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Hi ! I just wanted to know how to make the most out of the Tau Hammerhead. Between the Ion Cannon and the Rail gun, which do you think is the best. Also, which is better between the Seeker Missiles and the Smart Missile system ? My main opponents use IG, CSM, Tyranids and Chaos Daemons. Sometimes I face DE.
Thx for your advices ?

MAGNETS!

Longer answer would be.. for the main weapon it really depends on the rest of your force. Railguns and longstrike may be good against the new tank IG, but if you give ion cannons a go, they are way more deadly to everything else. Either way I do not count hammerheads as anti tank so much, but as the guys that kill the squishy things that come out of my opponents tanks.

Most often for secondary systems your choice is between drones and the SMS, with the SMS the most likely choice.

Railguns, submunitions, SMS and sensor spines.

Relatively cheap and always useful. I single shotted a Spartan the other day with a railgun toting HH and it was delicious.

Hammerheads have two loadouts worth noting, and the Skyray attachment is literally just a turret swap (you dont even have to magnetize that turret it just sits in the hole fine). I magnetize my gun barrel so i can swap it out with the ioncannon, but thats preference because if you dont magnetize it or glue it then it droops down and looks silly.

Hammerhead w/ Rail Gun and Sub-munitions are your typical anti-vehicle loadout. Even when not against IG, you should always bring Longstrike with this gun (which means sadly only 1 can be any real value). Other upgrades would be SMS/Disruption Pods/Sensor Spines, rest is pointless and Longstrike brings a blacksunfilter on his own (and overwatch capabilities). Subs are a 5pt upgrade that allows the hammerhead to lay down some numbers on infantry that would normally be a bad idea to shoot at, when/if there are no more vehicles to shoot.

Hammerhead w/ Ion Cannon and SMS. This is essentially a troop killer, as S8 AP3 Large Blast (gets hot sucks but o well) will wreck any non-2+ infantry and splat most models. Take the D-Pods, Sensor Spines, and BS Filter on this guy as Longstrike is kinda wasted in this situation (and expensive).

Do NOT take seeker missiles on either one. Reason being: current codex forces vehicles to fire seeker missiles launched by marker lights OR as a normal weapon at the same unit their normal weapons are firing at. Seeker missiles almost never want to hit small units that the Ioncannon wants to blast away, and more often than not the armor the Rail Gun is shooting at is too tough for S8 to reliably kill anyway, and your ML's would be better used for BS6+ and/or ignores cover.

SMS technically can be left out, as most of the time youre out of range. On Longstrike its awesome because he overwatches and supporting fires with all his guns as many times as he wants, so having him sitting in the middle of your forces can be kinda nasty to charging opponents. But, its a free upgrade, and 2 gun drones really wont do anything more than get in the way in a choke point, if there even is one.

If you take the burst cannon upgrade, you need some special help my friend lol. SMS is superior in EVERY way.

Thanks for all your answers !

 Vineheart01 wrote:
Do NOT take seeker missiles on either one. Reason being: current codex forces vehicles to fire seeker missiles launched by marker lights OR as a normal weapon at the same unit their normal weapons are firing at. Seeker missiles almost never want to hit small units that the Ioncannon wants to blast away, and more often than not the armor the Rail Gun is shooting at is too tough for S8 to reliably kill anyway, and your ML's would be better used for BS6+ and/or ignores cover.

Dunno about not picking up Seekers with Ion Cannon. Both threaten 3+ and Seekers can instakill many SM multi-wounds fellas, Tyranid Warriors and Crisis suits. They help against MCs as well. On the other hand, no need to spend those with W1 troops and they're better on a Skyray anyways. But, if you have 16p floating arond, why not?

True if you have points lying around might as well, never know it might come in handy. Usually seekers on my broadsides and random vehicles (piranhas mainly lol) are the first thing i start dumping points into when i got ~100 or so left over.

Also, me personally i wouldnt fire an ionhead at MCs since i usually have better answers for that. Rather wipe out troops or elites, as removing models > causing a wound on one model most of the time lol. However i havent fielded an Ionhead in awhile, and my tau have never faced tyranids (though i did a 2on2 with nids as allies before lol that was..interesting)

As said above, both main guns have virtue, and smart missiles are by far the best secondary shooting. If you go rail, take subs to have answers to troops and heavy armor.

Longstrike is great in a railhead. I always take a dpod, sensor spines if points allow. Anything without longstrike needs a blacksun filter. If you have points left over, the repair system is not the worst way to kill them. You only face immobolized/weapon system lost every now and again, and getting them back is an even further longshot, but if you need to kill points it is a decent buy.

 Warzoner wrote:
Hi ! I just wanted to know how to make the most out of the Tau Hammerhead. Between the Ion Cannon and the Rail gun, which do you think is the best. Also, which is better between the Seeker Missiles and the Smart Missile system ? My main opponents use IG, CSM, Tyranids and Chaos Daemons. Sometimes I face DE.
Thx for your advices ?

I don't know much about Tau stuff...but I'd say Railgun, and Smart missile are the way to go.

Well, ion or rail+subs I have one setup that keeps repeating.


Dpod, BSF, drones.

Never longstrike-you are just painting a target on yourself as he is not any more durable then regular tank, yet far more lethal and pricy.
The other systems are mostly useless or too rarely come into play with the hammerhead's range.


As for drones VS SMS, while there is no question the SMS is stronger, more often then not my shooting would have left the SMS out of range, or unable to do any effect even if it was in range, the drones however won me more then one game by dashing forward, being too small for anyone to ever targeting them letting them ping a few times, then roadblock, pin or assault-lock a crucial unit of the enemy in a time he did not expect, giving me that final moment of holding the objective unchallenged, or one more turn of shooting before he gets to me.

Honestly, the drones sometimes did more of an impact on the game then the tank itself.