Most people online believe that there is a 'default' heavy support layout for all tau armies. Theses default builds aren't always even the same. Some believe in double railheads, some in only broadsides. First off I'm going to say, there is never a default build. Tau have a good chance of customising their suits, and IMO you can play a wide variety of HS layouts, as long as the rest of the list balances different aspects out.
For a long time I just simply ignored the railhead. What I saw was a railgun, and I saw that broadsides do it better. Ofcourse, that is still true. However, the main reason why people tend to take the hammerhead, is for the big template. Horde control, which is traditionally an achilles heel to tau lists.
Against a horde army, and a good player, the models will be so stretched out that infact you aren't getting a lot under the template. The Hammerhead is nice to have against hordes, but there is a list type against which it excells even more. That is against mechanised lists.
This is especially against lists that don't go msu, but have large squads (the best example is Space Wolves with large grey hunter squads). Your chances of exploding a rhino are bigger then just wrekcing it, with railguns. If you do explode a rhino, it is very likely that these 8-9 -man squads will be left in a nice clump. That is where the hammerhead excells. Firing at these demeched squads, forcing wounds so that your army can cope with the amount of 3+ saves (especially since so many tau lists don't utilise plasma anymore).
The Hammerhead is also adaptable, it has two firing modes. This makes it capable of dealing with mech and infantry. However, often people forget that so do broadsides. They have SMS. This doesn't mean that the two firing modes are a bad thing on the hammerhead, just simply that that shouldn't be the reason you take a hammerhead. The reason you take it is for the big blast. It forces your opponent to spread out and punishes any squads that are left clumped. The anti-tank round is really for those bad rounds of shooting where you didn't manage to drop enough tanks.
How many should I have then? Many people seem to advocate 2 hammerheads and 3 broadsides. I personally think two squads of broadsides is better. This means you can fire at 4 targets (when your team leader has a target lock). I think railguns really form the backbone of Tau antitank. Crisis suits can surpress, but you need something to knock those tanks out for good. That's where broadsides are needed. Thus I will be trying out this list next:
Shas’el with burst cannon, missile pod and multitracker @ 75pts.
1 XV8 Shav’re Bodyguard with burst cannon, missile pod, targeting array and hardwired multitracker @ 70pts.
Shas’el with burst cannon, missile pod and multitracker @ 75pts.
1 XV8 Shav’re Bodyguard with burst cannon, missile pod, targeting array and hardwired multitracker @ 70pts.
2 XV8 Crisis Suits with burst cannons, missilepods and multitrackers @ 100pts.
2 XV8 Crisis Suits with burst cannons, missilepods and multitrackers @ 100pts.
2 XV8 Crisis Suits with burst cannons, missilepods and multitrackers @ 100pts.
6 Firewarriors with pulse rifles @ 60pts.
10 Kroot Carnivores @ 70pts.
10 Kroot Carnivores @ 70pts.
10 Kroot Carnivores @ 70pts.
4 Pathfinders @ 48pts.
Devilfish with disruption pods @ 85pts.
Piranha with fusion blaster, targeting array, disruption pods @ 75pts.
Piranha with fusion blaster, targeting array, disruption pods @ 75pts.
3 XV88 Broadside Battlesuits with advanced stabilization systems, incl. team leader with hardwired drone controller, 2 gun drones and hardwired target lock @ 270pts.
3 XV88 Broadside Battlesuits with advanced stabilization systems, incl. team leader with hardwired drone controller, 2 gun drones and hardwired target lock @ 270pts.
Hammerhead Gunship with railgun, two burstcannons, disruption pods and multitracker @ 165pts.
Total @ 1848pts.
I haven't tried the burstcannon/missilepod/multitracker layout in squads of 2, it might not work well enough in suppression and I'll switch out for twin-missiles and flamers. I just like the amount of torrent that the burst cannons bring for a cheap price. Anti-tank should be pretty solid with a couple of meltas, 6 broadsides and potentially the hammerhead. Scoring is fine and I like the fact that my crisis suits are divided into 5 squads. losing the ethereal is a blow, because my ld drops pretty dramatically, but we'll just have to see how this list does.
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