A Hydra is well protected inside a formation of 4+RA and with all the others having 75cm weapons, exceedingly difficult to suppress.

But this thread was supposedly about Tau rules questions at one time, not IG army composition...

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Ture, but I have to say never twice in row

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It has been pointed out already but to reiterate this isn't a level playing field for skimmer tanks. They are to operate in cover. A real world example is tanks that were fine in France failed in North Africa where armour and range were critical factors in battles.

If you wanted to compare 'best against best' for fighting on a plateau you would probably pick shadowswords vs broadsides. The former beating russ by a massive margin (killing 2 1/2 tanks a turn for the loss of 1-2 damage points - the Russ have no chance) and the latter beating hammerheads. Incidentally does that mean Shadowswords are better than Leman Russ?

Actually Shadowswords would be better for this than Russ against HH as they outrange them and each tank kill 5/6 a turn. You wouldn't even lose a tank thanks to WE damage allocation, but would have one suppressed if the Tau fire first.

They generate more hits so are better against lighter armoured vehicles

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'Abolish red trousers?! Never! Red trousers are France!' – Eugene Etienne, War Minister, 1913
"Gentlemen, we may not make history tomorrow, but we shall certainly change the geography."
General Plumer, 191x

TRC, I was specifically comparing HHead to LRuss.  The 4+RA is really telling in survivability (if there's no terrain to hide behind).  Even with 60% more hits, the Tau are killing 20% fewer Russ (than Russ are killing HHeads) on an open field.  Against non-RA vehicles, the Tau are deadly, they just suffer against RA.

Dobbsy, even the desert isn't flat.  There are dunes, wadis, and even hard ridgelines, that can all hide a vehicle from detection.  Fact:  In a desert, the Tau handed the Imperium it's butt, until the Imperium threw an entire combined-arms assault at the Tau.  Then the Tau blasted one Warhound in a single firing pass, which pretty much broke the Imperial advance!

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Yes I understand all the details, LiTS. My enquiry was regarding firepower. TRC and I had some debate about firepower of both tanks. I was curious about flat out fp. Hence my question on stats without variables. I'm no statistician so I asked TRC for them. It wasn't a question that warranted numerous "you can't do it this way!" or "that's flawed!" remarks as I never intended for anyone else to use the stats or to go off half cocked about the them. It was simply for my own benefit to clear up what I had in my mind regarding both tanks.  But I did enjoy being talked down to by a couple of folks. That's always fun...