The Question: Can Marker Drones taken by a tau model equipped with both a Drone Controller and Target Locks split their fire along with the controlling model?
The Rules Lawyers Answer: No, because the Target Lock allows only the equipped model to split its fire.
Here’s Why:
Email in from Ryan S.
“First of all, great website. I am a 3L law student who has been playing
Warhammer 40k for probably a decade and I just found your site. I will now
be checking it for updates regularly.I have a question regarding Tau target locks, and yes, I did read your
previous discussion about them. This is a different question though.I have looked through the codex a few times and cannot find the answer.
When a model has a drone controller AND a target lock, and he uses his
target lock successfully to shoot at a different unit than the rest of his
squad, do his drones have to shoot at the unit the model with the drone
controller is shooting at? Do they have to shoot where the rest of the squad
shoots? Do they have a choice?I want to give my stealthsuit team leader a fusion blaster, drone
controller, hard-wired target lock, and two marker drones. I would like to
know if I can havethe marker drones shoot at an enemy tank with the team
leader when the rest of the squad is shooting somewhere else–like at
infantry.”
Thanks for reading, Ryan, and best of luck in your law career! Now on to the question.
The drone controller rule tells us:
“A model with a Drone Controller must take one or two Gun, Marker, or Shield Drones, in any combination from the wargear list.” Codex: Tau p. 26
So the drones are wargear, but for all game purposes, once they are deployed, they are treated as separate models from the controlling model:
“Drones under the command of a Drone Controller are counted when assessing if the unit they are with should take a morale check having taken 25% casualties. They are similarly counted when determining if the unit is strong enough to claim an objective. If their unit suffers losses, drones are counted when determining if it is below 50% for Victory Point purposes. Drones must maintain coherencey with the unit their controller is in.” Codex: Tau p. 31
The target lock rule tells us:
“This specialised target acquisition system enables the model to target a separate enemy unit to that engaged by the rest of its own unit. All firing in the unit must be declared before any to hit rolls are made. One Target Priority test is made for the unit – if passed, all the separate shots are taken; if failed, all shooting must be at the nearest target, as specified by the Target Priority rule.” Codex:Tau p. 28
We note that the language of the rule limits its application to “the model”, meaning the equipped model. Only that model may split its fire. Because the available drones are not equipped with target locks, they cannot split their fire and must fire at the same target as the rest of the unit. They do not have a choice.
We note that sniper drones do have target locks, but they are not made available by the drone controller.
Hope this helps!
