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This is a Tau Ork fighter themed list, designed after what would fit inside two Orca Dropships. The idea is they are designed around the "Kauyon" strategy laid out in Codex Tau, the Firewarriors and Pathfinders backed up by Ba'kira and his team are the bait, while the other crisis teams deepstrike in near their preferred targets and Shar'kan and his squad outflank. The net result should be a completely surrounded enemy.

Suggestions as to how to make the list more fluffy would be appreciated as well as ways to use the army to be more competitive. The list was not designed with tournament play in mind, but did do well against a competitively minded Nid player, so I am confident that it could do well.

Farsight List (Primary Detachment)
HQ:
Commander Shar'kan
- Twin-linked Fusion Blasters
- Fusion Blades
- Talisman of Arthas Moloch
- Stimulant Injector
- Vectored Retro-thrusters
- Shield Drone
- Shield Drone
- Warscaper Drone

Ethereal Aun'ka
- Equalizers
- Homing Beacon

Troops:
Shar'kan's Drop Team
Crisis Suit
- Bonding Knife Ritual
- Fusion Blaster
- Fusion Blaster
- Target Lock
Crisis Suit
- Bonding Knife Ritual
- Fusion Blaster
- Fusion Blaster
- Target Lock

Ba'kira's Defense Team
Crisis Suit
- Bonding Knife Ritual
- Missile Pod
- Missile Pod
- Velocity Tracker
Crisis Suit
- Bonding Knife Ritual
- Missile Pod
- Missile Pod
- Velocity Tracker

Shas'vre Bo'laka
Crisis Suit
- Shas'vre
- Flamer
- Airbursting Fragmentation Projector
- Vectored Retro-thrusters
- Bonding Knife Ritual
- Gun Drone
- Gun Drone

Bo'laka's Assault Team
Crisis Suit
- Bonding Knife Ritual
- Burst Cannon
- Flamer
- Gun Drone
- Gun Drone
Crisis Suit
- Bonding Knife Ritual
- Burst Cannon
- Flamer
- Gun Drone
- Gun Drone

Shas'vre Ak'ela
Crisis Suit
- Shas'vre
- Bonding Knife Ritual
- Plasma Rifle
- Plasma Rifle
- Vectored Retro-thrusters
- Gun Drone
- Gun Drone

Ak'ela's Assault Team
Crisis Suit
- Bonding Knife
- Plasma Rifle
- Plasma Rifle
- Gun Drone
- Gun Drone
Crisis Suit
- Bonding Knife
- Plasma Rifle
- Plasma Rifle
- Gun Drone
- Gun Drone

Firewarrior Team
8 Firewarriors
- 8 Bonding Knives

Firewarrior Team
8 Firewarriors
- 8 Bonding Knives

Fast Attack:
Pathfinder Team
8 Pathfinders
- 8 Bonding Knives


Tau List (Allies Detachment)
HQ:
Commander Ba'kira
- Cyclic Ion Blaster
- Missile Pod
- Shield Generator
- Velocity Tracker
- Iridium Battlesuit
- Puretide Engram Neurochip
- Shield Drone
- Shield Drone

Troops:
Firewarrior Team
8 Firewarriors

Firewarrior Team
8 Firewarriors

Fast Attack:
Pathfinder Team
8 Pathfinders

All named characters are actually a part of their designated squads. The list contains only eight troop choices not ten. Both commanders go with their named squads as well. Aun'ka is fielded as a part of one of the Firewarrior squads and will spend the whole game buffing them.

Nice! Good to see another farsight player is around! great army btw. Just thought that a hammerhead would be a good addition. I'd also give the spare commander an onager gauntlet though since o'vesa did create those for the enclave in the first place. Maybe he could have been one of bravestorm's retinue?

I would love to throw in a Hammerhead, but my question would be how they got it there? The idea of the 1750 list is that they are exactly what fits in two Orcas. The Skyrays are more of a byproduct of an attempt to get to a more common point value, 2000 points. I would prefer to be rid of them entirely, but fielding a single fighter or bomber in their place, which would be my prefered option does not get them to 2000 points.

The Onager Gauntlet would be neat, but the two commanders are supposed to represent opposing views of combat. Ba'kira is supposed to represent the patient hunter, waiting for his pray, where as Shar'kan is supposed to represent the aggressive hunter, chasing down his prey. It is a dynamic, and stupid fun mix to command on the field.

You could base the tau allies off the kel'shan sept when farsight's forces came against the tyranids. But otherwise sounds cool!

Post a batrep sometime, would love to see the army on the field

Personally I'm not a huge fan of drones; range is to short and they never seem to pull their weight while at the same time forcing Ld rolls but that's just me personally.

By dropping some of the drones you can make room for those bombers you wanted instead of the Skyrays. Just remember you'll be giving up 4 consistent markerlights for 4 every second turn and you'll also be giving up a great source of alpha strike and armored cover for your advancing troops or pathfinders.

Fluff wise you could say that since most of your stuff is coming in via Orca the Skyrays were there as a primary deterant to Ork aircraft and your force is being sent in to reinforce their position after a team of pathfinders spotted an orc force heading there to deal with them.

This is very true, I have since worked a Manta into their task force, providing them with Skyray and Piranha support. The Piranha acting as scouts and flanking anti-tank in a pinch.

As far as the drones, I used to agree with you. I felt the same way, a waist of points and forcing leadership tests. But after that one game I used them in I have to say I am impressed. The question is would an Imperial Guard Veterans squad be as affective without the other seven members who can not take special weapons? And my answer would be no.

In a game I played recently against an Imperial Guard player I used several deepstriking crisis teams as troop choices. These squads deepstruck and were then pretty much wiped out in two turns. The same thing happened to me in several other games when I fielded several squads with dual Missile Pods, the units were wiped out in two turns. However the drones seem to make the difference.

Not only did I draw the attention of the enemies strength 8 and up weaponry, usually all that your opponent redirects to deal with a daring squad of shas'ui, by deepstriking these special weapon toting crisis suits behind my enemies line, but rather I managed to get him to redeploy several troop squads as well. You see the drones die quick, but one Missile Launchers or one Lascannon shot kills a drone the same way it kills a crisis suit, in one shot. So my opponent was forced to redirect two troop choices to kill the drones before he could shoot in his higher strength and AP weaponry to kill my suits. This meant my suits not only killed a monstrous creature in a single turn, but managed to pull two scoring units away from the mission's objectives, and redirect the fire from three units toward a single unit far from my main line. The net effect was devastating to my opponent as I managed to fight only about half his army with what was almost seventy five percent of my own do to him moving most of his units out of range to deal with my deepstriking suits.

I am confident if I were to play that same Imperial Guard player with the above list I would win easily as his precious Lascannon would simply drop pointless drones, allowing my suits to advance. I Have started to see the wisdom in "bubble wrapping" or "hiding" special weapons in the way Imperial armies seem to be so fond of doing as I would much rather lose 12-36 points of drones to a Heavy Weapons Squad than a 53 point crisis suit with two plasma rifles.

This is all an aside argument however, my fluff states I must take the full compliment of two Orca class drop ships, and each Orca carries eight drones. They have to be somewhere, and I feel confident they are in the most useful places.

Though I can say since this post I have been dreaming of including an Aegis Defense Line with no gun or other equipment attached. Though this could just be because I enjoy giving myself interesting math problems to solve.