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So i played a game with another tau player and i had argued with him about 2 points and he refused to accept what i was saying. Im completely fine if i am wrong but i could swear im right.

First problem was he was using Twin linked smart missile system on his hammerheads, 3 hammerheads in total. then proceeded to detach them as drones cause they "look" like drones and because in the heavy support section is tays you "May exchange both gun drones for one of the following: twin linked burst cannon and the twin linked smart missile system." His reasoning is because it says exchange drones for those 2, that those 2 are drones.... I proceeded to show him page 33 in the tau book that there are no smart missile drones but are missile drones... He refused to believe me, so i game up arguing to play the game. and he got to use s5 ap5 heavy 4 homing ignores cover all game. vs the missile pods (which could not be chosen) as s7 ap 4 assault 2. So my question is are the twin linked smart missile systems drones? or fixed weapons on the hammerhead. (i believe them as a fixed system on the hammerhead)

second problem he was using using 2 cadre fireblades in his army. I understood that only 1 named character hq can be used at a time. Not being able to produce the rule that i thought i saw, he refused to believe me. Can you take 2 of the same type of HQ choice in a game?


Thank you for reading and any help you can provide. And if your wondering i ended up loosing :{ haha not that im a sore loser i just want to play the game correctly.

The Hammerhead upgrades are not drones - they replace the drones, rather than replacing the carbines on the drones.

Cadre Fireblades are not named characters (which will have "Unique" in their type line, check out Aun-Shi or Shadowsun for examples from the Tau 'dex), and it is perfectly acceptable to field more than one per army, the same is true for standard Etherials or Battlesuit Commanders.

#1 - If it's not listed as a Drone, then it's not a Drone. Tau Drones follow very specific rules. If the rules said that the Drones may replace their weapon for another weapon, then he'd have a great argument, but it doesn't. It says the Hammerhead may replace ITS Drones with a weapon system - something that isn't a drone.

#2 - You can't have two Unique units in the same army, but I don't think Tau Cadre Fireblades are Unique, and thus you can have two of them. It's not like they're a named special character like Marneus Calgar. They're just a generic HQ choice. You can also have two Chaos Lords in your army, two Hive Tyrants, two Space Marine Librarians, two Necron Destroyer Lords, or two Ork Warbosses.

To put you opponent in his place:
On the SMS / Drone issue, ask him to find the SMS set of sats, Armor Save, toughness, Init, etc. What kind of unit is SMS? If he points to drones, shake your head and ask for the SMS stat again. He won't find it.

Point to the weapon table, where SMS is listed. Marines don't have a range, neither do Fire Warriors, nor Marneus Calgar. They aren't weapons, SMS is.
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That might get through his thick-headedness.

Once he can't find it, inform him that 40k is a Permissive Rule Set. If the rules say you can or may, then you can or may.

If it doesn't say so, it ain't so.

I hope that helps.

If he keeps pushing these issues, stop playing him altogether. I'd love to see SMS drones, but sadly they don't exist.

So SMS are a weapon system, a gun that is on the tank (and battlesuits) so unless he can show you some funky forgeworld heavy gun drone that uses SMS (none that exist) then he's mixing up looks with rules.

Named characters are things that have (unique) in their entry. You can have 3 hammerheads but only 1 can take longstrike.

I plan on playing him again this weekend. I will inform him. Thanks for all the information.