Cadre Fireblade
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Cadre Fireblades are field commanders of the Tau who, for whatever reason, have decided not to advance along the normal path of the Tau military and forego the infamous Tau battlesuits. This is sometimes because they realise their own limitations would make them an unsuitable battlesuit pilot and remain with the infantry for The Greater Good, otherwise it may just be because they feel like it(totally not for the greater good). Fireblades are always Shas'el rank, commanding the Tau army although they can never rise above that. Despite the limitation they are held in high regard, since instead of being a glory whore in a gundam they're hanging with the rank and file like REAL MEN (Real Tau, you know what I mean), which embodies the Greater Good.
On the Table
These are the second cheapest HQ choice in the Tau codex beaten out only by naked Ethereals which automatically makes them of some use in small point games or as a cheap HQ in an allied list. His features include a BS5 markerlight, a cheap source of bonus drones. Apart from a cheap HQ the main advantage is giving a fire warrior squad an extra shot each with a special rule.
While this may not be "good" it was hilarious prior to 7e to take an allied Eldar/Tau army with a Farseer, an Ethereal, and a Fireblade. Invoke Fire with the Ethereal whilst Rapid firing with a guided Fire Warrior squad including a Fireblade and laughing as your foe suffers a statistical 39 Str5 hits not including drones from one squad. Sadly, 7th ed nerfed this by making Tau/Eldar Allies of Convenience, so no more Guide.
Funnily enough, as the rule is worded nothing prevents you from adding more Fireblades to a Fire warrior team (specially in 7th Unbound lists). For each Fireblade you add, there is one more shot for the ENTIRE team (and to the other Fireblades too!). 10 fireblades with 10 Fire warriors throw 11 shots each at 30 inches (total 220 shots, with half at BS 5). MORE DAKKA for the greater good. This isn't very useful for normal games, but in Apocalypse you can have a squad of 12 Fire Warriors and 10 Fireblades are putting out 11 shots EACH at max range, 12 at half, for a total of 242 shots at max range, of which 110 are at BS5. In Apocalypse games 600 points worth of HQ is small change. The amount of fire out of the squad is normally only seen from massed Guard firing lines, but is coming from a total of 22 models that is only 708 points (which is one Titan or a couple Baneblades). You can live the dream of all 40k players and erase a squad of Ultramarines every turn.
In normal games, the best use of a combined Fireblade squad is to have a surviving Fireblade join another squad after his first is wiped out, making it as if you still have the same amount of dakka as before.