Railguns / Railrifles / Railcannons

[Gorkamorka]

Whats the difference between pathfinder railrifles, broadside railguns and hammerhead railcannons?

[Piccolo]

The rail rifle is a weapon that can only really take down marines/necrons and other heavy infantry with armor saves of 3+.

the next 2 share 1 choice. The broadsids have the twin linked solid shot that is the best anti tank shot there is.

hammerheads get a single shot of the same type as the broadsides but can also choose to fire a sub-munition round that lays down a nice pice plate suitable for killing mass infantry.

[Piccolo]

Now that I have a bit more time I can expand on my previous discussion.

The rail rifle is for all general purposes WORTHLESS. Anytime a weapon is added to a game after it appears in a poor video game there has to be a reason. Pathfinders were not real popular with v3 tau players, other than maybe me. The rail rifle was brought in to give them another method of causing pain. The new changes that improve the effectiveness of the markerlight make the rail rifle much less desirable. The rail rifle can effectively kill small numbers of heavy infantry or very light vehicles but the tau army just has alot of better options to fill this role.

The Broadside as a unit is very good at killing heavy armor. There is just 1 huge drawback with the death of screening and the rules on drones from the v4 tau FAQ it is just not possible to keep them alive without spending a fortune.

The Hammerhead with Rail-Gun is probablty the best heavy weapon in the tau arsenal. With the added protection of the nice new skimmer rules and the nifty defensive add-ons you can put on a HH, the rail-gun is probably the best anti-tank choice you can make as well as the added ability to drop pie plates on massed infantry. Combine the pie plate with the markerlight and you get a pie plate that ignores cover, always a nice thing.