:imo, drones are of no use to man or beast, they couldnt hit a barn door 10 paces, and the very few shots that actually do hit+wound just bounce off armour and cover saves

They have a better chance of hitting then any other unit in the tau not running a targetting array, other than broadsides or commanders.

It's mainly the fact you could only have squads of 8, it has little potential of killing marines, what you wound they will pass with their 3+ save...

Flavius Infernus wrote:Use them as skirmishers to block enemy movement. Your piranha or devilfish gets blown up, the drones pop off and (if they pass their pinning test) get up in the face of the enemy unit and force them to spend a turn assaulting/destroying the drones, giving your suits another turn of shooting.

Also add two gun drones to crisis suit units instead of the more-expensive shield drones. Crisis suits should always be getting a cover save anyway, so it gives you another 3+/cover save against a couple of high-strength shots that would instakill a suit.

This is exactly what I do with my gun drones (although I got a lucky rhino immobilization with one). Use them as suicide units to hold up enemies, or put them with crisis suits.

I Guess The Best Way Is A Meat Shield Then

My friend did DS a unit of gun drones behind a LRBT and managed to kill it...
Doubt it will ever happen again though.

VoxDei wrote:Drones are a really cheap jump troop. They can DS, fire, move all in the same turn. Use them to harrass the enemy behind enemy lines to keep the enemy off ballance.

That isn't right. After the G-D DS, they can't do thier assult jump move. Is specifically says in the codex, this is also true for Crisis Suits, Stealth Suits and Gun Drones. Just checked the codex.

A Hive-Mind wrote:

VoxDei wrote:Drones are a really cheap jump troop. They can DS, fire, move all in the same turn. Use them to harrass the enemy behind enemy lines to keep the enemy off ballance.

That isn't right. After the G-D DS, they can't do thier assult jump move. Is specifically says in the codex, this is also true for Crisis Suits, Stealth Suits and Gun Drones. Just checked the codex.

I can't find such passage from my Codex. In fact, a picky person would point out that no such thing is said about Shadowsun's XV-22 either.

Backfire wrote:

A Hive-Mind wrote:

VoxDei wrote:Drones are a really cheap jump troop. They can DS, fire, move all in the same turn. Use them to harrass the enemy behind enemy lines to keep the enemy off ballance.

That isn't right. After the G-D DS, they can't do thier assult jump move. Is specifically says in the codex, this is also true for Crisis Suits, Stealth Suits and Gun Drones. Just checked the codex.

I can't find such passage from my Codex. In fact, a picky person would point out that no such thing is said about Shadowsun's XV-22 either.

I apologise, I read the Crisis Suit rule section, thinking it was applicable for the Gun drones aswell. My Bad :/

So That Is One Of The Benefits For Drones, But They Have No Place In My Army :(

Use them like Scarab Swarm. Not as good though.

Why not just use them to counter attack any assaulting units, say if your guna get gribbed in the face by sum genesneakers or anything thats gunna woop your chud chewing tau bums! charge your gun drones in even if they just last a turn it will help you get a firing line again or even send them in to tie up monstrous creatures and dreads and things like that, thats wot i use my grots for and there just as paps as gun drones, the tau player i play against uses them to bloke assaulting lines and cluttter places

Unit of 6 Stealth suits + 12 gun drones = 30 S5 shots that pin. Sure this is a lot of points, but it is hard to target and a real joy if you have markerlights. BS 5 = 25 hits about 16 wounds on an opponent. It is the best concentration of fire you can get in the tau.

DAaddict wrote:Unit of 6 Stealth suits + 12 gun drones = 30 S5 shots that pin. Sure this is a lot of points, but it is hard to target and a real joy if you have markerlights. BS 5 = 25 hits about 16 wounds on an opponent. It is the best concentration of fire you can get in the tau.

You have Peppered this post with all kinds of Wrong.

First of 6 Stealth Suits + 12 gun Drones = 30 S5 shots, 12 of which pin.

Second, with Marker lights you have 30 shots that gain +1 BS/ marker light, So if you want to pump your Drones up to BS 5 you need 3 markerlight tokens on the target unit(Easy enough with 6+ Pathfinders) but you quickly start losing out on Ld modifiers(against the unit you are attempting to pin) and have effectively wasted a BS increase Token on you 18 shots. So realistically you are looking at 18 BS 5, 12 BS 4(T-L) shots.

Third your Math for the All BS5 is off; 30 Shots 1/6 of which miss is 25, but you forgot that 12 of those shots are T-L; that should give you 27 hits; with 18 wounds vs MEQ, 6 or which stick(unsaved). if you only expend 2 Tokens for BS; you get 15 non-pinning hits, and 10.666 pinning hits; which equates to 10 non-pin MEQ wounds, 7.111 pinning MEQ wounds; which is 3.333 non pinning and 2.37 pinning wounds that stick

Although your last statement is accurate.

Kommissar Kel wrote:

DAaddict wrote:Unit of 6 Stealth suits + 12 gun drones = 30 S5 shots that pin. Sure this is a lot of points, but it is hard to target and a real joy if you have markerlights. BS 5 = 25 hits about 16 wounds on an opponent. It is the best concentration of fire you can get in the tau.

You have Peppered this post with all kinds of Wrong.

First of 6 Stealth Suits + 12 gun Drones = 30 S5 shots, 12 of which pin.

Second, with Marker lights you have 30 shots that gain +1 BS/ marker light, So if you want to pump your Drones up to BS 5 you need 3 markerlight tokens on the target unit(Easy enough with 6+ Pathfinders) but you quickly start losing out on Ld modifiers(against the unit you are attempting to pin) and have effectively wasted a BS increase Token on you 18 shots. So realistically you are looking at 18 BS 5, 12 BS 4(T-L) shots.

Third your Math for the All BS5 is off; 30 Shots 1/6 of which miss is 25, but you forgot that 12 of those shots are T-L; that should give you 27 hits; with 18 wounds vs MEQ, 6 or which stick(unsaved). if you only expend 2 Tokens for BS; you get 15 non-pinning hits, and 10.666 pinning hits; which equates to 10 non-pin MEQ wounds, 7.111 pinning MEQ wounds; which is 3.333 non pinning and 2.37 pinning wounds that stick

Although your last statement is accurate.

YES KEL!

Kommissar Kel wrote:

DAaddict wrote:Unit of 6 Stealth suits + 12 gun drones = 30 S5 shots that pin. Sure this is a lot of points, but it is hard to target and a real joy if you have markerlights. BS 5 = 25 hits about 16 wounds on an opponent. It is the best concentration of fire you can get in the tau.

You have Peppered this post with all kinds of Wrong.

First of 6 Stealth Suits + 12 gun Drones = 30 S5 shots, 12 of which pin.

Second, with Marker lights you have 30 shots that gain +1 BS/ marker light, So if you want to pump your Drones up to BS 5 you need 3 markerlight tokens on the target unit(Easy enough with 6+ Pathfinders) but you quickly start losing out on Ld modifiers(against the unit you are attempting to pin) and have effectively wasted a BS increase Token on you 18 shots. So realistically you are looking at 18 BS 5, 12 BS 4(T-L) shots.

Third your Math for the All BS5 is off; 30 Shots 1/6 of which miss is 25, but you forgot that 12 of those shots are T-L; that should give you 27 hits; with 18 wounds vs MEQ, 6 or which stick(unsaved). if you only expend 2 Tokens for BS; you get 15 non-pinning hits, and 10.666 pinning hits; which equates to 10 non-pin MEQ wounds, 7.111 pinning MEQ wounds; which is 3.333 non pinning and 2.37 pinning wounds that stick

Although your last statement is accurate.

The point is finally to kill something - whether it is 25 or 27 hits - there is nothing that can come close in Tau to this firepower. Pinning - when it can work - is fine and dandy but 2 ML is all I was counting on.
18 BS 5 and 12 BS4 TL shots - for 15 + 10.67 hits. If I can use all other ML hits to -Ld(average -2 or pathfinder unit) I can reduce the average marine to a LD 7 test or pin.

30 S5 shots should be directed at killing something though not pinning. Pinning should be a bonus afterthought.

I converted all my drones to shield or marker drones - they're soooo much more usefull that way.

Plus, several friends I play against use Chaos, so that makes pinning worthless...stoopid fearless rule

I've Converted 2 Gun Drones Into Shields for My Broadsides and I have to say they look better than the metal ones. But I cant see the benefit of using an 8 man squad in my lists which means i waste some money buying the models that come with 2 gun drones!

I don't know if this would help but you could use them to screen your battle suits or something.

awb wrote:I don't know if this would help but you could use them to screen your battle suits or something.

What as a meat shield? so if a lascannon shoots at a crisis unit take a wound on the drone and let the frisbee die?