Editing Warhammer 40,000/6th Edition Tactics/Tau (section)

====Drones====
Only Drones that can be taken by more than one unit entry are discussed here. The rest will be discussed in their related entry. All drones discussed now cost 12pts (with the exception of Shielded Missile Drones, which cost 25pts each). This is a big decrease for the marker drone, a minor decrease for the shield and a minor increase for the gun drone.

* '''Gun Drone:''' Has lost its Jetpack Jump infantry status and has been demoted to simply Jet pack infantry. Still with the changes to assault carbine being assault 2 and drone controller giving the drones the same BS as the bearer it has made them a much more usable option for some extra firepower. 
* '''Marker Drone:''' A staple of many Tau armies has just seen a massive improvement! Watch as markerlights rain down as heavy as the tears of your fallen enemy. 16pts has been taken off the tab and it benefits greatly from improved BS granted by having a Drone controller in the unit. The down play that not many players have noticed yet is loss of Networked markerlight. Meaning you better have two units firing at the same target and some pathfinders if everyone is going to benefit from those lovely markerlight hits.
* '''Missile Drone:''' It's a missile pod in a drone. Due to errata it can only be taken by Broadsides.
* '''Shield Drone:''' It's a shield generator in a drone. It's actually a cheaper, more effective shield generator to boot. Cheaper than the support system version by 13pts. It gives multi-wound characters a second chance at outlasting any scary S8 weapons that would insta-kill it. Even if not attached to Commanders it still makes a decent addition to any unit that can take it. Unless you have other plans or points are too tight, you cannot go wrong attaching a pair of these to Crisis suits, as they are tough enough to whether some anti-infantry fire, but not so robust that they can easily survive anti-armor weapons. The shield drones will let them do so, at least long enough to neutralize the threat to them. If these are the only drones you take, then there is no need for a drone controller. A full crisis team can take six of them without using up any support slots at all. Putting a shield wall on a full team of drones is a bit pricey, but makes them ridiculously survivable. It is hilarious watching the opponents entire army spend an entire shooting phase firing at one unit to only kill the drones and no suits.
** Note that when going against any competent opponent, any unit with lots of shield drones can expect to have lots of weaker [[dakka]] thrown at it until the shield drones are all downed before the anti-armor stuff starts hitting home, potentially during the same shooting phase.  Be very careful about the range and position of your Crisis suits relative to the enemy anti-infantry and anti-armor units, because a crossfire will still be deadly.  On the other hand, this is one more shooting phase in which all those shots are concentrated on one unit and not the rest of your army, so if the shield-drone carrying Crisis squad must play the role of a kauyon lure, make that distraction count.  
* '''Shielded Missile Drone:''' A cross between a Missile Drone and a Shield Drone, combining the strengths of both types. Only Riptides can use them, but on the bright side they also have T6.