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A question came up yesterday from a game we were playing.

My Tau Empire Retribution Cadre army had a Farsight attached Crisis team (two Crisis models plus Farsight were still alive). They were being shot at, and the first Crisis suit was killed. I declared Farsight was going to use the stratagem, "Fail-safe Detonator", which is normally 2CP to use, but Farsight's ability brings the cost down to 1 CP. The same squad that killed that first Crisis model, also killed the second model once the shots and damage were resolved, just leaving Farsight.

So the discussion was about the fact that Farsight was no longer a part of that unit, once they were all killed off, and therefore could not use his special ability and would require 2 CP to use that strat on the model.

A second question also came up, about if the squad that had a model use the stratagem, also had to be checked if it also took mortal wounds.

Thoughts?

The stratagem says that it goes off before any models are removed from play. The crisis suits still existed as part of Farsight's unit when it was time for the statagem to resolve, so he is allowed to use his cost-reduction ability.

Likewise, if the detonation caused any mortal wounds then Farsight would have to take them (since his unit is within 6" of the exploding model).

FAIL-SAFE DETONATOR

WHEN: Any phase, just after a T’AU EMPIRE BATTLESUIT model from your army is destroyed.

EFFECT: "Before removing your model from play"

Page 39 – Leader
"Each time the last model in a Bodyguard unit is destroyed,
each Character unit that is part of that Attached unit
becomes a separate unit, with its original Starting Strength.
If this happens as the result of an attack, they become separate
units after the attacking unit has resolved all of its attacks."

I would draw the conclusion that based on the stratagem alone farsight would be able to use the stratagem since the model is not yet removed and still in play until fail-safe detonator has finnished.

With the addition of the Leader rule i would say its very clear that farsight is still attached, and able to use Puretide's Teachings. And thus able to use fail-safe detonator on the destroyed crisis suit.

Thank you guys for the help.

The second question resolves around the wording of the Fail-Safe Detonator text:

Target: That destroyed model's unit. ...
Effect: ... If your model does not have the Deadly Demise ability [this use case], roll a D6 for each unit within 6" of it: on a 4+, that unit suffers D3 mortal wounds.

In this case the wording does not say to test the target unit, only those units with 6" of IT.

And since at the time of it detonating, Farsight is still classified as part of the unit, he is not a separate unit yet.

Or am I not reading it correctly?

EDIT: I was not reading it correctly. I was looking at the "Target", when I missed the plain reading, "If your model ...", and since Farsight is a unit within 6" of the MODEL, he must be rolled against.

Yes, if there are any surviving members of the exploding model's unit then you would have to roll (unless they are somehow out of range).

Although that raises the question of whether your guys ought to be activating their self-destruct when their faction leader is standing right next to them...

 Bilge Rat wrote:
Yes, if there are any surviving members of the exploding model's unit then you would have to roll (unless they are somehow out of range).

Although that raises the question of whether your guys ought to be activating their self-destruct when their faction leader is standing right next to them...

If it's to take down a priority target that's only got 1 or 2 wounds left? I'd do it. Pretty sure Farsight would approve, too.