(Imperial Armor 3 @ page 123)
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On the second day, that changed. His [Colonel 'Snake' Stranski's] scouts and vanguard platoons came under surprise attack from well-hidden Tau forces. For the first time, Imperial Guardsmen encountered distinctive tall, thin observation towers, which seemed to contain sensor equipment. Following the sightings, several Chimeras were destroyed by Seeker missile strikes, seemingly launched out of nowhere. Each time the Tau attacked, it caused the threatened units to halt, disembark troops and begin to hunt down the foe. It caused delays, and the Colonel ordered only units that came under direct attack to engage the enemy. Following units should bypass them and move forwards, the Regiment would become strung out but it would keep the advance going.
(Imperial Armor 3 @ page 191)
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Another newly encountered piece of Tau equipment is the Remote Sensor Tower. It wasn't until late in the Taros campaign that any of the Imperium's forces encountered these strange devices. The vanguard of the Cadian 114th regiment met these tall, thin towers as they advanced towards hydro-processing plant 23-30. Soon afterwards, their columns came under long-range Seeker missile strikes, losing several Chimeras in the process.
The Remote sensor tower is actually an information relay station, which scans the surrounding area, and relays data on enemy movements to other ground movements in the vicinity. It incorporates advanced ground sensors, it's own Markerlight system and targeting information, which is used to guide other attacks. The tower mounts no weaponry, but is considered expendale by the Tau.
[snip]
Camouflaged to match the desert they were difficult to spot, and supported to fast-moving Piranhas, mounting Seeker missiles, the Tau were able to harry the Cadian columns and inflicting losses far outweighing their own numbers. The resulting delays would mean the Elysian Drop Troops surrounded at the process plant were never relieved, and eventually their position was overrun.
Operational stuff about RSTs.
(Moscovian @ Aug 17 2006, 20:49)
QUOTE
As a Tau opponent, I can now avoid that marked area entirely and pick it off whenever I choose (or just avoid that section of board).
If the Imperial forces hadn't needed to advance into where the RSTs were, they probably would have gone around them. Just like a minefield.
(Black Legion army list @ Rule BL1.1.3)
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Summoned units must be set up with their base within 5cm of any unit from their formation, apart from other summoned units that have already been placed (i.e. you cannot place a ?chain? of summoned units). They may not be set up in the Zone of Control of an enemy unit or in impassable terrain. The type of unit that can be summoned depends on the summoning formation?s faction, as follows:[snip]
Summoned units count as part of the formation for all rules purposes as long as they remain on the battlefield. The only exception to the normal rules is when a summoned unit is destroyed it does not cause a blast marker to be placed on the formation. They are otherwise counted as normal units, and are included when working out if a formation outnumbers an opponent in an assault or is broken by blast markers, etc. Note that Daemons that are killed in an assault do count towards the number of units killed by the enemy when working out
modifiers to the result dice roll. Summoned units remain on the battlefield until the end phase of the turn in which they are summoned. In the rally phase, after a formation has attempted to rally, all summoned units in the formation vanish back to the warp and are removed from play unless the formation has a unit with Daemonic Focus (see LD 1.1.5 below). Summoned units that are removed from play are not put back into the Daemon Pool. Note that this may lead to the formation breaking if the number of Blast Markers on the formation is greater than the number of units left in play after the summoned units have been removed. Any summoned units will vanish back to the warp when a formation breaks.
The whole summoning thing is awfully fiddly, now that I look at it. Remember, KISS.
I think that we should keep RSTs Teleporting, with 6 Individual, Immobile units that don't activate, have no ZoC, can't claim, and are immune to blast markers; FREE in any Tau army. You roll to 'activate' them once, in order to deploy them. If you deploy them right after Objectives are placed and before Garrisons are deployed, your opponent will just either go around them, or drive up and kill them.
That would make the Robotic Sentries special rule go from:ROBOTIC SENTRY
The Tau rely on numerous robotic units throughout their force. Many of these are equipped with limited functional programs designed to performed specific battlefield roles. Robotic sentry units have simple recognition abilities, able to distinguish between friendly and enemy units, and then to mark enemy units for supporting missile fire from heavier Tau units.
Robotic sentry units do not get activations and they cannot be used to claim or contest objectives. Units out of formation coherency in the end phase are treated as destroyed as normal but do not add blast markers to the formation for these destroyed units. The controlling player must remove units until the remaining units in the formation are in coherency. In addition, the formation may roll to Rally in each end phase. This is the only action that they are able to perform.
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