I think ion cannons are way advanced for the merchant anyway. I like the idea of 2 wb per side rather than a lance.
Not Really, Ion cannons are a more common thing in tau than lances in IN. Tau can readily produce them, and have just as much power issues with railguns as they would Ion cannons.
Although you could make a railgun merchant option, with Str. 2 45cm wbs on each side instead of the lances. Would make for an interesting variant LR tau playstyle. With tons of merchants and an explorer and a few messengers.
I would reccomend a +5 point cost on this variant instead of +10
How do people feel about that?
Also as a note on the messenger; does anyone think that this ship is too doomed to die? I think that either the restriction on them should be deleted or they should get 'stealth systems' (I.e. when a player tries to shoot at them when they aren't the closest target they must make an ld check on 3d6 rather than 2. If they are, then they just have to make a standard ld as though they weren't the closest.)
Other thoughts.... I don't think that there should be a Kor'or'vesh/Kor'vattra fleet list, I think that they should be separate and the allying rules works just fine if someone wants to use an older vessel in their 'new fleet', or a newer one in their old fleet.
It makes sense to have heroes in Kor'or'vesh, but not really merchants or explorers, or even defenders, as these would be all 400-800 years outdated. Presumably the Kor'vattra list represents the Tau fleet just after the damocles gulf crusade ~750M41. The Kor'or'vesh would be ~988m41 about 250 years later. The way tau update their tech, this would mean that the 1000 year old Explorers (which in the fluff are no longer produced as of 750m41, would be dying out quickly) and the 800 year old merchants (which weren't designed to be a front line ship) wouldn't be included in the main active fleets of the tau. They would likely be reserve vessels, taken in times of desperation, similar to old IN vessels.
However the Messenger and hero work just fine in the 'newer fleets' as these are 2nd gen ships.