Barracuda • Manta • Orca • Razorshark • DX-6 Remora Drone Stealth Fighter • Sun Shark • Tiger Shark • Tiger Shark AX-1-0 The Fire Caste use several varieties, from the Pathfinders‘ rail rifles to the heavy rail cannons of a Manta Missile Destroyer, but it’s the Hammerhead’s railgun that all others are compared to. There are a few things to break down here. With an AP of -6 and the ability to ignore invulnerable saves, your payload will be making it through almost any kind of energy field, daemonic protection, or battle plate that might stand in its way. Borthrod Gland- A SHAPER can eat these once per game in your Command Phase, getting a 6” Aura of +1 Str and A to KROOT until your next turn. It’s fine, but it’s melee boosts to Kroot, who despite popular belief, are just not melee units. Can be fun, but pretty much a waste of a Relic. This Tau grav-tank was first encountered by Imperial forces during the Damocles Crusade, where it was given its codename 'Hammerhead.' [3b] It has since remained a staple of Tau military forces, and has been used on a number of worlds, including Gravalax, Taros and Pavonis. Since first being sighted, a number of variants has been introduced, most recently during the Taros Campaign. [Needs Citation] Technical Information Armament

A big part of the problem is simple the fragility of the Hammerhead- T7/3+ will absolutely melt to any kind of reasonable firepower, and there is a lot of that going around these days. It’s not going to take many Multimelta or Dark Lance hits to do in your big, expensive tank, and it gets no save against nor does it have any other defenses of any kind. This means that while you may get off one good round of shooting with your Hammerheads, the enemy’s counterstrike is all but guaranteed to wipe out your forces with almost trivial ease- a single squad of Retributors can reasonable expect to kill two tanks by themselves, which is a terrible trade to be on the wrong end of. Fire Warrior ( Fire Warrior Strike Team • Fire Warrior Breacher Team) • Pathfinder • Drone Squadron Deep Strike’ essentially means the unit can be placed into Reinforcements and arrive more than 9” away from enemy units. In the Canis Salient of the Achilus Crusade now seeking to reclaim the Jericho Reach for the Imperium, Astra Militarum tank divisions have suffered great losses due to the mobility and sheer firepower of the Hammerhead.

Uses

Point-Blank Volley- Turns a FIRE WARRIOR unit’s Pulse Rifles, Carbines and Blasters into Pistol 2 for a Shooting Phase, if already in Engagement Range. Lets you fire off a pretty nasty salvo, especially since every Fire Warrior brings a Pulse Pistol now as well. Great to deter any tagging that might happen, or to punish someone who left slightly too many alive, not bad for 1 CP.

A Trap Well Laid- Another KROOT Stratagem to make them attempt to be melee units… Gives a unit of KROOT a 6” Heroic Intervention and +1 A for a turn. But this can only work if not already in Engagement Range, so you can’t use this to boost any other situation where combat is happening. Super niche, and whilst not costly at 1 CP, will rarely occur. Can be useful if they are swarming an Objective and want to deny a very light Infantry unit coming along to steal it, but that’s about it. Automated Repair System - Automated Repair Systems consist of dispensers which release tiny maintenance drones which swarm over damaged weapon and drive systems, repairing them in the midst of battle.The Hammerhead is manned by three crew members, which include the pilot, the secondary pilot who controls the tank's many sensors, communications and navigational secondary systems, and the commander who controls the main turreted gun system. Override systems are also in place inside the Hammerhead to allow any crew member to take over another's role in case of casualties. As with Relics, some of these are direct upgrades to particular weapons, meaning you need to pay for the weapon first, making some of them much more expensive than they first appear- take this into consideration when looking at them, and given it only affects one weapon, there’s no real way to bump up their efficiency. The Hammerhead comes armed with one primary weapon, which by default is the Railgun, which can fire with two different profiles. Solid Shot is 72″ S10 AP-4 DmgD6 Heavy 1 and does d3 mortal wounds on a 6, while Submunitions are S6 AP-1 Dmg1 Heavy d6 (but, surprisingly, not Blast.) You can also trade out for an Ion Cannon (60″ S7 AP-2 Dmg2 Heavy 3), which also has the option to overcharge, adding +1Str and +1Dmg while changing the shots to d6, but 1s to hit will cause a mortal wound. The Overcharge mode is blast.