Battlesuit

From Cool to Cheese.

Battlesuits are powered combat exoskeletons used by the forces of the Tau Empire to fill a number of tactical roles on the battlefield. The Tau have developed several different battlesuit models, each equipped with different technologies and weapons pertaining to the suit's purpose in battle. Some are built to be small, stealthy and precise, while others are built to be lumbering battlemechs that ionize everything in their paths while soaking up weapons fire like they're being pelted with spitballs.

Each model's designation is preceded by the letters "XV", which derives from the Tau term "Her'Ex'Vre", meaning "Mantle of the Hero". Note that some sources place a hyphen between the "XV" and the numbers, and others don't. The first (or only) number in designation indicates a weight class of the suit, while the last indicates it's purpose:

1. still in development model
2. undergoing field testing
3. custom-built model
4. command and control-compatible model
5. outfitted with stealth technology
6. suit, designed for a void operations
7. suit, designed for infiltration
8. suit, designed for long range fire support
9. suit, designed for shock assault and close range firefights

Sometimes there's a secondary numerical designation separated from the frist one with a hyphen. Those are just number assigned to a specific loadout for heavily customizable models. Sometimes they fit with a primary purpose designation (like XV-8-06 being designed for void operations or XV-46-4 being command and control model), and sometimes they don't (XV-8-05 is not even compatible with stealth technology, XV-9-01 is a finished mass-produced model)

Role on the Battlefield

Tau battlesuits are not like Imperial power armor in their roles. They serve as command platforms for 'Vre, 'El, and 'O level officers as well as heavy mobile weapons platforms, able to swiftly relocate from firing position to firing position while laying down constant barrages of long range firepower. Most of them are outfitted with jetpacks for this purpose. All battlesuit pilots are veteran soldiers, given the privilege of piloting one after extensive service. Most Fire Warriors accept the honor of piloting these revered rape machines for the Greater Good, although there are some traditional crazies who shun the use of battlesuits and instead choose to continue to lead their Shas'la as front-line field commanders.

Models

XV02 Pilot Battlesuit

An experimental model made for vehicle pilots (obviously) currently undergoing field testing; although it provides less protection than Fire Warrior armor, it compensates by allowing pilots to interface more effectively with their vehicles, negating the need for multiple crew members. The only one known to exist is in the possession of Shas'la T'au Sha'ng (a.k.a. Longstrike), who was selected for his reputation as a peerless Hammerhead pilot.

XV15 Stealthsuit

Little more than modified Fire Warrior armor, the XV15 was outfitted with stealth systems allowing it to infiltrate, jetpacks for mobility, and burst cannons for firepower. It also carried markerlights. These older units are being phased out in favor of the XV25 series after the Imperium got their hands on an intact helmet from one, and the Tau fear it will be reverse-engineered and countered by the humans. In a surprisingly unlikely move that somehow did not cause the AdMech to lobotomize everyone involved in the project with a siege drill for associating with xeno-tech, the Imperium did actually manage to reverse engineer the suits and learn about the technology, although the Tau were two steps ahead of them by rolling out the more advanced XV25 stealth suits as their new recon platform.

0% blueberry edition.

XV22 Command Suit

Officially part of the stealthsuit line, this heavier unit is quite expensive to produce; as such, it is limited in use to commanders (like Commander Shadowsun and Shas'o Kais). With the right equipment and abilities you can make it go three times faster than a normal stealthsuit (red paint optional). This was originally built as a prototype design for a next-generation stealthsuit pattern, but finding ways to mass-produce the required components proved more difficult than anticipated. After the Imperium managed to reverse-engineer some of the XV15 suits (which, for some reason, doesn't cause the Inquisition to foam at the mouth anymore) recovered from the battlefield, the Tau had to compromise by moving forward with the less advanced but easier to manufacture XV25.

Citadel exclusive "Tau Stealth" paint. Order it now.

XV25 Stealthsuit

An improvement over the XV15 which is larger, heavier and better armored while still retaining the maneuverability and subtlety of the XV15 series. Development and deployment of the XV25 was largely due to the fact that the Imperium managed to acquire a functioning sample of the old XV15 stealth suit during the Damocles Crusade, compromising its use as a recon platform. Larger and more powerful reactor allows XV25 to be outfitted with a fusion blaster instead of it's basic burst cannon, and the suit also have one hard point on it's back for an additional support system, although those are usually issued only to squad leaders).

XV46 Vanguard Void Suit

Basically a Tau version of Terminator armor, bigger than the XV2 series, smaller than the XV8 and as heavily armoured as XV88 while still light enough to have jetpacks. It is designed solely for operating in spaceborn situations at (unusually for the Tau) close quarters, which means boarding action and Space Hulk-type investigation missions. The XV46 is highly effective against certain xenos species that are famous for slaughtering Terminators like they are nothing. With a fuckton of burst cannons, flamers and fusion guns on each of the suits, the little buggers would have a hard enough time getting close, but then there are electroshocks, grav-repulsors, and photon grenades to zap any fuckers lucky enough to break through the walls of fire, all triggered automatically. To make the Tau version of Space Hulk even less grimdark, these suits are even equipped with smart ejection systems which are programmed to deliver the pilot back on board his ship if his suit gets wrecked. Being both niche equipment and difficult to manufacture critical parts for, XV46s are rarely seen outside of space hulk missions. Even rarer is the XV-46-4 Commander variant.

The XV46 doesn't appear in the tabletop wargame; Fantasy Flight Games made it up for the Deathwatch RPG.

Keep trying, Gue'La. You have a 1 in 18 chance of actually wounding me.

XV8 Crisis Battlesuit

Main Article: XV-8 Crisis

XV8 Crisis suits are the Tau Empire's general-purpose combat battlesuits, capable of being equipped for a variety of combat situations. Due to the large amount of variants they have, check the main article for more information.

It's been a good run, shoulder-mounted death cannons... wait, you're back?

XV88 Broadside Battlesuit

88mm guns IN SPESSS!

The Broadside battlesuit is a modified, heavy version of the XV8 that trades lightness and maneuverability for two smart missile systems (or plasma cannons) and twin railguns. They provide Tau infantry with anti-armor, and now anti-air, fire support. 6th Edition nerfed these twin-linked railguns into a single, less potent "rail rifle". Broadsides can also carry loads of seeker missiles now. A single 3-suit team of Broadsides entrenched in cover is enough to deter all but the heaviest of tanks from getting in range, lest those war machines become overpriced bricks of burning cover. They are as well armored as a Space Marine Terminators, but thanks to the bulk of their weapons and portable generators needed to charge them, Broadsides are one of the few battlesuit models to lack jetpacks.

The models for broadsides were once quite similar to standard XV-8 . Since Crisis suits were cheaper than Broadsides (a unit of three costed about 30% more than a single Broadside), a Tau player on a budget could buy a trio of Crisis suits and then convert the railgun and missiles out of tubing and plasticard. GW figured out that players were doing this, so of course they started manufacturing a different model for Broadsides which naturally costs half of your monthly salary to buy. It looks kickass, but we all know Games Workshop never shakes your hand without also giving you the finger!

Forge World has heard your prayers, and delivered. Old style Broadsides are back, baby! They just re-designated it the RX-78-2 Gundam XV88-2 and swapped the rail rifles on to the arms and the missiles onto the shoulders. Swapping back to the original configuration doesn't take too much kitbashing, either.

I'll tell you what's a hazard: being hostile and near this motherfucker.

XV9 Hazard Battlesuit

Unlike most Tau battlesuits, the XV9 Hazard model is designed solely for fast and hard close-range engagements rather than having the option of going either close or long, or being cloaked while engaging the enemy up close, which is quite odd since this is a bit of a deviation from traditional Tau combat doctrine, which is all about far away shootiness. XV9 series suits are noticeably tougher than XV8, can carry absurdly powerful weaponry due to their increased power output, and along with the standard jump packs, come by default with vectored retro-thrusters that allow them to quickly escape close combat if they're ever charged.

XV-9 have three hard points, with two generally being equipped with a matching pair of guns (leaving only one for support systems) compared to Crisis' four, although given it have in-built retro-thrusters and photon grenade launchers it can and usually does have up to 5 systems with enough reactor capacity to power them all, even though weapon options available to Hazard suit are generally more devastating and power-hungry:

Twin-linked burst cannons are for mulching down infantry with enough dakka to make Orks jealous.

Fusion cascades, which are melta miniguns, less powerful than basic fusion blasters and more short-ranged but with a higher rate of fire, so they're more effective against light/medium vehicles, monsters and terminators rather than heavy tanks.

Phased ion guns which were supposed to be "assault cannons-lite", and are more "well rounded" choice, being decent against both light and heavy infantry or light vehicles, though heavily outclassed by the previous two gun options.

Pulse Submunition Rifles, commonly referred by a player base as a "shotguns" are the most long ranged and expensive guns available to Hazard, they cover a huge area with a cover-ignoring blasts to root out heavy cover campers. Commander O'Ralai wields a custom built experimental version of this gun which fires twice as fast and comes with a special ammo, which is effective against pretty much anything not terminator-armoured he could encounter, although as it's still an unfinished prototype that ammo have a tendency to overheat the gun and eventually damage the suit.

It should be noted that the number 9 is a significant number to the Tau given that they count in an octal numeral system (there is no 8 or 9; 10 comes immediately after 7), as opposed to humanity's decimal system. This means that to the Tau, the XV9 is literally cranked up to 11.

XV95 Ghostkeel Battlesuit

A new Battlesuit shown off in the newest White Dwarf. Not much is known about it just yet, but it appears to be a stealth suit of some type. A really big stealth suit.

XV104 Riptide Battlesuit

"So this is the power of the Nova Reactor... Not bad, not bad at all..."

A new, extra-large battlesuit (at twice the size of the XV8) that made its first appearance in the 6th edition codex, the Riptide resembles the bastard offspring of a Gundam (specifically the ZZ Gundam, what with its XBAWKS HUEG build, optional missile system and destructive but stupidly risky energy weapon) and a Metal Gear. Arguably more of a vehicle than a suit of armor, the Riptide's primary weapon can be either a heavy burst cannon or an ion accelerator (with twin smart missile systems, fusion blasters or plasma rifles as backup weapons), while its defensive prowess is supplemented by a portable shield generator. All of these can be made significantly more powerful if the prototype Nova reactor built into the suit is used to charge the weapon or shield; however, doing so runs the risk of overloading the generator, releasing deadly radiation that can injure or kill the pilot.

While incredibly powerful, the Riptide's primary drawback (fluff-wise) is that the materials used to manufacture it are rare. Thus, their numbers remain fairly small within the Tau Empire's forces. Not that you'd know since every goddamn Tau list has them flying out of their asses. Then again, every Imperial Guard force on the tabletop is full of elite veterans, heavy tanks and flyers instead of swarms of regular Guardsmen...

An extremely cheesetastic rapetactic on the tabletop with this fella is to model it to be as low as possible (like crouching forward) and then put it behind a piece of very big cover, like a bastion. It moves out during the movement phase, revs the Nova reactor, blasts nearby enemies into oblivion, then jet boosts back behind the bastion during the assault phase to block enemy LoS.

That's a nice gargantuan creature you have there…it'd be a shame if something were to happen to it...

XV107 R'varna Battlesuit

Essentially a Riptide (made by Forge World of all folk) that threw mobility away for more armour and two exceedingly huge pulse submunition cannons (think plasma cluster bomb) for the purpose of fucking everything up for the enemy. Its Nova Reactor also grants some unusual properties like a turn with Fleet, an electromagnetic shockwave that hits everyone around it, or double-firing weapons, but is no less risky to use. It's essentially the Broadside battlesuit to the Riptide's Crisis battlesuit.

The fluff behind this involves an Earth Caste engineer from sept Ke'lshan who managed to go behind the Ethereals' backs by building something so huge, expensive (even in in-universe terms), and lethal when he was supposed to make more stealthsuits. One Tyranid swarm later, however, he revealed this behemoth and it helped curb-stomp all of the things and save the sept.

One interesting note of mention is that in the early days of the R'varna's conception, well before it was officially announced, there was indeed a rumor floating around that Forgeworld was actually designing a new stealthsuit. This was before 6th Edition Tau were even released, so it makes sense that nobody even knew about the Riptide aside from the weeks preceding the new codex, but what is interesting is that, given the fluff behind the R'varna, it's almost as though Forgeworld chuckled at the rumors and used those as a basis for their fluff, going so far as to craft the rumors of a stealthsuit into the XV107's fundamental history. The more you know! The X7 designation this suit have means it's supposed to be an infiltration unit, which is the exact opposite of what R'Varna actually does - this is likely the result of it being developed as a part of Stealth Suit program.

Unlike plenty of other things in lore, the R'varna, with its bigass pulse submunitions cannons, is as big a rape machine on the table as it is in the fluff. With the ability to fire two pie plates a turn at AP4 and S6 (and FOUR plates using the Nova Reactor) the thing turns Tyranids to garden mulch, and Orks to fertilizer. And since the cannons basically fire plasma cluster bombs, they get Cluster Fire, which means Monstrous Creatures, buildings, and vehicles each take THREE hits at +2 Strength. Let that sink in. In addition, anything with Very Bulky, Bike, Jetbike, Cavalry, or Beast takes two hits at +1 Strength, so things like Ogryns and Centurions will be almost as readily vaporized. All in all, the R'varna is considered to be horribly, horribly, horribly broken by non-Tau players, and by Tau players still using it to be the most brokenly rapetastic thing since Fish of—*BLAM* HERESY!

XV109 Y'Vahra Battlesuit

The newest baby in the Forge World fleet, this is a Riptide that now embraces its mobility and gets a super-flamer, a mega-haywire gun and has super-jetpacks able to turn it into a flying monstrous creature.

Made by the same Earth Caste bastard behind the R'Varna, this one is made with the opposite goal in mind: jump in close and take the fight to the enemy, fling a burst of flechettes as it lands and then jump back out before it can be overwhelmed. With its S6 Torrent (at 6") Plasma Flamer that goes either AP3 Heavy 1 or AP2 Heavy 2, and its S8 AP3 Haywire Cannon that also blinds, it can effectively total entire enemy forces, and even moreso with the Nova Reactor on (which gives it some more tricks, like the ability to Jink or move back into reserves while in close combat). It would also be utter fucking cheese if you ran this thing plus a Farsight list with O'Vesa, Riptides, R'Varnas, and a minimal number of Fire Warriors for markerlights. Just try taking this against a Necron or a Dark Eldar list, I dare you.

A weapon to surpass Metal Gear.

XV128 Stormsurge Battlesuit

If the most recent Warhammer Visions is any indication, the Tau have decided the Riptide still wasn't big enough and made an even larger battlesuit. The Stormsurge seems to be armed with a giant railgun and a hilariously large pair of missile pods, but not much else is known about it just yet. The stabilizing rods on its legs suggest it's not going to be very maneuverable, though.

THOR IS HERE!

KX139 Ta'Unar Supremacy Armour

A new super-heavy Compensator Class battlesuit, massive enough to claim the title of Tau Titan. After multiple run-ins with Imperial Knights and Tyranid bio-titans, the Ethereals were forced to admit the necessity of Titan-sized static defenses to deal with counter-expansion attempts into their own territory and asked the same Earth Caste nutter who made the R'vana and the Y'varha to make something capable of fending off super-heavy assault forces too strong for their bombers to deal with.

He did not disappoint.

While it lacks the jet packs (much like the distantly related Broadside and R'vana), the Ta'Unar is armed to the teeth and damn hard to kill with 10 wounds. Although it's a Gargantuan Creature like the Wraithknight, it can fire Overwatch at BS2 with its two smart missile systems and two twin-linked burst cannons. Its main guns are no less effective- for arm weapons, it can equip either a Heavy 5 multimelta or an ion cannon that can fire either 6 shots at S7 AP3 or 3 shots at S9 AP2. The back-mounted Pulse Ordnance Multi-Driver can fire either a Strength D Massive Blast with 72" range or a S8 AP3 Apocalyptic Barrage with Pinning and Ignores Cover with a range of 12-120". Defensively, it has a 2+/5++ save that improves to 4++ against shooting attacks, and it can sacrifice the invulnerable save for a turn to cut the number of wounds suffered from a "Deathblow" result on the Destroyer table in half. Its only real flaws are that it's expensive as all hell to field (both points-wise and in real-world costs, being a Forge World exclusive and all) and that its BS of 4 is somewhat lacking by Tau standards.

While the default arm and back main weapons of the Ta'Unar are more suited for long range fire support, it is designated as X9 type, which means shock assault and close range firefights. This may have something to do with its impressive short-ranged (by Tau standards) anti-infantry weapon array Considering it can move quite fast just because of its size, could draw and withstand ridiculous amounts of firepower (even the almighty D) and stomp things stupid enough to charge it that aren't cut down by overwatch in the process, all while simultaneously bombarding distant enemies, the KX-139 definitely could do both shock assault and fire support roles. That being said, the "KX" designation it sports might mean that it uses a different system than the standard battlesuits do.

Reports that the Ta'Unar's release was accompanied by telling Chapterhouse to "eat their hearts out" are unconfirmed but assumed. Template:40k-Tau-Vehicles