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Heya Dakka,

Hoping you guys can help me out. I played a game (that was still fun given the opponent) running a 250 point Harlequin list vs a Tau list that had 2 DS8 turrets on the board and pretty much shut down my whole strategy (which was jump/shoot/jump with a couple of jetbikes and last minute objective grab with players) due to the lack of need for LOS.

I'm hoping you guys have some advice for how to tackle these things in kill team with Harlequins as I am sure to run into them again.

Depends on how your meta plays them. We rule that the units turret gets assigned to a single fire warrior, so killing him removes the turret or even just getting within 2" also means that the turret goes away. If your meta rules that it's a unit upgrade, then you're in quite a bit of trouble, though I guess you'd get a reasonable amount of protection by jumping in one of your skimmers, though tau have more than enough ways to deal with an AV11 skimmer. Remember that even if worst comes to worst, they can still only kill 1 model, so just, ya know, take more models (which is easier said than done for a Harlequin army).

Alternatively, take an army that's not terrible at kill team when playing kill team against one of the better kill team armies?

I am stuck with Harlequins for this particular league, something I regret doing but it has taught me a few things about the army. We are basically locked into a single codex for the whole 3 month gig.

As far as the turret goes the local meta has ruled that it is a unit upgrade, so killing the fire warrior that brought it down really has no effect other than cause another fire warrior to drop one next turn.

 Swabby wrote:
I am stuck with Harlequins for this particular league, something I regret doing but it has taught me a few things about the army. We are basically locked into a single codex for the whole 3 month gig.

As far as the turret goes the local meta has ruled that it is a unit upgrade, so killing the fire warrior that brought it down really has no effect other than cause another fire warrior to drop one next turn.

There's your issue. That's a dumb way to rule it.

I haven't looked at the wording for the turret as I do not have the codex and only talked to the TO about it, is it one of those rules that is up in the air waiting for a FAQ?

 Swabby wrote:
I haven't looked at the wording for the turret as I do not have the codex and only talked to the TO about it, is it one of those rules that is up in the air waiting for a FAQ?

Not for "normal" 40k, since the issue never comes up as the rules work fine when it's taken as a unit upgrade for a unit instead of a unit upgrade for multiple single unit models. If that's the way your meta has ruled it and you're stuck with harlequins, well, I suspect that you're gak out of luck. The exact wording might help you out in making an argument for all of the FW unit being forced to fire on 1 harly model though:

Pg 122 of the Tau Codex wrote:
...It [the turret] can fire in the Shooting phase or as part of an Overwatch attack when the rest of the models in its unit shoot, and must target the same enemy as the rest of its unit...

Bolding for emphasis mine. If the turret is an upgrade for the entire FW squad (instead of being for a single FW), then all models from the original FW squad may only fire on 1 model if the turret wishes to fire as well since it's apparently still part of their cumulative unit for rules purposes. If they want to fire it at a seperate target, then it's no longer firing at the same target as the rest of its "unit", but yeah, other than that, looks like you're boned. This is one of the examples where stuff doesn't work as intended for kill team (just like brotherhood of psychers or the blood tithe table) and needs to be houseruled (to allocate it to a single FW model) or simply make it unavailable for kill team.

 Drasius wrote:
This is one of the examples where stuff doesn't work as intended for kill team (just like brotherhood of psychers or the blood tithe table)

Except in those instances, they were taken out of the base Kill Team game because GW thought of some things and not others. Only mentioning it in case someone reading this doesn't know, as the way you've worded this doesn't clarify that some rules are called out in the Kill Team book as rules that are not used in Kill Team games and based on your comment someone may instead believe them to be in the same situation as the Turret, namely that it's allowed but we don't know what we're supposed to do with it.

How does the turret work exactly? I don't have the rules in front of me but it seems like the kill team universal rule "every man for himself) makes the Fire Warriors not all have to target the same thing, because they're all considered to be separate units.

 gnome_idea_what wrote:
How does the turret work exactly? I don't have the rules in front of me but it seems like the kill team universal rule "every man for himself) makes the Fire Warriors not all have to target the same thing, because they're all considered to be separate units.

The turret is deployed in any movement phase as long as the unit doesn't move. It needs to be in coherency with the unit and must fire at the same target the unit does. If an enemy gets within 2" of the turret, it disappears, but can be summoned back the next movement phase that the unit isn't engaged and hasn't moved. The issue is that it's a unit upgrade, so if you want to argue that it's an upgrade for the entire unit and when 1 guy dies, another can summon it, then since the turret has to shoot at the same target as the rest of the unit, EVERY firewarrior from the unit that brought the turret has to fire on the same target as the turret, wasting a huge amount of fire. If you count the turret as belonging to 1 model, then the easy solution is to pour your firepower into that 1 model and then the turret goes away.

Basically, the rules for the turret need to be cleared up or just strait up have it banned from kill team like BoP/S, blood tithe etc. To be fair, I severely doubt anyone at GW gives a single thought to how the main rules interact with kill team limitations.

But can the turret fire at a target that's not visible to the unit (model) who placed it, by using its homing rule instead?
If it can do that, just hide the model who placed it well and enjoy those 4 S5 cover ignoring shots.

 CragHack wrote:
But can the turret fire at a target that's not visible to the unit (model) who placed it, by using its homing rule instead?
If it can do that, just hide the model who placed it well and enjoy those 4 S5 cover ignoring shots. [/quote

That's the OP's problem. Also, if you do that and you're following the rule that it's an upgrade for the entire unit, then none of the FW can fire on another target. If you're playing that it's only for 1 FW, then if you can get within 2", the turret disappears, so jetbikes can simply move/turbo next to them and neuter the turret if it's only for 1 model, but as a unit-wide upgrade, then you can't stop the tau from simply placing the turret down next turn with another FW model.]

For what it's worth back when the rules for Kill team were first released, there was a 4-page discussion on this topic here.