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I was just wondering as i am going to get a hammerhead gunship/sky ray missile defense ship kit from GW (or independent retailer) and i was wondering...How good is the sky ray missile defense ship?
does it contain the same amount of power as its coolness? (it looks cool to me)
can i exchange the turret anytime so i could have a hammerhead one game and a sky ray the next?
I hope to hear your feedback...

Get it, you can switch the main guns to make a hammerhead too. The skyray is a great anti-flyer and the railfair is a great anti everything.

This is a HIGHLY subjective question.

Here is the best answer;

If they do things in your specific list that other units you chose to take do not do, then they are amazing and very useful units.

Here is a slightly more useful answer;

The sky ray is a often misunderstood unit, its not obviously "OMG!!!" amazing....but it is indeed a great unit.

Here is what it does;
1 - mobile durable markerlights at BS4 with skyfire.
2 - good armor value (AV13, and if it moves and you have a dpod, 4+ save).
3 - Secondary system - smart missiles are always useful
4 - Seekermissiles

Here is what it is not great at;
1 - its not possible to make it fast anymore, so if it moves, you can't fire both markers at full BS.
2 - It can't split fire anymore, so you might not always need to shoot the markers at the same target as the seekers or smart missiles.
3 - More weapons than ever ignore cover,so the jink+dpod is not as useful as it was.

If you find in your lists you need the things it does well (list above) then it is a good unit for your list.

The real strength of the tau codex is not the riptide - it is the amazing diversity of good builds which the book supports, and the (overall) decent internal balance.
Eventually, (like they do) other players will figure out how to beat the common tau 'net lists" and many will stop playing tau (like many books before them).
At that point, tau will become not as common and you will see more diverse builds, and many of them will include skyrays.

Skyray make Daemon's life a Hell.
Skyray also cover Tau's most feared list - Flyind Daemon Circus.

with 6 of those seeker missles you can take out 1 of the Big monsters for a pretty cheap price, also Skyfire marker lights are huge when shooting against them

Yeah, left the really important part out;

You build it right, it can be a devilfish, hammerhead or skyray.

Very easy to do.

I think the new boxes dont include all the bits to make a hammerhead anymore. Thats the old box.

The Skyray is one of the best AA platforms in the game, comes with Skyfire markerlights, a large amount of fire power capable of AlphaStriking, and is a mobile support platform mid to late game. All around it is a fantastic unit.

zteknon wrote:
I think the new boxes dont include all the bits to make a hammerhead anymore. Thats the old box.

this is not correct - the new kit 100% makes all the builds.
In fact, there is no skyray kit

But hey, don't take my word for it, just check...
http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?catId=cat440292a&prodId=prod2040002a

And cheap enough to take several too

Skyrays are very good for their cost and what they do (reliable AA).

The reason you don't see too many of them is that hardly any tau players are running a mechanized list these days. Usually if you have 1-2 vehicles in a list - those vehicles get popped pretty quickly by your opponents anti-tank weaponry. In a list with a few devilfish and a hammer head or two - a skyray would be most welcome.