A Short Shadow War AAR. Tau Vs Squats

[Eilif]

The following is an excerpt of a blog article.  Read Full Article

Josh and I played Shadow War last week.We didn't take extensive notes, but here's a few pics and a brief overview. Josh provided the nice Necromunda'ish terrain below which is built of Mantic Battlezone pieces. In the background you can see Tim and Michael playing Shadow War also. I'm on the right the foreground with my Squat (using IG rules) group and on the left side of the table is Josh's Tau warband.   It was a simple "Gang Fight" scenario and it quickly separated into two separate firefights on either flank. Eventually Josh was able to use the large drone pictured above ...

[gattz]

Yes, hiding is definitely crucial there. Markerlights seem pretty low cost as an upgrade (dang, compared to Harlequins, EVERYTHING seems low cost! :-/), but the unit using it also can't shoot that turn since they're occupied keeping the laser sight on the target. From forums I've read, it's not permanent, so hopefully you didn't play that way.
In terms of balance, you can kind of look at it like: 1 unit fires at a better chance to hit; vs 2 units firing each at a lower chance to hit.

[jlopatin]

I never actually hit with one. Rolling a 6 to hit is tough.

[Eilif]

Looks like I need to do some research and read the rules more carefully. We were playing that markerlights were permanent but we also were playing that they had to roll to hit. Since the targets were in cover and thus very hard to hit, the markerlights didn't come into play much in our game

Auto-hit, but limited to one turn does seem like it might be more balanced.
-Karl

[jlopatin]

They are limited to the next shot I believe.

[gattz]

I would say that once a tau uses that markerlight on a target, it's good for any other tau firing on that target only during that shooting phase. The user would have to do it again during the next shooting phase as a dedicated spotter to get the same benefit. It could be useful for concentrating squad fire on important targets, which is how I believe it was intended to be used. The actual written rules are a bit vague (errata?), but let's face it, old Necromunda rules are showing their age, and weren't likely intended for the advanced weapons and armor of full 40k units.