Weapons and Vehicles of the Tau Empire

This article is an index to the technologically advanced arsenal of the Tau Empire. As well as their own weapons technology, the Tau Empire also uses Imperial Guard Equipment (both captured and locally manufacutured by the Tau Empire's Human Populations) to outfit the bulk of their Gue'vesa forces.

Land Vehicles

• Devilfish APC The Devilfish APC is an antigravity vehicle designed for rapid transport and fire support of Tau Infantry. It is armed with two forward mounted burst cannons.
• Hammerhead Gunship A modified version of the Devilfish APC, the Hammerhead Gunship fills the roll of a Tank. Hammerhead gunships are armed with two harpoints for missile launchers or burst cannons and a main turret which can have either a Railgun or an Ion Cannon for work against enemy armor.
• Skyray Missile Gunship A modified version of the Devilfish APC, the Skyray missile gunship serves as a mobile artillery platform using hunter missiles for long range bombardment.
• Piranha Skimmer

Aircraft and Dropships

• Orca Dropship
• Tigershark

Weapons

Pulse Weapons

Tau Pulse weaponry is a type of advanced plasma based weaponry that makes up the bulk of Tau Infantry scale weapons. Pulse Weapons are less powerful than Imperial Plasma wepaons, but far more reliable than their Imperial Counterparts and are much more powerful compared to comprably scaled Imperial Las weapons.

The two main infantry level Tau Pusle weapons are the Pulse Rifle, which has longer range, and the Pulse Carbine, which is smaller and has a higher rate of fire. The Tau also use an Upscaled version of Tau Pulse Weaponry mounted on vehicles and carried by Battlesuits known as a Burst Cannon. The Kroot make use of modified Pusle Rifles equiped with blades to be better suited for close combat.

Railguns

To deal with heavily armored targets, the Tau Empire makes heavy use of Railguns. While the projectiles they fire are much smaller than those fired by Imperial Vehicles, they are faster, giving them greater range and armor penetration. Tau railguns are primarily mounted on Hammerhead gunships and Broadside battlesuits, as well as being used by the Kor'vattra as ship-mounted weapons. Recently the Tau have been experimenting with man-portable rail rifles for sniping, this has had mixed success; Despite their firepower and ability to destroy armored targets the weapons are still somewhat unreliable and unsafe and are only used in comparatively small numbers.

Ion Weapons

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Missiles

The primary form of indirect fire support used by Tau Forces is that of guided missiles. These are mounted on Skyray Gunships and Broadside Battlesuits. Their accuracy is further improved by Markerlights.

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Misc Technology

Battlesuits

The Tau make heavy use of Power armor known as battlesuits to fill various roles in combat. Generally battlesuits are operated by Fire Warriors of Ui grade or higher.

The Primary battlesuit of the Tau Empire is the VX-8 Crisis. Equiped with Jetpacks Crisis Battlesuits are fast and mobile although somewhat lacking in durability compared to other power suits in the Warhammer 40,000 universe. Crisis Battlesuits serve as mobile weapons platforms to hit hard and fast in hit run missions. Crisis Battlesuits can be outfitted with a variety of modular weapons, including burst cannons, fusion blasters, missile launchers and flamethrowers.

Another common battlesuit is are Stealthsuits. These suits are lighter than Crisis suits, but are equiped with cloaking systems allowing their wearers a greater degree of mobility. Currently the VX-25 Stealthsuit is the most common, replacing the older VX-15

Recently several new catergories of Battlesuit have entered production. These include the XV-9 Hazard and the XV-104 Riptide.

• Markerlights Markerlights are a catagory of targeting lasers used for Tau Guided missiles, normally carried by advanced scouts known as Pathfinders. Markerlights are also used by Drones and can be fitted onto Vehicles and battlesuit.

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