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Ok, like many probably my initial plans to have crisis teams of 3 suits + 6 missile drones have been dashed by the FAQ that came out on the day of the release! So now my crisis teams have the option of gun drones, marker drones or shield drones. I am thinking of having two teams with shield drones but would welcome suggestions.

The reason for not wanting gundrones is that I already have 12 gun drones to go with my commander (who also has a gun drone) and his drone controller for lots of BS5 S5 lovliness. With 48 fire warriors and 4 devilfish with SMS I think I have enough S5 shooting. Also the 2 crisis teams do not have drone controllers as they have either missile pod + twin-linked fusion blasters or missile pod + twin-linked plasma rifles. They are designed to hunt vehicles or monstrous creatures so I thought gun drones wouldn't be quite as effective against those targets.

The reason for not wanting marker drones is that I already have 20 pathfinders, all with marker lights, plus a cadre fireblade. 21 marker lights is enough I feel, especially as the marker drones would have to shoot at the same target as the crisis team and if they are shooting vehicles or monsters I am hoping they are using marker lights to finish off the target, not adding more to the target via the drones.

That leaves shield drones who will provide a 4++ save and effectively be an extra 6 wounds before I start losing the crisis suits. If they are going tank or monster hunting then they are likely to attract a lot of attention so the more protection they get the better.

Those are my reasons but like I said I would value other peoples opinions as I may not have thought of something. Part of me still thinks having them as gun drones would be good. Just to be clear this is part of a 3000pts army that includes all the units that I want and fills the FOC so I am not looking for suggestions like drop the drones for another crisis team or similar as I dont have the space in the chart and only want to use 1 FOC.

I would DEFINATELY suggest exchanging your gun drones on your command suit for marker drones. For 120 point lets see what that gets you;
Firewarriors, BS 4 and ignoring 4+ cover to 4 times Is 26 approxamate wounds vs 10 wounds versus guard at 30 inches. THAT is the point cost for extra fire warriors of 7? fire warrior squads!!!!!

I CANNOT STRESS THAT ENOUGH!!!!
IT WILL GET YOU SO MUCH MORE PER POINT

Sorry for all caps!

I would recommend getting rid of the pathfinders, 11 points +5 armor is alot worse than 12 points 3+ armor and relentless and 2d6 JSJ movement, as well as being BS5

FoWPlayerDeathOfUS.TDs wrote:
I would DEFINATELY suggest exchanging your gun drones on your command suit for marker drones. For 120 point lets see what that gets you;
Firewarriors, BS 4 and ignoring 4+ cover to 4 times Is 26 approxamate wounds vs 10 wounds versus guard at 30 inches. THAT is the point cost for extra fire warriors of 7? fire warrior squads!!!!!

I CANNOT STRESS THAT ENOUGH!!!!
IT WILL GET YOU SO MUCH MORE PER POINT

Sorry for all caps!

I would recommend getting rid of the pathfinders, 11 points +5 armor is alot worse than 12 points 3+ armor and relentless and 2d6 JSJ movement, as well as being BS5

Odd way of thinking. If you are sorry about the caps, you change them. You don't leave them be and attempt to excuse your way out of it.

Yes changing the gun drone squadron to all marker drones would be good (however they are 4+ save not 3+ as you said).

One problem I can see with that is that I lose the deep strike S5 bonanza which I can't get any other way due to no free slots.

Also, what can you do with, say, 10 marker light hits on a target from the drone squad that you can't do with roughly 5 from a pathfinder squad? If the target is still alive after 5 marker lights have been used up you are using the wrong guns on that target!

P.S. Drone squads are 14pts per model I believe, not 12 like the upgrade drones.

Unfortunately you did not answer my original question which was about the drones for the crisis teams. I will think about the gun drone suggestion though.

I think the shield drones are totally the way to go for your crisis. Like you said, they are your bamf hunters and will probably attract a lot of attention. 6 extra 4++ saves are going to be annoying for anyone to have to shoot through!

Thanks, like I said I wasn't 100% sure if I shouldn't take more gun drones as I am a big fan of more firepower over fancy tricks that may or may not work. However in this case I think the extra protection trick might be worth it!

Shield drones would help, but to offer another view... more markerlights wouldn't hurt. As fantastic as Pathfinders are, you might find they're not in range or sight of an intended target, or "otherwise indisposed" (blasted Vanguard Veterans). Even if they're free, they can only light up one unit per turn - the drones will give you a means to light up a second.

I'd have to echo the shield drones. They'll need the extra protection for their job.

Just mentioning, all the drones dont need to be the same, so you can easily with 3 crisis suits have 1 shield 1 marker set up on all 3 of them, and adjust after experience.

and if you have an XV8 commander with 2x bodyguard you can have 6 markerlights hitting on 2s load of bollox that is haha

 ausYenLoWang wrote:
and if you have an XV8 commander with 2x bodyguard you can have 6 markerlights hitting on 2s load of bollox that is haha

Which I really don't get. The drones and the unit have to shoot at the same thing. And the suits can't use the markerlight hits because they are not networked. In which case the suits (that usually have the more damaging weapons) will need to shoot at BS3 and fight cover saves. Then any other unit can use those 5 hits, but at that point it seems like a whole lot of wasted potential from the initial suits.

Where is this faq can some one give me the info on how to get

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/content/article.jsp?categoryId=1000018&aId=3400019&_requestid=1694292

for faq's in general

http://www.games-workshop.com/MEDIA_CustomProductCatalog/m3130063a_Tau_Empire_v1.0_APRIL13.pdf

for tau

 Jayden63 wrote:

 ausYenLoWang wrote:
and if you have an XV8 commander with 2x bodyguard you can have 6 markerlights hitting on 2s load of bollox that is haha

Which I really don't get. The drones and the unit have to shoot at the same thing. And the suits can't use the markerlight hits because they are not networked. In which case the suits (that usually have the more damaging weapons) will need to shoot at BS3 and fight cover saves. Then any other unit can use those 5 hits, but at that point it seems like a whole lot of wasted potential from the initial suits.

give them target locks to split fire... and just use them as a markerlight facility.. only the commander needs the controller so your free to give a TL and TL weapons to the other 2 bodyguards. probably an inneficiant use of points but it depends.... large game as part of an allies detachment... not bad

 ausYenLoWang wrote:
and if you have an XV8 commander with 2x bodyguard you can have 6 markerlights hitting on 2s load of bollox that is haha

I had thought that all the drones were BS2 and therefore hit on 5s. Am I missing something?

 Cheesedoodler wrote:

 ausYenLoWang wrote:
and if you have an XV8 commander with 2x bodyguard you can have 6 markerlights hitting on 2s load of bollox that is haha

I had thought that all the drones were BS2 and therefore hit on 5s. Am I missing something?

give the comamnder drone controller makes all drones in his squad BS 5

 Super Ready wrote:
Shield drones would help, but to offer another view... more markerlights wouldn't hurt. As fantastic as Pathfinders are, you might find they're not in range or sight of an intended target, or "otherwise indisposed" (blasted Vanguard Veterans). Even if they're free, they can only light up one unit per turn - the drones will give you a means to light up a second.

Ah yes, but I have 2 units of 10 pathfinders, I can already light up two squads. If I make the drones marker drones they have to shoot at the unit my crisis suits shoot at which is no help.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Jayden63 wrote:

 ausYenLoWang wrote:
and if you have an XV8 commander with 2x bodyguard you can have 6 markerlights hitting on 2s load of bollox that is haha

Which I really don't get. The drones and the unit have to shoot at the same thing. And the suits can't use the markerlight hits because they are not networked. In which case the suits (that usually have the more damaging weapons) will need to shoot at BS3 and fight cover saves. Then any other unit can use those 5 hits, but at that point it seems like a whole lot of wasted potential from the initial suits.

My plan was to use pathfinders to light up the target, then get the crisis team to shoot at it BS5 with no cover saves. Therefore marker drones won't really help the crisis team as you say.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 ausYenLoWang wrote:

 Jayden63 wrote:

 ausYenLoWang wrote:
and if you have an XV8 commander with 2x bodyguard you can have 6 markerlights hitting on 2s load of bollox that is haha

Which I really don't get. The drones and the unit have to shoot at the same thing. And the suits can't use the markerlight hits because they are not networked. In which case the suits (that usually have the more damaging weapons) will need to shoot at BS3 and fight cover saves. Then any other unit can use those 5 hits, but at that point it seems like a whole lot of wasted potential from the initial suits.

give them target locks to split fire... and just use them as a markerlight facility.. only the commander needs the controller so your free to give a TL and TL weapons to the other 2 bodyguards. probably an inneficiant use of points but it depends.... large game as part of an allies detachment... not bad

No space for target locks as they have 3 weapons (one twin-linked and one missile pod). I felt more high strength firepower was better than a squad that is a jack of all trades and a master of none.

As for allies I never design an army list with allies. They are heavily abused by players to get round weaknesses in their army/play style when in fact they were designed to be used occassionaly to add a little narrative to their game/campaign. I learn to use an armies weaknesses to my advantage. Weaknesses are as important to an army as strengths when it comes to battle plans and I enjoy using them.

FoWPlayerDeathOfUS.TDs wrote:
I would DEFINATELY suggest exchanging your gun drones on your command suit for marker drones. For 120 point lets see what that gets you;
Firewarriors, BS 4 and ignoring 4+ cover to 4 times Is 26 approxamate wounds vs 10 wounds versus guard at 30 inches. THAT is the point cost for extra fire warriors of 7? fire warrior squads!!!!!

I CANNOT STRESS THAT ENOUGH!!!!
IT WILL GET YOU SO MUCH MORE PER POINT

Sorry for all caps!

I would recommend getting rid of the pathfinders, 11 points +5 armor is alot worse than 12 points 3+ armor and relentless and 2d6 JSJ movement, as well as being BS5

I think I'm missing something, where in the codex is relentless specified for marker drones?

If it's not then marker drones would stop JSJ unless you just want to fire snapshots.

It's not in the codex, it's in the rulebook. All Jet Pack models are relentless.

Chrysis wrote:
It's not in the codex, it's in the rulebook. All Jet Pack models are relentless.

Cheers, that makes marker drones much more fun than I thought

Niktron wrote:

FoWPlayerDeathOfUS.TDs wrote:
I would DEFINATELY suggest exchanging your gun drones on your command suit for marker drones. For 120 point lets see what that gets you;
Firewarriors, BS 4 and ignoring 4+ cover to 4 times Is 26 approxamate wounds vs 10 wounds versus guard at 30 inches. THAT is the point cost for extra fire warriors of 7? fire warrior squads!!!!!

I CANNOT STRESS THAT ENOUGH!!!!
IT WILL GET YOU SO MUCH MORE PER POINT

Sorry for all caps!

I would recommend getting rid of the pathfinders, 11 points +5 armor is alot worse than 12 points 3+ armor and relentless and 2d6 JSJ movement, as well as being BS5

I think I'm missing something, where in the codex is relentless specified for marker drones?

If it's not then marker drones would stop JSJ unless you just want to fire snapshots.

they are jetpack troops and jetpacks give relentless its in the BRB

edit : ninjad

Niktron wrote:

FoWPlayerDeathOfUS.TDs wrote:
I would DEFINATELY suggest exchanging your gun drones on your command suit for marker drones. For 120 point lets see what that gets you;
Firewarriors, BS 4 and ignoring 4+ cover to 4 times Is 26 approxamate wounds vs 10 wounds versus guard at 30 inches. THAT is the point cost for extra fire warriors of 7? fire warrior squads!!!!!

I CANNOT STRESS THAT ENOUGH!!!!
IT WILL GET YOU SO MUCH MORE PER POINT

Sorry for all caps!

I would recommend getting rid of the pathfinders, 11 points +5 armor is alot worse than 12 points 3+ armor and relentless and 2d6 JSJ movement, as well as being BS5

I think I'm missing something, where in the codex is relentless specified for marker drones?

If it's not then marker drones would stop JSJ unless you just want to fire snapshots.

Pg47 of the BRB.