Its meant to be fairly irrelevant, its purely cosmetic. Drones as an upgrade are fine in a few cases. Add to Fire Warriors going in an Orca, add to Stealth going in an Orca or to increase numbers in Crisis.

Even if they are used for only those its still more uses than many upgrades in most army lists, so I am fine with that. Complicating transport options on the Devilfish just doesnt interest me at all.

All the Tau shooting stats in epic are modified to some extent - mostly much better than justified, although in cases worse. I am happy with the Drones as is and dont see a need for making them so good.

I'm just looking in terms of consistency; compared to Fire Warriors they have twice the number of carbines, and each one is twin-linked. It sticks out oddly.

Not only that, but it'd actually make them worth taking.

As with Zombocom, I don't see any problem with making Gun Drones actually worth taking. :-)

And again, the reason to make them so good is that they are that good! (10x carbines versus 2.5x carbines == a *lot* of carbines!)

I don't see anything resulting from the current path other than seeing Gun Drones marginalised and forgotten about on a permenant basis.

We'll try a cheap upgrade formation, we'll try cheap upgrade options, but ultimately the single shot unit just isn't that attractive...

I know that you believe that every list will have some units in that are not worth taking, but I tend to think that's just not true... and in this case, there's a very easy fix available.

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Unfortunately Ben even if you dont believe it, its still true. Even the act of struggling against it will only cause the same problem , its even worse in the Tau list because of trying to juggle stuff against the Markerlights.

The idea for drones with 2 x AP4+ disrupt is a bad idea, it also doesnt solve the problem.

Of course with those stats you would take them at the current points - thats because they would be broken good. So then what points should they be?

A formation for 150pts - still very good for 12 x AP3+ disrupt when shooting at a marked target, I could fit two formations in an Orca for 24 x AP3+ disrupt. I could drop off a formation in Tigersharks blast something for 12 x AP3+ disrupt and then pick it up with an Orca ready for next turn.

Of course at 175pts the formation becomes useless again (even though still very good for its abilities), because it starts competing against Markerlight formations and Anti Tank formations. As an upgrade for the Tigersharks it also becomes a problem because you start to compete directly with the AX-1-0 again.

The upgrade would also have to become too expensive, 8 Fire Warriors + 4 Drones would throw out 8 AP4+(3+), 8AP5+(4+) disrupt, 8 AP4+(3+) disrupt. Again massive fire power coming out of a Manta or Orca. But once you cost the upgrade for this say 125pts (still cheap for the fire power), the upgrade is starting to become a poor choice as I can fit more activations in if I leave it at home.

Fairy snuff. I'll give it a go if I can with some tigersharks, maybe they will be able to hold their own vs barracuda or orca+kroot/something else.

Still if its the only thing we are arguing about now, thats a massive leap forward

My glass is half full, and your belief is only an opinion. :-P


How about a compromise, since you do seem to agree that the current solution doesn't appeal and won't really see use; 2x Carbines.

So 2x AP5+ Disrupt instead of 1x AP4+ Disrupt.

And bring back the independent formation, at 100pts for 6x units (They were deeply overpriced previously, after all).

Yup, I said 100pts, the same price as the "upgrade" is currently sitting at...


I'd like to argue that the Castellan space ship needs a hefty points drop too (Just because it's the battleship that doesn't mean it has to be more expensive than the Cruiser)... and I do still have issues with the internal balance of the Hammerheads (+1 to hit on the AP of Ion Cannons & Disrupt on the Hammerhead Railguns might fix that?).

But for the most part (95% of the list) I think we're there.

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I am going to leave the Drones for testing as they are. If they really do prove to be rubbish then I will think about the 2 x AP5+ Disrupt as a solution, but that still looks powerful.

100pts formations in the Tau list are a definite No go, as it just allows activation boosting for the sake of it. Which has knock on effects with how Co-ordianted fire works. So I dont really see a workable way to get a Drone formation into the main part of the list - 100-125pts is too cheap in terms of activation boosting, 150-175pts (say for a powerful or bigger formation starts to compete with Markerlight formations).

Ion Cannons are ok as an upgrade option, although formations are a bit pointless (again more because they are competing against AT support, than because they are bad for their points).

Disrupt on Rail Hammerheads is very powerful - which throws their points up, which in turn makes them a bad choice in relation to other formations and in the context of the list as a whole. Which would be a shame as I think they are actually quite a good choice now at 200pts and a formation I have become more sold on (as long as you have at least the one Broadside castle anyway).

Battleship - its ok, it has one very powerful ability the Hero doesnt in that it can target a formation of any type not just war engines. So a Hero might end up doing absolutely nothing, but the Castellan will always have a target. Its probably something to take in larger games, that said might go down to 225pts if your lucky

We'll focus a few games on testing 'em.

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Custodian.... Custodian is the battleship

Yeah, that made up space ship name is the correct space ship name. :-)

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Im just wondering, Why no Great Knarlocs or Knarloc Riders for the Kroot? Had some interesting ideas for conversion from the FW rules but bit sad id not be able to use em in these ones.

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AH yes! Ya gotta love it! Its all good for the Greater good!

Good things to add to future variant lists. There are alot of these sorts of units in the Tau background - variant vehicles, Stingwings, variant suits etc that I hope will be in future lists but first a core list needs to be finalised (which has proved quite hard even without thse more exotic inclusions).

You can probably assume there are Sniper Drones mixed in with the Pathfinders, helping to give them their Sniper ability.

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