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I’m starting to build a army list and I am way behind my friends who also play. My force consists of maybe 850 points all decked out but still won’t hold up even if they cut themselves down a bit. Then I got to really looking at your run-of-the-mill gun drone and I got a idea. I could get many drones for relatively cheap and if I put something like 6 squads of 10 around my fire blade and ethereal with my squad of stealth suits and their drone controllers. I do you think this would put out enough firepower for the points and cash it would cost me or would it be ineffective? I know I would be giving up the ability to aim but with positioning I think I could select targets just fine, as for the annoyance factor.....? Have you ever run this or played with someone who did this? How well or unwell did it work? Would you recommend or nah?

Riptides. Its the best along w Missilesides at pumping out powervwhile being protected

I think that the lack of range is the main issue with gundrones (compared with fire warriors)

Babar_babar wrote:
I think that the lack of range is the main issue with gundrones (compared with fire warriors)

Also the BS5 and need for a drone controller babysitter, and the fact that shield drones do the job of keeping gak alive monumentally better.

Yeah, the range and inability to target what you want is problematic for making a drone castle.

On the other hand, I get good use out of my gun drones as deep harassment units. They have the ability to drop in anywhere on the board, which is handy for getting bodies onto far off objectives, etc. I like to run a squad of plasma crisis suits, and gun drones complement them well, giving some extra oomph to the strike, and still adding a noticeable amount of durability, even though they are not shield drones.

On the gripping hand, part of why I use my gun drones is the fact that when I started Tau they were the only drone that came with other kits, so I have oodles of them, and comparatively few shield or marker drones. If you are buying from scratch, I am not sure if they are so worthwhile.

Na, drones are weak and bad shots, only use is for markerlights and soaking up wounds tbh.

If you want more firepower for cheap just do what i did. Get a couple of the start collecting box sets. 3 XV8 crisis suits with their 6 drones, 10 fire warriors with their 2 drones and a support turret, and an ethereal to babysit them all. The XV8's like most Tau suits are quite adaptable weapon wise as well which is nice.

Gives you a bit of a solid backbone to build upon as well. Your always going to need troops and cheap HQ's, and you can get 3 x 3 XV8's + HQ for a vanguard detachment for under 500 points which will be effective at clearing hordes of infantry and can deep strike. Or you pimp em out with anti tank weapons upgrade the hq to a commander in enforcer suit and for around 700-800 points in total, deep strike in and basically delete anything you want off the board.

With 3 starters sets + Tau commander you got a decent army for friendly games which is versatile, fun and not gak haha.