Markerlights have changed a lot in the new Tau codex. For better? For worse? Today we’ll look at how they are different and what that means for Tau armies. Click to read on, or check out the Tactics Corner for more reviews and strategies.
Laser-Focused
Markerlights have seen a major update with the new Tau codex, and although on a trivial level they may seem similar, their role in the army and how you will use them are all extremely different. This is pretty much always the case, and Markerlights have changed significantly before, so this isn’t unfamiliar ground for Tau players. However, it’s certainly something that will take a little getting used to, so I wanted to take some time to discuss some of the fallouts of all of this.
So first let’s take a moment to review how they work these days. It’s relatively simple- using Markerlights is an action that a unit can take, starting at the beginning of the movement phase and finishing at the start of the shooting phase. You pick a unit you would be allowed to shoot at and when the action finishes you roll a die; and on a 3+ the target gets a Markerlight counter. Vehicles and drones are allowed to move while taking the action, and Pathfinders start it at the end of the movement phase rather than the beginning, functionally allowing them to do so as well.
So the very first thing that every Tau player should take away from that is that Markerlights don’t stop you from shooting. You wanna use those Pulse Carbines on your Pathfinders? Go for it, no one is gonna stop you. It’s not a huge change, but it does make things like Strike sergeants, Cadre Fireblades, and other models with a Markerlight and another weapon a lot more valuable.
The second thing is that Markerlights are drastically more mobile now. Many units- most, even- can move and fire their Markerlight to no ill effect. This is a huge change because the Markerlight was previously a very static weapon and this opens up the option for your units to light up targets while not being completely limited in what they can do. Now, you do need to be able to see the target when you start the action, even if you can move- so vehicles and drones will need LOS to the target before they move, which can occasionally be a problem. Even so, it offers a huge advantage in being able to keep your army pushing across the table, which is critical in 9E.
But the third, and most important thing, is the central one: Markerlights don’t care about ballistic skill or hit modifiers. This has been a problem for Tau for a long time- if you had a difficult target that you wanted to focus on and stack up bonuses against, you wanted to Markerlight them… but because they were a difficult target, getting any Markerlights on them was harder. It was a catch-22 situation for Tau players, but no longer- now Markerlights simply work most of the time. And this is regardless of the ballistic skill value of the unit as well- gone are the days of taking the -1 to hit heavy penalty for your Pathfinders or struggling with keeping a Drone Controller near your Marker Drones; now it’s a flat 3+ regardless of anything. Dense terrain? Works on a 3. Faction trait? Works on a 3. Vehicle reduced to final bracket? Works. On. A. 3.
Bonuses, Bonuses Everywhere
Okay, but what does a Markerlight counter actually do? Well, that is a little bit more of a mixed bag, although still one that is broadly positive to my mind. There is no longer a chart you need to consult to determine which benefits you get, because now there is only one benefit for Markerlights: +1 to hit. That’s right, regardless of anything else, when you shoot at a Markerlighted target, you get +1 to hit with a Tau unit (unless it’s an auxiliary, of course.)
This is great because the +1 to hit was the best bonus you could get before, and only from five or more counters- now it’s available right out of the gates with even a single counter. That is fantastic, especially for a faction with mediocre ballistic skill values pretty much across the board. Bonuses to hit are generally pretty hard to get this edition and Tau being able to hand them out light laser-guided candy is absolutely amazing and it is going to be a driving central point of many builds, I think.
However, the flip side to this is that you lost all of the other bonuses. No more reroll 1s to hit, no more ignoring cover, and no more ignoring the penalties for moving (or advancing) and shooting. Now, these abilities can potentially be accessed through other means in the codex, with varying degrees of ease, but they aren’t available as universal rules to all Tau units anymore, which will significantly change the way some things look to Tau players. Multiple Markerlight counters still serve a function, however- each time a unit shoots at something with a Markerlight counter on it, you remove one of them after the unit finishes shooting, so you’ll want multiple counters around if you want to get the benefit for everything in your army.
This will also make the process of deciding which order to shoot in a bit more complicated, since it isn’t optional to use the counters- so you’re going to need to shoot first with higher-value units, and also be very careful about splitting fire, because you will consume a Markerlight counter from every unit you shoot at.
What’s Going to Change?
I think there are a few things you can expect to see from Tau armies. First of all, taking Markerlights is going to be more common than before- you will want a good number of them, and the units that carry them are mostly excellent. As a result, Tau are going to want to be putting out significant numbers of Markerlight hits in order to ensure their army mostly hits on 3s during its “prime” turns, and this means having a greater mass of them available.
Second, Tau are going to need to be more prepared to deal with units that actually benefit from cover. They still have some weapons that can ignore cover, such as Smart Missiles, and have access to it through limited other means (e.g. the Recon Drone, the Sa’cea strat, etc), but the faction as a whole can no longer casually just always be ignoring cover without making some significant sacrifices to do so.
This all will, of course, be part of a larger suite of changes in the faction- more aggressive units, more maneuver options, fewer incentives to form a static gunline, and increased lethality of many weapon profiles. Tau are looking to play much more heavily into the 9E paradigm of high-intensity short-range combat, in their own unique way, and if you’re someone who has hated the way Tau work for a long time… well, they are going to be very different now, rest assured.
As always, remember that you can get your wargaming supplies at great discounts every day from the Frontline Gaming store, whether you’re looking to start a new army or expand an existing one.
