Editing Codex - Tau Auxiliary 8th edition (section)

===Heavy Support: Stingray Cluster Missile Gunship ''8 PL''<span style="color: red"> '''WIP''' </span>===

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"''The Beg'el charged us, screeching their cries of war in an attempt to frighten us. Shortly before the barbarians overwhelmed our outer defenses, a wave of missiles collided with the horde of greenskins. Truly, there are fewer better displays of the power of the Greater Good than a fully armed Stingray Missile Gunship''" --Shas'el Kais Mont'yr T'aun, regarding the Lotus massacre on the world Au'Tau.
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The Stingray missile gunship is a Tau vehicle that serves as a potent ranged anti-infantry weapon. The vehicle was developed to break up the waves of Orks rampaging through the Tau region of space in the wake of the Damocles Gulf Crusade. A single large warhead, similar to the simple shell used by Imperial Earthshaker Cannons, was first considered by the Tau as a possible solution to the problem of dealing with massed infantry assaults. However, this was determined to be less effective than a modified Seeker Missile, with a large number of Smart Missiles loaded into the payload bay.

The resulting weapon was first fielded on modified Sky Ray air defence tanks. The first field tests proved promising, but revealed shortcomings in the vehicles used for the test. First among these was the sheer size of the new missile, which made the carrier vehicle extremely dependent upon resupply during extended combat. A new turret was then developed that could carry more missiles, but this required changes to the basic hull such as the reduction of protective armour plating to allow the unit to keep up with Devilfish and Hammerhead formations.

This new version of the vehicle that would become the Stingray was significantly less dependent on resupply during battle, and the larger turret allowed refinements to the missile itself, increasing the number of Smart Missile submunitions.

(An old/Discontinued Tau Unit from Epic Apocalypse/Chapter Approved, so it shouldn't be too hard to design or make your own with a little bit of digging)
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{| border=1 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=4 align=left
|- valign=top
! Name !! M !! WS !! BS !! S !! T !! W !! A !! Ld !! Sv
|-
| Stingray Cluster Missile Gunship || * || 6+ || * || 6 || 7 || 13 || * || 8 || 3+ 
|}  
{| border=1 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=4 align=left
|- valign=top
! W !! M !! BS !! A 
|-
| 7 - 13+ || 12 || 3+ || 3 
|-
| 4 - 6 || 6 || 4+ || D3
|-
| 1 - 3 || 3 || 5+ || 1
|}
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'''Unit Composition''': 1 Stingray Cluster Missile Gunship
<br>'''Wargear''': A Stingray Cluster Missile Gunship is equipped with 6 Submunition Seeker Missiles, 2 Markerlights, and 2 Gun drones
<br>'''Weapons'''
{| border=1 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=4 align=left
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! Name !! Range !! Type !! S !! AP !! D !! Abilities 
|-
| Sub munition Seeker Missile || 72" || Heavy 1 || 6 || -1 || 1 || Each Sub munition seeker missile can only be used once per battle. This weapon only hits on a roll of 6, regardless of the firing model’s Ballistic Skill or any modifiers. If this weapon hits inflict 3D3 hits on the unit instead of 1
|}
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<br>'''Wargear options'''
*This model may replace both Gun Drones with pair of Burst Cannons, or Smart Missile Systems
'''Abilities'''
*'''Hover tank''': Distances must be measured to and from the hull of this model rather than its base
*'''Explodes''': If the Stingray Cluster Missile Gunship is reduced to 0 wounds, roll a D6 before removing it from the battlefield and before embarked models disembark on a 6 it explodes and each unit within 6" suffers D3 mortal wounds 
*'''Detach:''' Both Gun Drones can detach at the start of your Movement phase by disembarking as if from a transport. From that point onwards, they are treated as a separate unit. They cannot reattach during the battle.
*'''Attached Drones:''' (codex Page 114)
<br>'''Faction Keywords'''
:{{W40kKeyword|T'au Empire, <Sept>}}
'''Keywords Stingray Cluster Missile Gunship '''
:{{W40kKeyword|Vehicle, Fly, Earth Caste Experiment, Stingray Cluster Missile Gunship }}
'''Keywords Gun Drone'''
:{{W40kKeyword|Drone, Fly, Gun Drones}}