Editing Warhammer 40,000/5th Edition Tactics/Tau (section)

==Unit Analysis==

===HQ===
====Generic HQs====
*'''Generic Ethereal:''' See Aun'Va. A very bad HQ choice. While a bodyguard Fire Warrior team with BS4 SEEMS good, they cost more than a normal team, and generally attract fire, with the large squad hard to hide in cover. And if your ethereal dies thanks to wound allocation, well, prepare for a circus of hilarity.

*'''Generic Battlesuit Commander:''' An excellent unit if kitted out properly. The versatility of the battlesuit chassis means you can equip him however you need to be most effective, and being the commander, all special issue equipment is available to him. See Battlesuits for setup tips. Commanders may take special bodyguards. The Generic Commander may take various suit types.
**'''Generic:''' Same as the XV-8 base battlesuit.
**'''XV-81 (Forgeworld Only):''' Offers the choice of a smart missile system.
**'''XV-84 (Forgeworld Only):''' Offers the choice of a markerlight.
**'''XV-89 (Forgeworld Only):''' Offers the choice of iridium armor. Interestingly enough, this allows you to bypass the special issue iridium armor limit.

*'''Bodyguards:''' These may only be taken by the 1+ Commander each army needs. These have the same options as an upgraded Crisis suit.

====Named Heroes====
*'''Aun'Va, Master of the Undying Spirit:''' The Space Pope is by all accounts possibly the shittiest HQ choice in the game. With useless bodyguards, and useless special rules and horrible effects that occur upon his death, you would have to be a lobotomized retard to take him. Normally a model is, at worst, a waste of points. Aun'Va manages to actually be a standing liability to your entire army.  

*'''O'Shovah (Commander [[Farsight]]):''' Decent, but the issue is he's specced for assault in an army meant for shooting. His Dawn Blade is nice, as are the free bonding knives, and his ability to take a seven-strong battlesuit bodyguard and 1+ crisis suits is intimidating but impractical. Ork Fighter is mediocre, but the main problem is, being a breakaway faction, he gimps your unit selection by limiting everything not a Fire Warrior / Battlesuit to 0-1.

*'''O'Shasherra (Commander [[Shadowsun]]):''' With an experimental battlesuit, armed with dual fusion guns, this commander gets in close and fries things. That is the problem. You do not want to get in close. Not to mention that in the changeover to 5th Edition, her drones no longer serve a purpose. A built in shield generator and stealth suit is okay, but T3 and pisstacular stats means you should avoid this commander. On the plus side, ''so tsundere.'' 
** As a development/production note, she was released as a promotional unit for Cities of Death, and as such she was designed for it. If used in an extremely terrain heavy map (like a city), she suddenly becomes an unquestioning nightmare to vehicles, capable of jumping in-between impassible terrain to shove BS5 fusion blasters into things. Before everything became "ignores cover saves", she was a useful unit to take in these scenario's. However, most games are far more open and her usefulness fades. Her mini, along with Farsight and Aun'Va, have long since been discontinued in prep for the <s>2013</s> unconfirmed but eventual tau release. *Do note that her drone confers her leadership of 10 to any Tau unit (excluding Kroot) within 18" for morale/ pinning tests*

*'''Angkor Prok, Master Shaper (White Dwarf Only):''' A kroot shaper, thus not one of the mandatory commander suits you need. If you take him, you need to take some Kroot as well. He is an independent character that can join Tau units, useful for buffing leadership, and once per game, can reroll failed to hits in close combat. Not the best use of points considering: When do you actually use Kroot units as an actual offensive CQC force and why would you even let your Tau units CQC?

*'''O'R'myr (Commander Longknife, Forgeworld Only):''' A decent suit that doesn't quite know his role on the battlefield. A double-barreled Plasma rifle with an enhanced shield generator, he looks to be built to take down heavy infantry / monstrous creatures. But he also has an ejection system and once-per-game flechette launcher. He MUST take drones, and his bodyguard may consist of commander-level special suits. A good choice, especially against Imperium due to Fearless against them, though the generic commander is far better if facing hordes. I will point out that he functions as the best "non XV-9 commander" option in the army, and the flechette discharger is a really nasty surprise to swarm armies thinking they have just trapped the expensive tau HQ unit in CC.

*'''O'Ra'lai (Commander O'Rly, Forgeworld Only):''' O'Rly is a monster of a unit; he is your commissar yarrick, your failbaddon, your mephiston, your swarmlord, your gazghkull, with BS5, T5, I4, and the power of the XV-9 battlesuit, the main difference he has with the above heroes is that he is primarily a ranged fighter, whereas most uber-hq units tend to be close combat focused. **update** The latest Imperial Armor Apocalypse Second Edition rules have updated O'Ra'Lai's equipment. His shield no longer conveys stealth, but gives him a 3+ invulnerable save if fired at from outside 12 inches. On top of that, All of his weapons are now Assault 2. This involves all of the "gets Hot!" weapons, so you run the risk of taking more damage, but can cause a lot more pain as a result. With this change, he no longer has "Baby's First Lascannon," instead he has "Oh what the fuck, he has an assault 2 lascannon?!" His template weapons now make him a real nightmare to just about any army, and he also is now the best HQ unit the Tau have. 
**His drones, to the blind and stupid, seem like a liability, until you realize he was designed to be added to a team of three more XV-9's with shield generators. This does make his squad rather intensely expensive, but you will have a 3+/4++ unit that is stubborn that comes with drones ripe for sacrifice in an unwanted close combat. He does not have Independent Character for just this reason it seems. He also has the "Angry Old Man" thing going for him in his background, and he comes from the [[Angry Marines|"Angry Tau"]] sept as well. This does nothing but double-up on his [[Grandpa Dreadnought|"Get off my lawn" baddassery.]]

===Troops===
*'''Fire Warriors:''' Yes, they have the best basic infantry gun in the game. Yes, they will go down like a sack of wet shit if properly targeted or assaulted. You want to keep these guys either in [[Devilfish]] or camped in cover. Devilfish give Fire Warriors much needed mobility, and safety from assault. After all, the second ANYTHING gets into close combat with a Fire Warrior squad, the Fire Warriors will lose. Even if it's other Fire Warriors or even fucking Grots and Rippers. With abysmal WS and mediocre BS, if these guys are firing, use markerlights to up their hit chances, although other units may make better use the markerlight tokens.

*'''[[Devilfish]] Troop Carrier:''' These allow your Fire Warriors to be exactly where you need them to be. With the ability to gain a 4+ cover save through the Disruption Pod wargear, and skimmer speed, think of this as the eggshell that you need to crack to get to the delicious omelette inside. Thanks to the FAQ, the drones only count as a kill point if you take them off of the Devilfish. These are almost necessary for a good army.

*'''[[Gue'vesa]] Human Auxiliaries (Games Workshop Website only):''' Cheaper than your average fire warrior, with lower armor and higher WS. Essentially identical to Guardsmen. They can be equipped with some Tau weaponry and grenades, but their main advantage is obvious - they cost extremely little and have decent range, so they're the Tau counterpart to Conscripts. The most damning thing here is the Traitors rule - any other Imperium faction hits them on a 3+ in close combat. Unless you ''need'' the numbers for cost these dudes provide, a suicide grenade unit, or a joke unit, you should generally pass on these guys. If you ''know'' you're not going against any other Imperial factions (lolwhat), then the Traitors rule doesn't apply, and you can enjoy your Guard squad.
**Gue'vesa are, admittedly, good for rounding out a troops payload; for a relatively small amount of points, you can get a shooty unit that helps toss some ammo downrange and can help bulk up your forces with some numbers. When set up alongside a Fire Warrior or Pathfinder unit, they make a good screening squad that can keep things away from your more-critical units, and which are expendable enough to toss into the fray if it comes to that.

*'''Kroot:''' If you take Kroot as a combat unit they will disappoint you badly. They can take Orks in h2h and... Well that's about it. Even vs Guardsmen or Gaunts they'll probably tie on the charge and then either get worn down for a round or two or cleaned up in combat resolution (they'll handle conscripts, grots, or termagaunts pretty well, but anyone who gives a shit about losing some of those three units is retarded any way). The main strengths about Kroot are that they're resilient to ranged fire while in cover, they Infiltrate, and cost 7 points base. They're fuckin cheap and they can take up a fuckload of space. For around 200 points you can flood the board with almost 30 bases and while that may not seem like a lot the way people tend to line up their troops, if you push for that 2" coherency you can stretch those fuckers pretty damn far and thanks to infiltrate you have a huge amount of freedom in how you want to deploy them. What's this get you?
**Area denial. A bigass block of worthless flesh your opponent has to chew through to get to the units that are actually worth a shit. He can't just step over them, and most importantly, they push the front lines farther towards your opponent's side of the board away from yours.
**Say you're facing an army that likes to Deep Strike. Castle up your Tau wherever the you want and deploy the Kroot in a broad fan out from the forces you actually care about. The result? You've just cut off a huge section of the board that your opponent wants to be able to deploy in and forced him into dropping farther away than he wants to. That's fucking money.
In really big apocalypse games like 7500pointers, a blob of 150 kroot will be exceedingly difficult to get rid of without calling in a lot of template weapons (or a few weapons with very big templates) while only costing you 1000 points.

*'''Remote Sensor Towers (Forgeworld Only):''' To take these means you have the mental aptitude of a kindergartner. While cheap, armed with a markerlight, and grant a free target lock to one unit, they are immobile, die to anything, and cannot score. While flavorful, they are absolutely useless.
** +++update+++ They now let a unit with 6" count it's weapons as twin-linked, so they are no longer terribad, just meh. Might be worthwhile in a dedicated defensive scenario where the Tau have to hold a fortified position against attackers, otherwise probably not worth it.  

*'''Baggage Knarlocs (Forgeworld Only):''' A Knarloc in the troops choice sounds awesome at first, until you realize you need to take Kroot Carnivores first, he needs babysitters, and he has nothing going for him in terms of ranged weaponry or assault ability. Never even LOOK at these guys. They exist for flavor or special scenarios and nothing else.

===Elite===
*'''XV-8 Crisis Battlesuit:''' God's Gift To Tau. These guys are your mainstay. Their weapons are varied and versatile, and are specialized for various situations. They can take any combination of weapons and wargear unless otherwise stated. These guys will fill up your elites slots. The Crisis suits are famous for the Jump-Shoot-Jump - moving out of cover, shooting, and jumping back into cover, denying return fire and annoying the enemy, an excellent tactic. Each suit has three hardpoints which ''must'' be filled with weapons (see immediately below) and/or support systems (see 
"[[Warhammer_40,000/Tactics/Tau#Tau_Armoury|Tau Armoury]]" section even further below.) Typically a Crisis suit will have two weapons and a support system, but there is no rule against three weapons or even three support systems, or any other ratio you fancy. Obviously some combinations are more effective than others. Note too that if a single weapon system is selected twice, it counts as a single twin-linked weapon (filling two hardpoints) and comes at a price break. Their weapons include:
**'''Airburst Fragmentation Projector:''' A large blast that ignores cover. One per army. Absolutely rapes Imperial Guard, Eldar, Tyranids Dark Eldar, and Orks. Fairly good all-around in spite of middling range, mostly because Large Blasts are hard to come by.  low it up in the middle of a blobnid formation and enjoy the chunky salsa.
**'''Cyclic Ion Gun:''' Massive amount of shots with technically-not-but-sort-of-rending but low strength. Good on a suit with high BS and gret for mulching blobnids.
**'''Burst Cannon:''' Yet another S5 weapon. A mediocre choice considering that you already have dozens of S5 weapons and even other Burst Cannons fitted on Stealth Suits, vehicles, and Fire Warriors. There are better choices for commander weapons as a result. The only real reason to pack one onto a Crisis Suit or Commander is because you desperately need the extra short-range shooty (I.E. You're fitting it on a Crisis suit with a Flamer and/or fusion blaster), and for Commanders this is of debatable value. It is not a bad weapon by any stretch, just that Crisis suits have the opportunity for mounting much better ones in most circumstances.  
**'''Flamer:''' While not as strong as other races', this [[gets shit done|gets the job done]] against hordes of cover-campers and blob armies. Good if you deep strike a suit in and burn shit down. Even better when twin-linked.  It is also the cheapest weapon available to Crisis suits, and so a good way to cram a little extra power under a tight point budget, and remember that you get a price break for taking two of them to get that twin-link bonus.  
**'''Fusion Blaster:''' Your melta gun and absolutely guaranteed to cause at least a medium-quality glancing hit on a direct hit (guaranteed penetrating within 6 inches). This is not an instant-skill weapon, and you ''will'' need to get better with it, so learn it. Use it. Love it. Jump behind a Baneblade and use this weapon to pop it open to see the look on your enemy's face, also great against battlefortresses, and the bigger daemonic engines along with anything else with noticeably weaker rear or side armor and can be useful against titans and stompas in a pinch (void and power fields only have an AV of 12 and go away on a mere glancing hit). Because it's AP1, it has a reasoned chance of killing a Monolith or the like, <s>but because its Living Metal trait renders its Melta quality [[moot]] </s> (not anymore!), it's much more chonky than it'd be otherwise. Can be fitted on Stealthsuits, but only every third one, giving it a cap of two per Stealthsuit squad, tops.
**'''Missile Pod:''' The Tau answer to the Autocannon. Great for popping light to medium vehicles and insta-gibbing T3 guys. In other words; eats up Guardsmen, Eldar, Gaunts, Dark Eldar, and Cultists for breakfast. Despite what [[Dawn of War]] tells you, it's not terribly good for vehicle killing; you have other weapons (Fusion Blasters) if you really need to hate on vehicles.  It has the distinction of being the longest range standard-issue weapon available to Crisis suits, which makes it ideal for a Crisis team intended to dance around the battlefield and harass the enemy while using its jetpack to remain just out of their range to effectively retaliate.  
**'''Plasma Rifle:''' Lower Strength than the Imperial version, but doesn't Get Hot. Peerless for popping heavy infantry so it's great against Ogryn, Karskin/Stormtroopers, Grey Knights, Sisters of Battle, Spess Mehreens, Kay-oss Spess Mehreens, Tyranid Warriors, and Necrons. Really good for sniping Tyranid Synapse creatures, so jump a crisis team to a hive tyrant, blast him to bits, jump away; shoot some warriors and zoanthropes dead and watch the entire tyranid army collapse (if you aren't satisfied with the countless other ways the Tau can ruin the bugs' day). Decried as [[cheese]] by [[Faggotry|some]], it is both the most expensive standard Crisis suit weapon and the most popular with good reason.  
**A good setup is '''Multitracker''' + 2 weapons, as you can't fire both unless you have the Multitracker. A '''Shield Generator''' or '''Shield Drones''' are always good.

'''This is extremely important!!''' Tau Crisis suits are T4, which means they suffer heavily from rocket sniping. If you value your suits, take at least two shield drones on the Shas'Vre to absorb the inevitable St8 AP3 shot. Everything in the damn game has some version of a "fuck your crisis suit" weapon, be prepared. 

*'''Stealth Suits:''' A safe, decent choice, but Crisis Suits are better in most regards. These guys can always Infiltrate or Outflank, and their stealth fields offer SOME protection by potentially limiting the range that the enemy can fire at them (ah-la the Night Fighting rules even in broad daylight or half that in an actual Night Fighting scenario.) Plenty of burst cannons and the opportunity for a fusion gun, but at T3 and mediocre BS without targeting arrays, there are better choices, although a team won't exactly cost you the game. Great for fucking up the shit of Guardsmen, Orks, etc. If you do use them, use them wisely.

===Fast Attack===
*'''Gun Drone Squad:''' Gun Drone Squads are generally inefficient. Whilst they have pretty good firepower and are pinning weapons, they have lower accuracy (offset slightly by sheer volume of shots due to twin-linked status) (Actually, less accurate than what? A gun drone with BS2 TL has a 5/9 chance to hit, slightly better than a Fire Warrior's 1/2), cannot score, and cost more. The advantages they have are that Drones count as Jump Infantry and thus can be used as distractions or part of the jump-shoot-jump tactic. In general, you are almost invariably better off with Fire Warriors or even Kroot.

*'''Vespid Stingwings:''' It's like all the crap in the codex was put here. These guys have a gun meant to make spess mehreens, kay-oss spess mehreens, and necrons go away, but at such a short range, and low armor save, you're going to get shot to shit in the ensuing firefight and any Necrons you kill will just get back up. Do not take Vespids.

*'''Pathfinders:''' One of two good sources for markerlights, and very cost-effective for the number of markerlights you get. These guys put out a large amount of markerlight support every turn, useful for your other guys. Their devilfish allows deep strikers within line of sight to reroll the scatter dice, good in case you just nuked your deep-striking death star with a mishap. They are also scouts, quite useful to outflank or get into position. Camp these guys in cover somewhere safe, and give their devilfish to someone else to use, thus saving you points on another devilfish. They can take rail rifles, but never do this, because then you can't markerlight. A unit of pathfinders can't go wrong.

*'''Tetras (Forgeworld Only):''' Where Pathfinders are the cudgel of markerlights, these guys are the scalpel. They zip in as fast vehicles, drop an accurate markerlight, and zoom away. They have a free disruption pod to help survivability, but low armor and open-top means that every shot could be their last. Keep them safe, and they will benefit you immensely. Now with the update out, their markerlights are much better. Throw on the targeting array and you'll have two guaranteed hits. Combine them with piranhas or hammerheads for major lulz. Edit: their markerlights are now heavy 4 OMG! Disruption pod no longer included, but so what? Pay the five points, and enjoy your unit of four tetras put out 16 markerlight shots a turn, potentially at BS4, potentially at multiple targets. Nothing quite like being able to put enough markerlight tokens on a [[Space Marines|SPESS MAHREN]] unit that you can force it to auto-fail a leadership check. Not bad for 200 - 220 points for a full unit.  

*'''Piranha:''' There are two versions of the Piranha
**'''Generic:''' Burst cannons basic, can be upgraded with fusion blasters. Low armor means they are fragile, but as fast vehicles they can block paths and provide anti-infantry / anti-armor harassment.
**'''TX-42 (Forgeworld Only):''' Heavier, with more armor and no open-top, but with a higher cost. These start with twin-linked fusion blasters which lets them put some serious hurt on tanks, but can be upgraded with missiles pods, plasma, or rail rifles. These guys can go hunting for different enemies dependent on loadout, though a crisis team may be better in regards of JSJ.

*'''XV-9 Hazard Team (Forgeworld Only):''' God's Second Gift To Tau. These bruisers contain experimental weaponry on a high toughness frame with vectored retro-thrusters to run away. The downside is that greatness is expensive, and you will feel it. But they look really, really fucking awesome and they make vehicle light armies (dark eldar, tyranids, orks, and chaos daemons) weep. Their weapons include:
**'''Burst Cannons:''' Four on one suit means two twin-linked sets. There are better options. If you seriously pick this you have some sort of weird gatling fetish. '''Not entirely true. when you are short on points, or dealing with MEQ/small unit size armies, this weapon begins to surpass the Pulse Submunition Rifle in effectiveness, so long as you have markerlights backing it up. It is still useful, but this option should be a points consideration more then a tactical choice.'''
**'''Phased Ion Gun:''' The phaser is Baby's First Assault Cannon but without the gatling barrel arrangement, with lower strength but decent AP and rending. '''This is also the only place aside from Shas'O'Ra'ali and the greater Knarloc's, that the tau can gain access to rending.'''
**'''Fusion Cascade:''' The Fusion Cascade is the go-to weapon for heavy infantry hunting. A melta weapon with lower strength but multiple shots, these can decimate spess mehreens and light vehicles alike. And best of all, it's not plasma, so you can tell [[Matt Ward]] and his plasma siphon to stuff it, which is great because it's one of your best ways to eliminate a threat that would otherwise render three quarters of your weaponry unable to shoot for shit.
**'''Pulse Submunition Rifle:''' The shotgun is an excellent anti-horde weapon that ignores cover, with good strength but low AP.
Something interesting to realize is the XV-9 is not denied its jump move after deep striking, unlike the XV-8, which lets you fuck up something's shit then get the fuck out of there before they can shoot back.
*While it may seem this unit is the "patch that saved the Tau Codex," it is rumored that they were designed by a wily forgeworld modeler wanting to 'make something cool for the tau'. If this is true, it was by far less design and more "I am bored" that the Tau army was saved.  

*'''Knarloc Riders (Forgeworld Only):''' I want to like these guys, I really do, because come on, they're [[Awesome|freaking birdmen riding god-''fucking''-damned dinosaurs!]] But they suck. Cavalry that can only be taken if Kroot Carnivores are taken, without good close combat ability besides fleet, ''and'' the chance you cannot overrun the enemy thanks to ''eating the dead'' makes for a substandard cavalry unit, and possibly the worst in the game.

===Heavy Support===

*'''Hammerhead:''' God's Third Gift To Tau. The railgun is your best friend. It is mounted on a durable chassis with great BS. With disruption pods, you get a 4+ cover save, making the Hammerhead even harder to kill. It is also highly advised to take a multitracker, allowing you to move and still fire the main weapon. 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 still destroy them even if it glances), and has anti-infantry with a S6 AP4 blast template
**'''Ion Cannon:''' An autocannon with another shot and better AP. It's still no railgun, but might ''juuuuuuuuuuust'' barely be worth it in a low-point match against [[MEQ]]s, assuming you have other sources of railguns.  Scares the piss out of monstrous creatures.
**'''Long-Barreled Burst Cannons (Forgeworld Only):''' ...<s>why would you do that?</s> Since the update hit, it's now become "Baby's first flak cannon" with more shots, but weaker strength, shorter range and no AA fun.
**'''Missile Pods (Forgeworld Only):''' Cheaper on Crisis Suits, but now have blast goodness (holy shit, about time).
**'''Fusion Cannon (Forgeworld Only): ''' <s>Multi-Melta, Railgun is better. The only redeeming quality of this option is that it is cheap, and it is small blast. Of all the forgeworld options, this one is the best.</s> Still does multi melta in the update, but down to a single shot. Unless you're desperate and have points to waste, don't bother.
**'''Plasma Cannon (Forgeworld Only):''' <s>Not worth it. Your crisis suits should be doing this.</s> Now can do twinlinked quad shots. Can turn those monstrous creatures to goo if they get too close. And it's as cheap as an ion cannon.

*'''Broadside Battlesuits:''' God's Fourth Gift to Tau. I like Railguns. You like Railguns. We all like Railguns. These guys deliver. Point at vehicle, remove vehicle. One can take up to three Broadsides in a unit for a whopping six rail guns (three twin-linked) and smart missiles which spell instantaneous death for pretty much anything they shoot at short of a Titan, Bio-titan, Manta/Tigershark, or Stompa or a superheavy tank with a lot of luck, and additionally upgrade one Suit to a Team Leader. That said, an iconic setup is to take a squad of three, grant them Advanced Stabilization Systems (the extra movement is always nice, be it for getting the right angles off, evading close combat, or not being screwed over by Dawn of War), and upgrade the Team Leader to have a Hard-Wired Drone Controller with Shield Drones, and Hard-Wired Target Lock (thus allowing the unit to threaten two separate vehicles). Another decent setup is one team leader with hardwired drone controller, and the others with target locks. While dependent on cover, this group can threaten multiple vehicles at once.

*'''Sniper Team:''' With S6, AP3, a decent range, and pinning, Sniper Teams, in theory, can be useful, and they are positively devastating to Space Marines, Chaos Marines, Necrons, and Tyranids. There's two problems with them however: First of all is that if their leader dies, the drones go down as well, and second is that they take up a Heavy Support choice that is usually better-filled with something else. Decent board denial for the points, but really situational and generally not worth it due to their poor survivability.

*'''[[Skyray Missile Gunship]]:''' A mixed bag. Not a horrible choice by any stretch - but it takes up all-too-limited Heavy Support slots that are almost invariably better filled by Broadsides or Hammerheads. The fact that it can launch highly-accurate Seeker Missiles - which are functionally Hunter-Killer Missiles - and the fact that it boasts Markerlights as well makes it a good support unit, even more so when it packs on other weapons (such as Smart Missiles) for ranged support. It also has decent armor. The problem is that its limited ammo means that once the Seeker Missiles are out, it turns into a magic flying brick for dropping markerlights and firing off whatever its secondary weapon is (usually Smart Missiles, but it can pack Burst Cannons or Gun Drones instead). This means that it's kind of schizophrenic; you want it at extreme-range to employ its markerlight-provided range, but you can't really afford to do so because it can't use its secondary weapons unless it gets somewhat closer. The cruelest cut, again, is that it takes the same slot as other, much more devastating support options - the Broadside Team and Hammerhead - and a kitted out Skyray costs just as much as a Hammerhead. If you do intend to use one (and it's a hard choice to justify), it's recommended to keep it armed with Smart Missiles and use it as a close-support unit; its armor is thick enough to not suffer for the change of pace. If this goddamned thing was a fast attack choice, it would be infinitely superior than it is now.

*'''Knarlocs (Forgeworld Only):''' Oh God why have you forsaken me.
**'''Goaded Knarlocs:''' Rending and fleet, okay. Eats its babysitters and has a chance to go full retard? Not looking good. No railgun? Fuck this guy. And it might ''break its own morale and flee the board because it just ate its own last Goad.''
**'''Mounted Knarlocs:''' They can score, and have rending and fleet, but they have terrible weapon options and are such a large target with such low armor they will die before doing anything. Ignore this guy. After update, they have been changed to monstrous creatures, so their rending is now a power weapon. Slight improvement to gun stats/cost and as MC's they're relentless. While better, still cost too much and take a heavy slot which ought to be railguns.

*'''Drone Turrets (Forgeworld Only):''' Immobile with battlesuit weapons, terrible armor, and immobility? Pass.

*'''Heavy Gun Drones (Forgeworld Only):''' 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.