[Stephan]

Hi all,

I´m fairly new to 40k in general and Tau in particular, in fact I´m still trying to decide which kind of Tau army I want to field.

One thing that I wonder about is the markerlight. I have no clue, what to do with this piece of wargear. Sure, I know the advantages it can give, but I don´t see them game winning factors.

- markerlights are expensive
- they count as heavy weapons => no move and shoot
- they support other weapons => they can´t do anything deadly on their own
- their use is limited by the unit, ie as long as you don´t have a multiple target lock (don´t know if it´s the right english name, I mean that wargear that allows its wielder to shoot other targets than his unit shoots) it´s use is limited to a ballistic skill increase for the rest of the unit
- if you try to shoot vehicles with a marker light, you need those rockets, which further increases the cost of the markerlight

On the other hand, I often read about their usefulness in conjunction with Vespids, making them more deadly. And because I really like the Vespid miniatures, I try to find ways to improve their power, therfore I opened this thread.

A couple questions:

1. Are markerlights worth it?
2. Are markerlights really that good in conjunction with Vespids?
3. How do you include markerlights in your army? Do you at all?

Thanks,

Stephan

[UltraMagnus]

the problem with markerlights is that they rarely earn their points back because of their high cost. you can forget using them standard fire warriors because for the points of a marker light you could have bought enough fire warriors to make up for the increased BS.

basically, the only place they can make their points back are when guiding battlesuit units that are targeting their speciality, or a full stealth team with full gun drones (which is a very expensive and specialised unit)

[Howloutloud]

If used in the right way markerlights are insanely good. I tend to take a unit or two of pathfinders for mine and find that with using both units on one target I generally get 7-9 lights. With that many my opponent won't be getting cover saves, I can auto pass priority tests for my broadsides or any other units, and when you get to up your ballistic skill of any unit.... Makes my horrible rolls that much easier to swallow.

Now having said all that, if you are looking at them as too expensive, you need to realize that the tau need to interact as a whole to be effective. Yeah, you can try to fish your army and win by denial... but if your opponent has a dedicated assault army with lots of fast moving units (raptors, assault marines, any eldar with a 4+ or worse save...) then the fish is a lot less effective. Now put those markers on the assaulty unit and it goes bye-bye before it has a chance to hit your lines.

[knightperson]

I have to agree with Howl. Markerlights are the best thing about Tau (other than their sheer coolness, of course), and nobody else has them. They're tricky to use since a normal markerlight (not a networked one) can not be used by the unit that fires it, only later units. I fire first with my pathfinder squad to light up a unit, use 1 or 2 hits to increase the BS of a fire warrior squad, and that fire warrior squad also fires another markerlight to help out the next unit. The last unit to fire calls for seeker missiles if there are enough markerlight counters remaining.

Using markerlights for cover saves and pinning checks also has its uses, but most of the time I take increased BS or seeker missiles.

[cyberzomby]

One thing Im a bit clueless on is: You need to declare upfront what youre going to use the lights for right?

So if you say reduce cover ( +6 ) and you get like 4 hits. Than you wasted 3 hits?

[mace]

Originally Posted by cyberzomby

One thing Im a bit clueless on is: You need to declare upfront what youre going to use the lights for right?

So if you say reduce cover ( +6 ) and you get like 4 hits. Than you wasted 3 hits?

I'm a little confused at your wording there.

Basically when using a markerlight hit, you get a token that you place on the 'marked' target. Later on, you can choose to 'use up' this token (or tokens) - at which point you declare what you are using it for before you roll to-hit with another unit that is using the token. The token is only removed after to-hit rolls have been made.