Sniper Drone: Background and Tactica

Sniper Drone team by Jim Sowter at Games Workshop

The day before 6th edition came out I had a discussion with a Tyranid player who had formerly played Tau as his starting army.  Being relatively new to the game (a year at the most), it was obvious that he had a lot of frustrations with playing Tau.  After losing multiple games to his friend's Tyranids, he decided he would give the ever evolving Dinosaur shaped Bugs a chance.  Of all the units he voiced his frustration with, he managed to single out the Tau Sniper Drone team.  He talked about how worthless they were.  Though we can all point out the fact that he shouldn't be  using sniper drones against hordes, i'll leave my bantering at him out of this post.  The main thing that frustrates most Tau Empire players is that these guys could never use their stealth suits as an advantage and that they took up  a vital Heavy Support slot that could be used for the beloved Broadsides or even a Hammerhead (leaving all the Forge World alternatives out of the equation).  But with 6th edition we saw a lot of changes to thiese guys rules, causing many many Tau players to dust them off and say "maybe".

Background
With the introduction of the Tau army in 3rd edition, 40k players were introduced to the stealth suit.  Players quickly noticed that their stealth suits could be even better if they had ranged weapons with a range greater than 18 inches, as the enemy would more than likely never be able to hit them (the old stealth suit models forced all units to roll for distance 2d6x3 inches if you wanted to try to shoot at them, this distance was halved during night fight).  Then in a random article featured in White Dwarf 285 back in October 2003 we saw Pathfinders, with options.  This was the first mention of the Tau Rail Rifle (back then it used to "Get Hot" and have a target lock).  Believe it or not, the Tau Sniper Drone was a wishlisting that was being granted.  At only $15 for a team, I remember my local hobby shop being sold out for months.  But then, Tau players had the chance to try them out. Apparently the lack of 1 to 3 rail guns is extremely noticable.  The team did have the advantage of a BS 4 networked markerlight which was awesome on paper. The stealth suit had the same rules as before with the loss of the extra advantage during night fight.  Unlike it's stealth suit cousins, the team was about  as mobile as a heavy rock.  For 10 points less than 3 stealth suits, 3 sniper drones really didn't seem like a good trade off.  The Drones had +2 Initiative over the stealth suits, but was at -1 strength and -1 attack.  Unfortunate for the Sniper Drones, as quickly as they came off the store shelves, they just as quickly went back onto the storage shelves.  With the introduction of 5th edition Sniper Drones went from bad to worse.  Run made it impossible to fully utilize the strength of the stealth suit and going to ground was just a slap in the face, or sensor lens/node as they are machines.  But with 6th edition we've seen some welcome changes.

Tactica
No Longer a Stone
Thanks to the introduction of Snap-Fire we can know move and fire Sniper Drones.  Pinning has also been changed making it so that each time a squad inflicts a successful wound with a pinning weapon the pinning resolves before another squad is elected to fire. With the 6th edition FAQ stealth suits have been removed and replaced shrouded and stealth meaning that the team can take a 4+ cover save with it no matter where it goes.

Benefits To Sitting Still On Your Rear.
"Big guns never tire" has given Heavy Support selections the ability to capture objectives.  Though these selections have been allowed to capture, they have the added burden of giving up an additional kill point if destroyed.  Luckily, the Sniper Drone adds +3 to whatever cover they are in, making the cover save while sitting in cover a 3+ at worst and a 2+ the majority of the time.  If you need to add extra survivability to your Sniper Drones your character will gain the benefits of an additional +3 to cover, as the benefits are transitive.  

To Snipe a Sniper
Unfortunately the spotter in the squad is equipped with a Drone Controller, meaning that if he goes the sniper drones in the team are removed as a casualty.  This makes the squad vulnerable to precision shots.  

See Spot(ter) run (the table)
With the changes of night fight you can now reduce the cover save granted by night fighting with a single marker light hit.  The Snipers have also been given the extra advantage of being able to overwatch.  Being a networked markerlight the benefit can be transferred over to the Sniper Drones.

Some Ideas for Conversions
With the Metal Sniper Drones models being made of metal (and now resin) they were all made to be in only one specific pose.  Though this is okay as they are machines, I was still compelled to make these models my.  Firstly, hovering around while trying to remain invisible in one place seems like their profile would be given away, and with as bulky as the spotters targetting array is, I find that it would be unreasonable to make sense that he could even snap fire.  So here are a couple pictures that can inspire you as they did me.  Although its just as xv25 I always used xv15 models so when i purchased a rapid insertion force I had 3 stealth suits left over to combine with the spotters array.