New to Tau - questions

[Da Gargoyle]

So I picked up a bit of an army at a 15% discount and I'm putting things together and looking at the codex. A few questions have sprung from this and either I am missing something or some of the rules / set ups seem poorly written or described, (Not to mention obscure to find in the book).

The first thing is more a presentation issue. The devil fish is allowed to swap its gun drones for a TL smart missile system. I have not seen any example of this and wondered if that meant two drones with missile pods or a missile system mounted somewhere else on the vehicle. Any one ever seen this option fielded?

I have put together an XV88 broadside and will be taking drones. One of the options is a shield drone that has a 4+ invun' save. Is this just for the drone or does it convey the save to the unit it is attached to?

The kit out for XV8's says 3 items from the "ranged weapons and / or support systems lists". I originally red that to mean 3 items in total. But it could be read to mean 3 items from each. Was I right 1st time?

Does anyone know what the deal with the bonding knife is? I mean it charges a point for each member of the unit which seems cheap enough, but the only reference I could find was on the reference page where it says, "A unit with this special rule always tests to regroup on its unmodified Leadership". So what, in 7th Ed you always regroup on normal Leadership score unless your force is less than 25%. The Tau codex was out way before 7th Ed, so where did any benefit come from?

Thanks in advance for any input. I am sure I will have more questions as I read on.

[CoffeeGrunt]

Welcome to the Greater Good!

Paying for the SMS on the Devilfish normally isn't done, as Jinking ruins the benefits of having that extra firepower. However, your best bet if you really wanted to run it would be to source up the Smart Missile System from the Hammerhead kit on say, EBay or a bitz supplier.

The Shield Drone carries the Shield Generator Wargear. This only confers the 4++ Save to the model carrying it. Positioning is essential when using these as ablative Wounds.

3 in total, made from a mix of Ranged/Support. The most popular builds involve doubling-up on the same weapon, then taking a Support item to boost its effectiveness. Crisis Suits are best when tailored to a precise role.

The Bonding Knife Ritual isn't worth bothering with, it only becomes relevant after a squad has broken and is below 25%, and by that point the squad itself is barely relevant.

[Wolfshade]

Unfortunately the Devil Fish doesn't come with the SMS out of the box

Something like this I would imagine:


The invulnerable save is just for the drone IIRC, so make sure that the drones are closer to the firing enemy than the broadside.

Each XV8 may take 3 items from the ranged/support systems.

The point of the bonding knife was to give those 25% squads a chance of rallying (otherwise they need a double 1) . It is useless on squads of 3 or less. There are also those who would say that once a squad is down to 25% they aren't very useful anyway...

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Hmm, ninja'd