Markerlight
Laser pointers with attitude, and a key component of Tau strategies. Not to be confused with the angry flashlight.
Markerlights are dropped on enemy units by Tau units that have a weapon of the same name. It's functionally a laser designator and it puts a Markerlight counter on the target. Markerlight counters can be removed to do one of the following:
- Improve one of your units (which is firing at the markerlighted unit)' BS by one (with no cap as of 6th Ed.) So basically your guardsmen standard fire warriors can become as accurate as the FUCKING AVATAR OF KHAINE
- Ignore the cover save of the markerlighted unit (by spending two markers.) so that FUCKING UNIT OF CAMO COVERED BASILISKS BEHIND THAT DAMN AEGIS CAN'T HIDE ANY MORE Ahem.... Back to the greater good
- Fire a Seeker Missile from a vehicle with BS 5, Ignores Cover and line of sight, and it doesn't take up the amount of weapons that vehicle can fire. The the rest of the weapons on the vehicle have to fire at the same target, however. This one is awesome when that 8 point devilfish seeker missile kills a 250 point defiler - yes I have seen it happen.
And due to the fact that the Markerlight does not inflict wounds on its target, the target does not get to save against the markerlight hit, no Cover save, no Invulnerable save, no Armour save. This might not seem all that great until you realise that when you hit on a BS 3 and your opponent has an Invulnerable Save of 4++, that's half your squad hitting, and half of those hits doing damage, on average. With Markerlights you can, and will, make all of those shots hit before any further saves are made, effectively doubling the danger that one Fire Warrior squad poses to any enemy squad.
The only few exceptions of this are Eldar Super Heavy and their "reroll to hit with 4+" holofields. Luckily, you aren't going to face this bullshit unless you're stupid enough to play a sorry excuse of a game which current Apocalypse is.
And that's not even the full extent of it!
Suffice to say, this is Awesome and a component of what makes the Tau fun to play, since the markerlight support is so versatile and useful. Hell, entire combat styles can be built around the strategy of mass-markerlights and using Skyrays as artillery pieces, which frankly, is sweet. There's also a lot of ways to get Markerlights on the tabletop, from the heavily-armored Skyray, to the mobile Tetra skimmer and stealthy Remora Drones, to the lowly Pathfinder. Markerlights of any stripe act as a force-multiplier for the Tau, so if you play Tau you want to keep them close enough to target the enemy but with enough breathing room to pull back when targeted in turn. Contrarily, if you are playing against Tau, you want to kill those those damn little target painting blue commies as quickly as possible and make the entire Tau strategy fall apart, just make sure it is not another damn lure.
For the tau players remember that almost all sources of markerlights (except the commander bomb and Skyray with its AV13 Front Armor) are really squishy and will go down like a sack of wet shit if targeted properly. If you are going to use them as a distraction then make sure they're in thick cover.
Platforms: How you're going to light up your armies life
Yeah we told you why and how Markerlights are the goddamned center of your strategy, now it's time for how you're going to get them out on to the battlefield to light up your life. (Note: I have only have access to the base Codex, so if someone wants to add the Forge-World stuff later, please do so)
Troops: Fire warriors do have access to Markerlights, or more accurately one markerlight a squad. By Upgrading one Shas'la to a Shas'ui (squad commander) he is allowed to take a markerlight and Target-lock package deal, in total costing 34 points (6 for Warrior, 10 for Shas'ui, 15 for Markerlight and target-lock). While this is just one markerlight per squad it's the target-lock you want to look at. Make a leadership test (8 for Shas'ui) and your Shas'ui can fire at another unit on the table, seperate from his units current target, effectively chaining his Markerlight for another squad to fire at, or to launch a desperate Seeker Missile. Not the most reliable tactic but it's important to remember, especially for low point battles (500 or less)
Elites: Crisis suits don't have access to Markerlights of their own, but they do have a chance to take up to 2 drones each, meaning a 3 "man" squad of Crisis suits can have up to 6 Markerlights, firing at BS 2, (BS 3 if you take a drone controller, and to be honest there are better ways to use that item), this choice is helped by the low cost for Crisis suits (22 points each) meaning you just got a 146 (66 for suits, 72 for Drones, 8 for Controller) deep-striking blob of Markerlights ready to drop where you want it. Alternatively there are Stealth Teams whose commanders gain access to the Markerlight, Traget-lock combination the Fire Warrior Shas'ui can get, the only difference is that you can have 2 per Stealth team and a higher degree of survivabilty, having not tested this out yet, I can't speak to the effectiveness of this tactic, but Infiltrate, 3+ Armour, 4+ cover and a Stimulant Injector on your Stealth Shas'vre commanders makes for a much more durable and agravating target than some poor sap in the rank and file.
Fast Attack: Pathfinders. Pathfinders are the main source of Markerlights in your army, and you need to remember several facts about them. 1, These guys are apprechiably squishier than your Fire Warriors, 2, They have 'worse' actual weapons without special drone support, 3, They're scouts meaning you can, and will, move them about before the battle begins. Seriously these guys are the second squishiest unit in your army (the squishiest being Kroot or Ethereals) and you are going to want to keep them behind cover and out o charging distance. Don't worry about the cover though, as long as you can draw line of sight you can hit with a Markerlight as your opponent gets no cover save against it. They're still infantry and if you want them to move about the battlefield you are going to need to get them a Devilfish just so's they aren't arriving a day late and a dollar short. Next up Drone squadrons, how do they do in comparison to pathfinders, not badly, they've got a Higher base cost, worse leadership, can't take both a weapon and a Markerlight and lower BS, but they've got better armour (4+), higher Toughness, can Deep-strike, are counted as Jet-Pack infantry (Jump-Shoot-Jump) and a higher Initiative meaning if they do get in combat you might actually get lucky and pull them out without getting completely fucked by a lone guardsman. Moving on from Drones You've also got the Sun-Shark Bomber, a Flyer with a malfunctioning bomb plant, two unique drones and a NETWORKED Markerlight, why did I highlight networked, because you can fire it and the unit that fired it can benefit from it, this is especially useful for a high speed bomber as you can use it to reduce the scatter of your bombing run, take out opposing fliers with ease or just boost the footslogging masses below; this gives your relatively average flyer a wealth of tactical versatility, something the Tau already have in droves, but should never pass up. This thing force-mutiplies itself, and considering how the game is becoming more flyer heavy this is a good way to make sure that your flyers retain their sense of danger, you've only got an AV 11 on front though, so don't get too carried away.
Heavy Support For a section entitled Heavy 'Support' there are not many Markerlights here, only 2 sources and neither of them can put out a decent volume of Markerlight hits. First up we've got the Skyray Missile Defence Gunship, a modified Hammerhead, that carries 2 Networked Markerlights, and 6 Seeker Missiles, and that's it's selling point, this thing is the producer of first turn Macross Missile Massacres, as it can deliver its entire payload on the first turn provided you have enough Markerlight Support, and if you play with a group of people who allow you to have infinite Seeker Missiles on your Skyray, then this is a cheezetastic hate machine, providing missile storms every turn to the endless rage of your opponent. Granted the only people who offer that rule have something to gain from it as well, so be careful as your glee can rapidly turn to pain and tears, but it's fun while it lasts. The other source of Markerlights are the Firesight Sniper Drone teams, 1 controller and 3 Sniper drones, the controller is equipped with a Pulse Pistol, a Drone Controller (Meaning your sniper drones now fire at BS5) and a Markerlight, letting him help his less accurate footsoldier bretheran in a variety of ways, you can have up to 3 Marksmen in a Sniper Team, but at 13 points each, it's an expensive method of getting Markerlights and they are far better suited to mop up duty, letting their Drones shoot first, then hitting the remains of the enemy squad with their Markerlights for any other units to clean up when they shoot.
HQ's There's a reason I left this section for last,most of the Markerlight strategies for your HQ's are built off of the strategies that your otehr units use, for example, both Darkstrider and the Cadre Fieblades have access to to Markerlights, but Darkstrider is basically just a souped up Pathfinder, and the Cadre Fireblade is just a souped up Fire Warrior Shas'ui (he even comes complete with his own Target-lock), no the unique method for HQ Markerlights comes from the XV8-05 Crisis Battlesuit Commander. What you're probably going to do if you want to flood the table with BS 5 Markerlights, is take him with a Drone Controller, 2 Bodyguards, and 6 Marker Drones, and then attach him to a Drone Squadron made of Marker Drones, amking for a Total of 18 BS 5 Markerlight hits, dropping out of the sky into your opponents backyard. A good way to make your opponent shit bricks.