Tau vehicle secondary weapons.

[The Man They Call Jayne]

When it comes to our vehicles, primarily those based off of the Devilfish chassis, we have 3 choices for our weapons. Gun Drones. A Twin Linked Burst Cannon and a Twin Linked Smart Missile System. Each has it's own Pros and Cons.

The Gun Drones are the default option, and can be upgraded for various amounts of points depending on the vehicle in question. Lets have a look at what we have and what is most beneficial.

Gun Drones.

Pros:
Gun Drones are free in all cases, or at least buried in the cost of the parent unit.

As most Tau vehicles are BS3 having the drones at TLBS2 makes them marginally more accurate than the norm.

They can be detatched to hunt other targets if you need some sudden support elsewhere on the battlefield. As Jet Pack units they can cover ground quickly.

There Twin Linked nature, combined with an already low BS means that in a pinch, gun drones can be used to target AV10 fliers.

Cons: Gun Drones no longer count as weapons. They count as passengers. This means that any Weapon Destroyed results WILL take out your main gun. No great loss on a Devilfish, but on a Hammerhead it is a major deal.


Burst Cannons.

Pros:
4 good shots that have 75% hit rate

Cheap upgrade that actually gives you a second weapon system, thus protecting your main gun from immediate destruction.

Cons:

None really. The Burst Cannon is a staple Tau weapon, tried and true.

Smart Missile System.

Pros:

Long range.

Doesn't require LOS

Denies cover saves.

High ROF with good accuracy.

Protects your main weapon.

Cons:

Again, none to mention. The SMS has been significantly boosted in this edition and is now a serious weapon system.


My thoughts on each of them. Gun Drones. 7/10, definatly a good choice. They allow you some flexability at the cost of putting your main weapon at risk. Not the most accurate of things, but because of that, you aren't losing much by shooting them at fliers, and you could always use MArkerlight if you HAD to.

Burst Cannons. 5/10, accurate, simple, but personally, I feel they are not going to be seen all that much anymore. They are not so much better than gun drones that you would bother to change them, and they are now totally overshadowed by. . .

Smart Missile System. 10/10. This is the daddy here. All these options have the same S and AP, but this makes the most of what it has. Able to reach out into enemy lines on the first turn, and ideal for picking of light units that are making use of cover. Rhinos popped smoke? No problem. Eldar Pathfinders or IG Ratlings get silly cover saves? Not anymore. And you dont even need to be able to see them to do it. Fire and Forget at it's finest.

[Pottsey]

Burst
Cons:
None really. The Burst Cannon is a staple Tau weapon, tried and true.

It has a massive con in that it is useless compared to SMS and has no advantage or reason to use it bar fluff reasons.

Not sure why you gave it a 5/10 as it should be 1/10. That 1 is only to use a burst cannon for fluff reasons. From a gameplay point of view burst cannons are completely pointless compared to SMS. Unless I missed something the only difference between the two weapons is a burst cannons has worse range, cannot shoot outside Los, does not ignore cover. So why take burst cannon as it is inferior?

[The Man They Call Jayne]

It is still a perfectly useful weapon and it if a free exchange from gun drones on all Devilfish based platforms. It will also protect your main weapon were gun drones will not. It has good accuracy over gun drones too. It is far from a bad weapon and that is what I decided to base my score on. How good it is, not how much point there is in taking it.

[Pottsey]

But it is not a perfectly useful weapon. It is a downgrade with zero advantage and lots of disadvantages making it a useless weapon. That to me makes it a very bad weapon. A weapon that downgrades your tank and has zero purpose is not 5/10. The only reason to take a burst on a tank is if you want to make your tank weaker then what it could be hence why I call it 1/10. There is just no good reason to use a burst.

You based your score on how good it is but I have to ask if the weapon is pointless to take how can it be a good weapon?

EDIT:
Burst S5, AP5, range 18", 4 shot
SMS  S5, AP5, range 24", 4 shot, ignores cover, ignores LoS.
Both twin linked, both protect your main weapon, both are free upgrades.  Surly those specs means Burst are obsolete weapons.

[The Man They Call Jayne]

The SMS costs points on the Devilfish. So there is reason to take it there.

And as I said, the Gun Drones do not protect your main weapon. The ability to do so is a boost. The fact that SMS is free on hammerheads is foolish to say the least because it is a massivly effective weapon.

At this point we are arguing over an opinion on an arbitrary scoring system, not on a weapon. You are right, there is no good reason to take one. However if some rookie shows up and has one anyway because they are not fully versed in the ins and outs and just took what they wanted to take, they would still have a functional useful, accurate weapon system.

[Pottsey]

In that case sorry I was mistaken.  For some reason I thought the SMS was free on the Devilfish as well. In that case I think there should be two scores. One for the devilfish at 5/10 and one for the hammerhead at 1/10

[The Man They Call Jayne]

I would agree with that. Although I think the SMS is 30" not 24" aswell. Unless I am confusing it with something else. It is definatly the superior weapon by a mile.

[Pottsey]

I would agree with that. Although I think the SMS is 30" not 24" aswell. Unless I am confusing it with something else. It is definatly the superior weapon by a mile.

You are right, I had missed that upgrade. I better re read all the weapons, so many changes.

[Chicop76]

Glad I have painted my sms. I wasn't gonna take devilfish until I read this. Vehicles galore now. Getting tired of dem camo cloaks and nurgle models.

[KCKitsune]

I just hope we get the multi-trackers back on our vehicles.  Now you can only move 6 inches and pull the trigger on one gun at full BS.

[The Man They Call Jayne]

But all of our secondary weapons are TL. And Markerlights boost BS untill the end of the shooting phase.

[Pottsey]

Markerlights do not work as if you move over 6" you apply markerlight then put BS down to 1 for snapfire. It's kind of odd what should be a mobile army has lost its mobile tanks.

[The Man They Call Jayne]

Pathfinders score 4 hits with Markers on Target X. Hammerhead moves and uses the markers to remove cover and gain +2 BS to all shots. Main weapon becomes BS6 and Secondary weapons become BS3 against Target X. Not to mention any other shots coming from the Pathfinders. Marker tokens last all phase.

Why would you apply the boost and THEN drop to Snap Shot when you are taking the Snap Fire from actions in the movement phase?

[Pottsey]

Pathfinders score 4 hits with Markers on Target X. Hammerhead moves and uses the markers to remove cover and gain +2 BS to all shots. Main weapon becomes BS6 and Secondary weapons become BS3 against Target X. Not to mention any other shots coming from the Pathfinders. Marker tokens last all phase.

Why would you apply the boost and THEN drop to Snap Shot when you are taking the Snap Fire from actions in the movement phase?

Near the front of the main rule back it tells you the order math has to be done in but the rule is semi hidden so many people miss it.
First you use any multiple numbers, then you do add or subtracts and lastly you use set numbers. I think it is listed on page 2 under Order of Modifiers.

So move 6" which triggers snapfire, apply markerlight to BS6, and then set BS to 1. 
It is the same reason +1BS target arrays in the last codex did not help with snap fire or over watch.

[KCKitsune]

Page 68 of the new codex allows the +1 BS to be added to Snap shots AND overwatch.