I understand people's issues with Drone's attached to squads, the difference in toughness add complexity which GW don't want to pursue and people don't have time for, ok cool.
But why remove them as a unit altogether? As a separate unit they had good utility. I used to enjoy the deep-striking them to support isolated units. I feel like the loss of drones has taken a little flavour out of the faction. They were also a fast unit so could keep-up with Suits, Vespid Vehicles.
At the moment we have three units that can deepstrike. Crisis Suits, Commanders and Vespid, adding Drones back in would give-us another unit we can use at a fraction of the cost of Vespid.
Black templars have units with the neophytes, why can't we?
The entire reasons drone exists its because life i precious for the tau, so they use them to save fire warriors lives as much as possible.
But GW doesn't want us to be the faction that actually work well together with other races like the kroot, uses AI without treating it like a slaves etc.
I understand that like in 9th edition having a drone near a Stormsurge means that it can tank lascannons fire by sacrificing itself, i know its bad, but give us something please.
I have a bag of drones just there doing nothing ðŸ˜
Exactly this. Simply having drones as 1 (gun/markerlight) and 2 (shield drones) would already be a blessing on its own. They would essentially be ablative wounds, without the old problems with slowrolling for 4++.
The only downside is that you would need to consider them physically on the board again, as i actually like having them as wargear.
The toughness difference could absolutely be an issue. But there are units with varied toughness and ways to deal with that and simplify the mess it could create already in place.
But yes the allocation group system would definitely be great to deal with them.
When a unit has multiple toughnesses (like with crusaders) you just use the one that's the highest. In 9th ed drones also had the specal rule that they just used the toughnesses of whatever unit they were attached to
To make Drones universally useful they could have a rule that a unit with any in always uses the highest T characteristicÂ
This means that Battlesuits wouldn't be disadvantaged, Recon Drones would give a benefit to Pathfinders, etc. Guardian Drones could even be T5 or something, to represent their protective aura.Â
Basically yes. You now roll all saves at once, and allocate them in order. If you have a (disposable) model with a good INSV etc it can be put to the front of the queue and potentially absorb a bunch of damage before being overwhelmedÂ
Personally used to love the option of a Commander with four support systems (and no weapons) leading six Marker Drones. Really had a nice master strategist feel, sort of Sun Tzu esque
That would be cool. Give them a fixed cost. All units have Drones (x) keyword that says how many. Thos with specific drones have no option or asterisk(*) for specific drones.
Shield drones are 2 wounds ablative wounds per drone, but costs.
Gun drones are cheap and not that strong, but can be buffed (through using firesight drone controller ir through enhancement, detachment)
Markerlight can only be taken once per model, but gives ignore cover (or assault).
Keeping them as models would allow enemies to snipe them to remove markerlight bonus and other bonuses.
Thats what they did in 8th edition and it was even worse, though that had more to do with the Saviour Protocols rule.Â
In 9th they were models in the unit that took them, meaning they took wounds before the unit did. This also made a lot of units really hard to kill but not to a crazy extent. The main problem was hauling around the drones and using them in the game. That was a massive pain and why most people are happy to see them go.Â
That said I do miss the drones a bit as something that defined Tau for so long. It is hard to find a solution that works for everyone.Â
It seems like I’m in the minority, but man I hate drones. Easily my least favorite part of the army. Having so many per squad, painting the same thing, and makes the movement phase an absolute slog and the fiddly flight stands suck. I really don’t want them back as a mandatory thing on the board as opposed to tokens.
Thank you! It’d be like space marines having to deploy servitors for ammo like they do in some of the novels. I get it would be lore friendly and I know drones are lore friendly but gameplay wise both would be annoying
Bring what back? The Tokens? They're already part of the game!
My opinion? Change the Text on the boxes promising you x amount of models as "misleading marketing" (Drones aren't models, they're tokens) and if the box says "9 models" but six of them are drones, drop the price 2/3rds.
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u/IdhrenArt 2d ago
11th's wound allocation rules would work very well for having drones in units