Editing Warhammer 40,000/6th Edition Tactics/Tau (section)

===Heavy Support===

*'''[[Hammerhead Gunship]]:''' God's Third Gift To Tau. The railgun is your best friend, and this one retains its 72" S10 AP1 goodness (arguably the only one now that nothing else in the book mounts the classic Railgun). It's mounted on a durable chassis (only a few standard skimmers with better armour) and comes with a higher BS than your average Tau. Plus with disruption pods you get 4+/3+ cover (unless you're stupid enough to park it in the open) making the Hammerhead much more durable to dedicated anti-tank equipment. Take one. Hell, take two. With its ability to make vehicles its bitch with its bullet-mode, and its ability to mincemeat infantry with its large blast shotgun-mode, a hammerhead will NEVER disappoint...provided you take the railgun option. Its options are as follows:
**'''Railgun:''' Yes. Standard mode is a S10 AP1 (it will knock out vehicles on a 4+ if it penetrates, opened-topped go out on a 3+), and can be upgraded with a S6 AP4 blast template just for 5 pts. Powerful, versatile, and rightly referred to by a variety of profane monikers by non-Tau players, it is the most popular Hammerhead primary weapon choice with good reason.  
**'''Ion Cannon:''' An autocannon with another shot and better AP. It's no railgun, but it does have some new tricks up its sleeve to make it worth it especially against [[MEQ]]s. Specifically, it's an ion weapon, which means it can be overcharged to a S8 AP3 Large Blast that gets hot; this effectively turns it into a discount Leman Russ, though Markerlight support lets it strip cover from targets.
***'''La'Sha'ng (Gunner Longstrike):''' Joining the burgeoning crowd of tank aces started by Antarro Chronus and Knight Commander Pask, and then trolling them silly because he's actually worth it! Shas'la T'au Sha'ng is a nifty upgrade for a Hammerhead gunship, blessing it with BS5, preferred enemy IG, Tank Hunter, a blacksun filter and the ability to overwatch. He can also overwatch multiple times per phase against different eligible charging enemies. Considering that he also has the Supporting Fire special rule like infantry and most battlesuits, that can actually be a whole lot of potential targets, each of which he can Overwatch on behalf of as often as the enemy attacks them. Consider flanking his Hammerhead with infantry to better take advantage of this, offering the protection of his tank fire to them while they keep the melta-bomb bearing enemy troops off of him. Just remember that you cannot Snap Fire anything which has a blast template, so sadly no sub-munitions Overwatching for him. Stick to his secondary weapons for most Overwatch targets, or use the solid railgun shot against a charging monstrous creature (if it even lives long enough to get that close.) Also, consider using him with an ion cannon. He only needs one markerlight to avoid overheating when he overcharges, provides best output for overwatching with 3 S7 AP3 shots along with secondary weapons, and can still wreck the hell out of light armor. Oh, and did we mention he headshotted a titan?
**'''Forgeworld''' brings several new weapons options to the Hammerhead Gunship:
**** Please note that as the following are bought as a set of two, how one would fire the system is a matter of debate. Some would find it completely acceptable to count the two weapons as a single weapon system, thus being able to fire both as one weapon system after moving at combat speed, while others may punch the rules and declare they are two unrelated weapons and thus cannot be fired together. The latter will probably be common where your forces are curb-stomping the opponent into submission and they need every out they can get, but as a general house rule it should be completely acceptable to count the two systems as a single system that just fires twice at the same unit.
***'''2 Long-Barrelled Burst Cannons:''' Since the update hit, it's now become a full-blown flak cannon with 12 shots, but weaker strength, shorter range, and the possibility to clip flyers. Post codex, you have Broadsides to do this job now. However, this weapon beats rail sub and ion cannon when it comes to facing down hordes of light infantry; guardsmen, guardians, Kablite warriors and ork boys get wounded on 2s and 3s with no armour saves. With the right support, 10-12 models can die in a single shooting phase. Throw in Longstrike for even more fun! Also consider the Point defence targeting relay. Anyone wishing to charge a unit with this monster nearby will have to suffer 16 shots of overwatch from just this tank. Markerlight the target beforehand too and say goodbye to the unit in question.
***'''2 TL Missile Pods:''' Cheaper on Crisis Suits, but will come with a velocity tracker - basically turns your Hammerhead into very expensive and slightly more accurate Hydra flakk tank / Missileside. Just take a Missileside squad instead.
***'''2 Fusion Cannons:''' This option had a bad rap for a while. However, the proliferation of TEQs briefly gave this gun its time in the sun (a twin-linked blast S8 AP1 melta does have its place, especially when facing down lots of deep-striking TEQs, vehicles, etc.). Unfortunately, now you have the Riptide to deal with that kinda shit, so the Fusion Cannon is back to being dubious once again. Also, thanks to the fact that if you move your tank, you can only fire 1 blast weapon, so don't take this. At all.
***'''2 Plasma Cannons:''' A go-to gun for facing down TEQs/MEQs/Mounstrous Creatures and flyers. Now that the new codex is out, you have other options for anti-MEQ and anti-aircraft. Ion Cannon is better against the former and Broadsides are better against the latter. Might still have some use against MCs, although... it does pump out 4 S7 AP2 at 48".

*'''XV107 R'varna:''' Forgeworld's most beautiful creation to date. A riptide which exchanges its Jet Pack status for a better statline (+1T +1W) and inbuilt fletchette discharger (so it cannot be tarpitted).  It also comes equipped with two Pulse Submunitions Cannon. ''Worth noting that these weapons are UNAFFECTED by the Ethereal ability Storm of Fire (so not stupidly broken) and do NOT have Rapid Fire.''  These guns are S6 AP4 Large Blast, with a Cluster Fire special rule.  Cluster Fire lets the weapons get a higher strength and inflict more hits when you fire at larger models.  This means it can potentially put out 6 (or 12 if you nova-charge) <s>Krak missile</s> OC'd Ion rifle equivalent hits against an enemy MC per turn.  You'll no longer have to worry about fighting MCs and Artillery because of this beautiful son of a bitch (actually, not as effective as it was due to the update, AP4 renders it about as useful as two hammerheads with Pulse submunitions, albeit hitting more on the blasts... but still only AP4. Gotta love party fouls). Also has a different Nova Reactor with an ability to increase invuln save to 3++, detonate a haywire "bomb", fire the cannons twice(at the cost of not firing next turn!) or give the unit Fleet and a 2D6 run. Can equip with a Positional Relay and Stimulant Injector (which CANNOT be used in a failed Nova Charge), and <s>include two Shielded Missile Drones as Standard</s> Not sure what rules you're looking at, still have to purchase them. Being a FW model, they charge you more than is even remotely reasonable for it i.e. 'only' £70. NOTE:  Can't be included in a Farsight Enclaves army, so you'll have to run it in a Tau Empire ally list if you're that way inclined. SECONDARY NOTE: Forgeworld has not released any sort of official document or FAQ stating that it cannot be used in the Farsight Enclaves army. Until they do, enjoy your battlesuit extravaganza. I DON'T KNOW WHAT WE'RE NOTING ABOUT: Considering the old rules are still available online, and until they are published in a copy of IA none are official, you could still potentially be a douche and run the old rules for this brute. If you really want to be that guy, though, never over-charge it. Ever. You prick. ONE MORE NOTE: It's not any kind of specific rule or FAQ that prevents the R'Varna from being in a Farsight army, it's the way the current rules mesh together. Farsight Enclave and the Imperial Armory are both Codex supplements to the Tau Empire Codex. As it current stands, and as it is explicitly stated in the actual Farsight Enclave supplement, only one supplement can be applied at a time to a Codex. This means that you can apply either Farsight Enclave OR Forgeworld's Imperial Armory supplements but not both at the same time. Thus, the R'Varna is not available to Farsight Enclave because you would need to have both Farsight Enclave and Imperial Armory at the same time and this is not allowed. On a technical note, however, the R'Varna is not currently a part of the Imperial Armory and only has an experimental dataslate on Forgeworld's website. Technically, this means the R'Varna is a solo entity and not currently a part of the supplement which may give some wiggle room to argue for it's inclusion into a FE army. You could argue it, but come now. How much of a rule snob do you want to be?

*'''[[Battlesuit#XV88_Broadside_Battlesuit|Broadside Battlesuits]]:''' God's Fourth Gift To Tau.  Broadsides got taken down a peg in the new codex, with their railgun variant hitting at a decent S8 (still AP1, though) and only at 60".(Making them totally ineffective in their previous role of an AV14 killer) In addition to their old options, they get new options like the ability to skyfire or replace their downgraded railguns with a fucking ton of missiles (including a seeker missile). If you have target locks on the broadsides, you can fire at different targets, possibly giving two different vehicles a serious glance-to-death headache, and turn those scary monstrous creatures into pink (or green) mist. Along with the change in rules, broadsides have a new plastic kit that has them holding their twin-linked heavy railrifle like a rifle, as well as bits for their new twin-linked high-yield missile system (the one that replaces their twin-linked heavy railrifle). Arguably, Broadsides needed this nerfing in order to open up board for the other options in Heavy Support. The main thing to consider when choosing missiles or rail rifles is range. 60" is still pretty much table wide while the missiles are only 36". Missilesides will need to either be deployed farther forward or wait in the rear, but which ever you choose remember that Broadsides are infantry and will only snap-fire if they move.
**'''Look to the skies!''' These guys are also excellent AA units and are great as an ally unit for armies that lack reliable AA. Misslesides with VT run through AV11 flyer's (with 1 broadside averaging 2 glancing hits per shooting phase) and they don't do too badly against the AV12's either taking 1 hull point per shooting phase per broadside.  Although, if you take the command variant from the Farsight Enclaves and attach him to a darkstrider unit, you suddenly have a nice amount of twinlinked insta-death at your disposal.

*'''Drone Sniper Team:''' This entry has seriously been retooled in the latest Codex. They no longer have rail rifles, just beefed up pulse rifles, but these new Longshot Pulse Rifles get Sniper (which includes precision shots and rending on to wound/penetrate of 6) and a 48" range now. Also, their new gun is a pulse weapon so it's effected by Storm of Fire. If the spotter dies, the drones get reduced from BS 5 to BS 2, though in 6th edition you can hide him behind a drone line AND you can now take three spotters per squad! They used to take up a Heavy Support choice that was usually better filled with something else but now they can lay down a devastating salvo of accurate, potentially rending dakka with wounds that you may choose how to allocate. Though, despite being pulse weapon longshots still count as S3 against vehicles like any sniper rifle, so do not expect to threaten tanks with them. Note that the Firesight spotter is BS5 and comes with a markerlight. While they max out at three spotters per team, those three markerlights are nothing to sneer at, as each one of them is almost guaranteed several tokens per shooting phase. Keep in mind that while the spotter is standard infantry, the drones are called out specifically as jet pack infantry, which means that they can use the jump-shoot-jump trick to pop in and out of cover, so long as they end their move in unit cohesion with the spotter they should be fine. If your opponent protests, show them the unit description in the Codex saying that they do just that. That said, they will still be going at the speed of the spotter, so consider using a spare Devilfish to get them where they need to be. Even a max sized sniper team with three spotters and nine drones can still fit inside a Devilfish. A neat little trick is to set a single spotter up on a ledge where he'd probably get insta-gibbed by the opponent and let your XV8-05 commander take over the drones when the spotter bites it, thereby giving your longshots the ability to JSJ while keeping BS5.
**''Another tactic:'' These guys weapons are pulse, meaning they are affected by the Etheral's Storm of fire ability, witha  range of 48", this could mean three shots per drone at 24". 9 drones, 2 spotters and an Etheral clock in at just over 200pts and they have a nasty bit of fire power backing them.
**''A third (and not noticed) tactic:''  Five sniper drones with just a single controller.  Let the controller act as bait with a drone-controller/advanced targeting system equipped Commander waiting right behind it and wait for the controller to get horribly slaughtered.  Now you have five sniper drones just floating around waiting to attach to oh say..  a commander who is sitting RIGHT THERE.  Now you have a fast-moving sniper unit that can be just an absolute fucking nightmare to enemy IC's.  You're welcome.

*'''[[Skyray Missile Gunship]]:''' At first glance it looks like a Hammerhead with it's gun replaced with six seeker missiles. "Meh", you say, "I can bring my missiles on any vehicle". Point is that those six missiles doesn't matter. Sure, they are useful, but as i said, you can get them without the Skyray. The things that matters are two tiny gismos on it's hull - a set of two markerlights and velocity tracker. Think of it like 67pts upgrade that could give any of your units skyfire on BS2 or hopefully BS3, that also have 6 seeker missiles attached to it. The moment you've landed at least one markerlight token on the enemy flyer/FMC in range of your pathfinders or marker drones it's pretty much dead - spotter units would turn those 1-2 markers into 4-7 and then you just finish the poor fucker with whatever seems more apropriate - from railgun slug to the face, to fusion guns on your battlesuits or pirahnas, to just the hail of pulse shots in case it's AV10 flyer. Against one of the AV10/11 flyers you can just boost Skyray's own BS with his markerlights (they're networket BTW), and then swipe it with as many missiles as you feel apropriate - even if you spend all six you still gonna blow enemy unit out of the sky almost guaranteed. And since most flyers cost 100+ pts. your Skyray just payed for himself, and still can keep doing his air spotter duty. Hell, you can even land a few glances or force an FMC to crush with your SMSs. Unfortunatelly, Skyray have to compete with almighty Broadsides, Hammerheads and Rvarnas, which are much more point-efficient, but if you have free HS slot and points taking one hardly would hurt your army.

*'''Heavy Gun Drones (Forge World):''' They're Gun Drone Squads, if slightly more accurate - yet somehow made worse courtesy of them devouring a Heavy Support choice. You don't want to waste one of these all-too-valuable slots on twin-linked fucking burst cannons when your army has dozens of ways to get these onto the table. Their airmobility and markerlight options are still not worth it. Avoid.
**Although you could attach a commander with drone controller to a six drone squad with marker lights and a burst cannon. 6 marker lights at BS5 and 24 strength 5 burst cannon hits at BS5. Sadly, you can't do both in the same turn.
**''Also this limits you're ability to split your marker light hits between various units. If you decide to take these guys at all go for the TL Burst cannon and make them a bubble wrap unit or a nuisance.''