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I was exposed to this late last night, read the BRB this morning and could not quite find that my friend is wrong. I turn to your superior collective intellect, Dakka!

Premise A:
A Devilfish is a skimmer that can take a Disruption Pod
Premise B:
Disruption Pod allows a vehicle that is more than 12 inches away to count as an Obscured target.
Premise C:
A skimmer that move Flat Out can claim a 4+ cover save.
Premise D:
I have not found the rule that says a vehicle must move in its movement phase in order to move Flat Out, nor that moving Flat Out must consist of a minimum movement distance.

Arguing this, my friend says that the Devilfish will provide mobile cover for any number of units behind it, if TLOS is observed to really hide part of the unit, that benefits from a 2+ cover save and keeps up with the grunts.

My points of contention:
1)I thought Obscured now granted a cover save circumstancial with what you are hidden behind, not an automatic 4+. I am willing to be wrong about this.
2)Even though it is not written as such... it just sounds wrong. How could a vehicle not move at all during its movement phase and be considered to have moved Flat Out (in my mind it implies a certain speed or urgency)?

Is this a case of Spirit of the Law versus Word of the Law? I have a Tau army, and have Devilfish, so I could also benefit from this.

First off, per the FAQ, Disruption Pods just grant Shrouded now over 12" (+2 cover save), which is how you get the 2+ cover save off of the Jink 4+ save when moving flat-out.

And yes, you can not move in the movement phase and then move 1" flat-out and still get this bonus.

HOWEVER, the cover save this model gets DOES NOT apply to models obscured by it. You'd still use the normal 5+ cover save for them. See pg 18 of the rulebook for details on intervening model cover saves.

But it's not some epic big deal because you can still just move within 12" of the vehicle or assault it and it goes poof, and to pull this trick off you don't get to shoot with the Devilfish either.

Disruption Pods do grant the Shrouded rule to anything firing at the vehicle from more than 12". Im pretty sure this is what you meant, but it isn't worded that way. This doesn't extend to any models that aren't the vehicle being shot at. So yes, any vehicle with D-pods can get down to a 2+ Cover Save from Turbo-boosting. Not unrealistic since 2 Ravenwing Darkshrouds can get down to a 2+ Cover save w/o Turbo-boosting as long as they both move and remain within range to grant each other stealth.

The minimum distance that was previously required for Turbo-boosting isn't around anymore. You only need to move a vehicle to get the Jink save, and move the vehicle in the shooting phase to get the Turbo-boost.

Vehicles do provide cover to models behind them. What cover they provide is still something most players will disagree on. Some will say it's a flat 4+ (and most of those because everything was a 4+ in the previous edition), others will say that it depends on what their position is behind. Usually a 5+ if in open ground, since Obscured vehicles in Open ground get this. The debate will include that this only applies to vehicles. Remember though, that Cover is no longer a blanket rule like it used to be. Models now count as being in cover on an individual basis. So only the models that are actually obscured get the cover save, not the models outside of cover if over 1/2 of them are in cover. Now that you know how this particular player plays, just clarify before the game starts how he intends to play it so that you can plan accordingly instead of being surprised.

 Akar wrote:

Vehicles do provide cover to models behind them. What cover they provide is still something most players will disagree on. Some will say it's a flat 4+ (and most of those because everything was a 4+ in the previous edition), others will say that it depends on what their position is behind. Usually a 5+ if in open ground, since Obscured vehicles in Open ground get this. The debate will include that this only applies to vehicles. Remember though, that Cover is no longer a blanket rule like it used to be. Models now count as being in cover on an individual basis. So only the models that are actually obscured get the cover save, not the models outside of cover if over 1/2 of them are in cover. Now that you know how this particular player plays, just clarify before the game starts how he intends to play it so that you can plan accordingly instead of being surprised.

Page 18 is crystal clear: intervening models grant a 5+ cover save.

I'm not sure how people can argue otherwise?

Sorry if I was unclear. I agreed that the models behind would get the intervening model cover save and not the Shrouded special rule.

So actually, I'd rather he moves flat out 1 inch and not get to fire his burst cannon or drones, so that his 90pts+ Devilfish only grants 5+ to models behind it.

Crisis averted.

Even if he chooses not to move flat out, just normal movement will grant a 5+ jink save + shrouded.

So he can move, fire his weapons, and still have a 3+ cover save.

But if he does that he is within 18 inches of troops that are often more combat capable than his Tau. I'm ok with that too.

Right, but the fish is just mobile cover.

It's the suits behind it and the 12 S5 rapid firing fire warriors you have to worry about.

If it was me I wouldn't shoot with the devilfish, but flat out move in front of the firewarriors that just got out and fired, blocking LoS to them.

 Mathieu Raymond wrote:
But if he does that he is within 18 inches of troops that are often more combat capable than his Tau. I'm ok with that too.

Right, its not as annoying with Devilfish, but when its a Hammerhead doing it you will see how frustrating it can be.

Its safe to say that the Tau aren't running away with the tournament scene, so while it is certainly a really cool feature that Tau have, it is by no means unbalanced.

Its countered by Fire Warriors, and much of their stuff in general, being overpriced.

 Grey Templar wrote:

 Mathieu Raymond wrote:
But if he does that he is within 18 inches of troops that are often more combat capable than his Tau. I'm ok with that too.

Right, its not as annoying with Devilfish, but when its a Hammerhead doing it you will see how frustrating it can be.

The problem with using a hammerhead is to move flat out, you cant shoot, and a gun tank not shooting is just dumb

 wilsjur wrote:

 Grey Templar wrote:

 Mathieu Raymond wrote:
But if he does that he is within 18 inches of troops that are often more combat capable than his Tau. I'm ok with that too.

Right, its not as annoying with Devilfish, but when its a Hammerhead doing it you will see how frustrating it can be.

The problem with using a hammerhead is to move flat out, you cant shoot, and a gun tank not shooting is just dumb

Query: was it really worth bringing up a 2 month old thread for this?

Chess by mail in the 19th century routinely took over a month to get your opponent's next move.

Observations on tactics should probably be relegated to Tactica, though.