Often misunderstood and disregarded as "squishy" on these forums, fire warriors are actually an amazing infantry unit, versatile and capable of staying relevant well past the early tiers.

AM should prove no issue at all. You can outproduce them and outvalue them, make abundant fire warriors to deal with their guards, get HH to outtrade their vehicles. You can also use any of your high ranged defense options (stealth suits, ghostkeel, commander buff) to really drive it home. Until recently, the deployment of the XV95 Ghostkeel Battlesuit was restricted to covert missions. In truth, development of these potent battlesuits was completed around the beginning of the Third Sphere Expansion, but it was decreed by the Ethereals that these new weapons should remain hidden until their unveiling held the greatest inspirational value. XV95 Ghostkeels also feature an AI Electrowarfare Suite and Holophoton Countermeasures for use in active combat against the enemy. The Ghostkeel's Electrowarfare Suite, mounted on the Battlesuit's left arm, aggressively scans enemy targetting spectrums and invades the foe's sensor arrays, filling them with false information and scrap-data that makes it almost impossible to effectively fire upon the Battlesuit at range. The Holophoton Countermeasures, mounted between the Battlesuit's secondary weapon systems, are triggered by AI-assisted threat-warning protocols and take the form of a targetted barrage of holo-decoys, friendly target simulacra and stroboscopic blasts. This confounds enemy weapons, causing safety switches to engage and Machine Spirits to rebel while their operators are left bewildered and blinded by the overwhelming sensory overload. Together with the Battlesuit's stealth field generator, an XV95 Ghostkeel becomes a near impossible target for enemies to engage from range. This on a unit with incredible durability (10 base armor, 11 with infantry upgrade and 17% invulnerable defense) that can be further boosted if necessary with nova shield (50% invulnerable total).The Broadside battlesuit is technically a variant of the Crisis suit, having been developed by Earth Caste engineers after a veteran pilot asked them “what if more gun?” In all seriousness, the Broadside was created early along in the Tau’s expansion when it became clear that while the Crisis suit had an excellent blend of mobility, firepower, and resilience, there were situations where the Tau would need to “anchor” a section of a line with overwhelming superiority of fire- and that was where the Broadside came in. Over the years, the chassis has been rebuilt time and time again, growing further away from its roots each time as additional weaponry, servomotors, armor, and sensory systems were built on along with an improved power plant, cooling baffles, etc, etc. It is now almost unrecognizable as having been descended from the original XV8s and has likewise evolved a unique role on the battlefield that extends well beyond simply being a static bunker unit. Resource trading is an easily overlooked core mechanic of tau but it should be where most of your influence will go, i myself made the mistake of ignoring this mechanic when i first started playing the faction and let me tell you, it makes *all* the difference.

remember that compared to other factions main battle tanks its durability is on the lower end and that while they can be upgraded all the way to t10 you shouldn't fall into the trap of never upgrading from a 36hp vehicle in the lategame.Ghostkeel’s are cool. They are one of three infiltrating units that T’au has and since the changes to Deep Strike Reserves in FAQ2, that’s all the more important. Even though they won’t be bringing down Guilliman single-handed, they can provide value to the right kind of T’au army. With attention to detail, knowledge of your enemy, and the right cast of supporting units, Ghostkeel’s can provide distraction and buy time for the core of your firebase. They won’t win games by themselves though, so knowing that, you can isolate and remove them or even just ignore them in some situations and depending on your army. The mobility module on t7 (+1 move and ZoC ignore) would be very powerful for them but by t7 they will be starting to be obsolete already.

Let’s take a brief look at a couple of the weapons I mentioned above. The ion cannon gives players three shots at strength 7, AP -2, and damage 2. Or the T’au player could overcharge the weapon, bumping the strength up to 8 and the damage up to 3. Moreover, the overcharge profile yields D6 shots instead of three. Other than that it gets a sniping skill which benefits from its own stationary boost (and has rapid fire at range 2 when maxed out, range 3 if you somehow decide to boost range with a pathfinder) and does a surprising amount of damage, though on a longish cooldown so i don't suggest taking it before the other skills unless you're against an enemy immune to morale like tyranids. Once maxed out it's not a terrible idea to buy some cheap items to boost it though... The way you want to use them really is to scout for targets, oneshot anything that is out of position and then screen with your other advancing units and drones. If you can get 2 kills this way they more than paid for themselves usually, anything more is just a bonus.This little unit really should not be underestimated, at 30 cost they are responsible for the majority of complaints against tau by overfilling the enemy board with drones. Also, useful to grant other vehicles their adjacency bonus. Unfortunate, i wish it was the devilfish that got assault vehicle and the gunrig additional firepower but alas. It does have +1 mobility and jink compared to the alternative at least. So, what does that mean for us? Let's take a look at the contents of our box, just to refresh our memories because it may have been a while since you looked at it: The Ghostkeel itself comes with its Ghostkeel Electronic Warfare Suite, which gives enemies -1 to hit rolls when outside 6″ of the model. Separately, the Stealth Drones give -1 to hit for themselves or a nearby Ghostkeel, though due to the way modifiers work in 9E this is generally redundant.