Editing Warhammer 40,000/6th Edition Tactics/Tau (section)

==Unit Analysis==

===HQ===
*'''Ethereal:''' Ethereals used to be a bad joke for the Tau army along with Vespids (the Fast Attack bad joke). They provided marginal benefit coupled with a serious drawback leading to much regicidal humour. So it came upon the Hamster to improve this rather terrible selection and so he made an attempt: instead of a meager benefit, all friendly units from this codex with a model within a foot of an Ethereal must use his leadership for Fear, Morale, Pinning and Regroup checks; in addition to this the Ethereal can grant all friendly non-vehicle Tau units one of four abilities each movement phase: Stubborn, FnP 6+, Snap Shots after running or a bonus pulse shot against anything less than half-range away. The only downside for Ethereals now is that killing the Ethereal gives an extra victory point and undoes whatever power was being used at the time. Can also take a beacon for fairly cheap, presumably so you can launch a [[Boreale|defensive deep strike]] to protect your Ethereal.
** To summarise, they became '''Badass'''. Not only is the Ethereal a force multiplier of the first order with his Storm of Fire Invocation, but he bestows Leadership 10, and can bestow Stubborn on his Fire-Warrior flock when you want your thin Orange Line to hold rather than break- effectively turning the Tau into the bravest army in the 40k universe, even more so than Grey Knights and other "elite" armies. To demonstrate the power of this, a Shas'ui can challenge the most dangerous model in the charging squad, and effectively occupy him for an entire turn at no cost but your Shas'ui's life. That would make any Independent character sad, but against certain opponents that often charge in solo '''Bloodthirsters''' it can become hilarious. 
** The real selling point of Ethereals however is precisely that- the selling point. At 50 points, unless you're running an almost completely battlesuited army you should be seriously asking yourself why you shouldn't be taking an Ethereal, and even in those armies, the FnP and ability to fire Snapshots while running (which of course can be augmented by markerlights) is well worth it. 
** Needless to say with a glorious W2, T3 and a complete absence of a save, you can expect your Ethereal to be the prime target of the Marbos, snipers, CC infantry and anything with "precision shot" in the description. Place at the back of large fire warrior squads, amongst large numbers of similarly large squads for maximum survivability. 

*'''Battlesuit Commander:''' An excellent unit if kitted out properly. The versatility of the battlesuit chassis means you can equip him however you need to be most effective, and being the commander, all special issue equipment is available to him (see Armoury for setup tips). The Generic Commander is however the most expensive generic HQ Choice in the Codex, clocking in at 85 points before wargear. Commanders may take special bodyguards. He is equipped with XV-8-05 Enforcer Armor, the "Standard Commander Armor", and comes with a total of 4 hardpoints for your mounting pleasure (and Signature systems don't count!)

*'''Bodyguards:''' Each Commander in your army allows you to take a single unit of bodyguards that do not take up an FOC slot. When taken, they turn your XV8 Commander into a very up-powered Crisis suit team (which is no bad thing) although there is nothing specifying that the commander needs to be attached to the body guard, which is odd. They automatically pass Look Out, Sir! tests, which means you can cram the survivability-enhancing gear on them and the offensive gear on the commander. Like the commander you can stick any number of signature systems on these guys, however you still only have 3 slots for weapon/support systems. You can make some interesting combinations of gear on these guys. Think about the possibilities.  

*'''Cadre Fireblade:''' At first glance, the Cadre Fireblade looks pretty crappy, especially compared to an Ethereal. He's 10 points more than an Ethereal but can only really buff a single Fire Warrior squad (or Pathfinder squad, if you're so inclined), with a markerlight, Split Fire, and Volley Fire (which grants an extra shot to everybody so long as they stand still). Pretty bad, right? Actually, not really, at least in an allied detachment. Although the Ethereal is much improved, he's still somewhat of a risk if you field him, ''especially'' in an allied detachment, as you give up an extra Victory Point if he's killed (and, given how weedy the Tau are, that's not very hard). Also, his abilities ''only'' affect Tau, which isn't very useful in an allied detachment. The Fireblade, on the other hand, will almost always be useful (at least for your one compulsory unit of Troops) and will never be a liability. Also, that markerlight of his (fired at BS 5) is pretty darn handy, because you can never have enough markerlights, and (with Split Fire) it can be fired at a different unit than the rest of his squad. Also, Volley Fire is up to the ''entire'' range of the guns, not just half range like the Ethereal. So, all in all, you'll probably usually want an Ethereal in your main detachment, but in an allied detachment, a Fireblade is probably the better choice for a "cheap" HQ. This might be an edge case, but hey, at least he has ''some'' use, [[Flayed Ones|unlike]] [[Pyrovore|certain]] [[Counts As#Mandrakes|other]] [[Mutilator|units]].

====Special Characters====
*'''Aun'Va, Master of the Undying Spirit:''' The  popestick got a huge buff! Roll equal to or over a weapon's AP to ignore wounds? Auto-pass against AP1? Enemy railguns/death rays/tachyon arrows/meltas can eat shit and die. However, you can't roll against AP- so Tesla will still ruin your day (edit: 5+ normal armour save). Only 100pts? Vetock, you are a god. OK, so the bodyguards are still meh but they're better than they used to be. 5+ saves combined with the Paradox's harder-you-hit-it-harder-it-is invulnerable save gives the whole unit a variable amount of protection. He also gets 2 ethereal bubble abilities per turn, which either give Stubborn, Fnp(6+), +1 pulse weapon shot in half range or snap shots after running. His massive, multiple buffs are just awesome. He also provides a table wide re-roll for any morale checks, anything in Tau codex. That shit is money.

*'''Aun'Shi:''' Brought back from 3rd edition into 6th. Shi is essentially a close combat HQ (albeit a modest one) in an otherwise shooty army.  Always use patient hunter in CC, because re-rollable 4++ is hilarious. He is basically an Ethereal with the weaknesses removed for a price bump, but beware of anyone with strength 6 or over, because you'll be instant killed. 

*'''O'Shovah ([[Farsight|Commander Farsight]]):''' The l33t renegade commander of the Fire Caste, Farsight is odd in the fact that he's specced for assault in an army meant for shooting. His Dawn Blade is very nice and got one hell of an upgrade to what is essentially a Necron Warscythe (AP2 Armourbane); his ability to take a seven-strong battlesuit bodyguard is intimidating, especially when he can perfectly deepstrike with it. With 6th edition, preferred enemy is actually quite useful, making his unit BS 3.5 against orks. His restrictions from the previous codex were his biggest hindrance, but now they don't exist in the new codex. The suits in his unit could purchase hit and run and use his I5 for the test. That could actually make assaulting worth while with him and counter-assaults hilarious (take a few suits with twin-linked flamers for additional lulz).
** His warlord trait opens opportunities for a "farsight bomb" where you have farsight and 7 body guards -carrying fusion blasters and plasma rifles for heavy infantry/tanks and burst cannons and flamers for light infantry- deep strike into the middle of the enemy and shoot their faces off (<s>16 plasma rifle shots and 7 fusion blaster shots</s> fuck that go with two plasma rifles each and you get 15 plasma shots at long range and 30 at close range if you have path finders to light up the squads target everything is going to die). Give one of his bodyguards the Command and Control Node and the Multispectrum Sensor Suite, the rest of the unit (including drones) will be re-rolling hits and ignoring cover. Get your tearcup ready - even better would be to add another commander with drone controller, command and control node, vectored retro thrusters for that hit and run goodness, neuroweb system jammer because gets hot is fun, multi spectrum sensor suite and the puretide engram neuro chip, giveing everything in the squad tank hunter, monster hunter or stubborn even counter attack (edit: CA is put on one model, <s>not unit wide</s> A unit that contains at least one model with this rule...)  if you think it will work and take all gun drones (gun drones are armour 4 so if that evil new gravity gun of the spess mahreens wounds on majority armour with all the drones that becomes 4+ you might need a tear '''bath''') that's 32 pulse carbine shots at BS5 that ignore cover on top of the twin linked (I would suggest dual that's 2 shots a model at 24" and 4 shots a model at 12") plasma rifle fire that also ignore cover. tearcup? tear bucket.

*'''O'Shaserra ([[Shadowsun|Commander Shadowsun]]):''' Commander Tsundere herself, she wears an experimental next-gen stealth battlesuit and is outfitted for cover-camping and jump-shoot-jump close-range tank killing (which makes her much better on dense battlefields than in open ones). One of the only ways to make her useful is to stick her in a stealth suit squad, where she bestows 3D6 JSJ range to the unit and benefits from auto-passing Look Out, <s>Sir</s> Ma'am! rolls to prevent instant-death (and being T3 there are a lot of weapons that could instant-death her). With buffed out fusion guns and 2+ cover in any terrain she could put some hate on vehicles while being all but invulnerable to return fire. Her command-link drone can let an unit within 12" re-roll to hit rolls of 1 and her shield drones confer a 3++.
**Let us reiterate what her command-link drone does: ''Any one unit within 12" of the drone gets to re-roll any 1s on its to-hit roll''. And she can do this ''every'' turn. You know how that Riptide heavy burst cannon was almost as dangerous to itself as it was the enemy when you fire it with a nova-charge? With Shadowsun in support, that is no longer the case. Just think about how much [[dakka]] you can (relatively) safely put out from the two of them on a continual basis...
**As both Stealth and Shrouded confers to the entire unit, it's possible to put Mrs. Tsundere into Crisis or Hazard team (or take a bodyguard team), giving them 4+ cover in the open and [[troll|2+ in any terrain]]. Sure, you don't get auto Look Out <s>Sir</s> Ma'am! (unless you took bodyguards), but 2+ is almost as good as an auto-pass and overall T4/5 of Crisis/Hazard solves instant death problem much better. And on top of that her unit benefits from 3D6 thrust moves if she is your warlord.
**For more troll worthy potential take battle brother allies. So what do you think about constantly 2+ covered wraithguard blob or seer council with REROLLABLE 2+ cover? As broken as it looks, expect it to be nerfed in FAQ's soon as GW realizes its [[cheese|potential]].  Also, template weapons will ruin your day, so watch out.
**<s>As Riptides are not always one model, Shadowsun can join a Riptide for trolltastic tactics. With Shadowsun in the Riptide's unit the Riptide receives infiltrate, stealth, shrouded as well as Shadowsun's default 3D6 jet pack move and the aforementioned command-link drone shenanigans. Broken as hell? <Sure to be FAQ'd? Of course, but enjoy it while you can FAQ came out, no mention of this combo so you are good to go!  Oh and don't forget the fun that can be had with a full team of XV9's behind her.  Have that tearcup handy?</s> independent characters can't join monstrous creatures
(New little dirty trick being tried in some armies. Drop her in a pack of Kroot with Sniper round and put them in cover. Wait....screw cover. You don't need to put them in cover anymore thanks to her stealth and shroud. Just another fun way to make your opponent cry after your first turn with them.)

*'''El'Myamoto (Sub-Commander Darkstrider):''' The second Tau commander to piss off the Ethereal elites, Darkstrider is best described as a Cadre Fireblade for Pathfinders. His key ability is to lower the toughness of anything his squad fires on (only for his squad, but it counts for Instant Death) which works best with railrifle equipped pathfinders. Can be very troll-y. See that crazy powerful Paladin or Meganob? A single Pathfinder in this guy's squad just sniped him. Also works on T5 (Nob bikers, Ogryns, Thunderwolf, Harpies, Daemon Prince) with an overcharged Ion Rifle. As well, he has a special rule that allows his unit to consolidate D6" in any direction immediately after firing their overwatch and BEFORE the charging unit rolls for charge distance. Stick him in a Pathfinder squad with a Grav Inhibitor drone and they become one slippery unit. You can even attach him to a squad of Fire Warriors and sneak them behind enemy lines to wreak havoc. Problem, Astartes?<!---Fight on Foot says Pathfinders OR FIRE WARRIORS. '''Have a nice day.'''--->

*'''Honour-Shas’Vre O’Vesa:''' This guy is an old friend of Commander Farsight and he isn't even part of the Fire Caste... This guy is a member of the Earth Caste kept alive in his suit by sophisticated life support systems of his own design (nanobots or more specifically Microdrones).  He is basically a Riptide that comes equipped with an Ion Accelerator and TL Fusion Blaster.  He also has an Early Warning System (interceptor), and a Stimulant Injector, plus as a bonus he gets the ability to re-roll ones to hit and re-roll failed nova charge rolls.  All this comes at the minor cost of his weapon skill being set to 1 (you weren't thinking about using him in Assaults were you?)  Did I mention he's an independent character?  He can therefore team up in some deliciously broken combos.  Now detailed in the FAQ, you can only take this guy if you are playing Farsight Enlaves and have Commander Farsight as your Warlord (but he won't take up a Force Organisational Slot, which is handy).

*'''O'R'myr (Commander Longknife) (Forge World):''' Dread Pirate R'myr, who inherited the name from four previous commanders, is a decent suit that seems to want to be charged. A double-barreled Plasma rifle with an enhanced shield generator, he looks built to take down heavy infantry / monstrous creatures. His Signature Wargear is the XV89-02 Battlesuit, which contains a flechette launcher that nicks the attacker for a S3 hit at the I10 subphase. Depending on how you interpret the word 'any,' the flechette launcher may not be one use anymore. He has a special shield generator that has a 4++ against shooting attacks and a 3++ against close combat. His flechette dicharger is a really nasty surprise to swarm armies thinking they have just trapped the expensive tau HQ unit in CC. A good choice, especially against Imperial Guard due to Preferred Enemy against them, though the generic commander is far better for facing hordes or tank hunting. He has the fixed Warlord Trait "Through Unity, Devastation" which is great for an alpha strike. Add to the Farsight blob LULZ.

*'''O'Ra'lai (Commander O'Rly) (Forge World):''' O'Rly is a monster of a unit; he is your [[Commissar Yarrick]], your [[Abaddon|Failbaddon]], your [[Mephiston]], your [[Swarmlord]], your [[Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka|Ghazghkull]], with BS5, T5, I4, and the power of the XV-9 battlesuit the main difference he has compared with the above heroes is that he is primarily a ranged fighter whereas most uber-hq units tend to be close combat focused. 
**The latest Imperial Armor Apocalypse Second Edition rules have updated O'Ra'Lai's equipment. His shield no longer conveys stealth, but gives him a 3+ invulnerable save if fired at from outside 12 inches.  On top of that, All of his weapons are now Assault 2. This involves all of the "gets Hot!" weapons, so you run the risk of taking more damage, but can cause a lot more pain as a result. With this change, he no longer has "Baby's First Lascannon," instead he has "Oh what the fuck, he has an assault 2 lascannon?!" His template weapons now make him a real nightmare to just about any army, and he also is now the best HQ unit the Tau have. Keep him away from TEQs though.  
**His drones are T4, which means you're losing that awesome T5 bonus until a drone dies. He USED to be able to join guys, but the special rule 'Lone Warrior' prevents him from joining units, despite his Independent Character rule. However, he can leave his drone unit (though he may not join any other unit unless he wants to rejoin his drones for some reason), which means you can separate him from his drones and let him be majority toughness 5 while you get 2 markerlight drones for free, though they drop from BS 5 to BS 2 without O'Ra'lai's drone controller.
** Make him your army's warlord. Period. At T5, 4 wounds, a 3+/3-4++, I4, hit and run, and JSJ, he is an absolute bastard to kill without S10 or instant death weapons. His Warlord Trait, The Assassin, leaves much to be desired however. It grants Preferred Enemy: Independent Characters, which leads to an awkward position when shooting at units containing Independent Characters - When exactly are you allowed this reroll? (Due to wording, one can interpret it as PE against any squad with an IC in it, and the opponent will have no way to disprove it. Lolz)

===Troops===
*'''Fire Warriors:''' Yes, they have the best basic infantry gun in the game. Yes, they will go down like a sack of wet shit if properly targeted or assaulted. For the new book, their price gets dropped to a much more workable 9 pts/model, so it just got a lot easier to buy a squad with a [[Devilfish]]; however, larger squads are going to be more difficult to squeeze into cover, but if they fit in a fish, you got it made. The price break does let you spend a little more on the Tau's new toys elsewhere though. Devilfish give Fire Warriors much needed mobility, and safety from assault. After all, the second ANYTHING gets into close combat with a Fire Warrior squad, the Fire Warriors will lose. Even if it's other Fire Warriors or even fucking Grots and Rippers. With abysmal WS and mediocre BS, if these guys are firing, use markerlights to up their hit chances, although other units may make better use of the markerlight tokens. 6th edition buffs them a lot: new shooting weapons rules make them rapid fire on 15", hullpoint system allow them glance to death light vehicles with pulse rifles or blast them to oblivion with EMP-grenades, and new defensive grenades (which you no longer have to buy as an option) 8"-stealth also help them survive bolter drills a bit better. Firewarriors get other goodies like the ability to overwatch with another friendly unit within 6" of them - yes, they are now quite the bargain.
**''Alternative option:'' A fun, unconventional and down-right troll worthy tactic. Stick 6 FW's in a Devilfish with EMP's Now only costing you 11pts per model (with added photon grenades for free) you just launch the DF at an enemy vehicle. The change to EMP making them true Haywire (opposed to the haywire lite that they were) means that your opponent will scramble to save whatever you're targeting. Most of the time it will not work out, but now it's so god-damn cheap to do it's almost worth it for the lulz.
**When Shas'Ui takes markerlight for his rifle, he also get free target lock. This allows you to chain markerlights between fire warrior squads by using the markerlight on the target of the next fire warrior unit. This may also be useful to man fortification gun emplacements without forcing all his squad wasting their shots on something they can't hurt, which is worth.

*'''[[Kroot|Kroot Carnivores]]:''' Disregard what fluff says - Kroot are NOT assault infantry. Yes, they have WS4, so what? They can not assault after shooting, their saves are weak and they lost their S4 and extra attack from the rifle for no fucking reason (while remaining super-strong in fluff), and AP5 melee looks like a fucking joke in all-marine metagame. Instead look at their gun. It's a fucking bolter just with AP6, which don't matter a lot, cause most of the infantry in the game is either Sv4+ or better, or constantly in cover. No, instead spend the extra point per model (for a total of 7 each) for Sniper Rounds. A 20 strong squad hidden in a forest taking out Characters hidden in squad. This is more deadly against certain armies than other, but it's rather troll worthy at any rate. The only downside is the shortish range of the Kroot Rifle. Still, 140pts for 20 Sniper shots it's not that much of downside. And speaking about cover, these guys have stealth(forest) for 4+ in forests (even better if they're Ironbark). What you got is fairly cheap, hard to shoot down from cover and hard to kill in CC area denial unit that shoot bolters or even sniper rifles, and can deploy anywhere on the field, messing with opponents pathing and deepstriking, and keeping his forces away from your fragile gunline until they all die. In addition to regular Kroot, you can field the following Kroot subspecies:
**Kroot Hounds: These are Space Chickens... In a dog form. Surprisingly these pups aren't bad, as they have I 5, so they get to go first before Space Marines/Necrons/Chaos Space Marines/etc. And will go at the same time as Gaunts and Eldar. They can dish out two attacks per base, so up to 12 hounds can deliver 24 hits on anyone that it assaults/gets assaulted by Vanilla Marines. They're a point cheaper, but they have no armour save. Overall, pretty good unit to have in a squad to either chomp up a few marines before they die or a nice meat shield to add. If you go shooty, but plan to outflank instead of infiltrate, take one for acute senses.
**Krootox Riders: At 25 pts., you get a space chicken Silverback with a big Kroot Gun on its back with the rider. Having a S7 rapid fire gun that can shoot up to 48"(24 in rapid fire thanks to the buff with 6th edition) is nice to have, along with two S6 melee attacks up close and two wounds. For the new book, Krootox riders no longer prevent your squad from infiltrating, which means you can now have an absurdly strong gun line infiltrating right where your opponent doesn't want it that can actually hold out in combat!
**Shaper: The boss of the Carnivore Squad. These Kroot have three wounds, +2 attacks more and +1 LD. Oh, and he costs three times more than a Kroot for the upgrade. It's worth taking if you want the six extra S3 hits, which can help a bit. Still not great to take on anything except for Orks, Tyranids, and Daemons, so only take him if you plan on going up against other horde armies.

*'''Gue'Vesa (Forge World):''' Shooty [[Gue'vesa]] troops, so far the only human auxiliaries you can field in 6th ed. They cost the same as Conscripts and 6 guys, with potential upgrades for another 5 guys, a sarge, and grenades (12 total). They are equipped with Lasguns and Flak, and get their shit kicked in by Guardsman because of the Death To Traitors. They are only allowed in specified Taros Campaign missions, but don't fret. They suck anyway. Just take your fire warriors, especially since these guys have no Supporting Fire.

*'''Drone Sentry Turret (Forge World):''' A group of up to four 11/11/11 immobile vehicles with TL burst cannons that can be upgraded to TL missile pods, TL fusion blasters, or TL plasma rifles. They have access to the vehicle battle systems and can be upgraded to have deep strike for 10 points each. Not an exceptional unit, but not a bad choice by any standard (they are cheap at a base cost of only 30 points each). They do not count as a compulsory troop choice, and won't count as a scoring or denial unit because they are vehicles (see BRB p123) They are still good for area denial (as in sitting in terrain, killing anything that comes near. Denying objectives is different than area denial). <s>Do note that the second they open fire they become open-topped, which means any penetrating hit blast them on 4+  even if it's AP- (as they are already immobilized), or on 3+/2+ in case of AP2/1. The best (and probably the only) way to effectively use sentry turrets is to load them with missile pods and park them in cover, optionally shielding with disruprion pods.</s> In the latest version of Imperial Armour 3 there is no longer a Pop-Up rule and they do not become open-topped when firing.

===Dedicated Transports===

*'''[[Devilfish]] Troop Carrier:''' <s>[[Fish of Fury|FISH OF FU-]]</s>{{Blam}} Ignore that Mont'au savage, citizen, for the elimination of [[That Guy|That Strategy]] betters us all, and it has been long enough that we are mostly forgiven. These allow your Fire Warriors to be exactly where you need them to be. With AV12 in the front, the ability to gain a 4+ cover save (3+ if it moves flat-out instead of shooting) through the Disruption Pod wargear, and skimmer speed, think of this as the iron-clad, greased up eggshell that you need to crack to get to the delicious omelette inside. With the new codex, drones that detach from vehicles never count as a kill point.  For ten points, you can replace the gun drones with a twin-linked smart missile system, which got a serious buff in 6th Edition from its previous stats, allowing the Devilfish to add some cost-effective (line-of-sight ignoring / cover negating!) fire support. These are almost necessary for a good army although they do cost 80 fucking points!. (note: Devilfish are not allowed to carry models with the bulky special rule, so stealth suits en route to a dispute must shoot-and-scoot and can't commute. No swimming in the devilfish carpool for you!)

===Elite===
*'''[[Battlesuit#XV8_Crisis_Battlesuit|XV-8 Crisis Battlesuit]]:''' God's Gift To Tau. These guys are your mainstay. Their weapons are varied and versatile, and are specialized for various situations. They can take any combination of weapons and wargear unless otherwise stated. These guys will fill up your elites slots. The Crisis suits are famous for the Jump-Shoot-Jump - moving out of cover, shooting, and jumping back into cover, denying return fire and annoying the enemy, an excellent tactic. Each suit may take up to three hard-points but it's no longer a requirement that all three slots be filled. Hard-points are made up of Ranged Weapons and Support Systems(see "[[Warhammer_40,000/Tactics/Tau#Tau_Armoury|Tau Armoury]]" section). Typically a Crisis suit will have two weapons and a support system, but there is no rule against three weapons or even three support systems, or any other ratio you fancy. Obviously some combinations are more effective than others. Note that if a single weapon system is selected twice, it could count as a single twin-linked weapon (filling two hardpoints) at only +5 pts or two separate guns at full cost - though you must state it in your roster and point it to your opponent (it may be a good idea to mount TL pair on one hardpoint to make it more WYSIWYG). Crisis suits (and other large suits) come with Multitracker and blacksun filter pre-installed so you can choose that extra system you've always wanted. If one of your team upgrades to a Shas'vre then he unlocks access from items from signature systems. Probably one of the most past by improvements, yet comforting additions to 6th; Shas'Vre come in at Leadership 9, meaning if you lose a couple of expendable wounds (for instance in the form of bin lids) you don't panic, forget you're in a huge powered gundam wing and run off the board! 
**'''This is extremely important!!''' Tau Crisis suits are T4, which means they suffer heavily from rocket sniping. If you value your suits, take at least two drones to absorb the inevitable S8 AP3 shot. Everything in the damn game has some version of a "fuck your crisis suit" weapon (except Tyranids, even the Tyrannofex's Rupture Cannon hits at AP 4, so Crisis Suits are safe), be prepared. As all drones have the same price, consider carefully, what type you want for your Crisis suits:
***'''Shield drones''' are just ablative wounds, that are slightly better at being ablative wounds. 4++ could help them to survive twice as long against heavy fire, but against AP5 or higher they would go down as fast as other drone type, as they lost their 3+/2+ mimicked armor save from previous codex, and you cannot allocate only those wounds you want on them. Take them if you expect a lot of S8 or and/or low AP4 shots fired on your Crisis suits.
***'''Gun drones''' are not only T4 Sv4+ cold expendable wounds for your Crisis suits, but also TL pulse carbines, which packs considerable firepower in 6e, and may even pin shit if you're got lucky (don't count on it, though). BS2 is not a big problem, as with twinlink they have 55% chance of hitting something (think of it as BS 3.5) without markerlight support.  With a suit equipped with a drone controller, they become BS3, and with a Commander with drone controller, [[Troll|BS5]]. Which, with twin-linking, is effectively BS10, meaning your drones rival the galaxy's best snipers. Additionally, being twinlinked they tend to deal more hits on overwatch, or when snapfiring at flyers/fmc's. Definitely worth it when combined with infantry hunting Crisis teams (flamers, burstcannons), and even on more heavily armed teams could be fine if combined with target locks (they are fairly cheap after all).  Group of 3-5 gun drones on targetlocked team could reliably blow [[Dark Eldar|AV10 vehicles]], or those with AV10 on the rear (read: almost all of them) with some smart maneuvering and with some luck could even glance to death [[METAL BOXES|AV11]]. Again, this is even more useful, when Crisis team have target locks and can focus their firepower on something more important. If you're planning to jump around heavy cover or include Shassera to your Crisis team, Gun drones would benefit from 4+ cover (or up to 2+ with Shassera in cover), becoming as survivable as Shield drones, while retaining their firepower.
***'''Marker drones''' are tricky ones. BS2 with no twinlink or networking seems useless, but they are designed to CHAIN markerlights when focus firing a target - you're spending 2 markerlight tokens to give your Crisis team awesome BS5, and 2-3 marker drones at BS4 could reliably regain those tokens to be used on the next Crisis team and so on. Aside from it, they could be used as emergency markerlight source if your main markers was destroyed or tied, and of course, as ablative wounds, like all other drones.
** One completely unexpected result of 6th ed was the Rambo Crisis Squads.   With Crisis suits now costing 22 points, it's now a perfectly viable option to take your Cheap as Chips naked (or naked plus flamer) Crisis squad and use them for GLORIOUS COMBAT. Why? Because 3 Crisis suits naked costs 66 points! If one was to compare them with Assault Marines, you're looking at higher natural str, more base attacks, double wounds for about the same price and at the expense of lower WS and lack of Hammer of Wrath, which considering that unless you have the misfortune of fighting Grey Knights or Daemons, you're going to hit most things on a 4+ anyway. In effect you have a unreasonably durable tarpit unit on a super budget, best used against assault threats to your fire warriors (needless to say, anything with a large quanity of power weapons is to be avoided, but that marine squad? Fuck yeah). Of course, given the fact that you're expending an entire precious elite choice won't sit well with many, but given 6th Ed Detachment rules and the scary viability of running an Ethereal/Fire Warrior combo army rather than a Crisis suit orientated list, this may prove viable. You might be tempted to whack a Shas'vre in there with a Neurochip for Furious Charge and counter attack shenanigans, but at the end of the day, the main value of this squad is exactly how cheap it is. Don't do it. 
**Do not forget, your Crisis suits have 2 base attacks and S5 - charging AV-10 rear tanks with your Crisises could be a good move. 
**Charging shooty squads with poor melee (Centurions are the prime example, but things like Devastators or, say, Fire Dragons are OK too - just make sure their characters have no power fists) is also an option if you have retro thrusters, as it ties them up AND allows your Crisis suits to escape enemy fire and then jump right out melee at the end of his turn and then vaporize the poor fuckers. Make sure to allocate the few wounds you're taking to the drones.
**With taking multiple weapon options now no longer auto-twin linked, taking double flamers for 6 Flamer templates for the attractive price of 96 points a squad is now a very viable option against almost any army in the game (Deathwing and Grey Knights tend to be the exception)- that kind of firepower can dish out more hits than there are models in any given squad it gets within range of, and it ignores cover to boot. Sure best for OrKs and IG, but even marines will take substantial casualties under that many hits. With the new Thrust rules and clever use of terrain, you can easily dance around enemy squads while toasting them. You can even combine this with the Rambo squad if you decide to get Vectored Retrothrusters, although this does increase the price. 
**The Cyclic Ion Blaster gets a special mention. For the low price of 15 points, you can get a weapon that varies between being a souped up missile launcher and a Str 8 blast weapon. Only one per detachment, but even so, if you're looking to get a Crisis Battlesuit Team of the old style, to take names and tears, then this should always be a buy. The AP4 kinda sucks, but you can't have everything. 

*'''[[Battlesuit#XV25_Stealthsuit|Stealth Suits]]:''' Not quite the safe (or arguably decent) choice anymore. These guys can Infiltrate, Outflank or Deepstrike, so you can deploy them in almost any way possible. They still retain Shrouded and Stealth which stack to give them a 4+ cover save in open ground, and have benefited from Burst Cannons going Assault 4. But at T3 and mediocre BS, they will need markerlight support to make the most of their extra shooty. Sure the 1 in 3 Fusion Blaster is good, but with the rise of the Riptide (that can provide TL Fusion and a whole lot more), the viability of Stealth Suits, especially when you have more access to low AP weapons than ever before, has to be questioned. A team won't necessarily cost you the game as they are great for fucking up the shit of Guardsmen, Orks etc. Just be warned against MEQ's and TEQ's.
**If you take them, put a Fusion Blaster on the team leader (because you can) and give him a markerlight complete with target lock - BOOM! [[that guy]] can bust open a vehicle while the rest of the squad dakkas on someone else. Works hilariously well for opening transports and then softening up its contents with a burst cannon volley, followed by a thorough pulse rifling. Put an advanced targeting system on the team leader (which you can do since the target lock from the markerlight doesn't take up the support slot) and you can snipe special weapons on a 5+ when there isn't a vehicle nearby. Remember, stealth suits have built in multi-trackers so your team lead can shoot his markerlight in addition to his primary weapon.
**For added trolling, give your stealth team stimulant injectors and watch your opponent have a bitch of a time trying to dig shrouded, stealthed, FnP MEQs out of cover.
**Do note that they can take a homing beacon, and due to wording of its rules it could be used not only by your Crisis suits but also by Space Marine, Eldar and Corsair ally deep strikers. As you can safely infiltrate stealth suits almost into any cover on the board think about endless trolling potential of perfectly deep striking Lucius drop pod with Ironclad, a squad of Corsair Wraithguards, or even a Warp Hunter (hover tank out of fucking NOWHERE).
**For further lulz, you can simply infiltrate into an open spot of your enemies deployment and just annoy the fuck out of their back line with 16 s5 ap5 shots and 2 fusion blasters with target locks. Your opponent has to deal with this death squad taking some pressure of your main force.
** Note: If you have plenty of anti-tank choices, forgo the fusion blaster and go all burst cannons. Not only does this allow you to use the superior XV-15 miniature (smaller profile, easier to fit in cover), but your enemy will sob tears of blood as their squads are reduced to a fine powder. Also, consider taking Counter-Fire defense systems, and watch as the charging enemy sucks 24 shots at BS 2 instead of 1.  
*'''[[Battlesuit#XV104_Riptide_Battlesuit|XV104 Riptide]]:''' [[Asmodeus|God's]] other gift to Tau. Designed by the Earth Caste, likely to troll the Gey Knights and their stupid bullshit Dreadknights. It will give new Wardian GK players a bit of... <i>ahem</i>, [[Troll|envy]]. Being a Jetpack monstrous creature and it sports a big statline (S/T6, 5 wounds, 2+/5++) to accompany its big guns (either a heavy burst cannon or ion accelerator), plus it can take another twin-linked battlesuit gun. Then there's its Nova Reactor, which can give it a special power per turn of your choosing on a 3+ - unless you fail, then your giant robot takes a wound that cannot be saved (but can be FNP-ed with stim-injectors). Special powers include buffing the invulnerable save to 3++, moving 4d6", firing twice in a turn with its bonus weapons or unlocking its alternate weapon profile: it makes the Heavy Burst Cannon Heavy 12 and rending, but gets hot which is awful with 12 shots or the Ion Accelerator overcharge S9 and ordnance. Ion accelerator with TL fusion guns is the go-to build for instakilling T4 multiwound cheesy units (Paladins, Meganobs, Tyranid warriors and other Tau battlesuits) or go vehicle hunting. Oh, and do not forget it's a monstrous creature, so even with terrible Tau WS and I it still can and would smash tanks in close combat if needed. Keep away from other monstrous creatures, close combat units with Power fists, War-scythes, Power klaws and poisoned weapons in both close and ranged combat. It's the only unit that can use Shielded Missile Drones. Only with T6 to prevent O'Ralai drone syndrome.
** But it must be remembered that the Riptide can and probably will blow its own brains out and that in the views of some may make it less desirable for its points cost, although, there are things you can use to stop it from blowing its brains out (don't use the nova reactor is a good one) like standing it next to a remote sensor tower so any get hot rolls can be rolled away or buying a stimulant injector to help reduce the chance of taking a Gets Hot wound down to two twenty-ninths.  Options which allow you to re-roll to-hit rolls of 1 like the Through Unity, Devastation Warlord Trait or Shadowsun's command-link drone will also help mitigate Gets Hot! related issues. Due to the BS cap being removed from markerlights, boosting the Riptide past BS5 can also prevent the vast majority of Gets Hot! mishaps.
**Give it an ion accelerator and early warning override and watch Deathwing armies weep.
**Although your shiny new suit has the capabilities to make anything carrying an imperial banner piss their pants, the Tau budget apparently couldn't afford decent targeting equipment on this beast. With BS3, that 2D6 scatter roll will not be forgiving to your Blast weapons. Avoid the embarrassment and marker-light this fucker up.
**With it's heavy and long range weaponry, there's an unfortunate tendency for players to treat the Riptide as a large, plodding machine designed to act like a massive Broadside, Riptides are in fact MORE mobile than their smaller Crisis cousins, with the option to Thrust to 4D6. This is important. While you can use your Riptide as a massive firesoak, and that's a good use of it, you can also use your riptide as a sneaky, highly mobile battlesuit of the old kind. Due to it's speed and highly durable nature, using a Nova Charged thrust to contest an objective late in the game puts an incredibly durable monstrous creature ontop of their objective. 
** Don't forget about what bonus weapon you're packing, especially with Ripple Fire (Double shots on the bonus). With smart missiles, this means that you shoot ''8'' twin linked, cover-denying, LOS-ignoring, S5 AP 5 shots, with Plasma Rifles, you get 4 twin linked S6 AP2 (if in Rapid Fire), and With a Fusion you get 2 twin linked melta shots. The first allows for some exceedingly powerful infantry punishment, the second poses a real threat to TEQs, and the Third is practically death for any tank within 9'' 
** Similarly, the Heavy Burst Cannon is often an unexpectedly effective anti-tank weapon. Sure it has Gets Hot Problems, But rending combined with that many shots can lead to interesting side effects. A Rend does a minimum value of 13, up to 15, With 8-12 shots, you can expect 1-2 pens on most things, and it can practically glance-to-death a fully functional vehicle in a single shooting phase.
** As mentioned above (and this might sound stupid) a Riptide is one of the few Tau units that can have a decent run at close combat... Being a Monstrous Creature gives him Fear (which can reduce the WS of enemy units) and Smash (AP2 hits can really ruin your opponents day) and a reasonable number of attacks.  Now before you start charging him into the nearest enemy just remember that if he's in combat he isn't shooting pie plates in people's faces, and that he isn't going to fare that well against a decently equipped assault unit.. But at the same time, don't automatically shit yourself everytime a freak with a jump pack and a chainsword looks at you funny (watch out for melta bombs).  I've found it quite useful to charge Riptides at enemy Tanks, which then tend to violently assplode.
**As awesome Riptides are, they are a bit too powerful for their cost. Taking one is OK, taking two might give you a mean look or two, but if you take three or more, you'r automatically that guy. Consider yourself warned.
** If you want to troll the crap out of your opponent and are playing the Farsight Enclaves list, model your riptide with TL fusion blasters and give him the Fusion Blades. Now you can make the enemy regret ever assaulting you with their precious furioso dreadnought.

===Fast Attack===
*'''Drone Squad:''' Drone Squads have had an overhaul. Your 12 man strong squad can be a combination of Shield, Markerlight or Gun Drones. The choice is yours. A new tactic being to have Markerlight drones with Shield drones protecting. Time will tell if this is  viably tactic as at BS2  this could be a costly way of getting marker lights. An option being mentioned is sticking a commander with Drone Controller to accompany them. 15 BS5 markerlights, jumping behind solid cover after each shot is great, but a bit costly. On a side note, markerlights can benefit from other markerlight hits, therefore a large 12 man unit of marker drones can be buffed to a relatively high ballistic skill via the actions of other markerlights in the army (for example firesight marksmen, pathfinders, Shas'o marker drones etc.)

*'''Vespid Stingwings:''' Once the other bad joke of the codex, Vespids have been buffed <s>rather significantly</s>.  As with the fusion blaster, 6 extra inches on their Neutron blaster will put you at a much more comfortable distance, out of assault distance.  With a new 4+ Sv on top of T4, they've become on par with Space Marine scouts for survivability.  As they now hove move through cover, stealth in ruins, and hit and run at I6, they can jump out, kill MEQs, and escape in the assault, pretty much becoming the nightmare bugs of anything with power armour.  Vespids run around in groups of four to twelve, and one of those MUST be a Strain Leader.  Without him they have only Ld 6, but they have Ld 9 with him.  Overall, a rather expensive unit, but may work for some and in high point games. If your opponent runs mass Marine lists, couple with dual-plasma Crisis and go to town. Also, is NOT effected by bull-shit Plasma Siphon, so feel free to piss off any GK strike squad that thinks they're safe. No effect vs. TEQs, though, so watch out.

*'''Pathfinders:''' One of two good sources for markerlights, and very cost-effective for the number of markerlights you get. These guys put out a large amount of markerlight support every turn, useful for your other guys. Their Recon Drone (if you take it) allows deep strikers within 6" to not roll for scatter. They are also scouts, quite useful to outflank or get into position. Beware though, their armor save is only 5+ (which makes sense since they always had lighter armor and are made for recon rather than gun lines) which means that they are particularly vulnerable to things like bolters. Camp these guys in cover somewhere safe. They can optionally take Devilfish, but those are no longer compulsory to take with them like they were in earlier editions. They can take rail rifles and new ion rifles, but only ever do this if you have an additional markerlight source. A unit of pathfinders can't go wrong. They have several options:
** '''Special Drones:''' These drones can only be taken by Pathfinder squads, only one of each can be taken, and they do not count against the two drone limit for accompanying drones (each is purchased as its own upgrade independent of other things.)
*** '''Recon Drone:''' Expensive, but it gives the unit a burst cannon, which is always nice, and is what allows the unit to have its homing beacon and position relay functions, so worth taking if you have deep-striking reserves. As a bonus, it does not take up any extra space when being transported by a Devilfish, and can employ its reserve-guiding equipment while embarked.  
*** '''Grav-inhibitor Drone:''' Slows down any charging foe, reducing assault moves by D3. Great for giving the unit a little more time to get the hell out of dodge if your enemy really wants to commit to eliminating them (and let's face it, if they do you have successfully trolled them into doing so from markerlight-related [[rage]].)
*** '''Pulse Accelerator Drone:''' This boosts all pulse weapon fire from the unit to extend its range by 6". This effectively means that those pulse carbines your Pathfinders are carrying go from 18" Assault 2 weapons to 24" Assault 2 weapons, potentially out [[dakka]]ing line Fire Warriors. Unfortunately, burst cannons are not classified as pulse weapons any longer, so the range on the Recon Drone is not increased. While your Pathfinders should be more about dropping marker tokens than shooting up the enemy, you can really make the enemy pay for trying to take them down with this.
** '''Team Leader:''' For another 10 points you can upgrade one member to a Shas'ui. The primary benefit of this is to add a few more equipment options, such as a blacksun filter for one more point that the whole unit can use (which is not as essential as it used to be as Markerlights only have a range of 36" and ignore all saves and hence do not push up against the Night Fighting limits.) He can also bring along two extra drones from the standard drone list, and this is in addition to the special drones Pathfinders can take. Be aware that filling up the entire squad with pathfinders, special drones, and two regular drones will put them above capacity for riding in a Devilfish.  

*'''[[Piranha]]:''' Burst cannons basic, can be upgraded with fusion blasters. Low armor means they are fragile, but as fast vehicles they can block paths and provide anti-infantry / anti-armor harassment. These guys are also pretty cheap for what they do. For their price they have 8 S5 AP5 range 18" shots per model. Half is BS3 and half BS2 TL.
**'''Alt Take'''  A fun thing to note is that the majority of the cost of a Piranha can be made up in the Drones. For 200 points you can get Five Piranhas in a squadron and detach a squad of 10 gun drones.  This gives you a 140 point Gun Drone Squad(That don't take up a Fast Attack Slot, or count for kill points) and a 60 point squad of 5 11AV Front skimmers with Burst Cannons.  Also you can attach a Drone Controller Commander to gun drones to maximize the point return.

*'''Razorshark Fighter:''' One of two new aircraft for Tau, sporting average aircraft stats (11/10/10 3HP) a quad ion gun. Normally, it shoots at S7 AP4 at 30" and is assault 4, but because it's an ion weapon, it can be overcharged (for the price of Gets Hot) turning it into an S8 AP4 Large Blast! Even funnier, the gun is mounted on a turret to the rear, meaning that any deep-striking aircraft that thought they could get the jump on it will be thoroughly surprised, - upgrade the burst cannon to a missile pod for even more 360 degree fire arc fun.

*'''Sunshark Bomber:''' The other new aircraft with similar stats to the above, but trades the quad cannon for blowing pulse bubbles (S5 AP5 Large Blast) onto unsuspecting targets below every turn unless you roll a 1, in which case your bomber can no longer produce bombs. It also comes with the networked markerlight for lasing targets and a pair of interceptor drones to fuck up enemy aircraft.
**Comparing the Sunshark to the Razorshark, the Interceptor drones are arguably better than the quad-ion due to being able to detach if necessary, and also if you go ahead and compare the quad-ion and the interceptors as equals (which they are, interceptors might win out due to TL) then the Sunshark is effectively a more tooled up Razorshark for a slightly higher price cost, coming equipped with a pulse bomber unit instead of a burst cannon and a Missile Pod that has the option to twin-link (5 extra points) for only 15 points more. Definitely worth considering.

*'''Piranha TX-42 (Forge World):''' Heavier, with an extra point of side armor, but with a higher cost. These start with twin-linked fusion blasters which lets them put some serious hurt on tanks, but can be upgraded with missiles pods, plasma, or rail rifles. These guys can go hunting for different enemies dependent on loadout, though a crisis team may be better in regards of JSJ. 6th edition changes to fusion blasters and rail rifles buffed TX-42 A LOT. New updates show no points bumped, but an extra point of side armor and a twinlinked gun for 20 points on a similarly equipped Piranha. Only take these for the plasma or rail rifles if you really want them.

*'''[[Tetra]]s (Forge World):''' Where Pathfinders are the cudgel of markerlights, these guys were once the scalpel. They zip in as fast vehicles, drop an accurate markerlight, and zoom away. Low armor and open-top means that every shot could be their last. Keep them safe, and they will benefit you immensely. With the new update, their markerlights are heavy 2 twinlinked For a measly twelve point difference, you can run three of these beauties and do a way better job than a devilfish/pathfinder combo.When deciding tetras vs pathfinders consider your need to reposition and your desire to bring in extra pathfinder goodies such as drones and heavy weapons. Sadly the disruption pod is no longer free for the tetras (but their points cost has been decreased to make up for it), and their guns have lost 2 shots, but are now twinlinked. In a way, their roles have switched. Instead of rushing forward and dropping markerlights everywhere, try keeping them in buildings with sensor spines and Overwatch upgrade to really help out counter-charges.

*'''[[Barracuda]] (Forge World):''' A pants-wettingly terrifying air superiority fighter that packs raw, balls-out, firepower in a maneuverable package. Armed with two Burst Cannons, an Ion Cannon, which can overcharge into essentially a battlecannon, Missile Pods and can take up to four Seeker Missiles, this thing is capable of taking down pretty much any flyer, and what's more? It's got BS4. Sadly, it has a maximum armour value of 11 and a measly 2 hull points. Still, a great way to drop some nasty, high-strength dakka on ground and air targets. Thanks to the update in the second edition of IA:3, the Barracuda is now the best flier available to the Tau in standard 40k. Yes, you only have 2 hull points, but front and side armor 11 is a nice survivability buff. It can take a 4++ against interceptor fire for 3 points, and has a 3+ jink if you really need it (and buy a disruption pod). It has absurd firepower that dwarfs the other Tau fliers (and indeed, most other races' fliers too) while remaining cheaper. Don't forget that your burst canons are now auto-targetting, which means that you can tell jet bikes, lightly armored skimmers, and other evading fliers to suck it.

*'''[[Remora|DX-6 Remora Drone Fighters]] (Forge World):''' Since 6th edition, this souped-up, more accurate, flying Heavy Gun Drone make a squad of Remoras obviate the purpose of a Skyray, a squad of Pathfinders and maybe even a Tetra team! They have a huge advantage over the Barracuda in that they can be taken as a squad of 1-5;  come with twin-linked long-barrelled Burst Cannons, a networked Markerlight and two Seeker Missiles; and to top it off, they have a permanent 5+ cover save with 3+ on evade as its stealth field generator give it shrouded. Want to troll your enemy? 6's to hit and a 3+ cover save just to hit a light AV10 flyer that can take on bigger flyers should cause a lot of rage. Meanwhile, you can drop his flyers out of the sky with a punishing battery of seeker missiles and when he's out of flyers, start markerlighting ground targets to help out your broadsides! Plus with the latest Imperial Armour release of Taros Campaign Second Edition, these babies are now a mere 90 points each! Drop a squad of five for 450 and laugh your ass off as your opponents reag. With the update for long-barreled Burst Cannons also factored in (from 3 shots at 36" to 6 shots at 36"), they are actually quite mean. 

*'''[[Battlesuit#XV9_Hazard_Battlesuit|XV-9 Hazard Team]] (Forge World):''' God's Second Gift To Tau. These bruisers contain experimental weaponry on a high toughness frame with vectored retro-thrusters to run away. The downside is that greatness is expensive, and you will feel it. But they look really, really fucking awesome and they make vehicle light armies (dark eldar, tyranids, orks, and chaos daemons) weep. Their weapons include:
**'''Burst Cannons:''' Four on one suit means two twin-linked sets. Now that burst cannons have an extra shot, these guys now have the equivalent of miniguns. Two of them in a team will seriously mess up any ground unit out there, from Marines to Tyranids. Being the only twin-linked set of weapons on the suit also gives the suit the unique ability for the team to also run completely or near-completely independent of Markerlights, something that will be greatly appreciated by the other guys who would love to use them. Plus, Burst Cannons are fragging bad-ass. Learn to love them.
**'''Phased Ion Gun:''' The phaser is Baby's First Assault Cannon but without the gatling barrel arrangement, with lower strength but decent AP and rending. Previously it was near to only way to get Rending in Tau army, but with new codex you get Riptide and shitton of sniper rifles.
**'''Fusion Cascade:''' The Fusion Cascade is the go-to weapon for heavy infantry hunting. A melta weapon with lower strength but multiple shots, these can decimate spess mehreens and light vehicles alike. And best of all, it's not plasma, so you can tell [[Matt Ward]] and his plasma siphon to stuff it, which is great because it's one of your best ways to eliminate a threat that would otherwise render three quarters of your weaponry unable to shoot for shit. Generally your best bet as it's effective against everything (though you need a bit of luck to penetrate high AVs even with melta rules.)
**'''Pulse Submunition Rifle:''' The shotgun is an excellent anti-horde weapon that ignores cover, with good strength but crap AP. A unit of 3 XV-9s equipped with 2 submunition rifles each can drop 6 pie-plates on the table every turn (and from 24" away), which will absolutely devastate Ork and Tyranid blobs. However, this setup is very expensive at 20 points per rifle, and is not very reliable against MEQs (though you can still force them to throw tons of saves). With the sheer amount of templates available to the Tau army, these are kind of redundant. However, they are more cost-efficient than twin-linked burst cannons if you can average more than 4 models under each template. The only exception is GEQs outside of cover (but seriously, when does that happen?), which require 7 models under each blast template.

Consider what an Iridium Commander with a command and control node, a multi-spectrum sensor suit or both can do for a team of three XV9's.

(The section below was not proof-read and thus some of the information presented mayu be incorrect)
It should be noted that the changes to crisis suits (ability to take more than one of the same weapon without twin-linking) the Hazard is now cost ineffective. Why use 2 twin-linked Burst Cannons, when you could have <s>3 Burst Cannons on a crisis suit giving the same number of hits and getting more benefit from markerlights?</s> why would you do that, you can only fire two. The price of a basic Hazard suit (2 twin-linked Burst Cannons) is 80 points with blacksun filter, price of a crisis suit with 3 burst cannons is 52 points. The Phased Ion Guns still have a place (Hazard suit with a pair of them + blacksun is 100 points) but a crisis suit can take 3 missile pods for <s>6</s> lolnope, only 4 S7 ap4 shots at 36” for 67 points. The Fusion Cascade delivers an average of 4 S6 ap1 with the melta rule shots at 12” (110 points with blacksun filter) while a Crisis suit with 3 Plasma Rifles can give <s>3</s>(getting a little ridiculous here, read the codex) 2 S6 ap2 shots at 24” or <s>6</s> S6 ap2 shots at 12” for 67 points (and if you need anti-tank can swap some of the Plasma Rifles for Fusion Blasters with 18” and S8 without increasing point cost). However, multitracker limits you to firing two weapons systems at a time, so you could have budget XV8's with a twinlinked weapon and a second weapon, counting as two weapons systems (ie, twin linked BC and one BC is even cheaper than three BC's, but isn't as great as two twin linked). Also, remember that you're also paying points and money for super crisis suits (T5 saves you a lot from plasma cannon insta-death).  Only the Pulse Submunitions Rifle has no cheaper Crisis Suit equivalent.

Except, the XV8 cannot have twin-linked BC's and VRT's, and even if they could would be 15 points cheaper than XV9's who are T5 and WS3 and have a higher Ld. for that pay bump. Couple them with a DC and six Gun Drones for 36 BS3 S5 AP5 shots and let the tears flow.

*'''Mounted Great Knarloc Herd (Forge World):''' If you have a fast attack slot open and need a massive distraction, take 3 of these. These are your new distraction carnifex. For 85 points each, you have a WS4, S6, T5, W5, monstrous creature with Stealth (forests) and fleet, but have the downsides of being only I3, Ld7, and a paltry orkish save of 6+. Don't give them guns, they're not there to shoot, they're there to smash stuff.

*'''Goaded Great Knarlocc (Forge World):''' A singular version of the Knarlock Herd that has a chance of going crazy and killing its own units. Just skip it, and go for the Herd.

*'''Knarloc Riders (Forge World):''' I want to like these guys, I really do, because come on, they're [[Awesome|freaking birdmen riding god-''fucking''-damned dinosaurs!]] These guys beat Canoptek wraiths, when they charge.  They're also able to move 12, re-roll charge distance and then get hammer of wrath, something jump troops cannot do, and are 2 wounds now with T4. They're basically here for a distraction. Problem with Knarlok riders is not that they are bad, but almost any other FA choice is flat-out better. Anything that kills orks (read: everything) will kill these faster, if only because there is less of them, somehow.

===Heavy Support===

*'''[[Hammerhead Gunship]]:''' God's Third Gift To Tau. The railgun is your best friend, and this one retains its 72" S10 AP1 goodness (arguably the only one now that nothing else in the book mounts the classic Railgun). It's mounted on a durable chassis (only a few standard skimmers with better armour) and comes with a higher BS than your average Tau. Plus with disruption pods you get 4+/3+ cover (unless you're stupid enough to park it in the open) making the Hammerhead much more durable to dedicated anti-tank equipment. Take one. Hell, take two. With its ability to make vehicles its bitch with its bullet-mode, and its ability to mincemeat infantry with its large blast shotgun-mode, a hammerhead will NEVER disappoint...provided you take the railgun option. Its options are as follows:
**'''Railgun:''' Yes. Standard mode is a S10 AP1 (it will knock out vehicles on a 4+ if it penetrates, opened-topped go out on a 3+), and can be upgraded with a S6 AP4 blast template just for 5 pts. Powerful, versatile, and rightly referred to by a variety of profane monikers by non-Tau players, it is the most popular Hammerhead primary weapon choice with good reason.  
**'''Ion Cannon:''' An autocannon with another shot and better AP. It's no railgun, but it does have some new tricks up its sleeve to make it worth it especially against [[MEQ]]s. Specifically, it's an ion weapon, which means it can be overcharged to a S8 AP3 Large Blast that gets hot; this effectively turns it into a discount Leman Russ, though Markerlight support lets it strip cover from targets.
***'''La'Sha'ng (Gunner Longstrike):''' Joining the burgeoning crowd of tank aces started by Antarro Chronus and Knight Commander Pask, and then trolling them silly because he's actually worth it! Shas'la T'au Sha'ng is a nifty upgrade for a Hammerhead gunship, blessing it with BS5, preferred enemy IG, Tank Hunter, a blacksun filter and the ability to overwatch. He can also overwatch multiple times per phase against different eligible charging enemies. Considering that he also has the Supporting Fire special rule like infantry and most battlesuits, that can actually be a whole lot of potential targets, each of which he can Overwatch on behalf of as often as the enemy attacks them. Consider flanking his Hammerhead with infantry to better take advantage of this, offering the protection of his tank fire to them while they keep the melta-bomb bearing enemy troops off of him. Just remember that you cannot Snap Fire anything which has a blast template, so sadly no sub-munitions Overwatching for him. Stick to his secondary weapons for most Overwatch targets, or use the solid railgun shot against a charging monstrous creature (if it even lives long enough to get that close.) Also, consider using him with an ion cannon. He only needs one markerlight to avoid overheating when he overcharges, provides best output for overwatching with 3 S7 AP3 shots along with secondary weapons, and can still wreck the hell out of light armor. Oh, and did we mention he headshotted a titan?
**'''Forgeworld''' brings several new weapons options to the Hammerhead Gunship:
**** Please note that as the following are bought as a set of two, how one would fire the system is a matter of debate. Some would find it completely acceptable to count the two weapons as a single weapon system, thus being able to fire both as one weapon system after moving at combat speed, while others may punch the rules and declare they are two unrelated weapons and thus cannot be fired together. The latter will probably be common where your forces are curb-stomping the opponent into submission and they need every out they can get, but as a general house rule it should be completely acceptable to count the two systems as a single system that just fires twice at the same unit.
***'''2 Long-Barrelled Burst Cannons:''' Since the update hit, it's now become a full-blown flak cannon with 12 shots, but weaker strength, shorter range, and the possibility to clip flyers. Post codex, you have Broadsides to do this job now. However, this weapon beats rail sub and ion cannon when it comes to facing down hordes of light infantry; guardsmen, guardians, Kablite warriors and ork boys get wounded on 2s and 3s with no armour saves. With the right support, 10-12 models can die in a single shooting phase. Throw in Longstrike for even more fun! Also consider the Point defence targeting relay. Anyone wishing to charge a unit with this monster nearby will have to suffer 16 shots of overwatch from just this tank. Markerlight the target beforehand too and say goodbye to the unit in question.
***'''2 TL Missile Pods:''' Cheaper on Crisis Suits, but will come with a velocity tracker - basically turns your Hammerhead into very expensive and slightly more accurate Hydra flakk tank / Missileside. Just take a Missileside squad instead.
***'''2 Fusion Cannons:''' This option had a bad rap for a while. However, the proliferation of TEQs briefly gave this gun its time in the sun (a twin-linked blast S8 AP1 melta does have its place, especially when facing down lots of deep-striking TEQs, vehicles, etc.). Unfortunately, now you have the Riptide to deal with that kinda shit, so the Fusion Cannon is back to being dubious once again. Also, thanks to the fact that if you move your tank, you can only fire 1 blast weapon, so don't take this. At all.
***'''2 Plasma Cannons:''' A go-to gun for facing down TEQs/MEQs/Mounstrous Creatures and flyers. Now that the new codex is out, you have other options for anti-MEQ and anti-aircraft. Ion Cannon is better against the former and Broadsides are better against the latter. Might still have some use against MCs, although... it does pump out 4 S7 AP2 at 48".

*'''XV107 R'varna:''' Forgeworld's most beautiful creation to date. A riptide which exchanges its Jet Pack status for a better statline (+1T +1W) and inbuilt fletchette discharger (so it cannot be tarpitted).  It also comes equipped with two Pulse Submunitions Cannon. ''Worth noting that these weapons are UNAFFECTED by the Ethereal ability Storm of Fire (so not stupidly broken) and do NOT have Rapid Fire.''  These guns are S6 AP4 Large Blast, with a Cluster Fire special rule.  Cluster Fire lets the weapons get a higher strength and inflict more hits when you fire at larger models.  This means it can potentially put out 6 (or 12 if you nova-charge) <s>Krak missile</s> OC'd Ion rifle equivalent hits against an enemy MC per turn.  You'll no longer have to worry about fighting MCs and Artillery because of this beautiful son of a bitch (actually, not as effective as it was due to the update, AP4 renders it about as useful as two hammerheads with Pulse submunitions, albeit hitting more on the blasts... but still only AP4. Gotta love party fouls). Also has a different Nova Reactor with an ability to increase invuln save to 3++, detonate a haywire "bomb", fire the cannons twice(at the cost of not firing next turn!) or give the unit Fleet and a 2D6 run. Can equip with a Positional Relay and Stimulant Injector (which CANNOT be used in a failed Nova Charge), and <s>include two Shielded Missile Drones as Standard</s> Not sure what rules you're looking at, still have to purchase them. Being a FW model, they charge you more than is even remotely reasonable for it i.e. 'only' £70. NOTE:  Can't be included in a Farsight Enclaves army, so you'll have to run it in a Tau Empire ally list if you're that way inclined. SECONDARY NOTE: Forgeworld has not released any sort of official document or FAQ stating that it cannot be used in the Farsight Enclaves army. Until they do, enjoy your battlesuit extravaganza. I DON'T KNOW WHAT WE'RE NOTING ABOUT: Considering the old rules are still available online, and until they are published in a copy of IA none are official, you could still potentially be a douche and run the old rules for this brute. If you really want to be that guy, though, never over-charge it. Ever. You prick. ONE MORE NOTE: It's not any kind of specific rule or FAQ that prevents the R'Varna from being in a Farsight army, it's the way the current rules mesh together. Farsight Enclave and the Imperial Armory are both Codex supplements to the Tau Empire Codex. As it current stands, and as it is explicitly stated in the actual Farsight Enclave supplement, only one supplement can be applied at a time to a Codex. This means that you can apply either Farsight Enclave OR Forgeworld's Imperial Armory supplements but not both at the same time. Thus, the R'Varna is not available to Farsight Enclave because you would need to have both Farsight Enclave and Imperial Armory at the same time and this is not allowed. On a technical note, however, the R'Varna is not currently a part of the Imperial Armory and only has an experimental dataslate on Forgeworld's website. Technically, this means the R'Varna is a solo entity and not currently a part of the supplement which may give some wiggle room to argue for it's inclusion into a FE army. You could argue it, but come now. How much of a rule snob do you want to be?

*'''[[Battlesuit#XV88_Broadside_Battlesuit|Broadside Battlesuits]]:''' God's Fourth Gift To Tau.  Broadsides got taken down a peg in the new codex, with their railgun variant hitting at a decent S8 (still AP1, though) and only at 60".(Making them totally ineffective in their previous role of an AV14 killer) In addition to their old options, they get new options like the ability to skyfire or replace their downgraded railguns with a fucking ton of missiles (including a seeker missile). If you have target locks on the broadsides, you can fire at different targets, possibly giving two different vehicles a serious glance-to-death headache, and turn those scary monstrous creatures into pink (or green) mist. Along with the change in rules, broadsides have a new plastic kit that has them holding their twin-linked heavy railrifle like a rifle, as well as bits for their new twin-linked high-yield missile system (the one that replaces their twin-linked heavy railrifle). Arguably, Broadsides needed this nerfing in order to open up board for the other options in Heavy Support. The main thing to consider when choosing missiles or rail rifles is range. 60" is still pretty much table wide while the missiles are only 36". Missilesides will need to either be deployed farther forward or wait in the rear, but which ever you choose remember that Broadsides are infantry and will only snap-fire if they move.
**'''Look to the skies!''' These guys are also excellent AA units and are great as an ally unit for armies that lack reliable AA. Misslesides with VT run through AV11 flyer's (with 1 broadside averaging 2 glancing hits per shooting phase) and they don't do too badly against the AV12's either taking 1 hull point per shooting phase per broadside.  Although, if you take the command variant from the Farsight Enclaves and attach him to a darkstrider unit, you suddenly have a nice amount of twinlinked insta-death at your disposal.

*'''Drone Sniper Team:''' This entry has seriously been retooled in the latest Codex. They no longer have rail rifles, just beefed up pulse rifles, but these new Longshot Pulse Rifles get Sniper (which includes precision shots and rending on to wound/penetrate of 6) and a 48" range now. Also, their new gun is a pulse weapon so it's effected by Storm of Fire. If the spotter dies, the drones get reduced from BS 5 to BS 2, though in 6th edition you can hide him behind a drone line AND you can now take three spotters per squad! They used to take up a Heavy Support choice that was usually better filled with something else but now they can lay down a devastating salvo of accurate, potentially rending dakka with wounds that you may choose how to allocate. Though, despite being pulse weapon longshots still count as S3 against vehicles like any sniper rifle, so do not expect to threaten tanks with them. Note that the Firesight spotter is BS5 and comes with a markerlight. While they max out at three spotters per team, those three markerlights are nothing to sneer at, as each one of them is almost guaranteed several tokens per shooting phase. Keep in mind that while the spotter is standard infantry, the drones are called out specifically as jet pack infantry, which means that they can use the jump-shoot-jump trick to pop in and out of cover, so long as they end their move in unit cohesion with the spotter they should be fine. If your opponent protests, show them the unit description in the Codex saying that they do just that. That said, they will still be going at the speed of the spotter, so consider using a spare Devilfish to get them where they need to be. Even a max sized sniper team with three spotters and nine drones can still fit inside a Devilfish. A neat little trick is to set a single spotter up on a ledge where he'd probably get insta-gibbed by the opponent and let your XV8-05 commander take over the drones when the spotter bites it, thereby giving your longshots the ability to JSJ while keeping BS5.
**''Another tactic:'' These guys weapons are pulse, meaning they are affected by the Etheral's Storm of fire ability, witha  range of 48", this could mean three shots per drone at 24". 9 drones, 2 spotters and an Etheral clock in at just over 200pts and they have a nasty bit of fire power backing them.
**''A third (and not noticed) tactic:''  Five sniper drones with just a single controller.  Let the controller act as bait with a drone-controller/advanced targeting system equipped Commander waiting right behind it and wait for the controller to get horribly slaughtered.  Now you have five sniper drones just floating around waiting to attach to oh say..  a commander who is sitting RIGHT THERE.  Now you have a fast-moving sniper unit that can be just an absolute fucking nightmare to enemy IC's.  You're welcome.

*'''[[Skyray Missile Gunship]]:''' At first glance it looks like a Hammerhead with it's gun replaced with six seeker missiles. "Meh", you say, "I can bring my missiles on any vehicle". Point is that those six missiles doesn't matter. Sure, they are useful, but as i said, you can get them without the Skyray. The things that matters are two tiny gismos on it's hull - a set of two markerlights and velocity tracker. Think of it like 67pts upgrade that could give any of your units skyfire on BS2 or hopefully BS3, that also have 6 seeker missiles attached to it. The moment you've landed at least one markerlight token on the enemy flyer/FMC in range of your pathfinders or marker drones it's pretty much dead - spotter units would turn those 1-2 markers into 4-7 and then you just finish the poor fucker with whatever seems more apropriate - from railgun slug to the face, to fusion guns on your battlesuits or pirahnas, to just the hail of pulse shots in case it's AV10 flyer. Against one of the AV10/11 flyers you can just boost Skyray's own BS with his markerlights (they're networket BTW), and then swipe it with as many missiles as you feel apropriate - even if you spend all six you still gonna blow enemy unit out of the sky almost guaranteed. And since most flyers cost 100+ pts. your Skyray just payed for himself, and still can keep doing his air spotter duty. Hell, you can even land a few glances or force an FMC to crush with your SMSs. Unfortunatelly, Skyray have to compete with almighty Broadsides, Hammerheads and Rvarnas, which are much more point-efficient, but if you have free HS slot and points taking one hardly would hurt your army.

*'''Heavy Gun Drones (Forge World):''' They're Gun Drone Squads, if slightly more accurate - yet somehow made worse courtesy of them devouring a Heavy Support choice. You don't want to waste one of these all-too-valuable slots on twin-linked fucking burst cannons when your army has dozens of ways to get these onto the table. Their airmobility and markerlight options are still not worth it. Avoid.
**Although you could attach a commander with drone controller to a six drone squad with marker lights and a burst cannon. 6 marker lights at BS5 and 24 strength 5 burst cannon hits at BS5. Sadly, you can't do both in the same turn.
**''Also this limits you're ability to split your marker light hits between various units. If you decide to take these guys at all go for the TL Burst cannon and make them a bubble wrap unit or a nuisance.''

===Super Heavy===
*'''[[Manta]]:''' The bastard child of a Thunderhawk and a [[Titan_(Warhammer_40,000)|Titan]], this small spaceship is just as capable an attack craft as it is a heavy transport. This thing carries an absolutely goofy number of guns and can spew out [[Dakka|a retarded amount of dice.]]  Sixteen Long-barrelled Burst Cannons (who now fire 6 shots, meaning this thing fires ''96'' S5 AP5 36" shots), three Long-barrelled Ion Cannons, two Heavy Railgun (destroyer weapon and AP1 like a standard railgun in slug-mode, so it auto-penetrates/wounds and destroys vehicles 2+, not to mention the submunition mode that throws out large blasts with the strength and AP values of an Ion Cannon, ''and'' deviate less than usual by virtue of being drone-controlled), a Missile Pod, a Seeker Missile Battery (10 missiles), and a Networked Markerlight turret ensure that anything it's shooting at will not live to see the next turn. And there's the little benefit that for a [[Titan]] equivalent, it's damned fast. Oh, and it can carry a metric fuckton of Tau; 48 Fire Warriors, 8 battlesuits, 2 Devilfish (and any models in them DON'T count towards total models in the Manta's cargo), 2 Hammerheads, 6 Gun Drones, and 1 Ethereal. Just one of these can damned near carry an entire normal 40k game's worth of Tau ground units!  Unfortunately, for the price of the Manta model, you could just as easily buy a decent used car. (PROTIP: Buy a Smart Car, paint it ochre, and use it as both a vehicle and a [[proxy]]. Or proxy it with your converted army case.) If you can afford one and don't know how to use it, try asking either your butler or the two burly Armenians who just came over to break both your legs. One other drawback: unlike other flying vehicles in Apocalypse, ground attackers without AA or pintle mounts use their normal BS rather than needing a 6 to hit because of how fuck-huge it is (blasts and templates still can't fire at Manta, <s>unless AA,</s> (flyers are immune to blasts and templates) and needless to say, all titan-weapons are blasts). Though it does have a 4+ invul save due to its energy shield, remember an enemy <s>doesn't</s> still needs to deplete its structure points to destroy it like a ground-based super-heavy vehicle. <s>If its immobilized for any reason, it's automatically destroyed, like any other super-heavy flyer.</s> NOT TRUE, super heavy fliers lose a structure point per immobilized result (now they just get "locked velocity". In the most recent update the manta has BS4, 13/12/11 armor, 30HP, a transport capacity of '''200''' (up to 4 vehicles counting as 30 each, and bulky, very bulky, and extremely bulky as normal) and the ability to spew out more dakka at 2,000 points than most armies. 

*'''[[Tiger Shark]]:''' This thing can shit out fourteen gun drones and carries an impressive armament of a twin-linked Ion Cannon, TL Missile Pod, and two Burst Cannons, making it the death of anything without a 2+ armour save/a lucky invulnerable save/Land Raider-equivalent armour (especially since flyers always hit the side armour of ground vehicles!).  
**'''AX-1-0:''' A version of the Tiger Shark meant to really bring the hate to super-heavy vehicles, swapping out drone racks and ion cannons for twin-linked Heavy Railguns. Put on a trollface as your opponent realizes just how terrifying Railguns are on a flyer platform (answer? Very, especially since the ones on this Tiger Shark variant are just as capable as those on a Manta). 
*** As a [[fluff]] note, the AX-1-0 was originally made as a counter to Imperial Titans. Titans take decades and lots of resources to build, while the AX-1-0 uses existing parts from the Tiger Shark with weapons normally installed on Mantas, thereby minimizing fabrication time and material cost, giving the Tau an extremely cost-effective anti-titan punch.  You know that the Earth Caste engineering team that came up with it said, "Problem, Magos?" Few things are more satisfying than watching [http://1d4chan.org/wiki/File:Techrage.jpg the look on your enemy's face] when you blow up his Reaver Titan or Heirophant with a fraction of its cost in AX-1-0s, that go on to tear his other super-heavies a new one.   
**'''AX-2-2:''' A rather weird unit that carries two Remora Stealth Drone fighters that have two long barrelled burst cannons and seeker missiles. 

*'''[[Orca|Orca Dropship]]:''' If you have the money and points to afford a Manta (lucky you!), don't bother with this one. While still a super-heavy flyer, its transport capacity is only a quarter of the Manta's (it can't even carry vehicles), and it is only lightly armed with Seeker Missiles, a Missile Pod and a twin-linked Burst Cannon turret. Needless to say, the Orca dropship doesn't do any justice to its namesake (which is an apex marine predator in real life). It did get +1 front and side armour, +1 BS, a built in disruption pod and blacksun filter, an the ability that allows 4 units to disembark at the same time, a significant price drop from 400 points to '''300 points''', and long-barreled burst cannon's new buff to 6 shots greatly helps. Also in big apoc floor matches a very mobile flying cheap transport with a transport captivity of 57 is nothing to sneezed at. Also if you want to be an asshole, remember that you can transport up to 11 broadsides or (more usually) three teams of 3 with drones.
On a side note, this dropship first appeared in the ''Fire Warrior'' 40k FPS and Tau vehicle units in Dark Crusade and Soulstorm arrive at vehicle production buildings via Orca.

===Fortifications===

Sadly, the 6th Edition Tau codex does not include any fortifications unique to them, like the Forgeworld Tau Sensor Towers. You will have to make do with the Imperial stuff:  

* '''Aegis Defense Line:'''  Can be useful or useless, depending on how you plan to use it. The anti-air emplacements are much less useful to you than most other armies, since you have so much AA already, though it's your only viable anti-air interceptor. That being said, it's still a nice piece of cover for your Fire Warrior gunline and dispoded tanks to cower behind and because you control where it goes it is cover your fire warriors will always have. If you're running a highly-mobile, you'll find it to be actively useless. If you're going to commander-bomb the enemy, for 20 points more, the comms relay will allow you to reroll reserve results, which might save your entire game. One fun trick is to have a Firewarrior Team with a Cadre Fireblade.  With his Split Fire, he can control the AA gun while the parked Firewarriors get a ridiculous number of shots.  

* '''Vengeance Weapon Battery:''' If you don't like taking a risk that might end up blowing your tank up with poor rolling, or you just like a sturdy Battle Cannon mounted on a reliable AV14 building chassis, then the Vengeance weapon battery is your go-to fortifications. It's cheap, it's hardy, and it can take either a Punisher Gatling Cannon (20 shots FTW) or it can be armed with a fearsome battle cannon for +10 points, adding another large blast ap3 weapon on your side that doesn't suffer much from the disappointing bs2 the Weapon battery is cursed with due to being a blast weapon. All in all, if you need a little extra kick, the VWB is hard to disappoint.

* '''Skyshield Landing Pad:''' Very big and you can probably fit your entire army on top of it. The 4++ it gives units on top (when the sides are up) means you can put your fire warriors and broadsides up there and not have to worry about things that ignore cover *cough*deathstrike missiles*cough*. When the sides are down, you can deep strike units onto it without them scattering - sort of useless given that if you are deep striking you are probably trying to insert a commander bomb behind an enemy tank, In which case you would have Farsight.

* '''Imperial Bastion:''' It's big. It has 4 heavy bolters but you cannot really fit much at the top, and even less so when you add a gun emplacement. A decent crows nest for a sniper drone team or rail/ion rifle pathfinder team, but past that, it's an expensive piece of cover.

* '''Fortress of Redemption:''' Expensive, expensive, expensive. But like the rest of your army, the range of the weapons is crazy high. (96" missiles). You can also give it a gun with both skyfire and interceptor, but your Broadsides and Riptides should be taking care of that. The building only has one entrance, so be careful about getting it blown apart. On the other hand, it'll give some trouble to your enemies trying to pull you into an assault. You're also going to need about 300 points freed up just bring in a fully kitted out FoR. Imagine the Battle for Helm's Deep, and you're not too far off.

*'''Remote Sensor Towers (Forge World):''' After being noticed for the bad-ass auto-take it was, Forgeworld majorly nurfed it. It's now 'Battlefield Debris' with BS2, T6, W2, and a 4+ save, it has a twin-linked markerlight, and allows '(...)a singe friendly unit selected from Codex: Tau Empire that is within 2" of any sensor tower in the unit may re-roll all failed To Hit rolls of a 1 and gain the Night Vision special rule...' Sadly, it's no longer an auto-take, but may get some use to help with a Riptide to stop it from killing itself.