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Confusion with Markerlights


Valaskjalf

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Hey guys

 

I played a game against a friend with his Tau army recently and the whole markerlight situation just confused the crap out of me. I only play occasionally and dont play any Tournaments so no real way for me to figure out what exactly is going on by watching others play.

 

I borrowed his Codex for the weekend and made my way through it, but Im still confused.

I know only certain units can shoot markerlights, drones / pathfinders / suits with drones etc. but how many? This is what confused me when I played against this dude because it seemed like every single squad I had in range always had a ton of MLs on them. What restricts a squad of 10 pathfinders from shooting 10 markerlights? Do they only get one per squad? Does it even cost anything?

Nowhere in the codex could I find any of this info apart from 1 MLs to improve BS by 1 and 2 MLs to ignore cover.

Any clarification would be awesome, at least when I play against him next time I want to know what to expect, because I dont think even he understood how it works.


Thanks!

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Each Tau unit has a description that says if they can take drones, and how many.  Their points costs are noted in the wargear section, and their description and how they are used is paged from there.  The Marker Drone uses the Markerlight, further described under the Support Systems page descriptions (what a mess) giving full details.

 

36" ranged heavy 1 weapon with target acquired, each number of markerlight hits are noted, and the number of them allows different abilities to be used - Pinpoint, Scour and Seeker.  Scour is the one that gives a unit Ignores Cover rules, and is done on 2 markerlight hits.

 

Pathfinders specifically can take 2 additional drones from the drones list, but also have additional wargear entries to allow them access to the specialist drones (recon/grav/pulse).  Pathfinders also have Markerlights as part of their wargear (hence 10 bodies, 10 shots).

 

I hope that helps.  Having spent so long ignoring what they do, I finally decided to read a bit of it myself too now :)

Pathfinders, Marker Drones, Fireblades, Sniper Drone Marksmen, Sun Sharks, and Sky Rays are the only basic units in the codex who have them as basic wargear. A few Sergeants can also take them as well, and a few Forgeworld units also have them (beware of the Tetra).

 

But it is easily conceivable to be facing a large number of Markerlights in a Tau army, especially as they've gotten a lot cheaper and they are designed around using them (there is a reason why many of their "veteran" units are still BS 3).

I noticed it not mentioned but I thought it would be relevant. Units cannot benefit from their own markerlight unless they are "network markerlights".

True. This can missed/abused if you and/or they forget, especially since they are more rare than they used to be.

 

Marker Drones used to have them and cost 30 points, now they don't and cost much less, for example.

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