Mark_B
In 9.6 we have tried to automate everything more than in past versions. Assuming everything else is setup correctly you should be able to delete the Map drive action.
The Deploy image action requires a UNC path because it automatically tries to map this drive for you. So you need put in \\YourCore\Images\something_Win7x64_10012014.tbi.
This should work if you have setup your as a preferred server. If you haven't setup your Core as a preferred server you need to do that.
Go to Content Replication/Preferred Servers under distribution right click and do new Preferred Server. Fill out only the first page! Configuration.
Make sure the credentials you enter actually have read/write access to the Core because if you do a capture it will need to write to that share.
If it fails you can add the Map drive back in but you will need to add another map drive to map to the imaging tool. \\YourCore\ldmain\osd\imagew2\imagew.exe
Then copy the Command-line parameters from deploy image and change it to other.
Use the mapped locations for the image and tool and paste the command line parameters back in place.
These resolve the issue.
Thanks
Jared