Overview
Im sure there is hundreds of these, but I have alot of experience with the tau commander, and will be providing an unbiased look at his wargear, some various builds both for fun and for serious play, and a couple of strategies to try and use when playing both of the maps.
Understanding the Tau.
The tau commander, has the potential to be one of the best additions to your Last stand team, this is both a blessing and a curse when you are playing bloodied colosseum especially.
Now I dont intend to sit here and go on for days about how awesome, or useless he is. Nor do I wish to debate his merits. I simply wish to point out from personal experience the uses he has within the team dynamic.
To understand how you will most likely be playing with the tau commander, you need to understand the tau army a little bit. In my previous experiences (both in the table top game and in the dawn of war Series) The Tau army is purely about 2 things. Heavy firepower, and bringing it to bear quickly. This is displayed in the table top with all their jet packs and such and their S5 pulse rifles for basic infantry (for those of you that dont know what I mean, It can take on a space marine rather successfully), and in the DOW series this is displayed by their lack of turrets (save listening posts and I suppose you could count entrenched broadsides), and their ability to move their units swiftly, a very short set up time on their firewarriors etc. ANYWHO enough about the tau, you get my point. They move alot, they shoot alot of powerful guns, and they’re not good at sitting still for long. Apparently in the recent rules update for the codex they tau can form a mean defensive line… But I digress.
The tau commander in Dawn Of War 2: Retribution is no exception to the rule, if you sit still for too long he is going to have a VERY bad day, and you will find yourself facing many deaths and much frustration. That being said, with the use of cover it is possible to stay still for some time but movement will be necessary.
The basic gameplay elements.
The Tau commander, is designed to be a ranged combatant, with limited melee capability, this is enhanced by his ability to “jet” Which involves the use of his jumpack, now, this comes default no matter what set of armor you wear with him, however some sets will change the dynamics of jet slightly.
Important facts
-The Commander, will not hold up in melee combat, he is unique in that he is the only hero with absolutely no melee attack even a hero with a two handed weapon will give off weak melee strikes with it, I have noticed however he will pop off the occasional shot when in combat, but it is rare and certainly should not be relied upon as a means of killing units. He mainly just sits there and blocks, taking damage without returning anything until he pops off a shot, which is like once every 5 or ten seconds or something weird like that, I avoid melee so I wouldn’t know. Avoid melee at all costs.
-The Commander can also dish out a LOT of ranged damage in a very short space of time. This can be enhanced with twin linking and a couple of other items, but we will cover wargear later on. Where possible try to engage at range, and use the enhanced mobility to your advantage.
Now, all of the above being said… Do not read into this as though you need to stay miles away from the enemy, oh no, you need not be afraid to jet straight into the middle of an enemy squad, you simply need to be wise about which squads you jump into. Please remember that your commander, regardless of his armor rating, does NOT have the armor to withstand melee combat, and if you are ever engaged, activate kinetic pulse or jet immediately and do not hang around for them to come racing back at you, get out as fast as you can.
I would also like to note that every weapon the tau commander has, can be fired while on the move and while he is in the process of jumping (which can sometimes be infuriating) However for him to fire it he obviously needs to be looking at the enemy and generally you will be running away from them, not toward them.
That said, running towards the enemy is very ill advised, with the tau commander some initiative is required, you need to judge who is going to be the biggest threat to you and you first, then worry about your allies once you are clear. Yes team play IS important, but if your allies die in the middle of a mob and its just you left, you do not want to needlessly throw away your life when you could win.
If your allies are down and crying at you for a res and pinging the map etc, IGNORE THEM. a win is more important than dying, Take all the time you need to kill or kite everything away then res when it is safe, this goes for all heroes though, not just the commander.
The Shiny Toys Part 1 – Weapons
By default your tau commander is equipped with a plasma rifle and a hardpoint for a shield. He has a basic crisis suit equipped that grants him unshakable, jet and has an armor rating of 50.
the Dps stat they give you is not necessarily something you can really rely on, as for example, in the case of the fragmentation projector for example, it says it has 6.0 Dps, but they never state what that 6.0 actually equals in damage output, and it does a LOT more than 6 damage a shot. it is odd, but true. Remember all of the tau weapons can be fired while he is moving, provided there is an enemy within his arc of fire. Another unique feature is that his weapons often fire when he is in the middle of a jump with the jet ability. I will cover this in greater detail later in the guide.
Now I will list the weapons, their stats, and a personal description of them.
Plasma rifle
Dps: 10.0
Default weapon: can only be replaced, not removed.
I personally have not used the default plasma rifle at all, although I imagine it to be less useful than the command issue plasma rifle which is available from the beginning. I would recommend avoiding this weapon when the better version is available.
Shield Hardpoint
No stats, this is just an empty spot waiting to be filled.
Command issue plasma rifle
Available at: Level 1
Dps: 23.3
Grants trait: Armor piercing (all shots from this weapon ignore 100 armor)
Do note that the ignoring 100 armor does not mean it ignores 100%. it literally just ignores 100 points. So if a target has 110 armor, then the shot will hit them as if they had 10 armor, instead of 110. All in all I find this to be a balanced weapon, it fires once around every second and a half. Its armor piercing ability means it ia strong enough to one hit weaker units and 3 hit an ork nob. It is effective against vehicles and armored enemies, though I would not rely too heavily on it to take them out. ~Update~ For those of you wishing to earn the twin linked weapons faster. I recommend using the plasma rifle. When you use jet the commander fires his weapon at the squad you are landing on, this kill does not count towards your achievement. You have to kill them with the actual landing. This weapon fires slow enough that it will not kill the squad while you are still mid jump and can weaken nobs etc just enough for the landing to kill them. ~Update ends~
Flamer
Available at: Level 1
Dps: 7.0
Grants traits: Area of affect, ignore cover (both should be self explanatory)
The flamer is a very pretty weapon, it looks cool, very cool. It shoots jets of blue fire that look beautiful streaming from your commanders wrists. Do not be fooled by the shiny awesomeness. The flamer is a very good weapon for crowd control, and when twin linked can very swiftly burn through hordes of minor orks or guardsmen, however against anything armored, or higher than basic infantry, it will not be any good. The flamer is usable, but it is recommended you use it only if your team mates can support with anti armor weaponry/sniper rifles. I also do not recommend it because using it puts you very close to melee range.
Fusion blaster
Available at: level 3
Dps: 30.0
Grants trait: Armor piercing (shots from this weapon ignore 150 armor)
Same deal as the plasma rifle armor piercing, it ignores the armor points, not the percentage. The fusion blaster is a very strong anti vehicle weapon, and it can be useful on the anvil of khorne map as there is alot of vehicles, however it fires once every 3 seconds or so and has a range only slightly longer than the flamer, so most tend to choose the plasma rifle over it, sacrificing a small amount of dps for more output at a quicker rate.
Air bursting fragmentation projector
Available at: level 9
Dps: 6.0
Grants traits: Ignore cover, Area of effect
Now I know it says this weapon has less Dps than the flamer, and yet has the same effect, but do not be fooled. this weapon will annihilate mobs of enemy infantry like its going out of style, one shot is usually enough, if it can hit. This weapon is subject to projectile travel time and fires much like an artillery piece, so if a target is moving, you’re going to miss. Unless (in my experience at least) They’re moving away from you, this is due to the unique angle at which the shrapnel explodes downwards. It is also rather slow firing, with only one round firing every 2.5 to 3 seconds, Ive not timed them.Suffice to say it shreds infantry mobs into little chunks when it hits them.
Burst cannon
Available at: level 16
Dps: 15.0
Grants trait: Suppressive (this weapon causes suppression when fired at a target for long enough)
I have read conflicting reports about the burst cannon, some love it, some hate it. Personally I rather enjoy it, it tends to be very good at mowing down a mob of infantry, and it can suppress those banshees and other dangerous melee units, allowing you to fire at them for much longer before you need to make good your escape. The burst cannon also has a medium or so range, almost the same as the plasma rifle. This weapon tends to work better than people expect. but the plasma rifle tends to be the stand out weapon.
Networked Weapon Interface
Available at: Any level (Requires dynamic entry achievement)-(Kill 100 enemies by landing on them with jet)
This replaces any shield you could have equipped, it slots into the hard point. When the game starts you will have two of the currently equipped weapon. Anything the tau commander can weild on his arm can be twinlinked. this can lead to some fairly interesting builds. Or hails of bullets in the case of the burst cannon.
The Shiny Toys Part 2 – Shields/Armor + Commander Items
This section, will be a little shorter, on account of a lack of options. So I will include the commander items in this section too.
Armor ratings are important, but do not think you have to max it out completely, sometimes it is better to be lighter instead of over armored. In the guide to last stand written by Faceplant712, he touches on the concept of a chaos sorcerer with an armor rating of 4 saving the day sometimes. It is possible. All tau armor grants the unshakable trait, but it seems on rare occasions the commander can still be knocked back, and then pinned in place for the length of time a “get up” animation would take to complete.
Jet costs ten energy, no matter what armor you equip.
XV8 Crisis Battlesuit
AR: 50.0
Grants trait: unshakable. (makes the wearer immune to knockback)
Default armor, can only be replaced, not removed.
Much the same as the default plasma rifle, I instantly equipped one of the options I had. this is never used by me.
XV8 ‘light’ Crisis Battlesuit
Available at: Level 1
AR: 90
Adds: +25 Health
Grants traits: Unshakable, Light composites (increases the movement speed of the battlesuilt +1)
This I use sometimes, the movement speed bonus is definitely noticable, although if you are using jet to get everywhere, this may not be the suit for you. The distance of jet remains unaffected when wearing this suit. The health bonus is nice but not immense.
XV8 ‘Armored’ Crisis Battlesuit
Available at: Level 1
AR: 120
Adds: +50 Health.
Grants traits: Unshakable, Heavy (lowers the distance of jet but increases the landing damage and adds a stun affect to units you land on.)
This, is a piece of armor I use on a regular basis. Unfortunately it does lower the distance, I think it is either by ½ or ¼ I am not sure. However the stun effect on landing is excellent, as it slows the enemy down to an almost standstill as they try to get back up, allowing you to peg a few in the face before making good your leap into the next squad or into safety.
Shield Generator
Available at: Level 1
Adds: +50 armor rating, + 25 health.
Grants ability: Energy Shield. (forms a bubble that causes damage taken to drain energy instead of health)
While the armor rating and health boost are quite nice, I find the energy shield is useless right from the start, I say this only because of the way I play the tau commander. The energy is much better put to use using jet or another ability that benefits you better, the energy does not last long.
Repulsor Shield
Available at: Level 7
Adds: +50 armor rating, +25 health.
Grants ability: Kinetic pulse. (discharges a large pulse in a circle around the commander, damaging enemies and knocking them back)
Kinetic pulse costs 10 energy to trigger.
Now this, is going to be your best friend, for a very long time. It is the tau commanders only defense against melee enemies, and it is actually rather high damage, an entire mob of banshees can be reduced from 4 members in a squad to 1 member in a squad, or even dead. Especially effective when combined with Heavy jet. as it deals a decent amount of damage, stuns them to stop them running away, then pulses them into chunks. ~update~ The kinetic pulse can be used while reviving without interrupting the revive. (forgot to add this in when I wrote the guide) ~update ends~
Iridium Plated Shield
Available at: Level 11
Adds: + 75 armor rating, +50 health
Grants trait: Heavy
Yes this shield is much like the armored battlesuit, it grants the same trait, and no mixing the two does NOT make a super heavy jet, I tried. However you can combine it with the ‘light’ battlesuit I believe, enabling faster running speed while keeping the heavy jet effect and granting a better bonus to armor and health than some of the other suit/shield combos.
XV8 ‘Agile’ Crisis Battlesuit
Available at: Level 13
AR: 90
Adds: +25 health
Grants traits: Unshakable, Superior Stabilizers (increases the range and lowers the cooldown of jet)
With this armor on you can jump half the map on colosseum and pretty much all of the map on anvil. jet cools down almost before you have landed, but you cannot equip the iridium shield with this armor, so you loose out completely on the extra damage and the stun effect, you also gain no boost to armor rating when wearing this armor. However the stabilized jet is very effective for kiting, those of you who want to kite or find themselves jumping alot, this is the armor for you, jet is usually cooled down within a second of you landing, if not before you have landed.
XV8 ‘Command’ Crisis Battlesuit
Available at: Level 17
AR: 110
Grants traits: Unshakable, Fearless (makes the wearer and his allies around him immune to supression) Improved targeting (Increases the ranged damage of the wearer and allies around him by 15%)
This suit is my second option, it does not have the greatest armor rating, and you only get normal jet, however you can equip the iridium shield to make it heavy jet. The radius is not huge, but it is big enough that you do not have to be hugging your allies, just in the same area of the map.
Shield Drone
Available at: Level 5
Grants ability: Shield Drone
Costs 35 energy to deploy.
Now, I personally have my doubts about the drones, they say that a networked AI keeps the drone close to the commander, but frankly it is a bit lacking, the AI has a tendency to simply float the drone about the map, and I think the bonus from the shield (reduced ranged damage) Is applied to enemies inside the radius also. I personally do not use the shield drone.
Heavy Gun Drone
Available at: Level 15
Grants ability: Gun drone
Costs 25 energy to deploy.
This spawns a heavy gun drone into the field that come weilding twin burst cannons, once again the “networked AI” that is supposed to have it follow the commander, usually just has it floating around shooting at what gets in front of it. It can however draw aggro and I THINK Its burst cannons have the supression trait but I have not confirmed this as I usually have a burst cannon on myself.
Marker Drone
Availabe at: Level 20
Grants ability: Marker drone
Costs 15 energy to deploy.
This is something I have been using recently, as I recently unlocked it. The marker drone places ‘marker lights’ on an enemy squad, a sort of fire and forget laser designator if you will, you do not have to constantly aim it at one target, so it will mark one, then move on and mark another. Marked targets take increased damage from all ranged attacks. and they will also be targeted by a sky ray barrage, provided you have the correct accessory on to enable the skyray barrage.
The Shiny Toys Part 3 – Accessories
Accessories can be somewhat fun and tend to be what makes or breaks your build. The commanders accessories can provide him with new abilities, both active and passive, and even provide him with a couple of Auxillery weapon systems.
Photon Grenades
Available at: Level 1
Grants ability: Photon Grenade
Costs 25 energy per grenade.
These grenades confuse opponents, just like the farseers power. However, their effect can be somewhat limited, in that the confused enemies will wander the map looking for someone to shoot, or usually just keep shooting at you. Feel free to experiment with them as you see fit, but when you only have 50 energy, it is a shame to loose half of it on a grenade that only works, half of the time.
Snare mines
Available at: Level 1
Grants ability: Snare mines
Costs 10 energy to deploy, multiple sets can be active at one time.
These will slow enemy units to a movement speed a snail could outrun, however it is only temporary, it can be useful, especially when you are still a low level, dropping one of these before jumping away to safety can buy you precious time to collect yourself and fire shots into the enemy. before rinsing and repeating.
Energy Core
Available at: Level 2
Adds:+25 energy
This raises your total energy cap to 75, it can be extremely useful, although my current build does not use it. As you have more energy to expend on your fancy abilities like photon grenades and snare mines. Of course once you have later accessories it can be helpful.
Stimulant Injectors
Available at: Level 4
Grants passive ability, Combat Stimulant
These can be useful when you have the accessory space for them, once again I dropped it in the end. When your commander falls to below 20 health, he is immediately restored to 100 health, however, this only works once every thirty seconds. The main reason I dropped it, is that it was making the clone close to unkillable.
Ion Battery
Available at: Level 6
Grants ability: Ion battery.
The ion battery allows the commander to drop a small battery onto the field that temporarily increases the energy regeneration rate of himself and any allies close to it. It is extremely useful and I find myself using it sometimes instead of the combat stimulants. the battery depletes in health quite swiftly and enemies can destroy it. But don’t over look it, it has great potential.
Fragmentation Missile Pod
Available at: Level 8
Grants Auxillery weapon (frag missile barrage)
Costs 30 energy to fire
The frag missile barrage is… how to put it… I personally think it is awesome, yet, also kind of useless. If I wish to have fun, then I use it. If I play seriously I do not. The frag missiles fire upwards, then rain down, so they tend to fly over cover and do not need line of sight, they make a cool little whistle sound and can blast low level squads and mobs or low health mobs into nothing. However there is a small amount of travel time. Learning to account for that can be tricky, but once you understand exactly how much to lead, they can shred just about any low level mob (banshees, guardsmen etc) I recommend at least testing them just as I recommend testing all the gear.
Coolant injectors
Available at: Level 10
Grants trait: Cooled systems. (all abilities have their cool down reduced by 5 seconds and their energy cost reduced by five while this accessory is equipped)
This is basically a must have for anyone. Granted you may decide you don’t want to use it, but I garuntee you, one match and you will love it. It can provide the recharge speed of stabilized jet (almost instantaneous) on any version of jet, including heavy jet. extremely useful for kiting and escaping.
Anti Armor Missile pod
Available at: Level 12
Grants Auxillery weapon: Anti armor missiles
These puppies fire in salvoes of three, do not let the name fool you. If it is an enemy, it can be targeted, they are not vehicle specific. I find myself using them on a regular basis, as their direct hit damage is much higher than the frag rockets, they fly straight, have lock on (if the target moves the missiles will follow it) They will kill an ork nob in one salvo, a wraithlord in two. I have not confirmed, but I think they gain a damage bonus from anything increasing ranged damage such as marker lights.
Targeting Cluster
Available at: Level 14
Adds: +25 accuracy.
Do not let this fool you. It is not 25% accuracy, not exactly. If your weapon has 75% it will not become 100% accurate with this accessory. This improves the accuracy, with 25% of the weapons base accuracy. Really, there are better things you could be spending your slots on. But go ahead if you want.
Marker Light
Available at: Level 18
Grants ability: Mark target, sky ray barrage.
Mark target costs 5 energy per use and sky ray barrage costs 40 per use.
A sneaky trick, ok its not really all that sneaky, but equipping the coolant injectors with this, makes mark target free, and it has no cooldown. The skyray barrage is still energy hungry at 35, although it will perform only light damage and knock back to heavier enemies like nobs, it will completely obliterate smaller units and has a bit of an area of affect on it. I do enjoy this, especially combined with the marker drone. but often I take something different instead. ~Update~ Forgot to mention, Skyray barrages do not know who they fire at, they have no FoF indicators. When activated the skyray barrage hits anything marked with a marker light. This includes yourself and your allies. ~Update ends~
Advanced Drone Controller
Available: Any Level (requires Tau Efficiency achievement)
Grants new abilites to your drone minions.
The Shield drone can activate an EMP field that completely locks up all shield drones and anything inside of their radii, be that friend or foe. Locked up units cannot move, attack or take damage.
The Gun drone overrides the cooldown sequence on its cannons, allowing it to continually hammer out rounds down range without having to stop. It increases their damage also.
The marker drone self destructs, causing high damage to anything caught in the blast.this includes allies to watch out when you plan on blowing them up.
The Adv. Drone controller works on any drones in the game that are the same type as the one you have deployed. even if they are your allies or the clones’ drone in colosseum.
A couple of builds to try with various toys.
The twin linked weapon system is fairly easy to reach. So if you are not interested in shields I recommend using the heavy armor to help kill more with jet.
My Artillery piece build
Granted I am level 20, but I will state what level you need to be for certain builds, I am just listing a fun build to try first.
Weapons : Air Bursting Fragmentation Projector + Networked weapon interface
Armor: XV8 ‘agile’ Crisis Battlesuit
Accessories: Fragmentation Missile Pod + Marker Light + Coolant systems
Commander Item: Marker Drone.
This commander, is purely crazy, Do not expect to be doing much anti vehicle damage, but you have all the infantry covered, and I do mean all of them. When you jump, the airbursting frag projectors will often fire on the enemy right before you land on them. This results in a 99% hit rate when firing like that. Obviously less when the enemy is moving. The frag missiles allow you to shred groups to pieces over walls, just in case the frag launchers missed something. and of course the marker drone and light allow me to mark targets that are out of range of the weapons, and drop seeker missiles on their heads. This build is more for fun than for anything else.
Beginner set up
This set up is possible from level 1 and will give you a head start in the battle
Weapon: Command Issue plasma rifle
Armor: XV8 ‘Armored’ Crisis Battlesuit
Accessories: Snare mines.
I know it seems sparse, but really it is the basics that you need. The heavy suit will allow you to disrupt groups with stun and knockback plus increased damage. The plasma rifle is around the only weapon worth its salt honestly, the flamer as I stated, is pretty but early on the plasma is your only anti armor weapon. The photon grenades tend to be a waste of valuable energy. When you hit level 2, which can be done in a single match, add an energy core to the accessories. at level 4 fill the third slot with the combat stims, they will help you get through the levels. Avoid the fusion blaster if you can help it, you will find it gets you smacked in the face alot more, and its slow fire rate really holds it back. It does nto do all that much more damage than the Command issue plasma rifle anyway.
Level 7 build
Weapons: Command issue plasma rifle + Repulsor shield
Armor: XV8 ‘Armored’ Crisis Battlesuit
Accessories: Energy Core + Combat Stims + Ion Battery
Commander Item: Shield drone or nothing.
Level 13 build
By this point, you have enough gear to play around a bit more. You are able to be more liberal.
Weapons: Command Issue Plasma Rifle + Repulsor shield or Networked Weapon Interface
Armor: ‘Armored’ or ‘Agile’ battlesuit
Accessories: Coolant systems, Armor piercing rockets, ion battery
Commander Item: Shield drone or empty.
Now this next one, I am not certain exactly what was used, but I know the gist of it. I only saw the build being played with someone, and it wound up being extremely powerful, including annihilating the clones on colosseum within 2 seconds.
The Build I saw
Weapons: Twin linked Command Issue Plasma Rifles
Armor: ‘Armored’ battlesuit
Accessories: Coolant systems, Adv. Drone controller and either energy core or ion battery
Commander Item: Marker drone.
Essentially, the player jumped into the middle of groups, the heavy jet instantly stunned them, he dropped a marker drone, activated its self destruct and jumped away as it got ready to explode, it dealt out rediculous amounts of damage. and easily destroyed everything, even wave 20.
Basic strategy
Please do not think I am telling you what to do. I only make recommendations. although likely you will find yourself doing it anyway, as it is how the Tau commander plays.
Stratergy One
Run and shoot. it is as simple as it sounds. Run towards the enemy firing your weapon, then jump away before you are engaged in melee combat, obviously if you are kiting this is not going to work since the enemy is going to be behind you.
If you find yourself overwhelmed
Use your jet, Dont be afraid to leave an ally to die, heck leave them to cry and moan for a revive, never revive unless you are sure it is safe to do so. When you are overwhelmed, the tau commander is not going to handle large mobs well, even WITH the frag projector or the frag missiles etc. He will swiftly be swamped. So do not be afraid to jump. head for the edge of the map, turn around when it is safe, fire an Anti Armor rocket or some shots, then when the enemy is about to catch up to you and chop your face off, jump again, and do the same thing. Learning your hotkeys helps, turning on grid hotkeys is going to make it easier too.
The “Cover” Strategy
This is where yourself, and your team (usually this applies when you have an imperial guard general or two with turrets) find a set of unbreakable heavy cover and set up shop, digging right in. If you intend to do this I recommend bringing the kinetic pulse, the Lord general does not have the armor to withstand melee combat, and the kinetic pulse will shove all the enemies away and buy you crucial seconds to peg away alot more of their health, increasing everyones survivability.
The Artillery piece Strategy
This involves either “walling” or using that little spot to the south of the colosseum, both must be done on colosseum. Using the artillery build I detailed above, you can sit on that side of the map, safe from melee, and when your allies die, you sit back just out of range of the enemies guns and shoot frag projectors and missiles at them, swiftly cleaning up the horde. This strategy is of course exploiting a glitch. So if you like to play legitimately, ignore it.
The exploding stratergy
The strategy I witnessed in game, the heavy jet, marker drone self destruct strategy. Definitely worth trying IF you can get the Adv. Drone controller, which is another guide entirely.
My own stratergy
I tend to weild a burst cannon or Command Issue plasma rifle, with the kinetic pulse, I heavy jet straight into the middle of a group of light infantry, or let the banshees surround me, then kinetic pulse, it is quite high damage. I also use it to disrupt raveners and warriors, and use Anti Armor rockets to deal with ork nobs, zoanthropes, wraithlords etc.
Things the tau commander should have.
This section is more for ideas of things such as wargear that people think would be cool to see the tau commander get from a loving mod maker. Who knows, if it gets enough attention someone might make it.
Admittedly, an ability to use Shoulder mounted railgins, like the frag or AA missiles where it sits on your shoulder, would be really sweet. I can see it being really really useful too.
Shoulder mounted railgun
Grants trait: Super heavy (Or) Heavy munitions
Grants ability: Liquid munitions, Solid slug. Each costing 40 energy, 35 with the coolant systems.
Liquid munitions is a shot usable against most light infantry, in the codex (The old one at least) Railguns could fire semi solid shells, which had either a template (Smallest one) or affected the entire squad I forget which of the two but it was crowd control. It is a shot that is soft, the projectile essentially turns into a searing hot, face melting liquid ball of metal by the time it impacts. This would be usable against hordes of infantry, with an area affect on the shot and perhaps knock back.
The Solid slug is the standard railgun slug that is used in the DOW franchise. It shoots what is essentially a big spike, that splinters on the target, like a massive sabot round, except it fires it at hyper velocity. This would be the anti armor shot, direct damage only, no knockback. But deals double the damage of a salvo of AA rockets.
The super heavy trait is something I came up with just now also. It works similar to heavy, except jets effective range is cut to 3/4 the range of heavy jet (meaning very small) Landing has enough force to double the damage of heavy jet, and stun for longer.
The heavy munitions trait, again something I came up with just now. Would be something along the lines of. The energy consumption of jet is increased by 5 energy when the railgun is equipped. This means you can keep the effective range of normal jet, but the energy cost is 10 with coolant, 15 without. It would automatically grant the heavy trait also, so you would not be able to use stabilized jet with the railgun.
It is just an idea. Each ability would cost you 40 energy (35 with coolant) on account of being so powerful. But I think it would be cool to see. Its range would be capable of hitting across half of the map. But it would be possible to avoid it with a well timed movement (So the AI clone cannot snipe you but the standard units are not going to dodge your shots unless they put a building in the way or use a jump/teleport right as you fire.
Conclusion.
So now you have my take on the tau commander and ways to use him. Im sure there are better guides out there, but I put a bit of time into this one, so be kind. Haters are not appreciated.