Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I recently had a game where, at the end of the day, I looked back at the game and thought "geez... I really could have used sniper drones."

Weird, I know, but it's got me wondering if maybe the prevailing wisdom about this unit isn't quite as wise as I'd thought.

Consider the situation in the game I had just lost. In my backfield, I had a two-level tower with a commanding view of the alley between two objectives. Into this tower, I deployed a Fire Warrior team. Sure enough, anything that tried to cross between the two objectives came under heavy fire. Although I wasn't able to assault the two objectives my opponent held and secure a win - I'm blaming the loss of my Broadside on Turn One to a lucky Tachyon Arrow and, perhaps, the overly defensive use of my Crisis Team - that Fire Warrior team dominated the entire game. My opponent was forced to shoot at them instead of at other targets, trying and failing again and again to eliminate them. One of my opponent's units was weakened and another destroyed by the crack shots.

If the numbers seem weird here, it's because it was a very small game.

Anyway, I wonder if Sniper Drones would have been even better in the role of backfield board control. With the combination of cover saves and their stealth field generators, they would have been even higher to kill. Although less numerous, their shots would be more accurate, more reliable, and potentially produce the odd pin once in a while, especially in a game large enough to bring more Markerlights to the fray. And, as ATT recommends, I could have hidden my Broadside behind them.

Anyway, I'm curious to hear your thoughts. For myself, I'm beginning to wonder if the Sniper Drone Team isn't a unit that looks bad on paper but is situationally quite good, as they can dominate lanes of fire and control swaths of the board. I know they have flaws. It would be nice if they could turn those stealth field generators on before the battle and Infiltrate, or upgrade the antigravity jets on the drones so they got Relentless, for example. But I think there might be something to them, even so, as a light, relatively inexpensive harassing unit that an opponent must either ignore or dedicated resources to destroying.

In any case, I'm bidding on a team on eBay, and the possibility of experimenting with them has reinvigorated my interest in painting and playing my Tau... though I'm still not doing anything with my Crisis Suits or Broadsides until a new codex resculpt is confirmed or denied.

It isn't that they are bad... its that they take a slot in a section of our codex that we rely on for Anti Tank.... Since 5E is Mechhammer most people tend to take XV88's and Hammerheads...

Now in a small game with low points the AP3 of the Snipers is great as there is also rarely any heavy AV on the table that a few Crisis suits with TL MP cant take care of.....

They are a situational at best unit.... and if we ever get a new codex I think most of us agree that we would take them if they were TROOPS.

I have tried the unit a few times and honestly I would save your money. dont get me wrong the markerlight and ap3 pinning guns are really nice but id rather have a hammerhead or broadisde any day, might be cheaper to take 6 pathfinders with railrifles.

ATO

Well, I'm not concerned about the money. If I win this auction, I'm getting the things for $5.50. And if it does turn out that they're useless... ::shrug:: whatever. I'll see what they're like in the new codex.

Unless your dead set on making sniper teams work, you should ignore them.

They can be effective set in the back and high up in terrain, but only take 3 units, using one heavy support slot, then take the rest as broadsides. You should be fine if you run battlesuits when it comes to dealing with vehicles.

The sniper teams provide excellent MEQ killing power after you've gotten them out of their transports, and the guns can hurt monsterous creatures as well.