News: No news is good news...

Login  |  Register

Author Topic: Drones added to Suits and Fire Warrior Squads?  (Read 5131 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline Tango Down

  • Junior Member
  • **
  • Posts: 113
Drones added to Suits and Fire Warrior Squads?
« on: March 21, 2008, 01:30:08 AM »
I'm not sure how effective it is to have drones in FW squads. I think it would be nice to have 2 extra wound buffers for the FWs themselves, as they are pretty costly. I'm thinking 2 Gun Drones seems cost effective and would only be an extra 20 points, giving them 2 extra wounds plus a bit of extra firepower. Shield Drones I am not too sure about, the 4++ save doesn't seem like its worth it compared to Gun Drones.

The Tau faq also mentions that if an IC takes the HWDC and drones, it can be picked out in shooting, but doesn't lose and loses its IC status. Is it still worth it? How about with XV8 teams? They already have 2 wounds a piece and a good save, would taking the drones be overdoing it?

So basically my question is: are these drones worth adding to squads for a bit of survivability? I don't have a lot of experience playing against/as Tau, so I'd like to hear what all of you think about it.

Thanks.

-Tango

EDIT: IC status IS lost when you take drones. Oops :P.
« Last Edit: March 21, 2008, 03:57:23 PM by Tango Down »

Offline DammageInc

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 809
Re: Drones added to Suits and Fire Warrior Squads?
« Reply #1 on: March 21, 2008, 02:00:28 AM »
Not really, firewarrior squads usually get all the protection they need on the inside of a devilfish, and giving them 2 extra members means they can't use it anymore.

As for crisis suits, unless you take a lot of gun drones it won't work, as the 3+ save suits will be in the majority and removed first, throw in torrent-of-fire rule and they will make sure your drone controller is the first to die.

As for ICs, yes, they lose IC status due to them "forming a squad" with their drones, best to have a squad of gun drones and hide your IC behind it :)

Offline Andro Ist Keine Schwedischen

  • Da Biggest; His Fluffiness; Warboss
  • Lazerous Penguin
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 5466
  • Country: 00
Re: Drones added to Suits and Fire Warrior Squads?
« Reply #2 on: March 21, 2008, 02:47:50 AM »
Marker Drones are reasonable for static Fire Warrior Teams, if rather expensive.  Best paired with a Shas'ui with a Markerlight.

Shield Drones can be good for Broadsides, though they can cause some Morale issues (like losing 5 out of 6 drones makes them under half strength, they break and can't rally).

Gun Drones are nice for Stealth Suits, giving you a little extra firepower and pinning without any real drawbacks.

~Andromidius
aka. Boris the Bear

Offline DammageInc

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 809
Re: Drones added to Suits and Fire Warrior Squads?
« Reply #3 on: March 21, 2008, 04:35:44 AM »
There is a small drawback with gun drones in stealth squads, it increases the footprint of the squad a fair bit with only a little extra firepower, increasing their chances of being spotted or assaulted.

All the rest are valid points, I usually have 2 squads of 6 firewarriors with a pair of marker drones thrown into my apoc army, but in general, gun drones are best used in their own squads rather than attached to anything.

Offline Wyddr

  • Author Eminence: Hereticus Liber Daemonica | Fio'shas Shi
  • Lazerous Penguin
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 5254
  • Country: us
    • My blog about SF/F stuff
  • Armies: Daemons, Imperial Fists, Tau, Ksons, Vostroyans
Re: Drones added to Suits and Fire Warrior Squads?
« Reply #4 on: March 21, 2008, 09:19:24 AM »
Shield Drones are good for Crisis Suits and Broadsides (but not Commanders--IC status is better protection), since they are small units with good saves, and the shield drones complement that.

Gun Drones are okay on Stealths (though not that great) and that's about it. In FW squads, you may as well buy another 2 FWs. I've never needed more than 12 models in a group.

I never buy drones for anything else. Marker Drones are way too expensive, in my opinion, shield drones are unnecessary for infantry, and gun drones on Suits is just diluting their toughness for a marginal firepower bump (particularly since my suits usually hunt 2+ saves or Skimmers).

Offline Khain Mor (/kharandhil)

  • Senior Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 2886
  • Country: be
  • <3 huskblades
    • Dark Moon Kabal
Re: Drones added to Suits and Fire Warrior Squads?
« Reply #5 on: March 21, 2008, 06:40:59 PM »
Everyone has his own opinion about drones and it all doesn't rly matter if you think about it. The whole liking or not just has to do with the use of drones and battletactics.

Here is how I use drones.
A drones, use em as shield. Yeah the marginal firepower they have rly is pathetic, however I do use their wound to save crisis of broaside suits. Whether the guns kill something doesn't even matter to me; I just use them to die for the greater good. Instead of losing a stealth I lose a drone...I always take 2 drones with my stealth too.
Basicly they're just weaker shield drones.
Real shield drones are used for the same purposes but on more espensive chars, which I don't want to loose and have an extra backup.

I ususally give 2 drones at max to a squad, but I'm thinking about going to 4 or 6 in bigger battles to increase their odds of surviving.

I keep marker drones for pathfinders or firewarrriors. They're expensive, but having that markerlight is great and it remains on the battlefield during pretty long. I use every markerlight I have and rly lov using them, I only regret the expensiveness of these drones, but then again it does give an extra wound too, unlike having the markerlight on the shas'ui. I rly like the fact that you can have more than one markerlight in a firewarriorsquad now. Back in the beginning of the tau I used to take squads of 6 with a shas ui to have 2 markerlights...I still do it at times, cuz I don't have many marker drones.

I do give A drones to firewarriors squads of pathfinders to increase their survival in cases I need to stay in some big important spot. I do this very rarely as the max number or firewarriors already takes care of this in a way.

In the end they're all pretty cheap and A drones and cheap canonfodder (for a tau army) They're rly good canon fodder too! At times both A drones and shield drones work as excellent shielding drones as they survive through mutiple shooting (especially the shield drones). they're both great if you're in cc by mistake. You increase chances of escaping by putting them in front and dieing for you. I rly have to admit that at times they have amazed me and saved me from the worst situations ever, especially against cc lol. They may be canon fodder, but their save is far from being that bad. Imagine a lascanon shooting at your crisis...drone dies...crisis are ok...or Shield drone survives and it was nothing! even better!
It has been worth it in the few situations I've used them.

Drone squads and drones from piranhas or devilfishes are used in the same way, except that they're not in the squad which is even better :p.

As for tactics...
I make sure that my crisis suits don't get shot at a that much...this makes them benefit from their extra wound even more as they could prob just lose the drones, instead of a suit or 2.

I have to admit that at times they server as great last resort (against cc mostly) but most of the time they're just there to minimise death within squads. This whole tactic is great to preserve your units intact (I don't consider the drones as part of the squad, they don't do much anyways except to die for the greater good, more important is the shooting from the crisis suits which I want to preserve)

Another big reason why I can afford them: most times I have all I new and have "points leftovers" they fill the wounds of the squads greatly!

I agree with Andromidius completely, I prob use the stealth in the same way and it works great...that great I prob use it in every battle.

Now 2 squads are completely different, broadsides and my HQ crisis team.
Broadsides don't need shielddrones however it could be a good idea to give them that extra 2 "super" wounds. I give me invuln save at times to increase their survival if rly rly needed. I give em shield drones if I know I will suffer dam, but have to stay in a spot as long as possible and even if I may lose the whole squad, having them untill the end will be worth it for sure.
Rly is a final resort, usually don't do this, as it's kinda useless. Adding 2 or 4 a drones is nice to have extra backup. I don't do this unless I have tons of pointsleftovers.
SHield drones on the HQ criss team, now that different. Both they and the etheral are valuable units for sure, I don't regret one bit addind these to them.
They do great during battles and asorb rly anoying heavy shots. (don't you just hate it when you crisis suit dies from insta death , while in my case just one drone may die, but he may even survive lol :p)

At first I didn't apply all these tactics, but then after years of playing I realised that at times I did take extra units for nothing (at end of the battle they had barely done anything and had prob stayed intact), while I always hoped the units I was using would survive longer...drones helped me with that :p

This still happens to me with other armies lol.
The Dark Moon Kabal ,possibly the biggest DE army ever!
over 20k and awesome, what more do you need to click? (last updated the 02/03/2012)

Nothing better than killing a thousand slaves to wake up in the morning.

Offline DammageInc

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 809
Re: Drones added to Suits and Fire Warrior Squads?
« Reply #6 on: March 22, 2008, 01:57:38 AM »
Yeah the marginal firepower they have rly is pathetic, however I do use their wound to save crisis of broaside suits.

How do you do this with gun drones? their armour save is in the minority so they are removed last...

As for marker drones, I agree, too expensive for anything under 4k points, but over that they can really give your army some "alpha strike" potential (being able to "frontload" or do a lot of damage in one quick burst, very suddenly) especially if your seeker missiles are airborne (then they hit on side armour).

Offline stevencoles2007

  • Junior Member
  • **
  • Posts: 228
  • so much passion, so little effort...
Re: Drones added to Suits and Fire Warrior Squads?
« Reply #7 on: March 27, 2008, 03:39:37 AM »
i think they are useful in terms of pinning, not much else, since they are stuck in their little fw squad and cant move their full distance...

i use them in my static list for for that anyway

Offline Siege_TF

  • Lazerous Penguin
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2781
  • Country: 00
  • *Slurp* I mean... *Sip*
Re: Drones added to Suits and Fire Warrior Squads?
« Reply #8 on: March 28, 2008, 03:24:57 PM »
Gun drones flesh out Pathfinder squads quite nicely, and a full squad with drones still fit in their never-used Devilfish.
Onager 
/ˈänəjər
/Noun
An animal of a race of the Asian wild ass (Equus hemionus onager) native to northern Iran.

In other words GW are calling Tau players wild asses for wanting a melee suit option.

Offline Khain Mor (/kharandhil)

  • Senior Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 2886
  • Country: be
  • <3 huskblades
    • Dark Moon Kabal
Re: Drones added to Suits and Fire Warrior Squads?
« Reply #9 on: March 31, 2008, 08:43:14 AM »
Yeah the marginal firepower they have rly is pathetic, however I do use their wound to save crisis of broaside suits.

How do you do this with gun drones? their armour save is in the minority so they are removed last...

I'm talking about cc, it's true that it doesn't aply for shooting.
I try putting drones in front, so that they die and crisis suits don't.
Then I have to somehow find a way to make sure there's no second cc :p
For shooting I can just take 4 drones, to have that minority rule going backwards.
I just rarely do this, extremely rarely.
The Dark Moon Kabal ,possibly the biggest DE army ever!
over 20k and awesome, what more do you need to click? (last updated the 02/03/2012)

Nothing better than killing a thousand slaves to wake up in the morning.

Offline Shas'Oink

  • Sky Ray Pimp Daddy | Infinity Circuit | Ban me, I dare you! | The Fallen didn't fall, they were pushed. | Winner of the 2008 40K Online Longest Title Competition, awarded again with oak leaves, five years and running | Now with O:nkling! | Axe
  • Ancient
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 10824
  • Country: england
  • 87% sure I'm straight
    • oinks overambitious terrain project(s)
Re: Drones added to Suits and Fire Warrior Squads?
« Reply #10 on: March 31, 2008, 08:49:18 AM »
funnily enough you seem to make the same intial mistake in under-estimating the gun drone.

as part of a fire warrior squad, the gun drone is actually BETTER than your fire warrior! consider the following:

+A gun drone costs the same as a fire warrior.
+it has the same save and toughness (and strength etc)
+it has double the initiative of a fire warrior.

(combined these make the drones better combat speed bumps and support for your warriors).

+BS2 twin linked has a better chance of hitting than BS3.

(actually making them better shots!)

so the only thing you need to look at is the weapon, and whether you want to use carbines or rifles. in a carbine squad then there is no reason not to take drones, in rifle units then you may have a harder choice.

the biggest draw back of drones on a controller is if the controller dies. but there are few armies that can forcibly do this. against other opponents you still need to be careful with this happening.

Offline ShasO Kodel

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 328
Re: Drones added to Suits and Fire Warrior Squads?
« Reply #11 on: March 31, 2008, 05:11:51 PM »
Just my two cents. If I'm using a solo suit, or a squad of suits(rather unlikely) that have only 18" or less weapons, I put at least one gun drone if not a gun and a shield drone. A extra body or two for the squad, plus if you're shooting your suit weapons, you're all but guaranteed to be in range for the drone.

Offline Siege_TF

  • Lazerous Penguin
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2781
  • Country: 00
  • *Slurp* I mean... *Sip*
Re: Drones added to Suits and Fire Warrior Squads?
« Reply #12 on: April 6, 2008, 05:44:22 PM »
Until the drone gets picked off, then the suit is doing Last Man Standing tests for the rest of the game.
Onager 
/ˈänəjər
/Noun
An animal of a race of the Asian wild ass (Equus hemionus onager) native to northern Iran.

In other words GW are calling Tau players wild asses for wanting a melee suit option.

Offline DammageInc

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 809
Re: Drones added to Suits and Fire Warrior Squads?
« Reply #13 on: April 7, 2008, 02:13:01 AM »
Yeah, someone hoses that squad with ap4 shots, gun drones have to take the hits (because they are denied a save) and can cause the whole squad to fall back :/

Offline Tom Foolery

  • Newest
  • *
  • Posts: 2
  • Country: us
  • I *LOVE* 40k Online!
Re: Drones added to Suits and Fire Warrior Squads?
« Reply #14 on: December 11, 2016, 08:01:55 PM »
 I just got start building a Tau army for my son. I bought three of the Fire Warrior boxes, three stealth suits and three Crisis suits. Don't even have the codex or commander yet. Everybody keeps mentioning the high cost of marker drones. Seems to me, that if I have only 42 figures total, I'd want to spend like crazy to fill points. I just can't figure out how to actually build the two drone compliments which come in each box. By the sound of it, on this thread, I'm thinking 4 gun drones (2 with FWs and 2 with suits) and then 2 marker drones (to be run by the Tau equivalent of the sergeant). Does that sound about right?

Offline Irisado

  • A Light in The Grim-Darkness ~ Guns Don't Kill People, Copyright Stats Do | Farseer | Reporting Live! from the Crime Scene | Somewhat behind the times
  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 11480
  • Country: gb
  • Soñando debajo del arco iris
  • Armies: Administrators must not play 40K
Re: Drones added to Suits and Fire Warrior Squads?
« Reply #15 on: December 12, 2016, 05:43:56 AM »
Welcome to 40K Online.  Please note that this topic is eight years old so the contents are not applicable to the current rules.  In addition, reviving such old topics is against the forum rules, which you can read here.  For these reasons, this topic is locked.
You haunt my in-box like an ex-girl friend could only dream of.

The Forum Rules - Please Read and Remember Them.

Soñando con una playa donde brilla el sol, un arco iris ilumina el cielo, y el mar espejea iridescentemente

 


Powered by EzPortal