Nobody is Safe From the Awesome Power of The T’au Empire’s New and Improved Railgun
For the T’au Empire, warfare means massed pulse rifle fire, hit-and-run battlesuits, and the whip-crack report of awesomely powerful railguns making mincemeat of enemy vehicles. We’ve looked at the first two already, so it’s time to tackle the railgun – the shining star of T’au engineering, and the dependable Hammerhead tank it’s often mounted on.
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.
The Fire Caste use several varieties, from the Pathfinders‘ rail rifles to the heavy rail cannons of a Manta Missile Destroyer, but it’s the Hammerhead’s railgun that all others are compared to.
There are a few things to break down here. With an AP of -6 and the ability to ignore invulnerable saves, your payload will be making it through almost any kind of energy field, daemonic protection, or battle plate that might stand in its way.
Once that shot hits home, it delivers eye-watering damage with the potential to knock out vehicles and large monsters in a single shot. With such a powerful single slug, connecting with each shot is crucial, so the Hammerhead has an advanced targeting array that pairs well with the new Markerlights rules.
The Hammerhead is shockingly effective at turning single targets into smoking wrecks, but what if the enemy is coming in numbers? Faced with smaller foes, Hammerhead pilots can load short-ranged Submunitions.
The railgun is not the only big hitter getting a major update in the new Codex: T’au Empire – would you believe it isn’t even the strongest weapon in their arsenal? We’ll be having a look at a few more soon, but in the meantime, you should brush up on the devious plans of the Genestealer Cults and Adeptus Custodes.
