The Be’gel Hunter’s Plate- +1 Armour Saves and a 5+++. A good defensive boost, and especially chunky on an ENFORCER with a Shield, giving him a ludicrous 1+/4++/5+++ -1Dmg.

This Tau grav-tank was first encountered by Imperial forces during the Damocles Crusade, where it was given its codename 'Hammerhead.' [3b] It has since remained a staple of Tau military forces, and has been used on a number of worlds, including Gravalax, Taros and Pavonis. Since first being sighted, a number of variants has been introduced, most recently during the Taros Campaign. [Needs Citation] Technical Information Armament Fire Warrior ( Fire Warrior Strike Team • Fire Warrior Breacher Team) • Pathfinder • Drone Squadron Dual Missile Pod - Hammerhead-mounted Missile Pods fire barrages of the same missiles used in T'au Battlesuit-mounted Missile Pods. They serve a similar role to Ion Cannons, but sacrifice effectiveness against armoured infantry for a chance to impact on larger groups of infantry.

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Flechette Discharger - Flechette Dischargers line the hull of the Hammerhead and fire high-velocity flechettes at infantry which try to assault the vehicle. If you’re somehow playing with mixed SEPTS , these all explicitly work on T’AU EMPIRE units, but not if you’re FARSIGHT ENCLAVES .

A Ghost Walks Among Us- The WARLORD is -1 to be Hit, and auto Advances 6”. The defensive boost is nice at any time, and the reliability the Advance boost gives works very nicely with the plethora of Assault weapons a COMMANDER has. Darkstrider has this, being the sneakiest boy around. Power of Tides- An AUXILIARY unit within 6” gets +1 to Wound. Actually pretty decent, lending some much needed reliability to a KROOT or VESPID unit, and can offer a nasty surprise to the foe. They still have many other problems, but this isn’t a bad choice if you’re going heavy on them, for whatever reason. Frontline Battle Tank; Main Armament also includes Ion Cannon, Railgun, Missile Pods, Fusion Cannons, Plasma Cannons The T'au's expertise in anti-gravitic technology means that their armoured vehicles are swift yet well-protected. An Armoured Interdiction Cadre is a force composed of vehicles chosen to deal with enemy formations that do not specialise in anti-armour weaponry. Using their speed, an Armoured Interdiction Cadre will manoeuvre to concentrate its firepower on its target, trusting in its armour to protect it against return fire.

Special Rules and Wargear

Seeker Missile – Hammerhead gunships can also optionally have up to two Seeker Missiles in addition to their primary and secondary armaments. Each Seeker Missile is most effective when fired and guided by Marker Lights. In essence, you give up your Movement to use your Markerlights, but there are ways around this, just something to consider for positioning. Also note they must be used when a unit fires at them, there’s no option to “save them”. If your target priority is on point you’ll reap the benefits significantly, so make sure your heavy hitters target the enemy unit first lest you not have enough Markerlights for them later in the phase. A Hammerhead gunship's primary sensors are located in an array under the tank's forward housing in the vehicle's nose. A Trap Well Laid- Another KROOT Stratagem to make them attempt to be melee units… Gives a unit of KROOT a 6” Heroic Intervention and +1 A for a turn. But this can only work if not already in Engagement Range, so you can’t use this to boost any other situation where combat is happening. Super niche, and whilst not costly at 1 CP, will rarely occur. Can be useful if they are swarming an Objective and want to deny a very light Infantry unit coming along to steal it, but that’s about it.

Here are some key points to remember when reading this Primer, mainly to save it being typed out every time. Don’t forget that this presumes you have the Codex, so some basic things may not be explained here. Sense of Stone- A CORE unit within 6” gets a 5+++ (except DRONES ). This is a huge survivability boost for any unit that can have it, particularly CRISIS Suits which will likely be a prime target for the enemy.Advanced Targeting System - An Advanced Targeting System assists the vehicle's gunner by identifying targets of particular value or danger, and plotting fire plans to counter them. Gun Drones – Hammerheads can be armed with two Gun Drones which ride with the vehicle in specially designed recesses. These Gun Drones are able to lend to their Hammerhead an additional weight of fire, or can detach themselves and move off independently to perform missions of their own. Popular with proponents of both the Mont’ka and Kauyon philosophies, rail weapons use magnetic fields to fire metal slugs at very high velocity, punching through armour like paper. And in the upcoming Codex: T’au Empire, they’ve had a considerable upgrade. Similar to the some of the Stratagems above, DRONE models are generally not affected by these abilities. Any Trait marked with a * will not apply to DRONE models in any units under the effect of these abilities. Now, if you happen to be playing a kills-only game on Planet Bowling Ball, the Hammerhead can provide some good firepower- its exceptional range and accuracy are no joke, especially when running around with Longstrike to get that sweet, sweet hitting on a 2+. But the chances that you will actually be able to use this in most games are just too low to center 600+ pts of your army around it, especially in a faction that is already struggling with a variety of problems. Final Thoughts

Railgun, or Ion Cannon, or 2 Missile Pods, or Twin-linked Plasma Cannon, or Twin-linked Fusion Cannon, or Twin-linked Long-Barrelled Burst Cannon A big part of the problem is simple the fragility of the Hammerhead- T7/3+ will absolutely melt to any kind of reasonable firepower, and there is a lot of that going around these days. It’s not going to take many Multimelta or Dark Lance hits to do in your big, expensive tank, and it gets no save against nor does it have any other defenses of any kind. This means that while you may get off one good round of shooting with your Hammerheads, the enemy’s counterstrike is all but guaranteed to wipe out your forces with almost trivial ease- a single squad of Retributors can reasonable expect to kill two tanks by themselves, which is a terrible trade to be on the wrong end of.Twin-linked Plasma Cannon - T'au Plasma Cannons are more powerful and up-scaled versions of Battlesuit-mounted Plasma Rifles. They are primarily used to take down light tanks and heavy infantry, a role they often fulfil with exceptional ease. Camouflage Experts- Get Dense Cover on INFANTRY if you’re over 12” away and within/on a Terrain feature. Inferior to Sa’cea, so just look at that unless there’s a very particular trait from A or C you want in conjunction. Twin-linked Smart Missile System - A Smart Missile System fires swarms of self-guided missiles, each with a built-in Drone intelligence so they can hunt down targets that could not normally be seen or targeted.