Confused on drones

[9x19 Parabellum]

So some questions on drones:

 

1. Wound rolls are made against the unit's majority toughness, right?  So the Drone's T4 does not really help, when it's attached to a unit. 

 

2. The drone controller says it increases BS to 4+ for "1 Drone Unit within 6" of the bearer".  Does this mean, for example, any drones you select that are attached to that unit do not get the benefit of a drone controller?  Ie, a unit cannot control its OWN drones to increase BS.

 

3. Drones never leave a unit to become a separate unit like they did in the previous codex/edition, is that right?  Does that also apply to drones that are docked to a vehicle, such as the interceptor drones on the Sunshark bomber?  I'm confused why they made them a separate unit profile in that case, since if they can never leave, why not just list them as part of the Sunshark's weapon profile.

 

Thanks in advance for any helpful answers!

Edited February 10, 2022 by 9x19 Parabellum

[Panzer]

Huh, I didn't really think much about it yet but it seems you're right. Drones get ignored for determining the majority toughness, the Drone Controller does explicitly say Drone units and docked Drones can't detach on their own and get automatically destroyed when the parent unit is destroyed (and get ignored for everything else as well so they're practically just additional weapons and that's it).

[Commander Dawnstar]

#1. The Artificial Helpers rule specifically precludes Drones' Toughness being used to determine a unit's Toughness value if it contains any other non-Drone models.

 

#2. The Drone Controller targets a unit with the Drone keyword (i.e. that contains any Drone models) and makes Drone models in that unit count as being BS4+ until your next Command Phase. As units are always within range of themselves for the purpose of these effects the bearer certainly can target their own unit.

 

#3. The Designated Tasking Stratagem allows you to detach Drones from another unit. This includes those docked on vehicles.

[9x19 Parabellum]

1. Perfect, I see that and am tracking.

 

2. Not that I don't believe you, and I think that's a reasonable conclusion, but where specifically does it say that Drone models that are purchased as an upgrade to a unit grant the <DRONE> keyword to the entire unit?  I see on page 94 it does say that all Drone models have the <DRONE> keyword, but that's not the same as saying that an entire unit of Stealth Suits, for example, gain the <DRONE> keyword.   And in fact it does point out the opposite; that Drone models never gain the keywords of the unit that contains them.  (Again, this doesn't mean that other units DONT gain the <DRONE> keyword, but I'm not seeing anywhere that it specifically grants that.)

 

3. Perfect, again, thank you.  I haven't fully digested all the Stratagems, I should have known it might be in there.

Edited February 10, 2022 by 9x19 Parabellum

[Commander Dawnstar]

Re: #2. The Drone rules don't specifically say that they convey keywords because it doesn't need to be said. To quote the core rules:

 

Some units can include models that have different keywords. While a unit has models with different keywords, it is considered to have all the keywords of all of its models, and so is affected by any rule that applies to units with any of those keywords. If a rule only applies to models with a specific keyword, then it instead only applies to models in such a unit that have the correct keyword.

Edited February 10, 2022 by Commander Dawnstar

[Emperor Ming]

Does that means characters with drones, the drones get the character keyword, cos that would be very bad for assassination  

[chapter master 454]

Does that means characters with drones, the drones get the character keyword, cos that would be very bad for assassination  

 

No. The key is knowing the difference between models and units.

 

Spent far too long trying to explain this because I am terrible at it.

 

Assassination refers to models. Not Units. The drone models do not gain keywords because the unit does however the unit gains keywords based on the models it is comprised of.

 

Drones are always wonky and always have been, the most unique part of the faction isn't even the suits!

[AenarIT]

The Goonhammer guys wrote a nice article on Tau rules, including drones:

https://www.goonhammer.com/ruleshammer-40k-tau-empire/

[Emperor Ming]

But if they don't gain the character keyword that means you can shoot the unit that contains characters/drones?

[Trokair]

The character in the unit still has the character keyword, so the unit still has the character keyword, so Look out sir works fine.