Sniper Drone Teams

[ZenPaladin]

So as a Tau player I really love my sniper drone teams.

They bring instant death to T3. Penitrate marine armor and wound on a 2+, destroy light vehicles, cause pinning, can't be retaliated by long range weapons and provide a 3+ markerlight for 80 points. Oh! 3 for 1 HS choice is nice too.

Now a lot of Tau players seem to dislike them. They are fagile, they could be broadsides, they are not tanks things of this nature.

But considering that they can remove a cover save for your broadsides. Allow your battle suits to hit on 2+ or -3 leadership from a pinning save caused by a drone squadron and consider that a marker drone is 30 pts and the 3, S6, AP3 shots just seem like icing to me.

Does anyone else use these guys? If so what are your thoughts on them?

[darkninja962]

I don't have a Tau army, but have always want to. I've always loved snipers in any army and think Tau have a a great way of doing it. Whenever I playtest a list to see if I want to start Tau I always want to use the sniper drones, but never have the points for it and always substitute Broadsides instead because I need something to bring down tanks ( Tau don't have much else that can do this effectively ).

If in the next iteration of the codex they become cheaper (which they very likely will) I will run them in a heartbeat.

[DarkLink]

I used them back when I played Tau and liked them. Against some armies they aren't that great, but against others they're nice. 3 str 6 shots and a markerlight for 80pts is a fairly good deal in my opinion, even if they are pretty static.

In fact, my standard list has 3 sniper drone teams, a railhead and a pair of broadsides. I'd then take my suit commander (cheap as can be), 2-3 units of firewarriors and a squad of pathfinders. I sometimes played around with my 3 stealth suits.

Of course, as you can tell I wasn't exactly the normal Tau player, having only a single crisis suit. Just didn't care for them too much. Now I'd probably take a squad or two for the special weapons. I haven't played my Tau since 5th ed came out, though.

[Archon]

Now a lot of Tau players seem to dislike them.

If they suffer 4 hits, there is a 25% Chance of loosing the entire unit, thanks to wound allocation.

In Turnament-Size Armys they eat up a HS-Slot.

They are static - a disadvantage in a Tau army. At range an in the most cases your target recieve a cover save anyway. Yes the Markerlight is nice, but it´ll hit in 50 %. S6 isn´t the ultimate answer to armour value 11 or 12 if i have to pop transports, i´ll use missilepods.

I take them only (besides a have only one unit and no disire to buy more) in small armys.

[ZenPaladin]

Well the 4 hit thing is true. But its such a glass cannon that it survivability is kind of a non issue. That's why they gave it a stealth field. I'll admit that in a bigger game it probibly looses a lot of utility but you have to admit that there are only 5 weapons we have with AP 3. Plasma, Fusion, Railgun, Railrifle and Neutron.

Plasma has 24 range and is going to get you less shots at that range. Fusion has 12, Rail Gun is 72 but rare, Neutron is.... 12. If you want to kill Marines (and who doesnt) at range the 36 range on the rail rifle is where its at.

As for the static thing unless you are willing to forgo your Broadsides you are always going to have a static element in your Tau force. Now some people will mech up the rest of their army and dance leaving the Broadsides in a corner. It can work. Some people will actualy not get the Broadsides at all.. I supose it can work. But me? I like mixed-mech. I create a firebase in cover and I use a combination of pinning, going to ground and sacrificial units to keep them alive. Man what I wouldn't give to have a tech marine...

Also the markerlight is BS4 so I'm guessing its more like a 65% chance to hit? Not sure on that one...

[Tynskel]

Also the markerlight is BS4 so I'm guessing its more like a 65% chance to hit? Not sure on that one...

Come on! 66.6666666666666666% chance---- get it right!!!!

;)

I completely forgot that the Sniper Drone Teams have stealth. I don't have a Tau army, but, by far, the snipers are my favorite unit in the codex.

3 Str 6 AP3 shots with pinning are amazing to me! And a networked marker light!

Whenever I design Tau armies, I always include at least one sniper drone squad, a full broadside squad (leader with Target lock) and a Hammerhead.

[JxKxR]

I love the idea of sniper drone teams and their scare tactics. I like putting them somewhere I don't want his troops to come because then my opponent will think twice about his movement but its a bluff unit for me because for some reason when I go to roll for this unit I can only roll 1's. bad ju ju.

[BlindGunn]

I love the idea of sniper drone teams and their scare tactics. I like putting them somewhere I don't want his troops to come because then my opponent will think twice about his movement but its a bluff unit for me because for some reason when I go to roll for this unit I can only roll 1's. bad ju ju.

Sounds like the Railguns on my Hammerheads. Started going with Ion cannons so I would have a chance to hit... :cool:

[DarkLink]

Broadsides are static, too, and they're a great unit. And survivability isn't an issue due to the stealth field. All you really need is a few turns of the drones being annoying and distracting, and they've done their job.


I love the idea of sniper drone teams and their scare tactics. I like putting them somewhere I don't want his troops to come because then my opponent will think twice about his movement but its a bluff unit for me because for some reason when I go to roll for this unit I can only roll 1's. bad ju ju.

I once won a game in 4th simply because I deployed my 3 sniper drone teams and broadsides spread out, and my opponent tried to hide from them. He ended up cowering behind cover while I took him out one unit at a time.