Tau and Marker lights

[gauntinator]

Hey guys,
I'm trying to start a Tau army and have posted several questions pertaining to their strategy and such and now I have one about marker lights. Well two actually.

#1: When it says a squad is equipped with marker lights, does that mean that every squad member with one can use one? So in theory a squad of five could shoot five marker lights.

#2: I read somewhere in a FAQ that marker lights negate cover. As this is clearly stated in the rules I was wondering why it had to be FAQd. So does this mean that it automatically does that or just the cumulative marker tokens can make it nothing?

Thanks for your time and sorry if these seem dumb. I might have misread the codex...I do that alot.

[Helonion]

1. Pathfinder squad, everyone has them.

2.Marker lights have the ability to do -1 to a cover save, not negate it.

[halos]

However I believe that you do not get cover saves against markerlights either, as they don't cause wounds there's nothing to take a save against.

[Devil's Advocate]

Feb 28, 2011 11:43:16 GMT halos said:

However I believe that you do not get cover saves against markerlights either, as they don't cause wounds there's nothing to take a save against.

That is correct.
one cannot save against a markerlight, it does nothing but puts a little red dot on the unit.
Markerlights may reduce cover saves or increase BS or reduce LD vs pinning weapons, per your codex.

[salamut2202]

You can save against being wounded, the markerlight does not wound.

[gauntinator]

Ok I so if every pathfinder in a squad has one, then does that mean if they are stationary they all can fire one instead of their weapons? So a squad of 5 could shoot off 5 markerlights?

[Helonion]

Feb 28, 2011 22:40:16 GMT gauntinator said:

Ok I so if every pathfinder in a squad has one, then does that mean if they are stationary they all can fire one instead of their weapons? So a squad of 5 could shoot off 5 markerlights?

I am not sure, but that might be correct. Also the squad that fires the markerlight can never use that markerlight token for their squad. The only thing that allows a markerlight fired from a squad to affect that squads shooting is a network markerlight.

[Devil's Advocate]

Yes, if no models in the pathfinder squad move that turn, they can all fire markerlights at a single target.

On a related note:

Drones gain the movement attributes of their parent squad - so a drone attached to a fire warrior squad moves like infantry, but a drone attached to a stealth suit squad gains jump jets AND relentless.

Lets say you give a marker drone to that fire warrior squad. a single model moves and the entire unit, including the drone may not fire their markers.

give that same marker light to a stealth suit squad, and the drones can move, fire their networked markerlights, then move back behind cover.

[gauntinator]

OK thanks guys, this really helped me. I wasn't sure if the Tau army would be a viable option tactically for me but now that I know the marker lights are pretty useful I'll definitely be getting a battle force.