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New Tau Hammerhead with Commander Longstrike. What do you guys think?
Is it worth the points. I personally want to include the two in my new Tau list.

Three and a halfish firewarriors worth of points for BS5, Rerolls for armor penetration, and I think he can offer support fire multiple times a round if he is within 6" of all the units.

Debatable I think. If I were taking a Hammerhead I would probably splurge the extra points for the Longstrike upgrade considering it would be the only one I would have in my list.

I feel he's better suited to a Railhead than an Ionhead, given the Tank Hunter ability. Other than that, he's definitely a worthwhile upgrade if you plan to go tank hunting with Hammerheads at all, since he makes them far more effective at their task.

I wouldn't take him for the multiple overwatch ability; you likely won't get much use out of it, and if you do you're only contributing 1-2 more hits at most. Not something I'd base a strategy around. If you wanted to go that route, I'd put a Point Defense System on a few Devilfish instead. You can get 4 of them for the same price, and be throwing 8x as many shots in overwatch as a result. Far more efficient and far bigger impact.

I personally prefer Fusion as my anti-armor of choice, and it's easy to get Tank Hunter in a battlesuit squad these days, for cheaper than the Longstrike upgrade. He's not bad, I just feel there's other ways to accomplish what he gives you.

His over-watch ability is just a bonus, really. His big positives are Tank Hunter, and BS5 - making his HH basically self-sufficient, as far as ML are concerned. Between the two, as a tank hunter, he basically ensures a kill per shot - guaranteeing it against Imperial Guard (with his Preferred Enemy). I'd say he's worth his points, if you're taking a Railhead.

Stick him in the backfield, move him under six inches for the DP+Jink save and plink tanks with the railgun.

 Michi wrote:
New Tau Hammerhead with Commander Longstrike. What do you guys think?
Is it worth the points. I personally want to include the two in my new Tau list.

Only one allowed though

IF you are using the Hammerhead for it's Rail Cannon to bring down big vehicles, then yes. His points will be made up with whatever Vindicator, Defiler, SoulGrinder, Demolisher, whatever... is broken and, NOT shooting at your guys next turn.

Auto-include. If you're taking a Hammerhead at all you pay the token cost to upgrade it.

I agree.
It's 45 points, and the cost is almost the same as the upgrades he replaces (including a marker drone to explain BS5).
And honestly, being able to re-roll that one for armor pen is waaay worth it.

Rerolling to penetrate on the strongest AT weapon in the game that isn't a meltagun? In a heartbeat!

Plus the ability to overwatch support? Gravy, just gravy.

He is amazing. I will never not include him on my hammerhead. Especially with broadsides getting bumped down, having a railgun that will pretty much instant kill anything with an armor value is absolutely worth 45 points. The only hang up is vehicles with cover saves (smoke launchers, jink) but 2 markerlights fixes that real fast.

Like others have said, the support fire ability is just icing on the cake. That one time the railgun overwatch shot goes through is going to be sick.

Strong, but not an auto-include-- I personally don't think I'll be using him at this stage. One of the virtues of the Hammerhead is that it is incredibly cheap, and Longstrike removes that while adding no defensive benefits. Once you've taken him you probably want a Disruption Pod too to protect your investment, so now you're looking at close to 200 points instead of 130.

In some cases, he's worth it-- he's a great choice for armies that want to run fewer Markerlights-- but overall he seems far from mandatory to me.

 PraetorDave wrote:
He is amazing. I will never not include him on my hammerhead. Especially with broadsides getting bumped down, having a railgun that will pretty much instant kill anything with an armor value is absolutely worth 45 points. The only hang up is vehicles with cover saves (smoke launchers, jink) but 2 markerlights fixes that real fast.

Like others have said, the support fire ability is just icing on the cake. That one time the railgun overwatch shot goes through is going to be sick.

O'man, you totally killed that khorne bezerker. Truly the railgun is a fearsome weapon!

I find a bs5 large blast that removes marines is just cc what tau needed. Now side effect of being able to remove parking lots due to tank hunter is great.

 Kingsley wrote:
Strong, but not an auto-include-- I personally don't think I'll be using him at this stage. One of the virtues of the Hammerhead is that it is incredibly cheap, and Longstrike removes that while adding no defensive benefits. Once you've taken him you probably want a Disruption Pod too to protect your investment, so now you're looking at close to 200 points instead of 130.

In some cases, he's worth it-- he's a great choice for armies that want to run fewer Markerlights-- but overall he seems far from mandatory to me.

For an army who's anti-tank was gimped badly, any other source that can reliably hurt tanks is an auto-include, because that LR filled with TH/SS Terminators is less frightening when the LR=no more and the termies have to footslog, where your riptide rips them apart.

Kingsley wrote:Strong, but not an auto-include-- I personally don't think I'll be using him at this stage. One of the virtues of the Hammerhead is that it is incredibly cheap, and Longstrike removes that while adding no defensive benefits. Once you've taken him you probably want a Disruption Pod too to protect your investment, so now you're looking at close to 200 points instead of 130.

In some cases, he's worth it-- he's a great choice for armies that want to run fewer Markerlights-- but overall he seems far from mandatory to me.

Why haven't you already put a disruption pod on your hammerheads? Yes, they now cost 15 points, but are still very useful.

Grey Templar wrote:

 PraetorDave wrote:
He is amazing. I will never not include him on my hammerhead. Especially with broadsides getting bumped down, having a railgun that will pretty much instant kill anything with an armor value is absolutely worth 45 points. The only hang up is vehicles with cover saves (smoke launchers, jink) but 2 markerlights fixes that real fast.

Like others have said, the support fire ability is just icing on the cake. That one time the railgun overwatch shot goes through is going to be sick.

O'man, you totally killed that khorne bezerker. Truly the railgun is a fearsome weapon!

As PraetorDave said.
Even though we don't get +2 to our cover saves anymore, the 12" restriction is gone. And while I am sad that they tripled the price, always remember that the Imperial Guard get camo netting for 20 points a piece and thirty on artillery.

EDIT: Reread, thought his overwatch was the same as the upgrade system for some reason. HOORAY for railgun overwatch!

 DakkaHammer wrote:
As PraetorDave said.
Even though we don't get +2 to our cover saves anymore, the 12" restriction is gone. And while I am sad that they tripled the price, always remember that the Imperial Guard get camo netting for 20 points a piece and thirty on artillery.

EDIT: Reread, thought his overwatch was the same as the upgrade system for some reason. HOORAY for railgun overwatch!

looks like you caught it in the edit

aye longstrike gives the supporting fire rule instead of the vehicle system str 5 rule, so yes he can overwatch with the railgun.