LitS

Resolving Drones into the stats of another unit may simplify things, but IMHO it both works in a distinctly different way and removes the desired flavour. IIRC this was done in an attempt to simplify the extended and tedious debates as much as for playability reasons. I see the use of Drone upgrades as a very elegant way of returning the desired flavour.

On Shield Drones, they would work in exactly the same way as Ork Gargant shields. These are well understood now and do not cause problems, so I cannot see the issue with extending the same principle to Tau characters or formations. To use a hyperbole, one might as well suggest that tracking shields on Ork Gargants is too complex, so lets improve the armour stats. . . .

On the Tigershark, improving the stats (though possibly desirable) would not provide the same effect as dropping off some 'Remote Drones' at all. I am not precluding dropping the 'Light' Drone formation but rather trying to provide some alternative mechanisms. Also, note I am suggesting that they could be added to Orca, Devilfish etc as well as Tigershark, though the numbers of Drones carried should differ.

Finally on the 'Weapon Drone' variants, the other variants would only be available as upgrades, providing some alternative synergistic capabilities for formations. So perhaps 'sniper' for Pathfinders formation etc.

We really don't need that many drone types at this scale. Shield drones are perfectly fine as part of the armour save/invulnerable saves, sniper drones are unneeded, and the overwatchy ones are fiddly, overcomplicated and require yet more special rules.

Sniper Drones' effects can be assumed to be part of the Pathfinder's Sniper ability, I guess.

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Every once in a while I manage something that works well (Seeker Missile range) and doesn't break the army list (Stingray)...

Hopefully this is the item for this round of Tau revisions!

Obviously, we'd need to check the points on the TS-bomber if we did this.


Ah, wasn't aware that there was already precedent for that rule setup. I'm not trying to be dismissive, just trying to play devil's advocate here.

The making them an attack I think has come up before, maybe even done before. Anyone remember what the result was?

it's been suggested before but i don't think it ever came to fruition...

TRC, you're the apparent expert at breaking the system, would adding that 15cm 3x AP4+ Disrupt attack and about 50 points to the basic Tigershark do anything horrible?

What about those people who have bought, based, and painted Drone units over the years?

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Drones are probably the iconic unit in the Tau army. As E&C says, lets see if we can find a way of re-introducing them rather than rubbishing workable ideas out of hand.

I'm all in favour of having drone units in the list, just not ones that are unneeded.

Well I would argue that the use of more variants is actually very necessary to help tailor the Tau army. There have been many cries that using particular stats make unit 'X' or formation 'Y' act like other races. IMHO absorbing Drones into the stats of various units has largely caused this problem.

I see this as an opportunity to revert to a more Tau-like style to the army. For example, a shielded FW formation would be more able to survive enemy retaliation having made a close range shooting attack - but only once. The use of other 'Weapon Drones' could help remove issues over mixing other units types together. Finally the use of 'Remote Drones' provides different playing styles and could possibly assist the dilema around deploying advanced ML capability, assuming that the relevant Drone variant is worked out.

[Devil's Advocate]
What about those people who have bought, converted, based and painted Scorpionfish, Stingray and Moray units over the years?
[/Devil's Advocate]

They work diligently on their Tau total war list

I had a similar thought

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Fine Ginger, but if you are going to add the drones in then the core stat's need to be changed back to no include the drones. Fire Warrior saves should probably go to 6+ or worse at least.

I personally prefer the current approach with drones abilities assumed in the core formations stats.

But as ever DWWFY.