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should I make one squad of firewarriors with 12 guys, one upgraded to squad leader with a markerlight, pulse carbine and drone controller (everyone else has pulse rifles)
or, two squads of six guys each, each with one of the same squad leaders as before? Why?

People will tell you to make one squad of 6 and save the points for battlesuits. Of the two you give, I say one squad.

In all honesty, since the firewarrior squad themselves can't benefit from their own markerlight, I'sd save the points from that and invest in a bonding knife.

Unless of coure you are running a list without notable markerlight support. In that case 2 squads, markerlight each.

I am planning to use one team of pathfinders for markerlight support, however having 2 teams of firewarriors means they could use each other's markerlights, they would each be able to benefit from +1 markerlight.

No they wouldn't. One of the 2 units has to shoot first. That means it's done shooting before the other unit gets to use it's markerlight.

Jefffar wrote:No they wouldn't. One of the 2 units has to shoot first. That means it's done shooting before the other unit gets to use it's markerlight.

I forgot about that...


Automatically Appended Next Post:
What if one squad had two markerlight drones, if I consistently fired that squad before the other, the second squad would get up to 3 extra markers?

Markerlight Drones are an interesting case. They use Networked Markerlights which, contrary to the way you'd think they work with the name networked, are able to benefit the shooting unit.

However they are dang expensive.

I am familiar with how networked markerlights work, as far as what I suggested they offer flexibility in case the unit meant to utilize the markerlights dies or for some other reason cannot shoot at the marked target.

markerlight drones on fire warrior teams is a waste. You either run your fire warriors as small as possible and in a transport, or you take 2-3 full fire warrior teams in devilfishes. Use them as your anti-infantry force, since 3 teams shooting at one unit in rapid fire range with pathfinder or stealth marker support is much, much better.

Quick math on it.

6 Firewarriors - BS 3 = 3 hits per turn. Costs you 75 points if you include a Shas'ui and a Bondng Knife

6 Firewarriors plus a Marker Drone - 1/2 the time you're BS 3 and half the time you're BS 4. Works out to 3.5 hits per turn and costs you 105 points.

8 Firewarriors at BS = 4 hits per turn and costs you 95 points including the Shas'ui and Bonding Knife.

Now if I'm running squads of 12, without a transport and still want to increase my hit rate, a Marker Drone would be fine, but until you max out the number of firewarriors it is cheaper to just buy more firewarriors.

Markerlights discussion aside, just don't give the squad leader a pulse carbine, you want him shooting with the rest of the squad at an enemy that is far away.
I guess it's helpful if they're gonna be rapid firing a lot as the pinning gives you a chance to avoid a charge back against you, but even then the chance is slim.

I run three squads of ten Fire Warriors all with pulse carbines and EMP grenades in a Devil Fish. Never really had too much a problem aside from jump infantry...

so, It would be best to make a squad of 10 with 2 gun drones and mount them all in a devilfish?