Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I got rid of my old (mostly badly painted Tau army) and am starting from scratch. I think a Farsight list is in order because I love Crisis suits and my old army didn't have enough of them. Anyway, I'm feeding off of several people's thoughts on Farsight tactics. There's probably not an original thought in this entire list (don't hate moosifer). Anyway, hope it's competitve and makes people cry and give me bad comp scores.

1850 Farsight Enclave:
Farsight- (170)
3x Fireknives- TA, 2x SD (3x 112)
2x Helios- TA, TL, 2x SD (2x 117)
1x Fireknife- TA, 2x SD, Failsafe Detonator (127)

Shas'el- fusion, plasma, bs5, positional relay (117)

6 Stealth Suits- (180)
Deathrain- BSF (46)

6x Firewarriors- leader w/markerlight (85)
6x Firewarriors- leader w/markerlight (85)

2x Broadsides- ASS, 2 shield drones, targerlock (200)
1x Ionhead- MT, TL, DL, 2 burstcannons (135) 
1x Skyray- 2 burstcannons, DL, TA, MT (155)

So anyway, it's pretty standard except for the ionhead and skyray. I cut down the suits in the Farsight retinue to make room for a skyray and more stealth suits. Anti-tank is kind of weak but I hope that railguns, mobile fuision blasters, and some judicuious use of seeker missiles will help in that regard. The lights on the FW teams make them somewhat of a threat and at least a little useful. The skyray will provide marker support for the Farsight enclave while the firewarriors focus on shooting seekers.

Looks good, and probably what I'd do at 1850 (see the tournament report for more details). Few points.

i) Positional relay requires a hard-point

ii) Failsafe detonator might be as well. I doubt its worth the points, if you lose combat you can usually empty the kill zone.

iii) the large size squad is very unwieldy, don't worry about not maxing it out. The key thing is target lock on every model you can, so you target one-2 squads and then charge another.

iv) you could split that stealth squad - farsight is always low on scoring units.

Like the idea of markerlights in the FWs to shoot off the seekers - wish i could find the points for that in 1500.

Unfortunately, Farsight only gets one stealth squad.


Plan B looks like this:
Farsight-
3x Fireknives- TA, 2xSD
3x Helios- TA, TL, 2x SD

Shas'el- fusion, plasma, positional relay, HWMT, HWTA

4 Stealth
2x Deathrain- BSF
2x Fireknives- leader w/2 SD

2x6 Firewarriors- leader w/'lights

2x BASS- leader w/TL, 2xSD
Ionhead- BC, MT, DL, TL

Ditched the skyray/2 stealths for more fireknives and deathrains. I felth that the firewarriors would provide marker support and that 155 points was too much to spend on what was basically mobile markerlights.

Guess being stealthy makes you less prone to loopy 'lets kill everyone' notions a la crisis pilots.

Targetting array can't be hard-wired either - its one or the other. Play much escalation?

RIF - I'm such a dumbass. Actually, I don't play much escalation... actually lately, I don't play much Warhammer 40,000 having a distinct lack of venues and opponents in my area. This is more of a future goal to have ready in about 7-9 months when I get out of The Land that Time Forgot (ie- South eastern Alabama). Assuming I drop the positional relay, how do I deal with escalation or drop pods?

Positional relay is a handicap, if you use it you only get the one reserve. This will only hinder you.

Can you take a Farsight list without using Farsight himself?

I am sceptical about the Skyray, it doesnt do anthing special.

Markerlight fire warrior teams are good, take more. In fact the a large Farsight retinue is crying out for a Pathfinder team to be dedicated to assisting its fire. It will make a full squadron of Guided War Walkers look undergunned by comparison.

You take the positional relay for the sole reason that it allows only one deepstriker! That's your primary defence against a drop pod army. You try to take the second turn and make him drop his pods before you have to drop the majority of your army.

For example.

Top of Turn 2: Space marine player drops a couple of pods, shoots at...nothing really.
Bottom of Turn 2: Tau drops single Shas'o with positional relay
Top of Turn 3: Space marine player drops more drop pods, probably only have 1 or 2 left.
Bottom of Turn 3: Tau drops farsight at the best spot to cause maximum damage to all the stranded Marine drop pod units.

As for the skyray, that networked markerlight is probably worth more than the seekers, plus you can only have 1 Hammerhead and 1 Broadside team. I would take a skyray definetely!

PL is not without use in regular escalation, if farsight doesn't arrive on turn 2 and the commander does, then you can get farsight on turn 3 on a 2+. Worked once for me. If you get both, then the relay can bring the Hammerhead or Skyray on if you need them,

Seeing as you're not planning on running off to the GT or Adepticon, then I don't think you need to worry about fine-tuning things excessively. The basic build you have will work.

I would think in the long-run you will conclude that you want at most 1 non-fireknife suit in the farsight squad, so you might want to take that into account when modelling i.e. use magnets or put the fusion guns in places easily snappable.

Don't buy pathfinders. The Skyray will work far more effectively, since the council will only really need a single hit and the 'ray is a mobile platform and mobile scoring unit.  Orlanth, have you ever used the 'sight-council?

Posted By torgoch on 12/30/2006 1:05 PM
Orlanth, have you ever used the 'sight-council?

No, but I have a friend who does. Every crisis gets a plasma rifle as normal, plus asorted other hardpoint fittings. The Skyrays two networked markerlights are needed for the seeker missiles and are not enough anyway.

Eight pathfinders result in four hits average. That is Bs5 (from 3) and -2 cover saves for O'shovah plus cronies. Allowing for the number of plasma rifle shots, plus assorted other guns this is going to be nasty.

You may have noticed that neither I nor my friend agree with giving Farsight retinue Targeting Array as the team WILL have markerlight support, from Fire Warriors if necessary.

I have an O'Shovah model, in fact I have two from a large bid. One was converted into my standard Commander. However I use Tau sept colours for my list and Farsight is no longer welcome on Tau.

As the current Farsight is much more viable as a list than the previous. Free bonding and Ork Hunter for one, I am going to put assembling O'Shovah back on my modeliing priority lists. He has far more character than the other Tau heroes. If you read between the lines it implies that Farsight is the later career of Kais, the hero from Fire Warrior.

Farsight deserves his own mini-codex, at least in White Dwarf. Complete with Gue'vesa and options to equip crisis suits with close combat weapons. He also needs his history expanded as it shows promise.

I wouldn't recommend doing that. Targetting arrays give definite benefit for the squad. Using pathfinders require you to co-ordinate a slow and vulnerable unit with a fast-moving aggressive unit. Any serious amount of cover can ruin a pathfinders day, as can escalation. That said, if you want to use pathfinders, and they are fun to use, they work better in farsight than in normal tau. Problem is they basically don't work that well.

The Skyray may be more expensive per hit, but its more durable and crucially can move with the farsight squad. The missiles are just a nice bonus if you get a second markerlight hit, although you could always try and fit a firewarrior squad markerlight in there to shoot them off as and when.

I will have to take a look at this, its not how I usually play but I can see the benefits. One could always add marker drones, though that would be a last resort as they are so inefficient. This way however you guarantee the markerlights are on site, which not even a Skyray can do if it gets a simple stunned damage result. I am still not convinced, I do find Pathfinders to be very reliable and hard to kill however LOS is a problem, I give you that.

TA on a Farsight retinue is going to be very expensive, plus the loss of a hardpoint per suit and the cost of the 'replacement' Skyray. I havent got my Codex with me but dont Pathfinders count as scouts and therefore get to start on board in Escalation, just like Sentinels.

One of the reasons to take Farsight is for the opportunity to use certain toys that are not really viable in other lists, such as the self destruct, marker drones and more. But all in all its a gimic. The guy I know who has a modelled Farsight retinue is a staff memeber, and can afford the extra models, for the rest of us its bit of an investment.