Sun Shark rage

Exasperation!

The new Tau codex has the same neutering of the Sun Shark Drones as we experienced when they changed 6th to 7th. I rang and emailed to query such an OBVIOUS OVERSIGHT. I am still awaiting a reply from the email. The person I rang said "that gives you some idea of what they think of the model." I was gob smacked, this is an employee!! I'm in Australia so its possible he was burnt out by pricing complaints, but this lackadaisical approach I find particularly infuriating. Do GW really have no use for us once we've bought something. This is no way to run a company.
To be honest I was really surprised with how much this has bothered me. The Sun Shark was never great but this lack of a reasonable fix smacks of laziness and lack of care for a product that they should be proud of and just really grinds my gears. How can we let the buggers know that this is sub standard practice. Why buy a new codex with the same mistakes? Lazy, Crazy POOR effort GW!!!!

Rant over

What's wrong with the Sun Shark Drones?

I'm interested to know how they were neutered.

Sunshark can choose to skyfire or not. Drones have interceptor and sky fire, they can only snap fire at ground targets and can't use their overcharged shot (st 8 small blast) at all. It is infuriating as this nerf only happened in the change from 6th to 7th, so GW have had PLENTY of time to notice or be told. It is such a basic thing, and now we must see if effin GW deign to produce an errata. I have found this really annoying, and am having a good old whinge, especially after the unsatisfactory phonecall.

You missed the part where, as Passengers in an Open-Topped Transport that is always moving more than 6", they always have to Snap Fire. So they're even worse than you thought.

The recent Tau Codex has tonnes of lovely new art, new style layout, and a lot of big changes, yet the rules haven't been touched. It does indeed feel pretty lazy to me.

Thanks Coffee Grunt, the hits just keep on coming. I like the model, it has grown on me. I really want to use it, otherwise its a waste of money to me. It is not good enough for me to be told by the service guy I rang that it is still a good display model! GW don't get it. If they are a miniature hobby company and rules are secondary, then why would we buy their models without rules? There is no attraction to the models without context. To me anyway. If I wanted dust collectors, I'd have stuck with Airfix. I want to be able to play with my toys gorammit!!! They cost me enough (yes I'm an Aussie, with red raw skin from the fleecing GW inflicts on us antipodeans) grumble grumble etc.

So you'd prefer the Drones be able to fire at whatever the flyer shoots at with their regular BS while attached?

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Originally Posted by son_of_volmer

So you'd prefer the Drones be able to fire at whatever the flyer shoots at with their regular BS while attached?

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I know I would, and more importantly, I'd want them to be able to fire at full effect after the plane has crashed, or they've disembarked.

Preach it Andrew, and while we're at it, why not give the useless "jets" on the Razorshark a use. possibly hover, or +1 to jink, or vector dancer. Otherwise its like GW went lets put useless but cool looking elements on the Tau planes.What a bunch of Waynes!

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Wayne Kerrs....you do the maths. :D

I'd prefer Drones count as a weapon system until deployed. THAT is what I would prefer.

Ohh I like that idea Tony, I was also able, in 6th mind you, to attach the detached drones to my buffmander (with drone controller) to create a Tau Super hero! He also had the Onager Gauntlet. Oh yes!!!!

Honestly, it gets worse. They also didn't give the Sun Shark a Pulse Bomb in the first place still (just the generator that still doesn't say that it counts as having a Pulse Bomb originally). I mean this is obvious and only a complete jerk would argue that the plane doesn't have one, but they could have made it very clear by typing two words. Don't even get me started about how they left the cost of twin-linked burst cannon and twin-linked smart missile systems the same on the tanks even though the SMS is superior in every conceivable way. Lazy, indeed.

I am going to use it as is in my next game. I'm going to make a big deal about how crap it is, explaining at great length what is wrong with it. Knowing my usual opponents, they will definitely spend some firepower on my desperately jinking ar'se (Air caste pilot), and then....I'll play it like an ork, fly up into the face of a squad and deploy drones, T'its (Pneumatic female Tau pilot) ahoy. markerlight and Tl missile and 2 seekers, plus snap fire from two drones that "may" be blocking the enemy advance. The evil GW has made me think of Kamikaze Tau! If I'm still in the air the next round well then I shall beg to be allowed to drop the Cra'p Bomb, though some may argue it doesn't have one anyway. While that is happening I'll still have a TL missile pod.
C'mon GW I'm reaching here. :)

So they are basically only useful once on the ground against other flyers, and thats the only time they can shoot their big template

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Originally Posted by andytriop

So they are basically only useful once on the ground against other flyers, and thats the only time they can shoot their big template

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Nope. They have permanent Skyfire, so they always have to Snap-Fire against Ground Targets. Meaning they can never fire their Templates.

Hi Bolsketeers, I've continued to request assistance regarding this rules conundrum and have at least some interesting news to report. Thanks go to Luke from Adelaide SA Games Workshop for his interpretation, which is as follows....
According to narrative the Sun Shark Drones are specifically anti air, the fact that all ion weapons have an overcharge meant that that rule was included for completion's sake, as Drones can never fire the blast (I grumbled at this but, fair to middling explanation and I can live with it).
while attached they can only fire at the same target as the bomber, so the idea is to detach them asap to become roving air defense. They can fire from the shark ,and the flyer can travel up to 18" (combat speed) before they have to snap fire as passengers. I hope that makes sense! Anyway once they are detached they can join a commander with drone controller to boost their BS to 5 against air targets. Hmmm! so there are some lurks and perks, I just have to let go of the idea of the small blasts, as they don't seem to be relevant to the drones. I don't think that this is a perfect solution, but Kudos to Luke for taking the time to present this way of utilising the SunShark drones. I will use it this way and see what happens. I'll build the other one as a Razor Shark, since I had plans to run two Sun Sharks, but without the small blasts against the ground targets, I'll diversify, improvise, adapt and overcome. Then be swept in H2H!! Such is the life of a Tau!

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Originally Posted by CoffeeGrunt

Nope. They have permanent Skyfire, so they always have to Snap-Fire against Ground Targets. Meaning they can never fire their Templates.

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can they shoot them against FMCs theoretically?

FMCs and Antigrav. But it is still a bad, obvious and lazy copy&paste job. But according to another thread, it is impossible and too much to ask to avoid these known issues.

Antigrav can be Skyfired at?

I did not know that!

I see a deepstriking buffmander meeting up with these drones behind some Waveserpents, or removing cover (jink) on flyers, then BS 5... its bound to end badly.

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Originally Posted by Bedroom General

I see a deep-striking buffmander meeting up with these drones behind some Wave-serpents, or removing cover (jink) on flyers, then BS 5... its bound to end badly.

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Except they'll still be Bs 2 because the drone controller specifically only affects GUN, MARKER and SNIPER drones.

And the Buffmander can just take two Missile Pods, a Velocity Tracker and Early Warning Override to do the same job anyway without shelling out for a mediocre Flier.

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Originally Posted by Djbz

Except they'll still be Bs 2 because the drone controller specifically only affects GUN, MARKER and SNIPER drones.

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Le sigh.
However, I'm listening to Underworld by Symphony x atm so don't feel so bad.
I bought the Tau flyers so I'll use them the same way the poms used the Fairey Battles. i can't believe that anyone flying in them thought that they were a good idea, but they went in anyway...