Editing Gauss (section)

====Rail Rifle====
[[File:RailRifle6.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Rail Rifle]]
Emboldened by the success of vehicle-mounted railguns, the Earth Caste built a [[Tau]]-portable railgun weapon, called the "rail rifle." It debuted in [[Warhammer 40,000: Fire Warrior]] as a prototype weapon; it soon got rules in [[Chapter Approved]], and by the next Tau Empire [[Codex]], it was a regular part of the Fire Caste's armory, used by [[Pathfinder Team|Pathfinders]] and drones as a sniper weapon. Incidentally, while it was in Chapter Approved, the Rail Rifle was subject to "Gets Hot!" like a Plasma Gun, but the Earth Caste improved the safety margins on it such that blowing up in the user's face is no longer a concern by the time of the 4th Edition codex. 6th edition further uplifted the rail rifle, turning it from Heavy to Rapid Fire and making it AP1, meaning it now could oneshot terminators and light vehicles, be fired on the move and even could be fired in full-auto.

It is mentioned in the fluff that once Rail Rifles are advanced enough to mass-produce and do not eat all the ammo and battery pack in a matter of seconds (and seeing their progress rate from overheating backpack-powered heavy weapon to magazine-fed rapid fire rifles in a matter of a few decades it's not a long time to wait for), Tau command have plans to use them as standard issue Fire Warrior guns instead of pulse rifles. Come 8th edition they are still used only by Pathfinder teams. At least until a new Tau Codex comes out. If GW did do this they would either likely nerf its range to match up with the [[Lasgun]] and [[Bolter]] and increase the price to the same as a [[Plasma Gun]], OR give it to an elite new Tau unit analogous to the space marine Sternguard since, logically, a new weapon would not be available in large enough numbers for the whole army as they just started mass production so best give it only to the elites. Otherwise it would pretty much break the game with Tau basic infantry being able to steamroll everything in their field of view even more than 3E Necrons could. One would think that this would be possible as the Tau now have [[awesome|Plasma Shotguns]] but they [[derp|remain one of the few races without a one man flamer]].