Editing Markerlight (section)

== Using Markerlights ==

We've covered how you can get your markerlights onto the field. Now let's talk about using them to get your opponent off the field.

Now I hate repeating myself and repeating what other people have said, so go look at the top of the page and see those 3 bullet points. That's what you can use markerlights for. Read those bullet points and familiarise yourself with them; you're going to need to.

===Increasing BS===

First things first: you are playing Tau. You're a [[shooty]] (<strike>arguably</strike> the shootiest in 40k) army, you can outrange most people, and you can put out a suprising amount of fire and firepower at those ranges. None of that means shit, though, if you can't hit shit, and despite their style of warfare, the Tau are not naturally amazing at aiming. They are merely good at it. BS3 means your Fire Warriors and Pathfinders are only going to hit 50% of the time, and a S5, AP5 basic weapon means that most things are going to be able to save against their weaponry, even if it easier for them to wound than most other basic infantry. So with 50% of your shots hitting and a little more of those remaining shots causing wounds if you're fighting other basic infantry, at full range that's only around 3 or 4 wounds, even from a full Fire Warrior squad of 12 firing 12 shots. After Armour Saves, you'll kill maybe 2 or 3 guys on average, which seems like it should be a higher number coming from an army that specializes in ranged combat. Even with armies that field endless, teeming blobs of fodder for their Troop choices (Tyranids, Imperial Guard) whose basic troop saves you'll ignore anyway, you want more than just half of your shots to hit. Seeing as there is no limit on how much you can boost your units' BS with markerlights, if you want to, you can make those Fire Warriors BS 10, making that 1 in 2 miss chance a 1 in 36 miss chance on 12 shots at 30" and on 24 shots at 15". What this means is that without markerlights, you have an army of dudes who wouldn't completely embarrass themselves at the weeaboo gun range, and with them, you have an army of blue Annie Oakleys who could repeatedly shoot cigars out of an Ethereal's mouth without incident.

What this also means is that your opponent is going to target your markerlight units, and he is going to kill some of them, probably with concentrated fire and a shit-eating grin as he thinks he has just disrupted your entire strategy. If he has just wiped out all of your markerlights, then what the fuck is wrong with you, you had all of them out on the table straight away. Keep a couple back in reserve and then place them away from the assembled masses that your opponent just used to wipe out your lure(yeah, I got all your weaboo laser pointers WHY ARE YOU SMILING LIKE THAT OHGOD). They should be safe as markerlights max out at 36", outranging most Tau weaponry itself. This way, you can have your opponent zigzagging all over the table trying to decide which markerlight squad to take out first.

===Ignoring Cover===

Next up is Ignoring Cover, the most expensive ability of markerlights. This allows you to nullify your opponent's cover saves for 2 markerlight tokens. If I need to tell you why this is a good thing, then obviously you haven't been paying attention to recent waves of cover-based FPS vidya games. Let's just say that having a Hammerhead railgun salvo smash through the [[METAL BOXES|METAL BAWKS]] that [[Fish_of_Fury|your opponent is hiding behind]] and turning your target into a fine cloud of red mist is never a bad thing, mostly because you want your Hammerhead to be dealing with enemy armour, and Jink is fucking annoying on skimmers, jetbikes and flyers who usually have lighter armour than most other things, meaning that your S10, AP1 railgun just got that much more useful in dealing with those [[Gay|poncy space elves]], Doom-Croissants, Smurfs on bikes, and defectors from the Greater Good.

===Seeker Missiles===

Lastly, there's your seeker missiles, which are like buttholes (or [[Anal circumference|whatever weirdass alien ANALogue is applicable]]—[[Wat|I see what you did there]]) in the Tau army—everything has these, everything. Your Devilfish has these, your Hammerhead has these, your Broadsides have these, your Skyray comes loaded to the teeth with these. So what's the point of these? Simple: if you don't want a free BS5, S8, AP3 attack with unlimited range that ignores cover and line of sight for the cost of one markerlight token, then don't bother with these. If you do (and you do, [[Derp|stupid]]), then take as many of these things as you can on everything that can take them. At 8 points for one missile, they're cheap, reliable and can easily be fired first round for a quick Macross Missile Massacre, before you fire ze railguns or drop ze bombs, without costing you one of your two weapon attacks per shooting phase. Just remember that seeker missiles are single use only, so save one or two for late game in case your opponent decides he wants to drop a superheavy on your ass from reserve.