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My friend plays tau. a squad of crisis suits was unfortunate enoough to be blasted down to a man by a lucky bassalisk shot. After passing his his pinning check, morale check and then his all on your own check, my friend was wondering if he could have his HQ join him so he wouldn't be all on his own any more. This seems fair enough o me but couldn't find anything that explicitly stated that. Thoughts?

Yes the battle suit commander can join the single man unit.

Nothing stops the IC from joining him, since he's neither pinned nor broken, and once he's not all on his own, then he's not all on his own! All is well.

Caveat Time

A broadside with 1 shield drone is taken as its own unit. I blast off the drone, but leave the suit unscathed. Does the suit ...

a) Take a panic check from >25% casaulties?
b) Take a man alone test in the following turn(s)?

We play yes to a) but we never seem to remember that b) is a possibility. Are we wrong on both counts? Or is the suit in fact by himself now (and is worried by that)?

- Salvage

i think the rules mention that if a unit starts as a single model unit it never makes a LMS check, but in the situation of the broadside, i'm pretty sure you are subject to both.

Boss_Salvage wrote:Caveat Time

A broadside with 1 shield drone is taken as its own unit. I blast off the drone, but leave the suit unscathed. Does the suit ...

a) Take a panic check from >25% casaulties?
b) Take a man alone test in the following turn(s)?

We play yes to a) but we never seem to remember that b) is a possibility. Are we wrong on both counts? Or is the suit in fact by himself now (and is worried by that)?

- Salvage

If I remember aright, by RAW then A and B are both correct. It seems a bit unfair considering the role of shield drones is to get blown up. I asked GW to clarify but no answer was made.

Both A and B apply, as the Tau codex specifically states (page 31) that drones count for purposes of unit strength, morale checks, etc. SO if the unit starts with a broadside and a drone, the drone dies, that qualifies as 25% casualties ( 1 from 2), does not take the unit below half (1 wound of 3), and leaves the broadside on his own when he started in a unit of two models.

Actually, I think you could make an argument that drones don't count for last man standing tests. The Tau book lists three specific things:

-Morale check due to 25% casualties
-Whether a unit count as scoring or not
-Whether a unit is below 50% or not (which is basically the same thing as a scoring unit. Yay redundant rules.)

There's no mention of Last Man Standing checks.

Not saying this is how it should be played, but it can be interpreted that way.

I don't think i would ask for the tests to be made.
I think of the drone as wargear.
For example, I wouldn't ask a a IC lord who had a pair of hounds with him to make a check if one of his dogs died etc...

Panic wrote:I don't think i would ask for the tests to be made.
I think of the drone as wargear.
For example, I wouldn't ask a a IC lord who had a pair of hounds with him to make a check if one of his dogs died etc...

Well that's generous of you.. but as don mondo pointed out, the rules specifically say that you should..

Phausi wrote:Actually, I think you could make an argument that drones don't count for last man standing tests. The Tau book lists three specific things:

-Morale check due to 25% casualties
-Whether a unit count as scoring or not
-Whether a unit is below 50% or not (which is basically the same thing as a scoring unit. Yay redundant rules.)

There's no mention of Last Man Standing checks.

Not saying this is how it should be played, but it can be interpreted that way.

That is an invalid argument (i.e. not logical).


We have rules that apply to all units in the game so the drone rules would have to specifically state that they are exempt from rules for those rules to not apply to them.

Just because GW lists three ways the drones follow morale doesn't excuse them from the rest of the morale rules. That is a logical fallacy.

Silly Tau trusting in their drone friends. Thanks for the clarification, I'll be sure to stick it to loner broadsides wherever possible

- Salvage

Honestly, I am of the mind that if a unit COULD be taken as one model (or rather, if one model of the unit could be taken singly) it really shouldn't take last man standing. Not RAW, but I would never ask someone to take a check for that every turn. Just seems a bit much considering the model would be fine going out on his own. I would still ask it to take the morale test for 25% etc. though.

With how much trouble shield drones give me I think broadsides can deal with a MA test or two, around Turn 4/5 when I finally drop the bot

- Salvage