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I was initially very interested, but unless I'm missing something, they aren't move and shoot. This makes me somewhat less interested.

Anyone trying them?

There's a brief discussion on them a few threads back ( http://www.dakkadakka.com/Default.aspx?tabid=93&forumid=18&postid=51964&view=topic ).

To summerize, I think they're pretty good. Good range, good power, multiple small units, pinning, BS4 markerlight and target locks for each unit, all with stealth? Not bad at all. Big concern is loss of a heavy slot and cost, especially with non-scoring status.

The uses against MEQs is obvious, I think, but they also look handy against horde-type armies as well. I've had good success against IG, for example, submunitioning HQ squads and forcing pinning/morale checks on nearby heavy-weapon squads. Using terrain, I can usually engage sections of IG gunlines piecemeal. With 3 sniper teams each firing at seperate targets, I can engage 9 seperate targets while using the BS4 markerlight to guide more critical units (6 stealth suits, for example, or remove the cover save from my submunition's blast on his HQ). With pinning and casualty checks, I can force a lot of leadership checks.

I'll need to do more testing, of course. I find I end up deepstriking lone HQ suits to hit armor from the rear while having my hammerheads focus more on enemy troops...two hammerheads just aren't reliable enough to take out enemy armor from the front.

How about one Hammerhead plus a Broadside team for anti-tank, plus Sniper drones. But of course you're giving up a lot, having only one Hammerhead.

I used them in a game against Nids. Mind you I didn't know I was going to be fighting Nids, but to my suprise they did pretty well. They are a great unit if you are playing a static Tau army, or atleast a solid firebase of Firewarriors/Kroot. When placed behind the Firewarrior teams they truly compliment them. Yes the loss of the heavy support slot isn't wonderful, but I find that in different lists they work well. As much as I love the hammerhead, I am tempted to use 2 teams of broadsides and a full sniper drone team as my heavy support choices. When those units are backed by 3-4 teams of firewarriors and some suits, it becomes a really ugly affair.

I also am using Farsight, so when faced with only getting to take 1 broadside team and hammerhead, the sniper drones come in quite handy.

Conclusion: if you favor a stay ranged and stay put type of play these are the units for you, however if you like fast mechanized forces I would stick with the hammerheads and piranahas.

Edit: forgot add, they are not move and shoot, but they still get shoot and move if i remeber correctly, so they can still reposition for the next round of firing. 

Sniper drone teams require 2 things to be useful:

1. Markerlights (to pin enemy).
2. n00bs.

Against anyone that doesn't grasp 40k all that well, markerdrones are fantastic. Especially since most n00bs don't play missions.

Posted By onlainari on 03/30/2006 9:44 PM
Sniper drone teams require 2 things to be useful:

1. Markerlights (to pin enemy).
2. n00bs.

Against anyone that doesn't grasp 40k all that well, markerdrones are fantastic. Especially since most n00bs don't play missions.

Again, some explaination would make the above information much more useful.

Seconded!

As someone who has been out of 40k since 2nd edition and getting ready for a RTT in May, I'd love to know more too...

So what's the math on these guys?

Suppose you have a unit of pathfinders and 3 sniper teams, and you really want a unit of marines dead.

So 11 marker shots, 4 from the pathfinders and two from the steal team controllers hit. So 6 total. That's enough to put all 9 drones up to BS5.

So 6 1/4 dead marines. To do this you've committed 336 points of models.

So if you do this for about 3 turns, you've paid for yourself. Assuming the other guy doesn't have any indirect to drop on them, that shouldn't be too hard.

I'm definitely optimistic about them. Wonder how long before someone fields 9 teams of these guys. (I'm not so optimistic about that).

You can only field 3, I'm afraid. Only one HS slot with three teams max.

Posted By Kilkrazy on 03/30/2006 12:07 PM

How about one Hammerhead plus a Broadside team for anti-tank, plus Sniper drones. But of course you're giving up a lot, having only one Hammerhead.

I think that's going to be what the Heavy Support of my Farsight Enclave list is going to look like.
It should probably do pretty well; I think there's a lot of opportunity for synergy with that combination of force.

Yes, I find it most amusing that the farsight enclave has limited access to "high-tech" systems and things, but can still field the same amount of sniper drones a regular list can.

I'm definitely optimistic about them. Wonder how long before someone fields 9 teams of these guys. (I'm not so optimistic about that).

Only if they cheat.

They're a good disruption unit out at 30" mark. Personally I wouldnt commit the pathfinders mark lights to them. KISS with them. Only commit pathfinders to the communalative -1 LD for pin checks perhaps. -4 to a marines Leadership is testing on LD 6 for a pin check.

Only if they cheat.

Did I miss that they're 0-1?

Yes, you may only take one heavy suppost slot up with Sniper Drone teams, so unfortunatley you can't have 27 sniper drones on the field.

Like I said they are actually a very effective unit of you're using a static list. When supporting firewarrior teams they really shine, and even though 3 of them costs 240pts, I found them to be very worth it.

One question I had was do these guys set up like infantry for escalation purposes. I didn't have my codex with me when I played (I really wasn't using anything new but them anyway) and this came up. If they do this really gives tau a solid Heavy Support choice in escalation since these guys can offer quite a punch early on.

Watched a friend of mine play them in a few games.  Their usefulness depends on the army their facing.  On paper vs. many static-ish armies they're great since they have 36" range and at that distance the stealth field works well.

Against say your original 3 Destructor list, they'd do pretty well for themselves assuming you couldn't deepstrike your termies safely enough close by.

Against pods, like most Tau, they're useless, the extra Railhead is much prefered.

They also die, painfully to indirect ordinance, and the Whirlwind is devastating to them, though having a bunch of whirlwinds isn't too common in most lists I've seen (yours not withstanding).  Then again Whirlwinds are good against tau since the mines help limit JSJ, but with the drones you want the blast, not the mines so at least it forces a choice.

Against the usual fast/assault stuff that kills tau (especially bikes, etc) they fold like everything else in the list.

In general if I were playing Tau I'd use them in friendly games where I didn't want to get called cheesy by taking 3 Railheads in 1500 points.  I doubt you'll see them in tournaments much at all.

Another point against them in tournament is the fact that they start on the table in escalation and they cannot select item from the armoury.

They could have been the perfect unit to use the positionnal relay but cannot use it.

they are superior to a unit of 4 pathfinder with 3 railrifle.

If you can keep them from being assaulted they would be useful. Because you can use 3 team they can be separate to force an assaulter to break his force in smaller chunk to get rid of them which migth provide a benefit for the tau

This can be a good pushback unit for deployment because we deploy 3 team at the same time . Most of the mission that require a pushback force a deployment at 24 inches from the ennemy so the stealth field can still be efficient.

The markerligth will probably will not be used to boost the railrifle but to help other unit. because pathfinder will be eliminate early we migth be able to have more markerligth from the sniper drones than from the pathfinder at the end of the game

Do they die any more painfully to indirect fire than anyone else? In fact, because they have the stealth field, doesn't the enemy have to roll an additional d6" scatter?

Most indirect lacks LOS in the first place, so your rolling that addtional D6 already.

A barrage shot that doesn't have LoS needs to roll 2D6 and pick the highest (p31), night fighting causes an additionnal D6 to be rolled (p84).

But it still splatters then 1/3 of the time.

But it still splatters then 1/3 of the time.

So go back to playing marines. Welcome to the hazards of playing a non-MEQ army. Everything kills you dead, however against indirect 2/3 of the time the plate is scattering about 7" away (2D6), thats pretty good odds if you keep your guys tight together. Since you start on the table, you can park them immediatly inside any cover on your side of the table. Suddenly you now have a save against that indirect.

Sorry if that came across a litte short, eveything kills non-MEQ lists, its just something you get used to. Going through a list of what will kill these guys is pointless, If it kills a firewarrior, it kills these guys. Your energies would be better spent going over how these guys help the different style of Tau lists and see if it fits into the style of play your planing on doing.

Besides ID is a good arguement for taking piranhas or DS monet suits for a defensive measure. You just have to ask yourself, how many different threats do you want to take special units to try and defend against, or do you just accept your losses against this particular threat, and concentrate on what will blow the enemy off the table the fastest.

against indirect 2/3 of the time the plate is scattering about 7" away (2D6)

I thought indirect fire was rolling 2d6 and picking the highest?

You do, but when you throw in the night fighting rules, you add an additional D6. So what you do is roll 2D6 and take the highest, and then add one more D6 to the result.

Also, Sniper Drones do not get to move after they shoot. They are, like all Drones, an As Owner unit. If the owner of the Drones (the sniper spotter) cannont JSJ, then neither can the Drones.

Sniper Drones look great on paper. The math is:

BS3: 5/4
BS4: 5/3
BS5: 75/36

So its 1/1.5/2 kills. Not bad for an 80pt unit. The above doesn't count the spotter, just additional BS from pathfinders. Add in the spotter and its about 1.5 kills. If they "piggyback" onto whatever the pathfinders shoot at they should always get BS5, for 2 kills per round of fire. Two units firing together should kill 3 models, and combined with pathfinders its 4+ kills for two sniper teams. Tack on a crisis or stealth team somewhere else on the battlefield (or seeker missiler), and they can clean out a 6 man marine unit every turn.

I think they only work in a list with a decent firebase of FCW's though. Set them up behind the units so that anything trying to shoot them has a long Night Fight shot, and even if they do hit, the FCW's should then be in 30" to return fire.

They might be worth it as harrasment units though. Hard to spot and hit units that kill MEQ's with ease are going to end up becoming a thorn in anyones side I would think. And like scramasax mentioned, the extra markerlight they come with could be more than a little useful, especially once the PF's are down. Add on the Stealth Field to that markerlight and aside from ordnance, they could be fairly hard to remove from play. Definitely require playtesting though.