Drones "treated as a separate unit"

[9x19 Parabellum]

Issue came up tonight playing a game with my Tau.

 

My stealth drones separated from my Ghostkeel and each went off to do their own thing.

 

A passer-by, who also plays Tau said they (the 2 stealth drones) form a single unit and had to stay in cohesion.

 

I checked the book again.

 

I can see it going either way.  Operative wording is:

 

"Drone Support: When a unit is set up on the battlefield, any accompanying Drones are set up in unit coherency with it. From that point onwards, the Drones are treated as a separate unit."

 

Now I had understood it as an implied "each of the drones are treated as a separate unit", which may be wrong. 

This makes sense when applied to 2 Stealth drones, or the 2 Missile Pods that a Broadside takes, or the 2 gun drones that separate from a Devilfish, for example, but it doesn't make sense, that, for example, a Grav Inhibitor, a Pulse Accelerator, and the Recon drone that Pathfinders can take form 1 unit and have to remain in coherency to one another, given that they all have very different battlefield roles.

 

Anyone got a decisive FAQ, errata or designer's commentary on this?

[Panzer]

That's right, all the Drones from a unit form one single Drone unit after deployment. That includes the Pathfinder ones. Why wouldn't that make sense? Having a Grav Inhibitor Drone be protected by a Recon Drone (W2) and/or up to two Shield Drones is great!

[Marshlands]

It's not theyre 'each' treated as a seperate unit

 

Never seen it played any other way and pretty sure it's RAI

[Jolemai]

Last time I played against Tau each Drone became a single unit :/

Would imagine it's a common misconception.

[9x19 Parabellum]

It's not theyre 'each' treated as a seperate unit

 

Never seen it played any other way and pretty sure it's RAI

 

I realize it does not specifically say "Each". But the wording really is ambiguous and could be parsed either way, and both interpretations seem to infer a descriptive prepositional phrase.

 

(all the drones considered together) are treated as a separate unit (2 drones = 1 unit)

or

(each of the drones considered individually) are treated as a separate unit (2 drones = 2 units)

 

In any case, I'm going to err on the side of caution and play it as the less permissive interpretation (ie, 2 drones = 1 unit)

Thanks for your responses.

[Bryan Blaire]

Sounds like a great question to go into GW to confirm intent - might even appear in a FAQ.