There is another alternative here guys; treat the deployment of the Gun-Drones like a version of planetfall, so they are merely placed on the table but do nothing else. Later in the turn the Gun-Drones take a separate activation like any other planet-falling formation. This approach avoids all the complications raised by Glyn.

^this^

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Sounds unnecessary and more complicated than what we have now to me. It would also need a bump to the cost of the Drones too, as the Tau would have more activations that turn and could sustained fire them.

Please lets keep the existing formation and just make a small addition of a note banning crossfire. Simples.

How so? The Gun Drones are a separate formation for the rest of the game, why not treat them as such when they are deployed - it saves the greater complications described earlier in a ground attack by both air and ground forces.
As the Gun Drones can do this in later turns, I do not understand the issue here. There are pros & cons to this approach - Yes they can sustain etc, but that requires a separate activation at -1 which may fail.

Special Rules/Notes intrinsically more complex than 0 notes/rules.
[edit]that came off far harsher / confrontational than intended[/edit]

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I should add that I do not play Tau, and it is the current wording of the Tigershark that is being questioned here. As such mine was merely a suggestion designed to work within the current rules.

Yme Loc has already said he will re-word the Tigershark entry to resolve the dilemma as presented by GlynG.

There are several good reasons not to change to a planetfalling mechanic Ginger / Jimmy:

* It would remove the normal interaction and tactics of air transports and any possibility of the enemy shooting down the Tigersharks with AA.
* Tigersharks currently need to be cautious of enemy AA, limiting where on the table the Gun Drones deploy. If Tigersharks just unlocked planetfalling Gun Drones they could unrealistically and more powerfully drop anywhere on the table, in the enemy heartland next to a Pylon say.
* Gun Drones deploying from Tigersharks currently could be overwatched, planetfalling Drones that sustained fired couldn't be.
* It'd give the Tau player an extra activation that turn, boosting a unit that doesn't need it and needing a points boost. True it'd just be for one turn, but Gun Drones aren't that tough and need to get close to the enemy to use their 15cm range weapons so they may not survive that many turns anyway.
* The one same Tau list is approved and in use by Epic-UK this way for years now. Why make a significant change to the units, when adding a little bit of extra text fixes the unintended rules quirk (which the army champion and others weren't aware of or playing) and keeps the units functioning as they have been.

While I certainly accept the issue with 'changing' an approved list, I think you misunderstood my suggestion.

I was suggesting that the Gun-Drones would be deployed at the end of movement, disembarking as now, but that this would merely place the Gun Drones on the table as a separate formation like planetfalling does, rather than keeping them part of the Tigershark formation until the end of the activation.

So the Gun Drones

• would not be considered part of the Tigershark formation and thus would not take part in the ground-assault;
• would be subject to OW fire when placed on the table (like any other disembarking formation);
• can activate later on in the turn (in the same way as planetfalling troops do).

As far as I can see, all the constraints you mention are still in place while this approach also removes the other complexities to crossfire and the mix-up between ground and air formations.

I am developing a slight reluctance to keep adding suggestions,
just in case it is viewed as creating discord, so just a position disclaimer.

I play with Tau, love the Drone theme, think the Gun Drone formations
and their deployment from Tiger Sharks are fluffy and fun.

The Gun Drone formation is a specialised AP formation in an army that has lots of impressive AP formations,
especially as a core choices. The Gun Drones have a very short range 15 cm and are weak-ish in assaults.

OK, they are cheap, but they don't get an activation on the turn they deploy.

The Tiger Sharks themselves are not a very powerful choice (compared to AX-1-0s).
The platforms are fairly vulnerable, to AA and interception, and so getting the Drones down is an issue.

A look at the Epic-UK Tournament Lists for Tau (which uses the same list as NetEA) show NOBODY
(as far as I can see) ever having taken straight Tiger Sharks let alone their Gun Drone cargo. That
seems a fairly clear statement that they are a sub-optimal choice in terms of tournament list design.

The rules associated with them are special rules and increasingly complex.

So basically I think some slight upgrades are ok if the rules could be simplified.
There would still be special rules so I am not too driven to simplify.

The need to track Tiger Shark hits separately from Gun Drone hits is necessary ANYWAY since the Gun Drones
are disrupt shots. So having the two different for crossfire purposes is not too much of an issue.

Simpler cleaner rules would be great. But heck, for one turn of shooting,
it will not unbalance the list either way I'd have thought.


Anyway, Gun Drones deploy for Crossfire on Tyranid Horde, Battle Report


But I usually run into trouble putting air-landing troops down behind enemy lines: