Editing Warhammer 40,000/5th Edition Tactics/Tau (section)

===Heavy Support===

*'''Hammerhead:''' God's Third Gift To Tau. The railgun is your best friend. It is mounted on a durable chassis with great BS. With disruption pods, you get a 4+ cover save, making the Hammerhead even harder to kill. It is also highly advised to take a multitracker, allowing you to move and still fire the main weapon. 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 still destroy them even if it glances), and has anti-infantry with a S6 AP4 blast template
**'''Ion Cannon:''' An autocannon with another shot and better AP. It's still no railgun, but might ''juuuuuuuuuuust'' barely be worth it in a low-point match against [[MEQ]]s, assuming you have other sources of railguns.  Scares the piss out of monstrous creatures.
**'''Long-Barreled Burst Cannons (Forgeworld Only):''' ...<s>why would you do that?</s> Since the update hit, it's now become "Baby's first flak cannon" with more shots, but weaker strength, shorter range and no AA fun.
**'''Missile Pods (Forgeworld Only):''' Cheaper on Crisis Suits, but now have blast goodness (holy shit, about time).
**'''Fusion Cannon (Forgeworld Only): ''' <s>Multi-Melta, Railgun is better. The only redeeming quality of this option is that it is cheap, and it is small blast. Of all the forgeworld options, this one is the best.</s> Still does multi melta in the update, but down to a single shot. Unless you're desperate and have points to waste, don't bother.
**'''Plasma Cannon (Forgeworld Only):''' <s>Not worth it. Your crisis suits should be doing this.</s> Now can do twinlinked quad shots. Can turn those monstrous creatures to goo if they get too close. And it's as cheap as an ion cannon.

*'''Broadside Battlesuits:''' God's Fourth Gift to Tau. I like Railguns. You like Railguns. We all like Railguns. These guys deliver. Point at vehicle, remove vehicle. One can take up to three Broadsides in a unit for a whopping six rail guns (three twin-linked) and smart missiles which spell instantaneous death for pretty much anything they shoot at short of a Titan, Bio-titan, Manta/Tigershark, or Stompa or a superheavy tank with a lot of luck, and additionally upgrade one Suit to a Team Leader. That said, an iconic setup is to take a squad of three, grant them Advanced Stabilization Systems (the extra movement is always nice, be it for getting the right angles off, evading close combat, or not being screwed over by Dawn of War), and upgrade the Team Leader to have a Hard-Wired Drone Controller with Shield Drones, and Hard-Wired Target Lock (thus allowing the unit to threaten two separate vehicles). Another decent setup is one team leader with hardwired drone controller, and the others with target locks. While dependent on cover, this group can threaten multiple vehicles at once.

*'''Sniper Team:''' With S6, AP3, a decent range, and pinning, Sniper Teams, in theory, can be useful, and they are positively devastating to Space Marines, Chaos Marines, Necrons, and Tyranids. There's two problems with them however: First of all is that if their leader dies, the drones go down as well, and second is that they take up a Heavy Support choice that is usually better-filled with something else. Decent board denial for the points, but really situational and generally not worth it due to their poor survivability.

*'''[[Skyray Missile Gunship]]:''' A mixed bag. Not a horrible choice by any stretch - but it takes up all-too-limited Heavy Support slots that are almost invariably better filled by Broadsides or Hammerheads. The fact that it can launch highly-accurate Seeker Missiles - which are functionally Hunter-Killer Missiles - and the fact that it boasts Markerlights as well makes it a good support unit, even more so when it packs on other weapons (such as Smart Missiles) for ranged support. It also has decent armor. The problem is that its limited ammo means that once the Seeker Missiles are out, it turns into a magic flying brick for dropping markerlights and firing off whatever its secondary weapon is (usually Smart Missiles, but it can pack Burst Cannons or Gun Drones instead). This means that it's kind of schizophrenic; you want it at extreme-range to employ its markerlight-provided range, but you can't really afford to do so because it can't use its secondary weapons unless it gets somewhat closer. The cruelest cut, again, is that it takes the same slot as other, much more devastating support options - the Broadside Team and Hammerhead - and a kitted out Skyray costs just as much as a Hammerhead. If you do intend to use one (and it's a hard choice to justify), it's recommended to keep it armed with Smart Missiles and use it as a close-support unit; its armor is thick enough to not suffer for the change of pace. If this goddamned thing was a fast attack choice, it would be infinitely superior than it is now.

*'''Knarlocs (Forgeworld Only):''' Oh God why have you forsaken me.
**'''Goaded Knarlocs:''' Rending and fleet, okay. Eats its babysitters and has a chance to go full retard? Not looking good. No railgun? Fuck this guy. And it might ''break its own morale and flee the board because it just ate its own last Goad.''
**'''Mounted Knarlocs:''' They can score, and have rending and fleet, but they have terrible weapon options and are such a large target with such low armor they will die before doing anything. Ignore this guy. After update, they have been changed to monstrous creatures, so their rending is now a power weapon. Slight improvement to gun stats/cost and as MC's they're relentless. While better, still cost too much and take a heavy slot which ought to be railguns.

*'''Drone Turrets (Forgeworld Only):''' Immobile with battlesuit weapons, terrible armor, and immobility? Pass.

*'''Heavy Gun Drones (Forgeworld Only):''' 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.