The imperium may have lobotomized slaves, flying cyber babies, space apes, and skulls full of wiring, but the tau have come up with a more practical and less gruesome way of creating a system of cheap labor and "meat" shields. Following the rail gun, the drone is one of the staples that make the tau unique. Of course there are several types of drones ranging from the just as old shield drone, to the heavy gun drone, markerlight drone, and even the remora drone fighter. The gun drones are unique in that they are wargear that can be taken as a hard point, wargear, a vehicle upgrade, or as a seperate unit.
Gun drones as unit upgrades
With changes to toughness and an increase to cover saves, shield drones are seeing less table time. The Tau community has chosen to increase fire power and save 5 pts per drone.
In addition to defense there is a new tactic to using gun drones. This involves maxing out gun drones in stealth units forming a wall of 2+ cover saves and 30 strength 5 shots. Unfortunately this is 300 pts and has an incredibly large foot print making deep striking a nightmare. Though being able to JSJ makes the unit a threat if enhanced with markerlights.
Gun drone units
There are two ways to get gun drone units
1. Purchase a gun drone unit
2. Detach the gun drones from a vehicle and/or vehicle squadron.
*As a side note it was faq'd that if you detach all the drones from seperate vehicles in the same squadron at the same time they all form together to make a single unit.
Unfortunately Gun Drones can not count as scoring units so they only have 3 purposes
1. Denying objectives
2. Peppering light armor and infantry
3. Speed bumping
Denying Objectives
In games that grind down to a crunch, drones can tip the balance by simplying sitting around. If starting on a vehicle, the vehicle can move, the drones can disembark anywhere within 6 inches, the drones can "run" (which I think is hilarious because they don't have legs), then the drones can jump in the assault phase. Even if the vehicle is immobilized the drones have a minimum expected threat range of 9 inches. If the vehicle is mobile you can move these drones at best 36 inches, but the most common distance that can be covered is 28 inches.
Dropping the squadron via deep strike can land the unit at the last minute. Because we dont want to land directly on dangerous terrain we can still run and make the assault jump in the same turn with a dependable move of about 10 inches from the drop point.
Peppering a target
Now the reason I call it peppering instead of shooting, is the gun drone isn't the ideal unit for exterminating units or destroying vehicles. The only time you should do this is if you have markerlight support or you are desperate. With markerlight support you can reduce pinning check morale to almost nil. You can enhance a very lacking BS 2 that is twin linked or reduce cover. Do not do this on fearless hordes as it will have little to no effect. The ideal target is either a large low armor save unit or an armor 10/11 vehicle. Imagine the look on your opponents face when he realizes that 50 man horde of guardsman that is being pushed forward is now immobile and firing snap shots.
Speed Bumping
For the non vehicle non flying/jumping units. Probably my favorite way of making an ork Warboss wimper as his units are pretty much going nowhere for a round. In the same way that you use the drones mobility to deny an objective you can use them to deny movement. When you move your drones in the assault phase form a line 1 inch away from your enemy. Spread out your drones and with medium bases you can form a barricade that is up to 26 inches long with an 8 man gun drone squadron. Because enemy units can not move through opposing units you have just forced your opponent to shoot at the gun drones and denied a movement phase to your opponent for part of his army. Couple this with the added benefit of twinlinked for overwatxh and you are in business.
Things to remember
- Markerlights do not boost the BS of a Gun Drone while they are attached to a vehicle.
-If a gun drone squadron is destroyed after being detached from a vehicle they can give the opponent an additional kill point, this means that if Tau player Bob detached his gun drones on turn 1 and in his opponents turn the vehicle and the gundrones are destroyed the opponent now gets 2 victory points
-while attached to a vehicle, gun drones are destroyed if the vehicle is destroyed but do not grant the opponent an additional victory point.
Thought for the day
Interceptor + Aegis Defense Line + Go to Ground. Means that I can snipe your reserves every turn at full BS but still take advantage of a 2+ cover save.
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