Editing Warhammer 40,000/7th 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, like the now Broadside-exclusive MV8 Missile drone. All drones discussed now cost 12pts (with the exception of Shielded Missile Drones, which cost 25pts each) and are all Jetpack Infantry. This is a big decrease for the marker drone, a minor decrease for the shield and a minor increase for the gun drone.

* '''MV1 Gun Drone:''' With the Pulse carbine being Twin-Linked 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. 
* '''MV36 Guardian Drone:''' Exclusive to Fire Warriors.  More unit friendly than the Shield Drone, it only gives itself a 5++ save, but the attached unit gets a 6++. It only really shines with the Breachers' Field Amplifier Relay (becomes 5++), but it can help your Strike teams when facing lots of blast weapons.
* '''MV4 Shield Drone:''' It's a drone-mounted Shield generator, and it's actually cheaper and more effective to boot. As in cheaper than the support system version by 13pts, and if it fails, you merely lost a drone. It gives multi-wound characters a second chance at outlasting any scary S8 weapons that would insta-kill them. 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 weather 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. Expect to cry when a Wyvern says "Hi!", tho.
* '''MV7 Marker Drone:''' A staple of many Tau armies has just seen a massive points decrease! Watch as markerlights rain down as heavy as the tears of your fallen enemy. 16 pts has been taken off the tab and it benefits greatly from improved BS granted by having a Drone controller in the unit. The downside that not many players have noticed yet is the loss of Networked markerlight, meaning you better have two units firing at the same target and maybe some Pathfinders too, if everyone is going to benefit from those lovely markerlight hits. Goes very well with Target Lock, tho.
* '''MV84 Shielded Missile Drone:''' A cross between a Missile Drone and a Shield Drone (hence the 8-4), combining the strengths of both types. Only Riptides and their variants can use them, but on the bright side they also have T6, so they don't reduce majority Toughness while still helping your battle suit to tank Grav shots.