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Right, so I hope you can help me even though I'm quite "unnknowledgeable" (is that a word)?

I play Orks myself, so I don't know the names of the Tau models. However, I played a Tau army and they had a unit (actually three I believe) consisting of one big robot-dude and three smaller drones that flew around on their own. If the big guy died, so did the small ones but if a small one died the big one was unaffected.

I hope you know what I'm talking about because I'm not sure myself =)

Anyway, my real question was if the smaller drone dudes give kill points or if only the big guy gives kill points. My gut tells me that the small ones should not give kill points.

EDIT: In case I'm being really stupid, the reason I'm wondering is because they can fly around independently from the big guy but are still part of his unit, right?

This became a little incoherent, sorry for that

sounds like either shield drones or gun drones.

Ixias wrote:Anyway, my real question was if the smaller drone dudes give kill points or if only the big guy gives kill points.

In this case, the big guy a "Crisis Suit" has the two drones (shield or gun, it doesn't matter) they are all one KP.

Ixias wrote:EDIT: In case I'm being really stupid, the reason I'm wondering is because they can fly around independently from the big guy but are still part of his unit, right?

No, they cannot 'fly around independently'. Not in this case. They're stuck being with him and if he dies, they are removed. They've been purchased as wargear, but end up being models on the table.

There are other cases where two Gun Drones from a transport, called Devilfish, are a KP when they get destroyed. They are counted as passengers and a separate unit from the D'fish, thus a KP.

3rd case: As a Fast Attack choice, Gun Drones can be taken as a unit, yielding a KP for the unit and they have no attachment to any Crisis Suit(s).
4th (and rarer) case: A unit of FireWarriors can have Gun/Shield drones, but these are part of that unit and *not* a separate KP.

Don't feel embarrassed for the confusion. Drones have a lot of odd fitting places in 40k.

A few things.

It sounds like you are describing a Crisis suit (Tau Battlesuit units) and it's drones.

The drones themselves are considered part of the unit they are in. Therefore, they must maintain coherency, etc. Normally Crisis suits can only have 1 or 2 drones per model that has a piece of wargear (called a Drone Controller) on it. Once that Crisis suit dies, the drones all die at the end of the phase. Note that drones are counted for 25% casualties for a shooting phase, and so they should have to take a leadership test.

The only times a single, one-man Crisis suit team should have 3 drones is in 3 cases - an HQ Crisis suit which takes 2 normal drones (Gun, Shield, or Marker), and a Command and Control Drone, an Elite Crisis suit with access to the armory and special wargear (which the C&C Drone is - Special Wargear), and the unique character Commander Shadowsun (who has 2 drones and a C&C Drone).

The drones do not give you an additional kill point. They are considered part of the unit they are a part of. The exception to this is Gun Drones mounted on vehicles - if the vehicle is kill, the drones disembark and become a separate unit - another KP for the taking!

You forgot Sniper Drones, which is a Firewarrior in an apparatus, and 3 Drones with Long-barreled guns, and up to 3 separate units can be bought as a single choice(but all 3 are different units and each yield a kill-point). Each set of 1 "Spotter" and 3 Drones are a single unit and must remain in coherency.

Red Army: only Shadowsun has a Command and Control Drone; crisis suits can have a C&C "node" which is a hard-point system. So 2 Drones per Suit(or Firewarrior/Pathfinder Squad via a Shas'ui), 2 per Vehicle(That can detatch and are a separate unit), 3 per Sniper squad and Shadowsun, or 4-8 per gun Drone Squad.

Thanks for all the answers!

Hmm, I wonder if the guy I played might have played his stuff wrong then because I'm certain the drones moved independently, since I remember thinking it was weird that they flew all over.

Kommissar Kel wrote:You forgot Sniper Drones, which is a Firewarrior in an apparatus, and 3 Drones with Long-barreled guns, and up to 3 separate units can be bought as a single choice(but all 3 are different units and each yield a kill-point). Each set of 1 "Spotter" and 3 Drones are a single unit and must remain in coherency.

Red Army: only Shadowsun has a Command and Control Drone; crisis suits can have a C&C "node" which is a hard-point system. So 2 Drones per Suit(or Firewarrior/Pathfinder Squad via a Shas'ui), 2 per Vehicle(That can detatch and are a separate unit), 3 per Sniper squad and Shadowsun, or 4-8 per gun Drone Squad.

I was only talking about Crisis suits, but I should have touched on that, and I knew Shadowsun's was a drone, and assumed it was for everyone else (never take it anyway).

I really don't know anyone who does; considering, you know, it doesn't actually do anything in this edition.

I used to play tau for a lot of years and never have the gun drones moved seperatley. They are bought as an upgrade form a retinue of sorts. if shot at he may allocate wounds to them but they definetly do not move independently unless they were part of a wrecked devilfish or the remnants of a squad of drones. if bought with the Commander or a battlesuit, then they stay with the battlesuit that bought them.

In this case the small things were drones that were being controlled by the big guy (a battlesuit). The drones are like wargear and so don't and so don't give you a kill point.

Ok thanks =)

I managed to get my hands on a Tau codex and was skimming through it. Now I'm fairly sure that guy played his models wrong because I can't find anything that allows him to do what he did.

I have another question now, regarding the marker lights. The codex says that they remain "until the end of the current Tau shooting phase or until used". Does that mean they last until whatever two of those comes first? I mean, if he puts a marker light counter on one of my models and doesn't use it, does it stay there until the next round so he can use it then?

no.

you have to use it, IIRC.

Ok. Thanks again ^^

Ixias wrote:I have another question now, regarding the marker lights. The codex says that they remain "until the end of the current Tau shooting phase or until used". Does that mean they last until whatever two of those comes first? I mean, if he puts a marker light counter on one of my models and doesn't use it, does it stay there until the next round so he can use it then?

1+ stompydakka.

When the tau player's turn is over then the MarkerLight goes away.

Do hunt up the GW FAQ, too. There are quite a few shenanigans a deceitful player, or just an ignorant one, can "get away with" considering how many little goofy thing tau do differently from other armies.

A little help to beat tau:
1. close and get into h2h with his units ASAP
2. Double check his list for suit 'load outs', i.e. how they're equipped. Shenanigans can easily occur here. *if* he pays for a Team Leader upgrade and Target Array, one suit in a unit can shoot at BS4. The other suits should be BS3. I made this mistake for a few months when I started tau (years ago).
3. You'll need less power toys and more tankbusta kinds of things. Before you close on his tanks and assault them (Storm boyz?), make sure you know if he's equipped them with 'Flechette dischargers'. Very bad for orks: each ork assaulting the vehicle gets hit on a 4+. Given their 't'shirt armor saves ....

Brothererekose wrote:
A little help to beat tau:
1. close and get into h2h with his units ASAP
2. Double check his list for suit 'load outs', i.e. how they're equipped. Shenanigans can easily occur here. *if* he pays for a Team Leader upgrade and Target Array, one suit in a unit can shoot at BS4. The other suits should be BS3. I made this mistake for a few months when I started tau (years ago).
3. You'll need less power toys and more tankbusta kinds of things. Before you close on his tanks and assault them (Storm boyz?), make sure you know if he's equipped them with 'Flechette dischargers'. Very bad for orks: each ork assaulting the vehicle gets hit on a 4+. Given their 't'shirt armor saves ....

Thank you for the advice He beat me the last time we played but I suspect that he did pull some shenanigans on me since that was the first match I ever played and I (still) know almost nothing about any codex except the Ork one (which is my own).