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I have never played Tau nor against them nor seen them played. I've bought the codex. Thinking of new playstyle to act as a foil to my nearly complete stompy orks. So forgive my ignorance.
If a markerlight enabled unit (Unit "A") makes a hit with a markerlight. Does unit "B," say a Rail Gun equipped Hammerhead, get bonuses conferred? I guess I should ask how do those dang markerlights work.
Thanks
Subquestion: do you like playing against Tau? Are they challenging to you? I want a vehicle heavy force. Sick of painting infantry!

Basically for every hit you score with a markerlight you put a counter on the unit you were firing on. So 4 markerlight hits = 4 counters. Then other units can use those counters to gain bonuses when firing on that unit. There is a list in the equipment section of the codex explaining what the markerlight counters can be used for.

The most common uses are +1 BS for your unit firing at the target or -1 to the target units cover save. These counters can be used cumulatively but only work one unit at a time.

Meaning that if you use a counter to give +1 BS, only the unit currently firing gets that bonus. To give a different unit the bonus a 2nd counter will need to be spent when that unit fires on the marked target.

Thanks

Note that Markerlights can't be used by the unit firing them unless it is a Networked Markerlight.

For example, a Shas'u Fire Warrior upgrade with a markerlight cannot use it to give his unit a +1 bs. But if you give him a Markerlight Drone with a Networked Markerlight the unit can benifit.

a single unit can also use mulitiple marker lights.


so if you had 4 markerlight markers on a target that had a cover save you could give one firing unit +2BS and the target unit -2 to their cover save.

one markerlight counter can only be used by one unit, but one unit can use multiple markerlights.

You also can not use markerlights to benefit other markerlights. To clarify, if your skyray marked a target you could expend the counter to increase the BS of a pathfinder squad but you'd still only hit on a 4+ with them. The improved BS would help their carbine though if you chose to fire that instead (you'd almost never actually do this but it illustrates the example).

If you're into seeker missiles, one markerlight hit = one seeker missile. If you had 6 markerlight hits you could empty an entire skyray in one turn, even if the skyray moved or was stunned.

Yonush: Thanks I read that but didn't get it until you clarified.

Grey: Right, and no BS >5

Andy06r: No use of an ML to place more ML. It would kinda defeat the purpose anyway, since once the token is used it's gone right?

I guess that's another question. MLs don't go away unless they're expended by a unit utilizing them. That is, they don't go away at the end of the turn if unexpended.

Do you guys use Fast Attack or Infiltrators with MLs to mark high value targets?

Thanks again fellas.

Grover

I love my tau. They are VERY challenging to play, with quite specialized units (almost as challenging as eldar).

If you wanted something different than oks, they are that!

While railguns are awesome, and markerlights are amazing force enhancers...the true backbone of a tau list are the crisis suits.
They are the dynamic glue that holds a force together.

As far as vehicles....look up some articles on mech tau...sadly, due to the really overpriced nature of their vehicles (and crappy variety) you wont have a ton, but tau vehicles are resiliant at range (due to disruption pods)...too bad most of them have really short range weapons.

Overall a great army to play, and very challenging!

Dave Pak

Dave, thanks. I have to paint 6 more Kans, 12 more nobs and 2 more koptas. Then I think I'll go for tau. I'm kinda stoked on painting them. I've dipped 100% of the orks w good effect, but i'm looking forward to some mixed media (oil and acrylic and multiple varnishes) on the tau w some adv weathering techniques that I've been reading about. I would like LESS models (ie high point value per model). Equals Vehicles and suits? Do you have a 1500- 2000 list you could suggest?
Thanks
DrG

A note with seeker missiles is that they are launched from the vehicle instead of from Whee the markerlight is located. A fun trick is to load up a piranha with 2 missiles and move all out 24" basically making it onto the enemies lines. Markerlight a nearby tank and fire off the seeker missiles. This does not count as the piranha firing but is resolved as coming from that location.

This is especially good against leman Russes and the weak rear armor.

Tau are fun. My first army I had and have 5000 points or so. Hybrid lists with them and combined arms work best. They are not easy to use but are great fun.