Editing Pathfinder Team (section)

== 8e/9e ==
===8e===
Pathfinders still have the Guardsmen Statline, barring the better leadership and worse WS. They carry 18" Pulse Carbines, with no AP and 1 damage each, as well as a markerlight. These days, you'll have to choose if you're shooting either a markerlight or the Carbine (pro-tip: Always shoot the markerlight.) Squads can also take any of the three drone variants (Marker, Shield, Gun) or the special Drones.

The Special drones are fun little guys to play with, but that's for another page. Look for Recon, Grav-Inhibitor, and Pulse Accelerator Drones on [[Tau Drones|this page]] for more information.

Anyways, Pathfinders can replace three of their squadmates with Gunners, who can choose between the Rail Rifle and the Ion Rifle. The Rail rifle is popular for its Range and ability to wreck Heavy Infantry, dealing D3 wounds with a -4 AP, each 6 dealing a mortal wound. The Ion Rifle is...considerably less powerful, being a Tau plasma weapon. It does 1 damage, overcharged grants you an additional point of damage and strength. It also, unlike Imperial Plasma, gains the heavy keyword, d3 shots when it overcharges, which is both good and bad. Mostly bad. It never gets more than 1 AP, meaning that most stuff will be shrugging it off unless it's save is a 5 or 6+, in which case Why the heck are you shooting an Ion Rifle at it? Pulse fire will get through just as well.

===9e===
Games Workshop realized no one was buying these last edition, so they changed the rules to make them more useful. The Pulse Carbine is now marginally better, being given 4" of range for Assault 2 22" S5, but no AP so Marines will laugh it off. However, the Pulse accelerator Drone now gives you an extra point of AP for pulse weapons, so you'll need one to make them useful rear line defenders (note that this will ''still'' do diddly squat to marines because of [[FAIL|Armor of Contempt]]. Thanks [[Games Workshop|GeeDubbs!]]). Recon Drones can strip cover for the squad, which also helps, and the Gravity Accelerator Drone to defend against charges, which are now relevant threats again.

The special weapons have been marginally improved as well. The Rail Rifle is still way more useful, given it deals a mortal wound automatically with AP-4, though you can take Ion Rifles if you want to pretend to have Plasma. The new Fusion/EMP grenade launcher is also a pretty good offensive ''and'' tactical tool, doing both decent damage and giving pathfinders a way to weaken non-{{W40kKeyword|TITANIC}} {{W40kKeyword|VEHICLE}} by halving their effective wounds for the purpose of wound brackets. The Recon Sweep stratagem will allow them to throw a markerlight token onto a faraway target and then jump into cover.

[[Category: Warhammer 40,000]]

[[Category: Xenos]]

[[Category: Tau]]

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