I have decided to do a complete overview of all the forge world units available to the Tau Empire in regular
40k. I am going to be doing a complete apocalypse overview later, and I may do the same thing for other armies (probably Eldar because I know the most about them, but I may do something else if you guys really want it). All the rules for these units can be found in
Armour Volume Three 2nd Edition: The Taros Campaign from Forgeworld or
here in the case of the R’varna Battlesuit.
Glossery Headquarters 
Shas’O R’myr (UN) (
JP) (In)
A special battlesuit commander that can take up to two drones, and can take a crisis bodyguard team. Other than the base commander stuff, he gets preferred enemy (imperial guard), the bonding knife ritual, drone controller and target lock. He has a special weapon, the double barreled plasma rifles, which is a assault two, twin-linked plasma rifle, a miniaturized flechette discharger (same as the regular one, but strength three), and a shield generator that gives him a 4++ against shooting, and a 3++ in close combat. His warlord trait is fixed with “through unity, devastation.”
Tau Battlesuit Commander R’alai (UN) (
JP) (In)
My favorite named tau unit (with Farsight a close second). A battlesuit commandeer in XV9 armour (the multi-tracker, blacksun filter, and armour save of three like most suits, but with built in photon casters (which count as defensive grenades) and vectored retro thrusters, bestowing hit and run and fleet) with an initiative of four and a toughness of five. He has a host of special rules and wargear, so much so that if wills an entire page in the book. He comes with two backlight marker-drones (marker drones with blacksun filters) and a drone controller. His special rules include all the normal commander rules, but with stubborn and lone warrior. Lone warrior means that he can’t leave or join units other than the unit he forms with his drones, and he can’t take a bodyguard team. Other independent characters can still join him however. He has the experimental pulse submunition rifle than can be fired in four different modes. It can be fired like a regular pulse submunition rifle (a 24” pulse weapon with an armour piercing of six, one assault shot, large blast, and ignore cover), an EMP shell (24” no strength or armour piercing shot at assault two with haywire and gets hot), the hyper-density sabot (36” lascannon with an armour piercing of three at assault two, gets hot), or ionic cluster-beam (24” strength and armour piecing four, assault 2 large blasts with rending and gets hot). He has the ‘Eclipse’ shield generator that give a 4++ increasing to 3++ against enemies more than 12” away. Last but not least, he has a fixed warlord train “the assassin” which gives him preferred enemy (independent characters). This particular trait is a little confusing, because no one can seem to decide exactly how it works. At one hundred-and-ninety points, a great all around unit.
Troops 
Drone Sentry Turret Team (Ve) (Im)
Gue’vesa Auxiliary Team (In)
Elites 
XV81 Crisis Battlesuit (
JP) (In)
XV84 Crisis Battlesuit (
JP) (In)
Fast Attack 
Barracuda Air Superiority Fighter (Ve) (Fl)
An all round powerful flyer, although easier to kill than the codex flyers. With 11,11,10 armour, and only 2 hull points, it is relatively easy to take out. Cheaper than the both of the codex, it is only five more points than a hammerhead. It’s main strength is a hull mounted ion cannon which, combined with BS4, makes it a very powerful unit. It has agile (+1 to jink saves) and can still be equipped with the disruption pod, making it very had to hit when it jinks. It may take up to four seeker missiles (at regular price), but you buy them separately, making it useful for list filing. It also has the supersonic and deepstrike special rules, making it a great flyer (deepstrike is particularly useful, considering it doesn’t much matter where this thing lands, providing that it is on the board). Besides the ion cannon, it is equipped with a twin-linked missile pod, and two burst cannons. The burst cannon have the special rule “Auto-targeting” which means they ignore cover saves and cover bonuses provided by Supersonic, Jink, or moving Flat Out. It may chose from the Vehicle Battle systems, Disruption Pod and Decoy Launchers being obvious choices, but don’t overlook the Blacksun Filter, a must for night fights (also it’s really cheap).
Goaded Great Knarloc (
MC)
A slightly odd unit, but not bad. Strength six with three attacks and a weapon skill of four, it is decent in close combat. It only has a toughness of five, but has five wounds. The rest of it’s unit is comprise of toughness three models, so it never really sees the benefit of that. The rest of the unit I comprised of four kroot goads (just a regular kroot), with the option to get three more. These goads are essential, but you should upgrade one to a shaper for the leadership bonus, and the fact that he won’t be eaten. “Eaten?” I hear you ask, yes eaten. The Knarloc has a strange ability caller “Feeding Frenzy” that means that if the Knarloc more to hit rolls of one than six in close combat, you immediately remove the nearest goad (but not a shaper) from play. This is problematic, and not just for the obvious reason, because if no shapers or goads remain in the unit and the unit is not fleeing, the Knarloc must take a morale check at the beginning of each of the owning player’s turns. The goads have the same option to upgrade to sniper rounds, and the shaper can take a pulse rifle or carbine, but the unit does not have infiltrate (it does however have the same rules as a carnivore squad other than that). The Knarloc has a free upgrade available that decrease it’s attacks by one, and gives it a 4+ save. A rather expensive unit (the cost of a broadside shas’vre), and not particularly stunning.
Mounted Great Knarloc Herd (
MC)
This has the same stats as a regular Great Knarloc, but with a ballistic skill of three. It cost ten more points than the Knarloc, but can be taken in squads of up to three, and doesn’t have any of those pesky goads, or the rule that forces it to take morale checks. This is because it is being ridden, and had a kroot bolt thrower (which may be upgraded to a twin-linked kroot gun for twenty points). The bolt thrower is a 36” storm bolter with no armour piercing, not very good at all, but with a fifteen point upgrade it can shoot a strength six AP6 small blast (and still assault). The unit lacks infiltrate like the goaded knarloc, but gains fleet.
Kroot Knarloc Rider Herd (Ca)
Now these are fun. At toughness four and two wounds, these are tough krootoxs, with one less strength. Twenty-five points a pop (with a minimum unit of three, and a maximum of nine) they are good assault units with two attacks at strength five. This is made even better when you consider that there is a kroot on their back with a kroot rifle, giving them an armour piercing of five, and a shooting attack. They may also get sniper rounds as per the usual cost. They have the normal kroot special rules, but trade infiltrate for outflank. They have a small rule that stops them from making sweeping advances, and makes it so they only consolidate instead.
DX-6 ‘Remora’ Drone Fighter Squadron (Ve) (Fl)
Ninety points for a 10,10,10 flyer with a ballistic skill of three and two hull poinst that can come in squadrons of up to five. Doesn’t sound like much until you find out that hey have shrouded (as well as being a flyer), can deep strike, and are on a regular flying stand, instead of a flyer stand (meaning that they are a flyer that can hide behind cover). They can’t take vehicle upgraded but come with a Blacksun filter and two seeker missiles. Their main weapons are a twin-linked long-barreled burst cannon (double ranged, six shot burst cannon) and, the best part, a networked markerlight. This means that you can boost the squadron’s ballistic skill, fire seeker missiles, and give other units markerlights to use (hilarious on a flyer platform).
Piranha TX-42 Squadron (Ve) (
Sk) (
Fa) (
Ot)
For ten points less than a devilfish (or two regular piranhas) you gat a piranha with +one side armour, twin linked fusion blasters, and no gun-drones that can go in regular piranha squadron sizes.. When un-upgraded, they suffer severely from the lack of gun-drones (the regular piranha’s two gun-drones, make up twenty-four points, of the piranha’s forty), but their upgrades can make up for that. They can take twin-linked missile pods for free, twin-linked plasma rifles for ten points, or twin-linked rail rifles for twenty points. With the rail rifles buff in the new tau codex, this can make them very effective
MEQ/
TEQ hunters. They may still take up to two seeker missiles for regular cost, can can take from the vehicle battles systems.
Tetra Scout Speeder Team (Ve) (
Sk) (
Fa) (
Ot)
A unit with a varied history since it’s creation. Originally with only a regular markerlight, it was considered a very bad unit by most players. It’s markerlight was then upgraded to the High-intensity markerlight, which had four shots. This made it a must have, up to the point that it had to be slightly nerfed in this book. The High-intensity markerlight is now two shots and twin linked, so it averaged the same number of shots, but can’s get the same amount of hits that the old one could. It is five points less than the regular piranha (and can be taken in squadrons of 1-4), with 10,10,10 armour, and two hull points. Other than the markerlight, it has twin-linked pulse rifles and a homing beacon. It has the scouts special rules, and can take from the vehicle battle systems (the point defense targeting relay is particularly fun when over-watching with the markerlight, and the disruption pod adds to survivability). Unlike most tau vehicles, it does not have access to seeker missiles.
XV9 ‘Hazard’ Close Support Team (
JP) (In)
My personal favorite unit. Toughness five crisis suits with a weapon skill and initiative of three these are actually survivable in close combat (especially with their two strength five attacks). They cost five points less than a devilfish, and come with hazard close support armour (the multi-tracker, blacksun filter, and armour save of three like most suits, but with built in photon casters (which count as defensive grenades) and vectored retro thrusters, bestowing hit and run (fun on a semi-assaulty unit) and fleet). They can have two weapons, and must take one support system. They come with two twin-linked burst cannons (that’s two twin-linked, not a single twin-linked one) and can upgrade them separately (you can upgrade them to different thins, or chose only to upgrade one) to phased ion guns for ten points (strength and armour piecing four burst cannons with rending), fusion cascades for fifteen points (12” fusion blaster (basically a fusion gun) with a strength of six and D3 shots), or pulse submunition rifles (a 24” pulse weapon with an armour piercing of six, one assault shot, large blast, and ignore cover, amazing against CCCs (cover camping cowards)). They must take a support system with only with the restriction that they can’t take vectored retro-thrusters (they already have them), and stimulant injector are twenty-five points (because XV9s are toughness five). They may take drone, but I would recommend one per XV9, so that the majority toughness is till five.
Heavy Support 
Heavy Gun Drone Squadron (
JP) (In) (Dr)
A large model with normal drone stats that costs twenty-five points (with a unit consisting of 2-6 drones), they have a twin-linked burst cannon. They also have a free upgrade that trades the twin-linked burst cannon for a single burst cannon and a markerlight. They have supporting fire like most tau units. Not a bad unit, but I could benefit from having two wounds, or not being in HEAVY SUPPORT.
Hammerhead Gunship (Ve) (
Sk) (
Tk)
The regular hammerhead only telling you that you have the option to take a two twin-linked missile pods and a velocity tracker, or two long-barreled burst cannons (double range bust cannons that are heavy and six shots) for free. You can also take two fusion cannons for fifteen points (24” fusion blasters that are heavy and has blast), or two plasma cannons for ten points (48” imperial plasma guns with two heavy shots each).
A slight negative is the fact that being two guns, you have to keep the thing stationary to use them to full efficiency (although people often cont them as one weapon system if they are feeling generous *hinthint*).
XV107 R'varna Battlesuit (
MC)
The tougher cousin of the riptide (it feels wrong just saying that), it currently only has experimental rules out and thus you can only use it if your opponent is OK with it (link to them up top). It starts out with one more toughness and wound, but it looses it’s jetpack. It can still get the shielded missile drones and they are worth it despite having one less toughness. It has the armour save of a riptide, and the obligatory multi-tracker and blacksun filter, but it also has a flechette discharger. It’s shield generator is still 5++, but it is 4++ against shooting, (making this thing even harder to kill). It still has the nova generator, but it works a bit differently. It still has the increase to 3++, but the other ones are a 6” bubble of haywire, gaining fleet, and firing it’s two weapons twice. This cheesiness really comes into play when you look at it’s weapons. It has two of it’s big weapons, and no small weapons (like the riptide, it can fire more weapons than it has). The two big weapons have a already good statline, 60” S6 AP3 large blast, but that’s not the extent of it. They have a nifty ability called cluster fire which means that for bikes, jetbikes, beasts, and cavalry to take two hits each if hit by the blast at strength seven, and artillery,
MCs,
FMCs, vehicles, and buildings/fortifications to take three hits each, at strength eight.
Fortifications 
Sensor Tower Grid Weapons
can neither confirm nor deny I lost track of what I've got right now. 
