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Do Tau seeker missiles allow cover saves? Since they go around things i would think enemy units would get no cover save from them. I understood it as you do get a cover save but only if your in area terrain.

It would depend on how many markerlight counters are being expanded, if just the 1 required to fire the Seeker Missile then no, each additional markerlight expanded beyond that reduces available cover by 1 making a 4+ into a 5+ and so on and so forth.

I meant without additional markerlights. In the rules it says it doesnt need los to shoot at a target, so does the target get a cover save?

Yes they do, it would say in the description if it denied them cover save. If you want a good fluff reason think of their cover save as being the enemy units ability to duck behind a short wall at the last minute.

Just because a weapon does not require LoS does not negate cover. The weapon itself must specifically state that it negates cover, or one of it's special rules must state that, example Barrage weapons can be fired without LoS, but only negate cover that could exist if the models hit by it have no cover between them and the center of the blast marker, but area cover would still apply as it isn't specifically negated where a Template weapon specifically says it negates all cover area included.

There are arguments for it granting cover and it ignoring it. No general consensus has been reached. However you can rule that a weapon that ignores LOS ignores intervening cover, but not cover from special rules or models in area terrain.

A model is considered to be in cover if it is completely out of LoS from the point of view of the firing model. P.22

So unless the rules for seeker missiles specifically disallow cover saves, a model that is out of LoS gets its cover save.

To add another viewpoint. Seeker missiles are deemed to be fired from the vehicle they are mounted on, not necessarily the unit which calls them in. Therefore you could be in a position where the target is in cover from the "firing" unit but not from where the missile is coming from (if they are behind a wall or something). In that case there would be no cover save from the markerlight hit and no cover save from the missile hit either

@Flinty
thats how we play it, cover status is traced from the seeker delivery unit not the marking unit, and intervening terrain provides or does not provide cover based on that.
Seems logical and works for us.

Q: How are cover saves worked out for smart missile
systems and seeker missiles as they do not need line of
sight? (p27, 30)
A: The target will only receive cover saves that are not
based on line of sight. This would include when at least
half the unit is in area terrain; or a vehicle with wargear or
a special rule that means they are obscurred

In the Tau FAQ

cool, thanks guys.