Editing Warhammer 40,000/7th Edition Tactics/Tau (section)

===Battlesuit Ranged Weaponry===
These are chosen for Crisis suits, including the Commander and his Bodyguards. Differently from the previous Codex, Cyclic Ion Blaster and Airbursting Fragmentation Projector aren't experimental weapons anymore.

'''Note:''' You can make a weapon Twin-linked for some extra points and it will take up a second hard point (same as last codex), or you can take multiples of the same weapon at the base cost for each. Example: You could take a Plasma Rifle for 15 points, Twin-Linked Plasma Rifle for 20 points, or two individual Plasma Rifles for 30 points (15 points each). Nowadays people usually just take two of the same non-twinlinked weapons, trading versatility for efficiency, but loading a suit with two different guns so it could deal with a higher variety of threats is still a valid tactic.
* '''Flamer:''' Good old reliable and cheap. If you have points and hard-points to spare, stick them on. They are a good deterrent for weaker units trying to tie up Battlesuits; a twin-linked flamer, with its re-rolling to-wound goodness, is amongst the best systems you could have for overwatch, costing less than all other guns and leaving a hand free to fire another weapon. Expecting lots of close encounters with infantry trying to engage in melee? You take a flamer.
* '''Burst Cannon:''' Like a Tyranid Deathspitter but with one extra shot. Good for dealing with light infantry, and when combined with a flamer it's awesome at tackling hordes. However, you get lots of S5 AP5 shots elsewhere, and combined with drones and the new higher squad size, its main advantage, high rate of fire, isn't a need as before. But it's quite cheap and perfect for small squads: 3 Crisis with 6 gun drones can easily glance [[Rhino|most]] [[Chimera Transport|transports]] to death while remaining excellent against infantry, all of that for less than 200 pts. Most vehicles have rear AV10, so with good positioning they won't even need the gun drones. Drop in, remove 3-6 HP or murder 16 GEQs, a very troll-worthy tactic. And it's even better with markerlights - owing to its high rate of fire this weapon will be more likely to come into its own <u>with other wargear</u> made to take maximum advantage of it. So, if you are going to take them, consider putting two of them as non-twin-linked weapons on a Crisis to chug out ''eight'' shots per turn, and indulge your Gatling fetish, [[Heterosexual Sex in the Missionary Position|you sick bastard]]. Enjoy the look on your opponent's face when your three suits drop THAT many dice, or watch enemy [[Ork]]s go green(er) with envy at the absolutely XBOX HUEG amount of dakka you put out. 
**If you're gonna go Farsight Crisiswing, outfitting a team with double Burst Cannons (and gun drones for a taste) can be perfect at clearing hordes, like Conscripts, or cheap and fast tarpit units like DE beasts or Chaos Spaw...WAIT, NO I DIDN'T MEAN-AJRSPLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBL
* '''Airbursting Fragmentation Projector:''' The only Barrage weapon in the codex, the AFP slings flamer-equivalent (including Ignores Cover) pie plates at 18" range. This weapon was pretty iffy in the 6E book when you could only have one: even where it was good, it was too vulnerable and too likely to be anywhere but where it's needed. Now that you can take more than one, it actually has some merit. It costs as much as three flamers, but doesn't need line of sight. Useful against the same classes of target that you'd use flamers on, now from a much more comfortable distance. Cannot be twin-linked, but you can take two per suit, just remember Blast weapons cannot overwatch. All in all not bad, but you're generally not hurting for ways to ferret GEQs out of cover, and using a Multi-spectrum takes away its main advantage over other weapons.
* '''Cyclic Ion Blaster:''' A cross between a Burst cannon and a Missile pod, this is a 18" range, 3 shot S7 weapon in normal mode, and becomes a + 1S Blast when overcharged, the only downside of that being the chance to burn your little weeaboo fingers, and you can't twin-link it to avoid it. It's an extremely versatile weapon, in fact, having only one less shot but 2 more Str gives the Burst cannons insecurity issues, being better at dealing with vehicles without compromising lots of anti-infantry power, unlike missiles, with the AP4 that will make IG officers cry (''more''). While S8 will ID the unlucky MEQ, you're still better using the normal mode against AV13, volume of fire compensating the reduced strength. Its only real problems are power armored enemies, cover campers and AV14, but that's a job reserved for [[Plasma#Tau|more]] [[Melta#Tau_Melta_Weapons|specialized]] [[Gauss#Railgun|guns]]. If you like to put 2 different weapons on a suit to make it good against a wide variety of targets, at least one of those weapons should be a CIB. ''Great with an EWO.''
* '''Fusion Blaster:''' 6" extra to the range might not seem like a lot, but it is. This makes deep striking and cracking open the soft caramel center of vehicles all that much easier. Properly measured, it puts you on average 16" away from the vehicle that you just exploded at the end of your assault phase, making charges from units left to defend them far less likely. Also, don't forget that AP1 is still AP1 - Fusion Blasters have an important secondary role IDing Terminators ([[Plasma_Syphon|''Suck on that, Paladins'']]), high-toughness units and MC/GCs. Low shot volume hurts, but markerlights can compensate.
* '''Missile Pod:''' More like Autocannons, really. The longest ranged weapon your battle suit can have, it's excellent for sniping walkers, light vehicles and the odd monstrous critter or two (ones with low armor saves, to be exact). Due to the low output of shots, however, Battlesuits equipped with these should avoid firing at larger-sized squads unless they have no better option.
* '''Plasma Rifle:''' Before the inclusion of the Riptide, this was the Tau's only source of reliable AP2 weaponry. The new codex has not stopped their usefulness. They have good range, don't get hot, enough Str to wound marines on a 2+ and are Rapid-fire. If you find yourself fighting a lot of marines, necrons, jetbikes and monstrous creatures (which you WOULD in a current meta) a full squad of double-plasma suits is just the right tool to bring it down, with a bit of markerlight support to cut though cover saves.