XV88 Broadside Battlesuit - Notable Formations: Broadside Destructor Phalanx – The Destructor Phalanx is a T'au battle formation employed against very heavily defended positions and the most powerful enemy vehicles, and makes use of a special-issue Unified Targeting Matrix system controlled by a T'au Commander of the grade of Shas'el wearing an XV8 Crisis Battlesuit. The Shas'el usually has extensive experience in Broadside tactics and battlefield engagements against heavy armour, and the matrix is used to coordinate the formation's attacks under the commander's direction to demolish even the most heavily armoured target with ease. The Destructor Phalanx was first recorded in use against the Imperium in the Taros Campaign during the Battle of Phyyra Heights.Firebase Support Cadre - Though an XV104 Riptide Battlesuit is a potent weapon indeed, Earth Caste weapon experts have verified that its kill ratio is optimised when it operates alongside two or more teams of XV88 Broadside Battlesuits. When thus formed into Firebase Support Cadres, a common tactic is for the Broadside Teams to unleash Rail Weapons' fire through any armoured transports inbound upon their position, causing the passengers to bail out of their smoking wrecks into the Riptide's line of fire. It is then that the giant battlesuit opens up with its primary weapon, nova-charging the system if necessary, to ensure the scattering enemy is reduced to little more than ashen shadows. If the foe comes in a great horde, as with the great Greenskin tribes or the swarms of the Tyranids, this fire discipline is reversed. The Riptide's primary weapon system will take a great chunk out of the enemy battle line, and the Heavy Rail Rifles then pick off survivors in the manner of snipers -- albeit snipers whose rifles can punch through one side of an Ork Stompa and out the other. When the enemy's vanguard forces are light yet fast, Broadsides bolster their shoulder-mounted Smart Missile Systems with High-yield Missile Pods and specialist Missile Drones. The resultant missile salvos can destroy light transports and enemy skimmers in a series of chained explosions that consume vehicle and passenger alike. Because of this adaptability, Firebase Support Cadres have proven invaluable regardless of the foe their brethren are facing. It is a commonly held view in the T'au Empire that no matter its numbers, an enemy army forced to approach the Fire Caste on foot is an enemy already beaten. Though it is the offensive punch of the Firebase Support Cadre that has made it such a valued asset, its defensive capabilities are also impressive. Whereas most battlesuits are nimble enough to level a volley before engaging their Jetpacks and move away to avoid retaliation, Broadsides and Riptides have heavier armour as their primary protection. Conventional missiles and large-calibre bullets rebound from the dense nano-crystalline layers of their outer armour, allowing them to shrug off all but the most punitive of incoming fire. For protection against the heavy-grade lasers and Plasma Weapons of the Imperium's armies, a Firebase Support Cadre will often employ Shield Drones, whose protective auras can render even Lascannon fire no more deadly than torchlight. The purists of the T'au military maintain that the static tactics of Firebase Support Cadres are suboptimal; a primitive throwback to a less enlightened time where the T'au valued ground taken as well as lives saved. Yet in practice, these cadres are requisitioned on an almost daily basis. Even the famously deft Commander Shadowsun has used them on numerous occasions to achieve her conquests, using the fear the Firebase Support Cadres strike into the foe to manipulate the actions of enemy commanders. In truth, all of the T'au's leaders appreciate the fact there is no foe that the Firebase Support Cadre cannot destroy. Be it an Ork horde, an Adeptus Astartes strike force or towering Tyranid Bio-Titan, it can be brought low by the combination of the most advanced weapon systems the T'au Empire can field. Few sights are as breathtaking, or terrifying, as a Firebase Support Cadre opening fire -- synchronising their targeting data with sub-orbital Drone feeds and structural analysis databanks, the pilots of a Firebase Support Cadre can calculate their angles and sight their weapons on known weak spots with pinpoint accuracy before letting fly together in a single, ground-shaking, fusillade.Ranged Support Cadre - A Ranged Support Cadre combines Pathfinder teams and XV88 Broadside Battlesuits into a single deadly attack formation. The Pathfinders will operate far ahead of the Broadside teams tasked to support them, infiltrating enemy lines and deploying in hidden locations from where they can observe enemy movement. When the time comes, the Pathfinders use their Marker Lights to call down a storm of deadly fire from the Broadside's heavy weapon systems onto the targets they designate. More often than not, the first inkling the enemy will have that they under observation is when they are struck by the Broadsides' attack. Unable to easily identify who is calling down the deadly fire, the enemy has little option but to either retreat or attempt to weather the dangerous fusillade. A Ranged Support Cadre typically consists of three to six XV88 Broadside Battlesuit teams, supported by one to three Pathfinder teams.Retaliation Cadre - The sudden attacks of a Retaliation Cadre have shattered the impetus of countless enemy assaults and torn the heart from supposedly impregnable defences without numbers. Retaliation Cadres consist of a T'au Commander leading three teams of XV8 Crisis Battlesuits, a team of XV88 Broadside Battlesuits, and a team of XV104 Riptide Battlesuits. Held back in a low-flying Manta, a Retaliation Cadre is most commonly used to deliver the final killing blow in either a Mont'ka or Kauyon strike, massing the great strength of elite T'au Battlesuits and applying their prodigious firepower precisely where it is required. Upon deployment, the entire cadre drops from low altitude, even the Broadside Battlesuits deploying single-drop grav-boosters to cushion their landing as they arrive directly in combat. Even as they fall from above the elite pilots start shooting, stitching volleys of fire into the enemy's ranks and scattering them in terror just moments before the battlesuits' feet hit the ground.