Tau in melee

[Surisan]

If a crisis commander is joined to a squad of suits, and also has purchased his own shield drones, how is he allocated wounds in melee? Can you target just the commander or are his drones part of his wounds?

Squad Suits -A
Squad Shield drones -B
Commander -C
Commander drones -D

[DarkLink]

If he is an independent character joining a separately purchased unit of crisis suits, then treat them as separate units for allocating attacks. Your opponent must decare which attacks will be on the commander and the drones and which will be on the crisis suits before rolling.

If the crisis suit team is an HQ bodyguard team, then he's not an independent character and you allocate wounds across the entire squad after your opponent rolls to hit and to wound.

[AbusePuppy]

The rules unfortunately do not specify exactly, but the Space Wolves FAQ with regard to Fenrisian Wolves (which act very much like Drones in most ways) seems to indicate that the Shas' is still an Independent Character and thus targeted separately from the Drones in melee combat.

So if you have the aforementioned unit (Crisis suits with Drones and Shas' with Drones), the enemy has three choices when allocating attacks: the unit of Crisis and its attached Drones as one target, the commander's Drones as a second, and the commander himself, which will be a third. Only models in B2B with the commander or within 2" of a model that is can attack him, and vice versa.

Also, as DarkLink notes, this will not be true if you have purchased XV8 bodyguards for the commander- in such a case, the entire collection of models is a single unit that acts (and is attacked in melee) as a whole- this is the only time you will be able to allocate wounds to a commander's Drones during a melee engagement. Of course, such a commander also is unable to leave the unit so long as any of his bodyguards are still alive, so...

[ToBeWilly]

Q. Can you please clarify the rules for independent
characters and Bodyguard/Honour Guard for Tau
characters, especially if they also select drones as part of
their wargear. For example, do Tau characters with a
retinue always count as independent characters for the
purposes of close combat, or do they not? (p32-33)
A. When selecting your army, if you buy a Tau character
without a Bodyguard, he (and his drones) may join/leave
units as a normal independent character. In combat, the
character (and his drones) count as a separate unit.

If, when selecting your army, you buy a Bodyguard for a
Tau character, the Bodyguard and the character (and his
drones) must be fielded as a unit, as described for
Retinues on page 48 of the Warhammer 40,000 rulebook.
In this case, the character (and his drones) cannot leave
the Bodyguard unit. The character (and his drones) are
members of the unit in all respects. Only if the entire
Bodyguard is destroyed, the character returns to being an
independent character, as described above.
The same is true for Ethereals and their Honour Guard.

This is from the Tau Empire FAQ, found herehttp://www.games-workshop.com/MEDIA_CustomProductCatalog/m1760102a_Tau_Empire_Version_1_1.pdf

[marsdonut]

Until the new ruleset is out, I play under a house rule / common agreement that drones count as a retinue (thus shield drones in melee will find a use!). I have informed and received permission from each opponent unless they disagree, where then I play a different list. I'm not much a fan of bodyguards, but they're not awful if I have the points for a large drone heavy one. (all in regards to melee)

I much rather lose my suits to shooting than the crummy independant character rule (But... my invul save is on my shield drone! :eek: :( )

[jb50c]

Body guard are retinue and so the IC cannot be singled out. If you're familiar with Tyrant guard, this is exactly how a retinue operates (oddly enough, TG aren't labeled as retinue).

See http://www.lounge.belloflostsouls.net/showthread.php?t=13464

If you have a solo commander with drones, he is always the lone target in CC as his drones are considered part of his wargear. However, the drones can be used in wound allocation shenanigans.