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Personally, I rarely run markerlights in any form. I've been playing Tau for the past 3 years, and in either codex I would prefer to spend the points on more shots. I like running a very mobile army and it has worked for me. In the past 3 tourneys I have placed in the top 3, and of the three lists I used no markerlights, ripetides, or broadsides (the latter mostly because I don't want to shell out the cash). Don't get me wrong, markerlights have plenty of uses. I would just prefer the points be spent on suits and fire warriors.

So seems to be a very mixed bag of "for" and "against" and quite a few points raised ontheir use so think I'm going to give them a try. I'm by no means going to splash out of marker drones and skyrays just yet, but maybe use the markers soley for the increase to balistic skill with the odd seeker here and there.

If my mind is changed after my next battle where I'll take them then I'll let you know

1850 and up I run anywhere between 16-24 markerlights. We use them to make our BS 5 and to remove cover from any unit. You need those 5 terminators to disappear have your dual crisis team hit on 2's and those terminators have their cover removed. Bye Bye Terminators. In short that's what makes Tau lethal at the end of the day. Without markerlight support imo, they are a middle of the road army at best. If a Tau commander can win most games w/o markerlights then he/she is one hell of a player and has god-like dice.

One of the big deciding factors for me in marker lights was the updated 5th Ed Tetra. The number of Markerlight tokens it puts out for the points cost and the survivability and mobility it had were really something else. Two pairs of Tetras would be plenty of tokens for 2000 points.

The new 6th Ed Tetra, while not as impressive, is still very good and I think an auto-include for any high mobility list that wants quality marker support.

 Freytag93 wrote:
Personally, I rarely run markerlights in any form. I've been playing Tau for the past 3 years, and in either codex I would prefer to spend the points on more shots. I like running a very mobile army and it has worked for me. In the past 3 tourneys I have placed in the top 3, and of the three lists I used no markerlights, ripetides, or broadsides (the latter mostly because I don't want to shell out the cash). Don't get me wrong, markerlights have plenty of uses. I would just prefer the points be spent on suits and fire warriors.

Honestly, I think people put a whole lot more stock in markerlights than is necessary. I have a buddy who honestly thinks I'm playing Tau wrong because I don't run 3 10-man squads of Pathfinders. I mean, I'll admit I usually run them because they can be incredibly useful, but I really don't see the need to run 30 of them. Tau have plenty of strengths without markerlights - I mean, I've noticed a lot of people underestimate Fire Warriors until they're tossing out 24-36 S5 shots using a Fireblade. I think markerlights are plenty useful, but just look at Orks - you can get over an average (or below average, in the case of Orks) ballistics skill by just tossing out tons of dice, and Tau can be very, very good at doing that.

I feel that markerlights can be very useful, but honestly, I've started getting more mileage out of Eldrad or a Farseer as an ally than running bunches of Pathfinders.

I have exactly 2 MLs in my list. A marker drone with my stealth suits to eat up the last 12 points, and the one on my Sniper Drone Team. Since I run walking foot list, and am pouring 43 pulse shot down range at 30", 75 at 24", and well over a 150 at 15" I find ML's just not that pressing to add.

In fact, I find my suits to be some what useless. Granted some of the suit issue is just me being not that good with them. And coming from a guant heavy 12-18" 'nid army, a FW based army's 30" range is like playing on easy.

As you can see, there are a couple opinions on markerlights. I use a Mark'O for my markers and thats it. They target one unit and it dies, while the rest of my army uses weight of fire everywhere else i find it works really well having a 36" mobile markerlight platform.

As far as seekers?!? They are now useless IMHO. They fethed up the mechanic and now they just dont do what they are supposed to. they can be somewhat useful in odd situations but you'll notice that so far no one has suggested to take them lol i know the only seekers i wil ever have are built into my skyray

Well, had my first battle this weekend.

It was me and a friend vs a friend. So it was 3000pts of Choas vs 1500 of Tau and 1500 of Marines.

I chose
1x Crisis Commander with 2x bodyguards running plasma's and pods.
2x 12 squads of Fire Warrior with drones and markerlight.
1x Pathfinder team with 3 markerlights and 2 railrifle
10x Vespid
1x Broadside with Marker Drone and Shield drone and seeker missile
1x Broadside with Marker Drone and Shield drone and seeker missile
1x Hammerhead with 2x Seeker Missiles, Railgun and Sub shot.


I'm not saying my list was great, but was my first time trying to use markerlights and seekers. During the game I only managed to fire off 2 of the 4 seekers I had and mostly used the markerlights for better Balistics.

Now I'm going to freely admit that the Markerlights did help out a bit during the game for increasing Balistic skill, but found the seeker Missiles weren't that great. Seeing as I had 2 Broadsides in this particular list I'd have been better off using the markerlight for increased balistics on them instead and putting the points saved in purchasing another broadside.

I'm on the fence with wether having Marker drones is worth it but am definatly dropping seeker missiles and going to give more thought to who has the markerlight weapons/drones for my next battle.

Off-topic, but, I haven't spotted it the book but I assume the rule for completing ALL the shooting in a squad before moving to the next is still the same. Would be so much easier for me mentally if I were able to fire all Markerlights then go from squad to squad. Ah well, I imagine it's wishful thinking.