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Have anyone tried the sniper teams yet?

In theory:
It's 4 models with T3 and Sv4+ and a range of 36". They are not scoring. They compete with proper railguns for FOC slots (though you get three independent teams for one slot).

Asumming the spoter use the markerligt to try to give the drones BS4.
Against MEQs and weaker models without cover you get 3 * ((2/3 * 2/3 * 5/6) + (1/3 * 1/2 * 5/6)) = 1.53; 23 points of marines, 9 points of IG.

In comparison 8 fire warriors (that happen to cost the same ) at long range would get 8 * 1/2 * 2/3 * 1/3 = 0.889 MEQs; 13 points of marines.
Or 8 * 1/2 * 5/6 = 3.33 guardsmen, 20 points of IG.

Further the fire warriors are twice as resilient and is a scoring unit. The FWs can also move and fire 12", while the snipers only have a single pistol while moving. The snipers can ofcourse use the markerlight to help other units, giving them a little extra flexibility (though the FWs can buy this ability as well).

The Sniper's are more resilient thanks to the stealth field generator. They also have target lock that can be useful on occasion.

The FCW pay alot for the marker drones and they lose their mobility if they wish to use them.

I don't it's fair to compare SDT to FCW, the real question is how comfortable are you with only 2 HS slots for railguns.

If you have a spare HS slot then I think they are great except for the non scoring factor.

With 36" range guns and stealth if the enemy tries to fire on them they are mostely not going to see them and waste their turns firing which is rather nice.

Also 3 teams can cause a potential 9 pinning checks! Might not do much but even marines with ld8 (if not ugpraded) will be failing now and then. Juts remember to target each sniper at a different target within 1 sniper team.

Also 3 teams can cause a potential 9 pinning checks!

And the Sniper Drones still uses the standard (Gun) Drone BS - with a single shot weapon. At first glance I think this unit will benefit most from a Pathfinder unit, or barring that, massed fire. Splitting fire nine ways is too 'iffy' to me, but I like your optimism.

Furious: don't the sniper drones have a built-in targetting array? That's a BS3, which is much more feasible with a single shot weapon.

I think the potential for this unit is great. The stealth field keeps it fairly safe, while the unit's range and power make it a fairly serious threat to just about anything on the board. With additional features like pinning, target locks and a free BS4 markerlight (as well as 3 independent units for 1 force org slot), this unit is very flexible and multi-purpose. I think there will be lots of discussion on how to squeeze the most out of this particular unit's capabilities.

The loss of a heavy slot is problematic, but not insurmountable. With the new codex, broadsides are more viable (shields and the A.S.S.), and piranhas and stealth teams can add anti-armor punch with fusion blasters.

I went senile on that one and read straight past the stealth field, that makes a lot of difference. And yeah all models have a targetting array, so BS4 for the spotter 3 for the drones.

Splitting the fire deminishes the value of the markerlight though as it gives one unit firing at one unit +1 BS nowdays. But since it's a networked markerlight you resolve it before anything else in the unit, so I guess if you hit you can shot all the drones at that unit with BS4, if you miss you might as well shot at separate units for more pinning tests. Unless you have to declare targets for everyone first?

For reference the text is (p29) "Unlike a normal markerlight, the operator's own unit may benefit from its use. It is fired before the remainder of the unit fires."

I think you may well want to fire that markerlight at another unit anyway! why add +1bs to a unit of 3 when you can do it to a squad of 3 crisis or a squad of stealths (sizes range from 3-18) or even just a 12 man FW team.

Personally I would try to get the most out of the team by splitting their fire and just causing those pinning tests.

I think you'd want to split fire to force multiple pinning tests. As I understand it, if a drone from each squad kills a model from a unit, that unit takes 3 pinning checks. Might as well force as many checks as possible with the free target locks, and use the markerlight to guide other units.

I can see the shooting phase getting very complicated!

Dumb questions time......
I have re-read the entry for Sniper Drones about 5 times and I still get the feeling I am missing something....

1 team is made up of 3 drones and a spotter. There can be 3 such teams taking one heavy support slot.

They would all have to maintain coherency? Dont see anything to suggest each team can be deployed away from the others? (thinking of the rules for tomb spyders which quite plainly state that each spyder does not need to be in coherency with the other).

All 3 spotters fire at a unit. You could use a cumulative effect to neg 3 the enemy units Ld ?

If not firing at the closest unit, you would still need to take a leadership test. You would just take 1 Ld test for the entire heavy choice? Not 1 for each team, yes? Could result in some serious overkill of 1 enemy unit if you fail that test? eg. "Oh look, that  four man  scout squad  is closer than  those deep striking  termies by 1 inch"

Network markerlights MAY be used by the owning unit. So, they may also be used by another unit yet to fire....(as you have already discussed)....

Of course the cumulative effect of the standard markerlight could lead to potential problems if you forget which marker belongs to which unit. You could be inadvertantly trying to get a benefit of a marker hit from a unit that was not entitled to benefit from it?

I'm giving myself a headache just thinking about it !

Can anyone make this clearer for me, please?

Each team is a unit (this can be determined from the line "In addition, the team is never counted as a Scoring Unit."). Only models in a unit has to keep coherency, there is nothing in the rules that says units have to keep coherency with other units. They would ofcourse have to be deployed at the same as they are one FOC selection.

About markerlights, when you select a unit to fire they may use any or none of the markerlight counters available on their target. If a unit has a regular markerlight that fires along with other models in the same unit, it will place its counter simultaneously with the other weapon fire so that particular counter is not available, it would be a good convention to roll for it last. If a unit has a networked markerlight it fires before the other weapons in the unit, so any counter it produces is available to the rest of the unit. So there's no need to keep track where particular markerlight counters came from, just place the counters in the correct order.

About markerlight counters and pinning tests, a counter used to give -1 LD is removed just like normal and it only affects the pinning test caused by the active unit. So if you have 3 teams you can, one team at a time, fire the markerligts at unit A and the rail rifles at some other units, excepts for the last team, who also fires one or more rail rifles at unit A. Any markerlight counters you racked up (0-3) can then be removed to give a modifier on that last pinning test.