Clarification on Markerlights

[Thantoes]

I just need some conformation on this.

 

To the best of my understanding, a unit armed with a markerlight cannot gain the benefits of that marker light unless its a networked marker light. This is supported by the network markerlight entry (Tau Codex - Pg 29) which states:

 

"Unlike a normal markerlight, the operators own unit may benefit from its use." This seems clear enough but I had a bit of an argument on the weekend with the opponent stating that it made on mention of that in the actual Markerlight entry on the same page.

 

Looking through these entries also made me come to the conclusion that unless you arm your firewarrior Shas'la with a hardwired Target Lock, if he, for instance fires his marker light at a LR, then the whole squad have to shoot at the raider as well. I say this because the rules for the marker light state that "models use a markerlight as a weapon with the above profile"

 

That for me makes using a markerlight in a firewarrior squad to be highly uneconomical as it would in theory cost 25 points. 10 for the shas upgrade, 10 for the marker light and 5 for the hardwired target lock.

 

Any thoughts??

 

*edit* just had a look and there is nothing in the GW FAQ addressing this.

[Legatus]

The reason why regular markerlights cannot benefit the unit their are in is due to the basic shooting rules. According to the basic shooting rules in the BRB, all weapons from a unit are fired simultaneously. Even if a player rolls for the weapons separately and one after another, for game purposes they are still assumed to occur at the same time. So at the time the other Tau of that unit are rolled for, the target unit is not considered to have been hit by a Markerlight, even if that squads leader with his markerlight has been rolled for successfully before the rest.

 

A player may choose not to fire with certain models if he prefers (...). This must be declared before checking range, as all of the models in the unit fire at the same time.

BRB, page 16, "Which Models can Fire?"

 

Fast Rolling With Different Weapons

When a unit fires, all of its weapons are fired simultaneously, so you should ideally roll all of its To Hit dice together. Sometimes there will be different weapons firing, or firers with different BS in the same unit, in which case we find it easiest to use different coloured dice, so that the shots can be picked out. (...)

Alternatively, you can simply make separate rolls for different weapons or shooters, as long as it is clear which dice rolls represent which shots.

BRB, page 18

 

Compare that to the description of the Networked Markerlight:

 

Unlike a normal markerlight, the operator's own unit may benefit from its use. It is fired before the remainder of the unit fires.

Codex Tau Empire, page 29, "Networked Markerlight"

[Seahawk]

*edit* just had a look and there is nothing in the GW FAQ addressing this.

Because there is no need when it's all spelled out as it is. You and Legatus have it right; you're opponent, not so much.

 

using a markerlight in a firewarrior squad to be highly uneconomical

Very true! Hence why few to no good Tau players do this.

[Maligoare]

using a markerlight in a firewarrior squad to be highly uneconomical

Very true! Hence why few to no good Tau players do this.

 

More to the point, few good Tau players with access to Pathfinders do this. :) It is still less expensive than a Marker Drone, and allows a greater number of targets to be marked than a pathfinder squad.

[greatcrusade08]

when i played Tau i used to give target lock to the shas'la (sergeants) and fire him at differet targets, id then fire my heavy stuff using that markerlight.

But yes you are correct unless upgraded this way he cant fire at a different unit and unless its a networked markerlight he fires at the same time. I dont think is an option to shas'la anyway, although im a bit rusty with Tau having not used them in some time.

 

Gc08