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T’au Empire

Army rule · For The Greater Good

One unit gives up its shooting to mark a target. The others shoot at it with a better BS — and it is the observing unit that pays.

The T’au Empire army rule is called For The Greater Good. It does not make your units better on their own: it trades one unit’s shooting for the others’ accuracy, every Shooting phase.

  1. At the start of your Shooting phase, you pick units with the ability to become Observers. An Observer unit does not shoot this phase.
  2. During the phase, each Observer that could shoot and is not Battle-shocked marks one enemy unit it can see: that is its Spotted target until the end of the phase. An enemy unit can only be Spotted once per phase.
  3. The other units with the ability are Guided when they shoot at a Spotted target: their BS improves by 1 on those attacks.

If the Observer has the Markerlight keyword, Guided attacks at its target also have [IGNORES COVER]. The keyword is on the datasheet: not every T’au unit has it.

A worked example

  1. My Strike Team can see a Boyz mob. Do I make it an Observer?

    If you do, it does not shoot this phase, and the mob becomes its Spotted target. That is the price: ten rifles kept quiet so the rest aim better.

  2. My Hammerhead Gunship shoots at that mob. Its Railgun is BS 4+ on the datasheet.

    It is Guided: it hits on 3+ instead of 4+. And because the Strike Team has Markerlight, the attack has [IGNORES COVER].

  3. The Hammerhead then shoots at another unit, not Spotted.

    Nothing there. The bonus only applies against a Spotted target — not against everything the army can see.

Observer and Guided must both have the For The Greater Good ability. Being T’au is not enough: the datasheet decides, in both roles. Go and check before you count on it.

What cover does — and so what [IGNORES COVER] changes — is not explained on this site yet. Ask someone at the club to show you the first time.

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