Tau Stealth team homing beacons

[Galron]

Question on these, can they be set up within 9" of an opponents models? They go away if an enemy model ends its move within 9" of them, but doesn't say if they can be set up there at the same time.

[Interrogator-Chaplain Ezra]

Question on these, can they be set up within 9" of an opponents models? They go away if an enemy model ends its move within 9" of them, but doesn't say if they can be set up there at the same time.

The rule doesn't appear to have a prohibition against that sort of tactic.

 

But why would you even *want* to do that? It gives no benefit whatsoever.

[Galron]

Guy this weekend used stealths to infiltrate 12" away from my guys, bounced as far forward as he could on his move, dropped a beacon, deep struck a crisis team and a big drone team about 4" from a bunch of my stuff. They didn't accomplish much as he got a hit on a vulture and then I simply drove a Cyclops into the middle of his little group and popped it killing all but the crisis(I didn't know drones in a separate squad could take wounds for the crisis like that) and still did one wound on a crisis.

[Captain Coolpants]

Do homimg beacons specifically mention that they override normal deepstrike rules? i.e, ignore the 9" deepstrike rule?

 

Because regardless of whether you can set up the beacon within 9" or not, if it doesn't specifically say it bypasses the normal deepstrike rules, then it's not possible anyway.

[Eddie Orlock]

... if it doesn't specifically say it bypasses the normal deepstrike rules, then it's not possible anyway.

There are no 'normal deepstrike rules', just common conventions applied by the authors. Remember, we only have about a dozen pages of core rules and near everything else is some bespoke unit ability or scenario condition.

 

Yes, the homing beacon rule does specifically 'bypass' the Manta Strike rule. Manta Strike first allows you to place a unit in a location known as the 'manta hold' and then provides a procedure to extract the unit from that hold. The Homing Beacon ability provides an alternate procedure to extract a unit from a manta hold that it refers to as a 'low altitude drop'.