Skyray Missile Gunship

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This article is part of the Dawn of War Player's Guide. From RelicWiki

This article has been updated for Soulstorm. The Dark Crusade version is now archived.

Dawn of War Vehicle

Skyray Missile Gunship
Race	Tau
Version	Soulstorm v1.2
Build Info
Hotkey S	Build Cost 100 225  3 Build Time 30 s Built From Vehicle Beacon Unit Size 1 Requires Nothing Limit None
Unit Stats
Hitpoints	1000
Armour	Vehicle Medium
Unit Mass	50
Move Speed	24
Sight Radius	35 (cannot detect)
Weapons
Ranged	2x Smart Missile Launchers
Melee	None

Contents 1 Skyray Missile Gunship 2 Tactics 3 Abilities 3.1 Missile Barrage 4 Weapons 4.1 Smart Missile Launcher 5 Researchable Upgrades 5.1 Missile Barrage Research 5.2 Improved Metallurgy 6 The Dawn of War Player's Guide

Skyray Missile Gunship

"Mark the target and we'll wipe it out."

A variant of the Hammerhead Gunship, the Skyray Missile Gunship is the basic Tau tank.

Armed with long range Smart Missiles, self guiding warheads capable of independently locating their target, the Skyray is the Tau answer to conventional artillery. When upgraded to use its Missile Barrage it becomes a real power to be reckoned with.

Tactics

Like many Tau vehicles, Skyray Missile Gunships can deal lots of damage but are rather fragile. It's a good idea to make use of their immense range and keep them to the rear, behind the main fighting line. Even the Missile Barrage ability has long range and is best used to disrupt or kill infantry and severely damage priority targets, like expensive/important structures that tend to be large hence get hit by most of the barrage's missiles.

The range of the Skyray Missile Launcher is equal to the line of sight of a Pathfinder, so positioning a Skyray by a squad will maximize the opportunities to shoot from afar.

The Skyray also does high anti-vehicle damage. The long range and reasonable damage per hit make Skyrays useful against slower vehicles, and the Mark Target ability of the Pathfinder Team will enhance the Skyray's ability to make short work of vehicles. Being effective against vehicles doesn't mean that it's bad versus infantry. A single Skyray Missile Gunship can keep a whole squad from running towards you by consistently knocking them back.

With their high cost and low health, earning a return on the investment in a Skyray can be difficult if the opponent already has AV weaponry on the field. However, once Missile Barrage is researched, a single use of this powerful ability can more than earn back the cost of the vehicle.

Tau armies following the Path of Kauyon are reliant on Skyray Missile Gunships as a ranged vehicle, while Mont'Ka path Tau should use them prior to building or in conjunction with Hammerhead Gunships.

Abilities

Missile Barrage

	Missile Barrage			Hotkey: B
	Requires	Missile Barrage Research
	Target Types	Any
	Range	40
	Area of effect	Variable	Cooldown time	70 s
Effects	The Skyray lets fly with its entire Missile Battery. A total of 19 missiles are fired, each have an offset of up to 8 from the target point, an area of effect of 6, and has a strong knockback effect (30-40 force). The damage table below is per missile.
Damage Values Infantry Vehicles Buildings Daemons Base Damage Low Med High H.Med H.Hi Cmdr Low Med High Air Low Med High Med High Morale Min Max Min.D 36-70.5 72-141 60-118 56-113 42-82.3 30-58.8 30-58.8 36-70.5 36-70.5 36-70.5 36-70.5 30-58.8 24-47 42-82.3 18-35.3 10 120 235 1

Weapons

Smart Missile Launcher

The Skyray is armed with two Smart Missile Launchers, but out of convenience it has only been listed here once.

	Smart Missile Launcher
Damage Per Second Values Infantry Vehicles Buildings Daemons Morale Base Damage Low Med High H.Med H.Hi Cmdr Low Med High Air Low Med High Med High DPS Base Min Max Min.D Initial DPS: 22.4 22.4 22.4 22.4 22.4 28.0 44.8 44.8 7.0 44.8 22.4 11.2 7.0 28.0 11.2 7 50 350 450 25
Cost	Default Weapon	Range	10-50	Setup Time	0 s
Build Time	Default Weapon	Accuracy	70%	Refire Rate	2.5 s
Area of Effect	5	Requires	Nothing
Notes	The Smart Missile Launcher does not have a Fire on the Move penalty and does knockback (20-50 force).

Researchable Upgrades

Missile Barrage Research

	Missile Barrage Research			Hotkey: B
	Cost	100 100	Research Time	45 s
	Researched From	Path to Enlightenment
	Requires	Nothing
Effects	Allows the Skyray Missile Gunship to use the Missile Barrage ability.

Improved Metallurgy

	Improved Metallurgy			Hotkey: I
	Cost	150 150	Research Time	25 s
	Researched From	Path to Enlightenment
	Requires	Kauyon Command Post
Effects	Fire Warrior armour is upgraded from Infantry Heavy Medium to Infantry Heavy High. Health of Fire Warriors increased by 10% to 374. 35% health bonus to Skyray Missile Gunship (1350 HP), Drone Harbinger (1013 HP), Drone Squad (439 HP), Barracuda (1687 HP), Krootox (8775 HP) and Greater Knarloc (10800 HP). Health of Tau Commander increased by 200 to 1200.

The Dawn of War Player's Guide

The Dawn of War Player's Guide - Thought of the day: Knowledge is power, guard it well.
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