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I can't find a discussion about this, figure its worth asking.

I already have a Hammerhead kit (actually 2, my store got me another because the railgun bits were bent) and I've already got

-2 Strike Teams (1 painted I think)
-A breacher team (in da box)
-Pathfinders, painted with ions
-Riptide
-Ghostkeel
-A Shark
-A Coldstar (boxed)
-A battlesuit (Boxed)
-6 stealths
-6 sniper drones + 2 shooters half done up
-hover ethereal (boxed)
-that fireblade fella (boxed)
-1 completed Crisis, and an ungodly amount of other new/old suits on the sprue (like 6/7 old ones and 6 new ones)
- an ungodly amount of drones, because hey you're tau? Here are a hundred thousand drones.

So I've left to wonder though, is the hammerhead all it's cracked up to be anymore? 3rd edition Tau used to be beefy, their railguns were OP, now all their railguns are nerfed and everyone is sporting D weapons so unless you're blasting them in the face with FBs youre anti armor is basically weak sauce. And the Storm Surge is ugly and I don't want one, and the Tau'unar - mm. It's out of reach for a year or two.

Then the Ramparts come out and even just looking at the gunrig, does this basically kill the utility of the Hammerhead in any given tau army? It trades mobility and a TL SMS for a TL Railgun with submunitions and (I dont have the rules handy) - its terrain and can't be blown up and gives its operators a bombin' cover save? Plus, if you use a full rampart you get shooting bonuses from the droneport and protection bonuses from the field net, but for the purpose of the topic - Just what exactly is the role of a Hammerhead these days that makes it worth putting on the table? Or, are most just better off running a Devilfish or a Skyray, or getting the TL Plasma Cannon from forgeworld?

The hammerhead is still a soild tank platform, when comparing vehicles to vehicles, and when comparing to meta at large, its a good way to "play down" to other codecies, bringing a tank, when a MC or GC can do what it does better.

The gunrig terrain piece cant be blown up, but the gun itself can be killed with its t7 3+ armor.

I personally prefer the Ion Cannon over the Railgun due to how unreliable the Railgun is at taking out vehicles as you need volume of fire to make sure you destroy a vehicle. Only having a 50% chance to damage AV14 per hit is lame for a weapon that is suppose to be an iconic tank destroyer. The Ion gives some long range firepower similar to the Riptide (AP3 is still quite useful) but far cheaper and if set up in ruins can be quite defensive between its AV13 wide front and 3+ cover with pod (if you have conquer of cities and/or night fighting its a 2+ cover). Definitely not an amazing unit by any means but it does fill a role which can be a decent bullet magnet that can opt to dart around the board to grab objectives if needed.

The Hammerhead is now one of the least effective options in our book. It never really was a powerhouse, but with so many better options, it's basically scrap. As you noted, the Gunrig is better at the same job Railheads perform for 2/3 the price. If you're going to take a Hammerhead at all, the ion cannon is by far the superior choice for the reasons Vankraken mentioned.

 Overheal wrote:
I can't find a discussion about this, figure its worth asking.

I already have a Hammerhead kit (actually 2, my store got me another because the railgun bits were bent) and I've already got

-2 Strike Teams (1 painted I think)
-A breacher team (in da box)
-Pathfinders, painted with ions
-Riptide
-Ghostkeel
-A Shark
-A Coldstar (boxed)
-A battlesuit (Boxed)
-6 stealths
-6 sniper drones + 2 shooters half done up
-hover ethereal (boxed)
-that fireblade fella (boxed)
-1 completed Crisis, and an ungodly amount of other new/old suits on the sprue (like 6/7 old ones and 6 new ones)
- an ungodly amount of drones, because hey you're tau? Here are a hundred thousand drones.

So I've left to wonder though, is the hammerhead all it's cracked up to be anymore? 3rd edition Tau used to be beefy, their railguns were OP, now all their railguns are nerfed and everyone is sporting D weapons so unless you're blasting them in the face with FBs youre anti armor is basically weak sauce. And the Storm Surge is ugly and I don't want one, and the Tau'unar - mm. It's out of reach for a year or two.

Then the Ramparts come out and even just looking at the gunrig, does this basically kill the utility of the Hammerhead in any given tau army? It trades mobility and a TL SMS for a TL Railgun with submunitions and (I dont have the rules handy) - its terrain and can't be blown up and gives its operators a bombin' cover save? Plus, if you use a full rampart you get shooting bonuses from the droneport and protection bonuses from the field net, but for the purpose of the topic - Just what exactly is the role of a Hammerhead these days that makes it worth putting on the table? Or, are most just better off running a Devilfish or a Skyray, or getting the TL Plasma Cannon from forgeworld?

I won two tournaments this year in which I included the Gun fort. ITC format won't allow Gun Forts (they somehow decides arbitrarily that they are a Defense Network even though they are not), which is unfortunate, but individual TO's can override that and have before (obviously). I wouldn't say they were WHY I won, but I will say that i am far more disposed to using them than a Hammerhead because of the way I like to fight.

HOWEVER...

A unit of three Hammerheads (specifically) gets the BS 5 without any Formation needed. So are hitting on 2's. That is not insignificant when you consider the Ion Cannon option for them. They actually pour out a LOT of deadly shots without the need for Markerlight support other than perhaps Ignoring Cover. They are AV 13 so there's a lot of stuff that won't hurt them, unlike a T7 two wound gun. So there is a lot to be said for the hammerheads depending on which ones you are using. This also reduce scatter when theres three fo them, so if you go with a Submunitions unit of Hammerheads they are VERY accurate without any Markerlights there again, which allows you to spread your Markerlight benefits around more.

I personally think that the mobility and armor of the Hammerhead are pretty big plus's. Hammerheads aren't super expensive honestly. Many people pay that much and more to get a unit with three melta guns into a fight. while an IonHead isn't a melta its pretty good armament and the missiles and what not that come with it are quite nice. People forget that the Ionhead also fires a large blast as well.

So much depends on what kinds of opponents you might be seeing but unless the enemy is willing to commit a fair amount to STR 9 or better weapons that are reasonably accurate, i think you can make a pretty good argument for Hammerheads being useful. Cover and their upgrades can make them terribly hard to hit and a Ghostkeel can make them down right annoying to hit.

I also know that I have seen the Hammerheads in their cool formation and that twin linking ability they have is really awesome. So when you combine it all, the Hammerheads can do work.

the style of play that features Hammerheads is one in which you attempt to swing the flank. in other words you sort of form a vortex to draw the enemy in primarily to one side and then use your speed and mobility to vacate that side and swing the flank to the other side, killing the closest things nad gradually making it harder and harder for enemies to get to you. This works well with units that have shorter ranges and of course Hammerheads and the Tau Empire in general have very good range. So if you can think of your battle plan in that way, the Hammerheads make sense and the Gun Fort makes less sense.

I think one single Gunrig isn't better than a Hammerhead but its value in protecting Fire Warriors should definitely not be underestimated. I use Aun'Va and he allows me to go to ground and pop up again, so i am giving my guys a really great 2+ save when i need it most. So if you like Fire Warriors a Gunrig is pretty awesome.