XV88 Broadside Battlesuit - Armament: XV88 Broadside Battlesuits are towering in size; easily twice the size of the Fire Warrior who wears it. To many T'au, they are a wonder and marvel of Earth Caste engineering. Powered by an advanced Particle Accelerator, XV88s go into battle heavily armed with potent weapons systems backed up by combat support systems that allow them to fight more effectively.However, no matter the battlesuit configuration or weapons load-out, all XV88 Broadside Battlesuits share some common features. These include the advanced sensors built into the primary sensor cluster that serves as the battlesuit's "head." These sensors, which consist of a number of variable spectrum passive sensors and active scanners, allow the battlesuit to detect hidden enemy units and their movement. This is information that can then be transmitted back to T'au command units.All XV88 Broadside Battlesuits are also equipped with a Blacksun Filter, which is an advanced optical system that enhances and magnifies a warrior's low-light vision whilst simultaneously filtering bright flares of light that could blind them in battle, and a Multi-Tracker, a sophisticated fire control system that is mounted in a sensor node that assists battlesuit pilots in engaging enemy threats by using multiple armaments at once. This capability makes the Broadside a formidable opponent in a wide variety of battlefield conditions.As with all T'au Battlesuits, XV88s are protected by an extra-thick, dense nano-crystalline alloy armour named Fio'tak in the T'au Lexicon. This advanced alloy has a highly impact-resistant structure, and is also resistant to corrosive or toxic assaults, making it extremely resilient in the face of combat damage. Even the armour's shape helps deflect solid projectiles, whilst a reflective liquid metal coating on top of the armour is able to deflect medium-grade laser fire.Fio'tak is relatively lightweight, which keeps the battlesuit's own tonnage and bulk at a minimum. During prototype production and simulations, it was noticed that the new battlesuit could not avoid incoming enemy fire. Additional protective armour was then added as one of the first modifications to the XV88 prototype design.During the Damocles Gulf Crusade, frontline Imperial forces submitted corroborated after-action reports of XV88 Broadside Battlesuits surviving direct hits from Autocannon and Lascannon fire. As such, the suits are rated as providing as much protection for their pilots as a suit of Space Marine Terminator Armour.XV88s are some of the most well armoured units in a T'au arsenal. However, unlike the Imperium, the T'au are able to manufacture such heavy battlesuits in large quantities.All XV88 Broadside Battlesuits also greatly augment the strength of the pilot, and grant the warrior within the battlesuit the ability to smash apart light armoured vehicles in close combat, if necessary. XV88 Broadside Battlesuits feature retractable fingers built into their forearms for use in more delicate -- often non-combat -- tasks.Whilst the XV88 shares a similar overall design to the more common XV8 Crisis Battlesuit, it does have several notable differences. The most important is that in order to mount its heavy armaments, Earth Caste engineers had to remove the XV8's Jetpack; the output of the repulsor jets was insufficient to lift the increased weight of the XV88 Battlesuit with its new weapon systems off the ground.The XV88 design traded the mobility and manoeuvrability of the XV8 in favour of increased weapon power and range. The XV8's body structure was also significantly modified to compensate for this. Later modifications added stabilisation systems, ballistic anchors, and integrated recoil-absorption units to the XV88, allowing it to handle the additional weight and power drain of the heavy weapons it carries.All XV88s are armed with a single primary weapon system with a secondary weapon system to back it up. All T'au Battlesuit weapon systems are fully integrated and supplied by continuous, high yield power relays and ammunition hoppers.XV88 Broadside Battlesuits are also designed with advanced recoil absorption technology, meaning that they can fire their weapons at maximum capacity and with maximum accuracy for their size.XV88 Broadside Battlesuits were originally designed to be armed with twin-linked Heavy Rail Rifles as their primary weapons, providing the heavy anti-tank firepower for which they are renowned. A Broadside's Heavy Rail Rifle shot can penetrate the thickest plasteel bunkers, often doing so with enough force to punch an exit hole on the other side as well.Whilst the weapon is not as massive as the Railgun mounted on a Hammerhead, its range and destructive power are impressive nonetheless. The battlesuit typically holds the weapon in an infantryman's stance, much as a Fire Warrior may hold a Pulse Carbine.However, recent advances in battlesuit technology have allowed the development of twin-linked High-yield Missile Pods to act as alternative primary weapons that sacrifice some of the Heavy Rail Rifle's range and striking power for the ability to lay down a greater barrage of high-powered missiles similar to those used in Missile Pods. Since then, many T'au Commanders have included this variant in their cadres, either on its own or sometimes in a formation with more traditionally armed Broadsides.Recently, an experimental new heavy weapon known as a Magna Rail Rifle has also been deployed as twin-linked prototypes on XV88 Broadside Battlesuits. Rare magnetic materials discovered by the T'au of the Fourth Sphere Expansion were used to develop this much improved version of the Rail Rifle.As secondary weapons, Broadsides can be armed with twin-linked Smart Missile Systems -- which are weapons in their own right that fire off barrages of guided missiles at any target within sensor range, even including those targets in cover or hidden out of sight -- or twin-linked Plasma Rifles which are better suited to target and destroy heavily armoured elite infantry.Original XV88 Broadside designs featured the primary weapon systems mounted on shoulder mounts, whilst secondary weapons systems were featured as arm mounts. However, this design was eventually found to be cumbersome and unwieldy, and recent Earth Caste tinkering over multiple iterations and adaptations has altered this design to switch each weapon system’s locations on the battlesuit, allowing for the primary weapon to be in the more steady hand-held position.All XV88 Broadside Battlesuits can also be fitted with an additional back-mounted Seeker Missile if it is deemed appropriate to the mission. These missiles allow XV88s to provide long-range accurate strikes at targets marked by Marker Lights, though they can also be "dumb-fired" as conventional weapons upon normal targets.All XV88 Broadside Battlesuits feature a single additional hard-point in addition their weapon systems, which means that a single battlesuit support system can be mounted on the battlesuit's chassis. These are often selected to complement the role the T'au Commander or battlesuit's pilot envisages himself undertaking in an upcoming mission.XV88 Broadside Battlesuit pilots of the rank of Shas'vre or higher can also take a limited amount of battlesuit wargear. Combat support systems listed as hard-wired are cybernetic in nature, and are either entirely contained within the battlesuit helmet, or are implanted within the Fire Warrior's body as warrior jewellery and cannot be removed without surgery.Special issue items and signature systems are experimental or hard to mass produce, and are currently undergoing field-testing prior to becoming widely available. As such, their distribution is usually limited to one per Hunter Cadre.Signature systems, like battlesuit wargear, can only be taken by battlesuit pilots of the rank of Shas'vre or higher.Any XV88 Broadside Battlesuit can also be accompanied by up to two T'au Drones into battle, such as Gun Drones, Shield Drones and Marker Drones. However, due to their specialist heavy weapon nature, XV88s are unique in that they can also be accompanied by Missile Drones in combat, which can lend additional weight of fire at long ranges.