Editing Warhammer 40,000/9th Edition Tactics/Tau (section)

====Heavy Support====
* '''[[XV88_Broadside_Battlesuit|XV-88 Broadside Battlesuits]]''': Now this is the real deal, right here.  Their ''Heavy Rail Rifle'' is 60" Heavy 2 S9 AP-4 Dd3+3 and deals a mortal wound when they successfully roll to wound. Paired with a Twin Plasma Rifle, which is 30" Assault 2 S8 AP-4 D3, nothing else in your Heavy slots - or the rest of your army, to be frank - can generally outshoot this unit when it fires at anything T5+.  Note that you get 1 main gun and 2 optional support systems, but up to 1 support system can be a second gun, which is where the Twin Plasma Rifle comes from.  Both support systems can also be Seeker Missiles, but that costs too many points for what you get.  You can also take up to 2 drones per Broadside model in the unit, consisting of the regular 3 tactical drone options or a missile drone.
** No longer core. 
**''Never'' take the Twin Smart Missile System - your main gun is why you took a Broadside and it hasn't got indirect fire, and if you can see your target, a Twin Plasma Rifle is strictly better against everything.
**The High Yield Missile Pod is almost always worse than than the Heavy Rail Rifle - and the things it's better against, the rest of your army can readily cleanse from the tabletop.
**Seeker Missiles belong on non-{{W40Kkeyword|infantry}}.
**Missile Drones have Missile Pods - 30” Assault 2 S7 AP-2 D2 - and ''don't'' have the Gun Drone targeting nerf, but you can't carry a Drone Controller or anything, so you're best off with marker drones, or if your army has plenty of markerlights already, shield drones.
**Your other support systems are as follows:
***Advanced Targeting System (ATS): Now Broadside only, this lets you automatically wound on 6s to hit.  <s>This ''reduces'' your railgun's output against everything in the game, since you can't cause a mortal wound unless you roll to wound, so take this if and only if you took a Twin Plasma Rifle as well - the buff to it will exceed the nerf to the railgun.</s> Autowounds explicitly say they count as a successful wound rolls in the glossary, so ATS now synchronizes with the Heavy Rail Rifle instead of nerfs it.
***Early warning override.
***Multi-tracker.
***Stabilised optics: Broadside only, ignore the hit penalty for shooting heavy weapons after moving and firing them in combat.  The only really serious contender with the ATS, this lets you maximize your shabby M5 to deal with LOS blockers and spikes your performance if you get charged and don't want to Fall Back, although Broadsides are built to murder heavies - hordes engaging you in melee will ruin your day.  Your best solution to Broadsides in melee is bubblewrap. Just remember Mont'Ka let's you do this already.
***Velocity tracker.
**Remember you're {{W40Kkeyword|infantry}} now, which makes you more vulnerable to certain rules and stratagems.
** '''[[Tau_Drones#Missile_Drone|MV-8 Missile Drone]]''': A mobile Missile Pod.
* '''[[Hammerhead_Gunship|TX7 Hammerhead Gunship]]''': Railguns are not what they used to be, oh no. Their statline is as follows: 72" Heavy 1 S14 AP-6 Dd6+3. That's really good, but there's more: if the weapon wounds its target, 3 mortal wounds are dealt and invulnerable saves cannot be taken against this weapon... ''and yet railgun Broadsides still deal more damage to all possible targets per point''. However, the psychological effect of having a Railgun on the field will be felt ([[DISTRACTION CARNIFEX]]?). Not even the Telemon is safe. Submunitions is now a strat which deals mortal wounds to a unit on a 4+ to up to 8 models, or on a 3+ if the unit contains 11 or more models, so you'll rarely use it. 
**Ion Cannons exist, but rolling an unmodified one to-hit when they're overcharged will slightly damage the Hammerhead, and even overcharged the Rail is usually better.
**'''Legends:''' Can replace the railgun with 2 high-yield missile pods, twin swiftstrike burst cannon, twin heavy fusion cannon, or twin T’au plasma cannon.
* '''[[XV-104 Riptide Battlesuit]]:''' In contrast to last edition, the Riptide is in a weird spot as being a tank instead of being an obnoxious glass cannon - the Ion Accelerator is the only main gun that does enough damage to be worth discussing the Riptide's sheer cost, but the mortals it causes the Riptide are a real problem, especially given how fucked you are if it fails a Nova Reactor test (detailed below).  The good news is we now have a 4++ native, as it always should have been, and can even overcharge to get a 5+++, while retaining the 2+ save and W14. Throw in some shielded missile drones for extra lulz (remember, the unit has to be wounded on T7 even if the drones make the subsequent saves). 
**'''Nova Reactor''' activates in your Command phase - roll 2d6, if the result is greater than the riptide’s remaining wounds (you start with 14) the nova reactor burns out and cannot be used for the rest of the game. Otherwise, gain your choice of:
***5+++ until your next command phase. Helps against overcharged 1s but best to used when on the cusp of going down on the damage table.
***In your next charge phase, this unit can make a 2d6” normal move then cannot declare a charge. Move shoot move, if you can find terrain large enough to hide behind. Remember you got fly to help here.
***Heavy burst cannon becomes heavy 16 or ion accelerator becomes heavy 8 until your next command phase. Probably what you'll pick by default, but might want to swap to the other two as the suit takes damage.
** '''[[MV-84 Shielded Missile Drone]]:''' A missile pod, with an invuln save. No longer has a worse invuln save, and can act as a unit with the Riptide for some extra missile firepower. Still kind of expensive given the drone's low BS unless you have a drone controller nearby. Take anyway as it's the only drones you got and they take your Ion Cannon's overcharged 1s.
* '''[[Skyray_Missile_Gunship|TX78 Sky Ray Gunship]]''':  Having grown past the previous edition, the Sky Ray is one of our best units, though not the damage dealing Harbingers of death that our other units are. Comes with 2 markerlights, a Seeker Missile Rack at 72” Heavy D3+1 S9 AP-3 D2d3, and the same sponson weapon options as a Hammerhead. Really you're taking this for the jump shoot jump markerlights and the +1 to hit annoyingly tough units that fly, like Imperial Grav Tanks.
* '''[[Tau_Drones#Heavy_Gun_Drone|Heavy Gun Drone Squadron]]<sup>Forge World,Legends</sup>''': Gun Drones packing double the usual firepower with two Burst Cannons for 28 points ''each''; alternatively, you can swap one Cannon for a Markerlight to get a combination Gun and Marker drone. So they're hideously expensive compared to an equal weapon loadout in standard drones, and they take up a Heavy Support slot to boot. All of those extra points buy you 2W per drone instead of 1.
** If you're buying these just for the guns, remember that 76 points for a minimum size unit of these with two cannons each (6 wounds, 16 shots) would have bought you nine Gun drones (9 wounds and 36 shots) or eight Gun Drones and a Shield Drone (9 wounds, 32 shots and a 4++ until you take your first wound) with four points left over for a Kroot Hound too. The Burst Cannon/Markerlight Heavy Gun Drones are marginally more efficient, but still stupidly overpriced for what they do compared to regular drones.