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Hey guys,
I was wondering what would be the best way to defend my Farseer?
I already guessed that he his fairly save on a Jetbike, but a happily jetbikeriding farseer is an imagine i simply cannot support.
So, what is left? Warlock bodyguards? Detaching to a squad? What could work best?

Help appreciated.

Greets
Schepp himself

The Farseer is virtually meaningless outside the context of his army. How he stays alive is completely dependent on what his role in the army IS, and who he's enhancing.

Normally if he's by himself he's immune to enemy shooting because he's never going to be the closest legal target (with exceptions for things like Drop Pods).

My Farseers almost always accompany a HtH squad (Banshees back when we could cast while inside a tank, Harlequins more recently), casting Fortune on the squad (and Doom on an enemy unit in the new codex).

I like my Farseer on a bike. He's still an IC and thus is practically untargetable while the maneuverability keeps him where you want him to be.

If you have an extra elite slot, a wraithguard bodyguard is another option. You can go as small as 3 in a unit and, with a concealing warlock and fortune, that makes a very durable unit, even against droppoders.

Of course if you have a unit of harlequins standing around in the backfield waiting for a countercharge opportunity, the farseer can hang with them and benefit from the veil of tears.

How do you guys figure that a farseer all by his lonesome is 'immune to shooting'. Making a leadership roll to not target the closest target is cake to all the armies except.... eldar? I mean, name a shooty enemy unit that isn't going to be using the LD 10 of some nearby commander(imperium, tau), artefact(necron), bug (duh) or his twenty buddies (ork)?

cant shoot indipendient chars if they arent the closest target. end of story. Cant take a leadership test to ignore this.
If something else is closer he is going to live. if nothing is, you got out played.

Hey
new edition, same question:
Haven't played the 5th edition, but it occurred to me yesterday. How do I protect my footslogging farseer?

Greets
Schepp himself

It ALIVE!

no the rule is gone if you're not in a unit you can get shot ... but you can now happly use your powers from inside a transport ...

Schepp himself wrote:Hey
new edition, same question:
Haven't played the 5th edition, but it occurred to me yesterday. How do I protect my footslogging farseer?

Greets
Schepp himself

There is only one way: join another squad. If you have an all-around farseer who has destructive and supportive powers, change him/her so that he has only one kind of powers. So if your farseer moves with a guardian squad give him guide and if he goes with a howling banshee squad (they shouldn't footslog then) give him doom or perhaps mind war. Alternatively you can join your farseer to a guardian squad near war walkers so he is safe and supports war walkers at the same time. Does this help at all?

Yup it does.
I thought that reviving the existing thread wouldn't be that big of a deal, considering I added something useful.

At the moment, I use a Farseer with Guide, Fortune and/or Doom. He is usually accompanied by a squad of Dark Reapers and a Wraithlord to build a solid firebase.
Is he too vulnerable in a unit of dark reapers? Should I give him a dedicated retinue of Warlocks or Wraithguards?

Greets
Schepp himself

I defend my Farseer by saying,

"It's a ROBE not a DRESS."

As long as you keep something that is good at cc near the Dark Reapers he should be fine. Watch out for Snikrot.

If I position accordingly, I should burn any outflankers with my wraithlord and stomp them afterwards, or are there any outflankers that can push a wraithlord easily aside?

Greets
Schepp himself

I always keep my farseer inside either a waveserpent or falcon. All the powers you listed above can be cast without LOS, and additionally, if heis deployed in a vehicle, you measure from the vehicle hull (i.e. 4-5 more inches of range for those 6" range spells). While in a vehicle, he also becomes a lot more mobile, and able to react to where he needs to be.

Additional bonus: if he is in a falcon, he is always in range to guide that falcon

if deployed with a squad in a vehicle, he can opt to remain aboard when they deploy, or vice versa if you wanna hop him out to contest an objective.

The reason I mentioned Snikrot is, because he can outflank from the back edge from reserve. If your farseer and reaper squad are proving to be a "must kill now squad" then on his turn he could come in on the back edge right next to you and kill your whole squad in cc before the Wraithlord gets his turn.

Wraithguard are a durable bodyguard option. Take around 5, stick your 'Seer in the unit and you've got one tough bodyguard unit that doesn't get penalized by Wraithsight.

Put him in a Falcon. He can still cast powers in the Falcon and is protected by holofields.

yup that's a great way. Another choice is harlequins, which are basically invisible at range.

Most of the options have been gone over but I'll recap...

1) Inside a transport. You can cast out of it and remain inside even if the squad inside gets out.
2) Attached to whatever squad you are improving. This keeps you from being singled out, but make the squad an even more tempting target (not always a bad thing).
3) Attached to a seperate squad that you are not improving. If you are dooming targets for banshees, you may want to attach the farseer to a nearby squad of wraithguard (or something similarly tough that isn't going to be involved in the meele).
4) With a warlock bodyguard. A fortuned warlock squad is one of the toughest units in the game (even more so when they are on bikes), so you should have littel trouble staying alive in one. The problem is that they are expensive.
5) Attached to a squad of harlequins. They are difficult to impossible to attack at range and pack a punch in close combat.

With all of these, keep in mind that you can't embark on a transport if you are on a jet bike. You can, however, join a squad that's on foot if you are on a bike (althoug it limits your movement once you do but you can always leave the squad later on).

deFl0 wrote:yup that's a great way. Another choice is harlequins, which are basically invisible at range.

Yes. Doom makes rending a happy rule. 5++ is slightly improved with fortune. Str 4 sm attacks or lascannons.. no real differance to a harlie.

Shadowseer's rules are also awesome.. Mindwar means you could keep a much smaller squad at range and pick off priority targets (Have a 10pt death jester and keep some shooting too)

A shadowseer (or a farseer) can baby sit a wraithlord too.. umm you can always disengage the farseer at the start of turn to charge your harlies in to make use of their hit and run (and flipbelt) rule. You'd need to either distract the enemy enough or have a decent pickup stratagey for the lonesome farseer.

The darkreaper/wraithlord idea is a good one for a firebase although doom only has 24'' range.

Don't forget that monsterous creatures (like the dreadnaught) will block line of sight to your farseer. While this isn't a good idea for long term, ducking behind one for a round works for a stop gap while another defensive squad moves into position to pick up the farseer.