Tau analysis: Heavy Support

Sniper drones- on their own, they are a fairly poor option. The gun is very nice though.  It lacks the Mortal Wound feature of most sniper rifles, But it is rapid fire 48” with a STR5 shot….nothing to scoff at.  Like many other Tau units, it suffers from placement in the Org chart.  A Heavy slot really probably needs to be more heavy hitting than what these little guys provide the army.

Skyray missile support ships seem to have lost their place in the army at the moment. Traditionally an Anti-aircraft or missile support weapon, Their main armament their markerlight/6 seeker missiles seems to be a hard fit for a valuable Heavy slot. Still, it is slightly cheaper than a Hammerhead and it’s weapons suite might make it something like a Basilisk traditionally with a bent toward precision ordnance. (which is EXTREMELY fluffy from original Tau fluff, who dislike Area effect weapons.)

HammerHead gunships- It used to be a mainstay of my Tau armies when Broadsides were popular, then took a back seat once Tau had access to a range of fighters/flyer (See ref: Tim’s fascination with Air superiority) .  The HH Railgun is now a beast!.  It’s initial damage is similar to what you’d expect (str10,-4AP, d6 dmg), on a to wound roll of 6 it also deals d3 MORTAL WOUNDS.

Broadside Battlesuits  with the ability to move and shoot and their fire power doubling since Twin-linked weapons are now 2 weapons, broadside regain their ability to be mean anti vehicle units.  High Yeild missile pods began to replace the Hvy Rail Rifle as the weapon of choice on Broadside, but Suspect to see tau players snapping the missile pods of their broadsides.  At a cost 9 PL a piece though (the cost of a 10-man marine tactical squad!), they MIGHT  be a touch expensive. I’ll certainly be trying them out for sure!

Lord of War

StormSurge the Tau Heavy Ballistics Battlesuit, it’s about as mean as you’d expect. It has no Melee capabilities of note. (as one might expect except that historically we’re used to Gargantuan creatures having some punch no matter what).  Comparing it to a traditional Imperial Knight, it costs 2 power level less, has poorer Accuracy, trades the knight’s impressive melee capabilities, less heavy firepower, but gains a slew of massed antipersonnel weaponry(which is still valuable against all units since everything is now based on a wound system).  If it remains stationary, in the movement phase,  it can offset the accuracy penalty gaining a +1 to hit.  All that said, I’m a touch jealous of the imperial Knight.