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With forge worlds addition of the heavy gun drone, there are now several different kinds of drone unit which all have their own unique abilities. and yet, Battlsesuit teams cans still only take gun or sheild drones into battle. To be fair, maybe not all battle suit teams should get this ability, but i dont see any reason fluff or play wise that would keep a Shas'o commander from taking other kinds of drones, like a pair of Rail rifle equiped drones, or the heavy support burst cannon model.
Why not? The commanders are suposed to get the best, most advanced technology available, and if you were a Tau Commander charging into battle against, i dont know lets say a tyranid horde, which would you prefer? Two drones with a single twin linked shot a peice, or a pair of burst cannon drones that have 4 twin linked shots apeice? i can see how that might be a bit....strong, but it is a COMMANDER. Space marine commanders get orbital bombardment, so comapred to things like that, or a Hive Tyrant, a tau commander battle suit with a pair of rail rifle drones with him isnt all that over powered

The forgeworld models (suits and drones) are from Imperial Armor Volume 3: The Taros Campaign (A really good read) and the Imperial Armor: Apoc books. They actually come with "Codex" entries for 40k, although not all models you find are for 40k, some are for Apoc.

I actually use Commander Shas'o R'alai (a 40k entry in an Apoc book) at my FLGS, i made a copy of his sheet from my roomates Apoc book and use him. Of couse, these models are not technically in the Tau Empire Codex so you'll need to okay it with them.

Hopefully they will get more drone options with the new codex.

Fireknife wrote:The forgeworld models (suits and drones) are from Imperial Armor Volume 3: The Taros Campaign (A really good read) and the Imperial Armor: Apoc books. They actually come with "Codex" entries for 40k, although not all models you find are for 40k, some are for Apoc.

I actually use Commander Shas'o R'alai (a 40k entry in an Apoc book) at my FLGS, i made a copy of his sheet from my roomates Apoc book and use him. Of couse, these models are not technically in the Tau Empire Codex so you'll need to okay it with them.

oh alright then, i dont have The Apoc Book or any of the Imperial Armor series, but my freind does, il have to take a better look through them.

Yes, lets hope for more options, the battlesuits could be so much better if they were unleashed with their full potential

The Tau build their units around a single purpose, too many varieties of drones can muddy up that purpose.

The Sniper Drone's purpose is in it's name. Sniper. They are intended to remain in an obscured position and pick off targets at longer ranges.

When you look at the existing Tau units, there isn't really a good fit for that.

Crisis Suits are always in motion
Stealth Suits work much closer to the Enemy
Broadsides re an anti-tank unit

So the Sniper isn't a good fit with these from a role point of view (don't get me wrong, I'd love to outfit a squad of Stealth Suits with Sniper Drones and watch my enemies wail in frustration).

Heavy Gun Drones are much more of a fast moving fire support unit. In that way they do compliment the Crisis suit somewhat, but they lack a lot of the other weapons options of the crisis suit, limiting them to an anti-infantry role when the Crisis suit is best optimized against heavy infantry, monstrous creatures or vehicles. So again the dichotomy of roles makes them a poor fit.

Jefffar wrote:Heavy Gun Drones are much more of a fast moving fire support unit. In that way they do compliment the Crisis suit somewhat, but they lack a lot of the other weapons options of the crisis suit, limiting them to an anti-infantry role when the Crisis suit is best optimized against heavy infantry, monstrous creatures or vehicles. So again the dichotomy of roles makes them a poor fit.

But wouldnt that be a perfect fit to balance out a battle suit team? Equiping a team of three suits with plasma rifles and fussion blasters, their meant to kill heavy infantry and vehicles. Then, you add to that a handfull of heavy gun drones, which as you said are mobile enough for the job, and meant to kill mass light infantry. A unit equiped this way could be a massive multi-role threat to the enemy, it could engadge squads of guardsmen and their transports at the same time, with a good chance of killing all or most of its targets.

I get what you mean about sniper drones, it is somewhat out of their role. Maybe they would be better in 6th edition codex, assuming the rumors about a sniper battlesuit are true. Then sniper drones would be an excelent compliment to the suit team

The thing is Tau units are single role. Adding Heavy Drones to a Crisis Suit unit which is (typically) rolled to kill heavy infantry or vehicles turns them into a general purpose unit.

I think the easiest way to sort drones is that you have to buy a Drone body, then said drone has X hard points on it which you can purchase options for, along the lines of
Rail Rifle
Targetting Array
Pulse Rifle
- Twin Link
Pulse Carbine
- Twin Link
Missile Pod
- Twin Link
Burst Cannon
- Twin Link
etc.

A mix of Suit Weapons, Suit support systems and infantry gear, each option costing X points and taking up a hardpoint, giving the freedom to match and support the unit they're with, mounted on something like these:
Light Drone Chasis (1 Hardpoint) - 5pts
Med Drone Chasis (2 Hardpoints) - 10pts
Heavy Drone Chasis (3 Hardpoints) - 15pts

It would also be a way (within the fluff) for Fire Warrior teams and such to have access to special weapons.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
As an expansion:
This
Grade 1 Drone Controller +0 - Can take up to 2 Light Drones or 1 Medium Drone.
Grade 2 Drone Controller +2 - Can take up to 4 Light Drones or up to 2 Medium Drones.
Grade 3 Drone Controller +5 - Can take up to 4 Light Drones, up to 2 Medium Drones or 1 Heavy Drone.
Grade 4 Drone Controller +8 - Can take up to 6 Light Drones, up to 3 Medium Drones or up to 2 Heavy Drones.
Special Drone Controller +10 - Can take up to 4 Light Drones or up to 2 Medium Drones and 1 Special Deployment Drone.

Which would allow you to taaake:


Light Shield Generator would confer a 6+ invun.

Ovion wrote:I
A mix of Suit Weapons, Suit support systems and infantry gear, each option costing X points and taking up a hardpoint, giving the freedom to match and support the unit they're with, mounted on something like these:
Light Drone Chasis (1 Hardpoint) - 5pts
Med Drone Chasis (2 Hardpoints) - 10pts
Heavy Drone Chasis (3 Hardpoints) - 15pts

It would also be a way (within the fluff) for Fire Warrior teams and such to have access to special weapons.


Thats just about perfect! i like the different models of drone contoller idea as well. I hope you dont mind that i will be adopting some form of this system to my tau army when i play with my freinds (who are super into conversions like this). thank you so much for this amazing idea

NP, glad it got such a good response - I'll be inclduing this system in my Tau Extended codex, might as well open with it .

Also - would it still be nice and easy to understand if I made it like this?:
Grade 1 Drone Controller +2
A grade 1 Drone Controller can support Light and Medium Drones with up to a total of 2 Hard Points.
Grade 2 Drone Controller +4
A grade 2 Drone Controller can support Light and Medium Drones with up to a total of 4 Hard Points.
Grade 3 Drone Controller +6
A grade 3 Drone Controller can support Light, Medium and Heavy Drones with up to a total of 5 Hard Points.
Grade 4 Drone Controller +8
A grade 4 Drone Controller can support Light, Medium and Heavy Drones with up to a total of 6 Hard Points.
Special Deployment Drone Controller +10
A Special Deployment Drone Controller can support Light and Medium Drones with up to a total of 4 Hard Points and 1 Special Deployment Drone.

While I am in favour of more options, let's not forget Drones are supposed to be cheap, disposable replacements for living beings in the line.

Not all of them, Sniper Drones as-is come in at around 20pts and Marker Drones are 30pts, etc.

That said, I've added in the markerlights and removed the Plasma Rifles from light and medium drone platforms...

Sooo - These.

Ovion wrote:NP, glad it got such a good response - I'll be inclduing this system in my Tau Extended codex, might as well open with it .

Also - would it still be nice and easy to understand if I made it like this?:
Grade 1 Drone Controller +2
A grade 1 Drone Controller can support Light and Medium Drones with up to a total of 2 Hard Points.
Grade 2 Drone Controller +4
A grade 2 Drone Controller can support Light and Medium Drones with up to a total of 4 Hard Points.
Grade 3 Drone Controller +6
A grade 3 Drone Controller can support Light, Medium and Heavy Drones with up to a total of 5 Hard Points.
Grade 4 Drone Controller +8
A grade 4 Drone Controller can support Light, Medium and Heavy Drones with up to a total of 6 Hard Points.
Special Deployment Drone Controller +10
A Special Deployment Drone Controller can support Light and Medium Drones with up to a total of 4 Hard Points and 1 Special Deployment Drone.
[/quote

that works well to, it also seems like this system is a little more flexible, am i right? basing it off of hard pointsrather than drone classes seems like it expands your options a bit, which is good.

Drones arent purely meant to replace fire warriors, they are a supplemental mult-role force. Look at the remora gun drone fighter for example
http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/Warhammer-40000/TAU-REMORA-DRONE-STEALTH-FIGHTERS.html

Having 2 Light Drones and a Medium would be fun.

I see Medium Drones as the 'standard' 20-22mm drone body that we have currently.

Just with the option for Pulse Rifles and such.

Light Drones would be 14-15mm drone bodies like the ones the markerlights are mounted on on the Skyray Missile mount.

But with various weapons instead of the markerlight xD

Heavy Drones would want to be 30-40mm bodies, I'm thinking using the Devilfish side doors as a base (you know, for the top).

with something underneath.

Then for the Special Deployment Drone, something like this:

The Skyray Turret mount.

Maybe something involving this bit too

That sure would be an excelent swath of drones

Each drones going to be £1-5 to make, before options and bases :(

WOW 0.0 thats pricey