Written by T0nkaTruckDriver, Edited by T0nkaTruckDriver
Although a Target Lock fitted on your Hammerhead can aleviate the disparity that exists between the Anti-Vehicle nature of its main weapon and the Anti-Infantry nature of its secondary weapon, there still exists a large range disparity between the two. Therefore, after playing a few games with your Hammerhead, you'll soon realize that often the only way you'll get use out of your secondary weapon is by throwing it up the table... which puts it well within range of Las Cannons, Meltaguns, etc, none of which are condusive to the continued survival of your main battle tank.
Many players have therefore given up on ever getting any use out of their secondary weapons and are content to simply sit at the back of the table and take their one ~170 point Railgun (or Ion Cannon) shot per turn. However, others frustrated by the fact that we're forced to purchase a secondary weapon want to get some use out of it! To that end, the following tactic was developed to enable us to get some use out of our mandatory secondary weapon while still (hopefully) preserving our investment.
As with many Mech Tau strategies, this one relies on careful use of terrain. It its most basic form, the LoS Attack is simply using a LoS blocking terrain feature to hide your Hammerhead from the bulk of your opponent's army while peeking your main weapon around the corner to snipe a juicy target of opportunity. Throw a SMS and Target Lock into the mix and any approaching infantry on the other side of the terrain get to eat 4 S5 AP5 shots per turn. The best terrain pieces are narrow to allow you to get as close to the enemy as possible giving you maximum reach with your SMS. A schematic of this arrangement is shown below:
While equipping your Hammerhead to execute this tactic does increase its cost by 15 points, doing so essentially allows you to get use out of your secondary weapon. As discussed above, doing anything else puts your Hammerhead in an unacceptible level of danger. And it's hard to argue with 4 S5 AP5 shots fired at BS4 for 15 points.
As a final side note, while Mech Tau thrives in heavy terrain environments, it's rare that you'll find 2 pieces of terrain suitable for executing this attack. Therefore, bringing 3 Hammerhead equipped this way will rarely be useful. Depending on the size of the terrain and the layout of your opponent's forces, two Hammerheads can sometimes work the same terrain piece by switching places from turn to turn.