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So with the release of 7th i wanted to know how many people have been moving back to using railguns on their broadsides and hammerheads? Ive been using railguns on my Broadsides with an attached Commander with MSSS, Puretide, and drone controller, plus 6 missile drones. This gives me BS 5 Missiles on one target and the ability to bust tanks anywhere on the board with 3 separate split firing units, all with reasonably excellent accuracy and no outside reliance on support outside of an aegis line or skyshield to hide on. Whilst str 8 is not the strongest against armor i figure tank hunters and AP1 will more than make up for. Hammerheads are a bit of another story, while i love Str 10 AP1 that single shot has always killed me, but at least with the change to jink you can now just park it in cover with a DP and fire away!

Whats your guys take on this?

S8 makes me say no. 3 S8 hits even with buffmander ignores cover and tankhunter are still less likely to wreck a vehicle as the 12 S7 would. S8 can pen 13, though unlikly, and needs a 5+ to explode. Missilepods just glance it to death.

My broadsides wreck any non av14 vehicle i shoot at very very reliably. And unlike the railsides, theyre damn useful against small things that come in numbers.

... need to read your codex more carefully, missile drones are not affected by the commanders drone controller.

I have always used railsides instead of missile sides. Im a big fan of the firebase formation, and in general I feel that railsides are far superior to missilesides in the role that B-sides are designed to fill.

You owe an apology to your opponents, you've been cheating. The Drone Controller does not boost the BS of the Missile Drones.

Also, blowing tanks you is not effective AT in 7th, meaning Railguns got worse. Alternatively, massed S7 is just as good at stripping HP off of all vehicles short of AV14.

I never stopped using the railgun on hammerheads. The submunitions are pretty awesome against infantry, and especially with longstrike the hammerhead railgun is still dang good anti armor. S10 AP1 tankunter will still mess things up (55% chance to explode on a penetrating hit).

 Zagman wrote:
You owe an apology to your opponents, you've been cheating. The Drone Controller does not boost the BS of the Missile Drones.

Also, blowing tanks you is not effective AT in 7th, meaning Railguns got worse. Alternatively, massed S7 is just as good at stripping HP off of all vehicles short of AV14.

Ah crap, how did i not notice that? Guess I just figured drone = drone controller and we never went beyond that, thankfully my opponents tend to be just as incompetent with remembering rules as i am, so its not so bad! Oh well, that plan is no longer effective, I guess the one thing that always kills me on the Missilesides is the range, thats why a rail gun seemed so tantalizing (plus its one of the very tau technologies we all love)

 generalchaos34 wrote:

 Zagman wrote:
You owe an apology to your opponents, you've been cheating. The Drone Controller does not boost the BS of the Missile Drones.

Also, blowing tanks you is not effective AT in 7th, meaning Railguns got worse. Alternatively, massed S7 is just as good at stripping HP off of all vehicles short of AV14.

Ah crap, how did i not notice that? Guess I just figured drone = drone controller and we never went beyond that, thankfully my opponents tend to be just as incompetent with remembering rules as i am, so its not so bad! Oh well, that plan is no longer effective, I guess the one thing that always kills me on the Missilesides is the range, thats why a rail gun seemed so tantalizing (plus its one of the very tau technologies we all love)

No problem, happens to a lot of people.

I love the Railgun, if they had kept it S10 or even made it S9 it would have been more viable. HYMP are just too good as a free upgrade, and EMS are more valuable than the Plasma Rifle. As is, the Railgun should have been 5pts cheaper, the HYMP should have been a 10pt upgrade, and the Plasma a Rifle should have been an even swap.

Unfortunately, as is the HRR just isn't a cost effective option, that being said I have one, cause it's awesome looking and I tried to make it work as a Snipercide with an Advanced Targeting System and 'Vre to make him work.

 Zagman wrote:

 generalchaos34 wrote:

 Zagman wrote:
You owe an apology to your opponents, you've been cheating. The Drone Controller does not boost the BS of the Missile Drones.

Also, blowing tanks you is not effective AT in 7th, meaning Railguns got worse. Alternatively, massed S7 is just as good at stripping HP off of all vehicles short of AV14.

Ah crap, how did i not notice that? Guess I just figured drone = drone controller and we never went beyond that, thankfully my opponents tend to be just as incompetent with remembering rules as i am, so its not so bad! Oh well, that plan is no longer effective, I guess the one thing that always kills me on the Missilesides is the range, thats why a rail gun seemed so tantalizing (plus its one of the very tau technologies we all love)

No problem, happens to a lot of people.

I love the Railgun, if they had kept it S10 or even made it S9 it would have been more viable. HYMP are just too good as a free upgrade, and EMS are more valuable than the Plasma Rifle. As is, the Railgun should have been 5pts cheaper, the HYMP should have been a 10pt upgrade, and the Plasma a Rifle should have been an even swap.

Unfortunately, as is the HRR just isn't a cost effective option, that being said I have one, cause it's awesome looking and I tried to make it work as a Snipercide with an Advanced Targeting System and 'Vre to make him work.

I agree, the railgun has its own special allure and i wish i could find more uses for them, but they are simply outclassed by the competition pointwise, I was hoping the meta of harder to reach exploding would help, I guess time will tell and Ill just have to get more games under my belt. Heres to hoping one day you can get rail rifles on crisis suits (crosses fingers)

I love my some Hammerheads with Railguns. If any of you get a chance to buy some, get sentry towers for TL goodness. Being able to TL something close by and the little buggers sitting behind an ADL next to their tank friends are always a pain in the rear lol (Which is also why I stopped playing Tau..>.&gt

a LOT of people miss that Missile Drones do not get affected by drone controllers because people tend to read the rule and skip the list below it. Only 3 drones are affected, and since people always forget about sniper drones they think the 3rd drone was missile drones.

Hammerhead shot is pretty nice. Its less viable in 7th since we do NOT want to jink that thing (cant fire the pi plate if we do) and if you add Longstrike its got some very good odds to pop any vehicle it fires at (unless you got my luck that is).
Its more of a flavor thing though since with Longstrike hes the same cost as an IA riptide with EWO (actually 5pts more expensive) and obviously a Riptide is much stronger against most targets and drastically more durable. But which do you want, something that hunts light vehicles and blobs of units, or heavy vehicles and possibly blobs of units, but not as effectively as the other?

 Vineheart01 wrote:
Its more of a flavor thing though since with Longstrike hes the same cost as an IA riptide with EWO (actually 5pts more expensive) and obviously a Riptide is much stronger against most targets and drastically more durable. But which do you want, something that hunts light vehicles and blobs of units, or heavy vehicles and possibly blobs of units, but not as effectively as the other?

Interestingly enough, building a list for a low point (1000) tournament I found myself reaching reflexively for Longstrike. Crisis suits and a hammerhead were how I decided to handle the problem. Moral of the story is that there's several ways to do the same thing and it's amazing how the Tau codex has pretty good internal balance (the only complaint I have is the Ion Accelerator is undercosted and the secondary weapons on the hammerhead should not be the same cost).