Markerlight

Markerlights are 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. Escalation says hello.

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.

Getting Markerlights

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. Your Shas'ui can now 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, though 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-point (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, Target-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 of 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. Anothe fun tactic is to give your Skyray a Velocity Traker (skyfire) meaning that it's netowrked Markerlights allow it to fire 2, BS 5, S8, AP3 missiles on enemy aircraft leading to fun times. 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

There's a reason this section is left for last. Most of the Markerlight strategies for your HQ's are built off of the strategies that your other 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, making 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.

Using Markerlights

We've covered how you can get your Markerlights onto the field, lets 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, see those 3 bullet points, that's what you can use Markerlights for, read those bullet points, familiarise yourself with them, you're going to need to.

First things first, you are playing Tau, you're a shooting army, you can outrange most people, and put out a suprising amount of fire at those ranges. None of that means shit if you can't hit, and Tau are not amazing at shooting, they are merely good at it. BS 3 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 your weaponry. So 50% of your shots hitting, 50% of those shots causing wounds, at full range that's only 3 wounds, even on a full Fire warrior squad of 12, that's a depressing number especially against armies that field indescriable blobs for their Troop choices (Tyranids, IG), you want your shots to hit, and seeing as there is no limit on how much you can Boost your BS with Markerlights, if you want to you can make those Fire Warriors BS 10, meaning that 1/2 miss chance, has just become a 1/36 miss chance on 12 shots at 30", 24 shots at 15", meaning that without Markerlights you're an average army, with them you are the gods of War and Warpfire.

What that means is your opponent is going to target your Markerlight units, and they are 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, 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 your opponents assembled masses that he just used to wipe out your lure. They should be safe as Markerlights max out at 36", outranging most Tau weaponry itself and you can have your opponent zig-zaging all over the table trying to decide which Markerlight squad to take out first

Next up is Ignoring Cover, the most expensive ability of Markerlights, allowing you to ignore your opponents cover 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 BAWKS that 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 poncy space elves, Doom-Croissants, Smurfs on bikes, and defectors from the greater good.

Lastly are your Seeker Missiles, everything has these, everything. Your Devilfish has these, your Hammerhead has these, Your Broadsides has these, Your Skyray basically 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, that ignores cover, and is Homing for the cost of one Markerlight token then don't bother with these, if you do, and you do, 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 the Railgun, or drop the Bombs, without costing you one of your two weapon attacks per shooting phase. Just remember that Seeker Missiles are one use only, so save one or two back for lete game in-case your opponent decides he wants to drop in a Super-Heavy on your ass from reserve

Lights Out: The problems with Markerlights

In an unexpected twist from Games Workshop, markerlights are not the broken, end-all be all of a Tau army. Unlike several other units, they have several distinct problems, and knowing about these will help you in the long run. They are heavy weapons (one of the few infantry heavy weapons in the mostly fluid Tau weapons list), meaning your Pathfinders can either stand still and shoot at full BS, or Move and fire off Snap Shots at BS 1. Drones, as Jetpack Infantry have the Relentless Universal Special Rule, allowing them to fire at full BS with heavy weapons even when they move; have fun with that. Your opponent is also going to gun for them, hard, and while you might be able to have your Pathfinders ducking about the table with the aid of a Devilfish, if your opponent gets to them, expect them to drop as he unloads his entire army's ammo stocks at them. Any units who are not Pathfinders or Drones can only field an extremely limited amount of markerlights, meaning that you suddenly have to properly ration them out, making proper target prioritisation choices and pray that you don't botch your rolls.