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I didn't really see a "new players" section, so if this is in the wrong place, I apologize. Also, please excuse any moronic statements I may make as I am VERY new to the game.

I am joining some friends of mine who have been playing WH40k, and in standard new player fashion selected the army which I found the most aestically pleasing, the Tau. In reading through the Codex, I came across the special character Commander Farsight and that is where this question comes in.

What are the keys to success with an army which is limited by his seperate order of Tau issue? It seems like the Kroot are very useful in the Tau army, and not being able to use them in a Farsight army doesn't seem quite worth the advantages of taking Farsight.

Am I missing something?

How does one play a Farsight Enclave army successfully?

Thanks in advance for the replies.

Kroot can be effective however there uses lie in taking objectives from your enemy and in some cases assaulting some units off an objective, from what i have seen with a farsight army it is best to maximise on one of the taus main strengths....battlesuits, if your taking Farsight the best thing to do is max out on crisis suits, however you must be careful on weapons outfits as you want a couple of the favorable combo of missile pod/plasma rifles and then start picking the rest for things like anti horde hurt (probably flamers/burstcannons) or anti tank (deepstriking with fusion guns/missile pods or twinlinked fusion guns) and pack fire warrior squads as many as you can for objective taking, another thing to remember is farsight can take a massive unit of suits whilst it is expensive it can be pretty fun (i've seen it used and they are very hard to kill in some cases) and all of your units can regroup from below half str for free which can be pretty handy, thats just a basic really i prefer not use farsight as it restricts your choices of broadsides which are my favorite tau unit (they just remind me of the Gundam Heavyarms) but an army led by him can be pretty fun so if you like battlesuits that much go for it

Sorry 99MDeery, I can't read your run on sentences.

Syas: I think you're right that kroot are a good unit with the current rules. In the previous edition they didn't seem quite as great, but things change.

Farsight in the current rules is difficult to play, especially to a new player. The main strength lies in using battlesuits as the workhorse and your other units to complement them. That is the converse of most Tau armies.

I believe your best option is to use Torgoch's overwhelming O'Shovah bodyguard, ideally with a positional relay somewhere else in the army. That way you can hold off the Farsight unit until needed. You can also use a Pathfinder Devilfish to help you land where you need to.

You'll also want to read up on mech Tau hints as the battlesuit heavy army doesn't work as well with a static gun line.

My biggest issue with Farsight lists is the chance that Farsight will break and run off the board. This is an even bigger concern in the current rules over the previous edition.

In short, I recommend new players to start with a traditional army and playtest Farsight once one becomes familiar with the army. I think Farsight works best in a mechanized army, so that may be the best way to start building your army. Then you can add Farsight once one has a good core and a good grasp of the fundamentals of the Tau army.

the combination of 8 crisis suits in a unit, and target locks can do some fuuuuunky things, let me tell you. For example, I've seen the following, using just Fireknife (plasma/missile) suits, though there was different wargear intermixed.

8 suits hop the corner of some area terrain, 5 or 6 inches from 5 assault terminators, only 2 or 3 from a rhino full of tac marines. 2 suits w/ target locks throw 4S6 and 4S7 shots into the rhino, blowing it up. the other 6 throw 12 plasma, and 10 missile shots into the termies, wiping them. They then charge the tac marines, punching and Far Sight power-weaponing them all down over the next 2 assault phases.

The guy fielded them for a larf, we ended up losing it over such a massacre. Yeah, its like a 600 point unit, but it performs like one Sadly, Farsight's crisis-heavy army performed a little better back when more than 1 in 10 tables had decent LOS-blocking terrain in 4th edition, but it's not a terrible army in 5e either. You just have to be some kind of Gundam-loving anime spaz to field that many crisis suits I kid, I kid. I loves me the crisis suits. Oh GW, how do you make me love an army that feels so tacked on to the 40k universe? colour me conflicted.

99MDeery wrote:Kroot can be effective however there uses lie in taking objectives from your enemy and in some cases assaulting some units off an objective, from what i have seen with a farsight army it is best to maximise on one of the taus main strengths....battlesuits, if your taking Farsight the best thing to do is max out on crisis suits, however you must be careful on weapons outfits as you want a couple of the favorable combo of missile pod/plasma rifles and then start picking the rest for things like anti horde hurt (probably flamers/burstcannons) or anti tank (deepstriking with fusion guns/missile pods or twinlinked fusion guns) and pack fire warrior squads as many as you can for objective taking, another thing to remember is farsight can take a massive unit of suits whilst it is expensive it can be pretty fun (i've seen it used and they are very hard to kill in some cases) and all of your units can regroup from below half str for free which can be pretty handy, thats just a basic really i prefer not use farsight as it restricts your choices of broadsides which are my favorite tau unit (they just remind me of the Gundam Heavyarms) but an army led by him can be pretty fun so if you like battlesuits that much go for it

Amazing how the above is one single solid sentence. And it isn't even done yet!

99MDeery, you might have something good to say, but it is unreadable. Sad, but true.

I play the Farsight. I would tell you give them also 6 markers and 4 gun drones and you have a unit that can take on multiple units and vechicles or heavy armored ones.


Farisght unit:

Commander Farsight
3x Body Guard with Plasma and Fusion.. (aka 3 dice ap2 or less.) Targeting array, Targeter (BS 4) Mutli-tracker (both gun fire, Drone Controler (2x Markers)
2x Body Guard same set up except 4 gun Drones..

1 Drop in

2. Fire your Marker drones (Network Marker drones mean you can fire first) (option to use 1x upgrade to bs 5 for the body guard on the unit, 3x Cover saves if needed (wow that hurts marines)

3. With the Targeter you now have 6 Plasma guns with bs 5 to rapid fire ap 2 at anything near by. So choose which 6 of the team is going to shoot at what. Remeber this way you can hit a squad and kill it with 3-4 suits with bs 5 all, and leave 2 to either kill tanks or hit another unit.. (Remeber this unit has also 5 shots of Fusion to pop any vech with double pen dice. or more ap 1 no armor save againt marines. Oh and another thing.. Ap 8 sure as hell kills any special character if they miss there iron halo saves.. (winks)

6. Then set there and take some damage, but don't forget all drone in your group.. thats 10 extra wounds to have to eat before hitting your suits. Then jump out and find other units to do it to.

Add also a couple units of crisses suits with Flamer and plasma and you can drop units to help cover and flame any masses.

This army is fun.. and can be dangerous. if you get stuck you die.. This is a fluff army of Farsight style.. Add a hammer head and a couple of fire warrior squads in fish to take objective and you have the renegade army of the tau.

Just what I do

I have played and still own a gun line. In 5th addition the gun line sucks.... There to static to have drop pods and assault armies to drop in on turn one and kill it. Gun Line for Tau all they do is die. In 5th edition you have to keep moving. To many fast assault armies that will eat a static gun line. The new marine will never lose against Tau Gun line. I have been in so many discusions on dakka about this. I never seen a way a gun line will working.Tau no longer have any army that is even close to be able to handle all issues in Warhammer. Look at a thread in here that askes if tau can even hold its ground in Tounements. There is like 100 posts basically saying that gun line won't work. We suck to much in hand to hand.

Astalado

I haven't played Farsight in 5th edition yet, but I would probably set my council up like so (this is for 1500pts):

Farsight
117 - Bodyguard with plasma, missile, targeter, HW target lock, HW tracker, HW 2 sheild drones
120 - Bodyguard with plasma, missile, targeter, HW target lock, HW tracker, HW 2 sheild drones, BSF
127 - Bodyguard with plasma, missile, targeter, HW target lock, HW tracker, HW 2 sheild drones, stim injector
127 - Bodyguard with plasma, missile, targeter, HW target lock, HW tracker, HW marker drone + gun drone
113 117 - Bodyguard with ABFL, 2missile, HW target lock, HW tracker, HW 2 sheild drones

I think its pretty clear what I'm trying to do here. Obviously the gun drone is there to tag what I want to go HtH with. Every battle suit is set differently so I am forced to spread the wounds around. The stim injector is the target man for the first shots that make it through to the council as he will get the extra save vs them.

I'm not entirely sold on the marker drone idea as it hasn't got a target lock and therefore has to shoot what I am likely to want to assault (and therefore not actually shoot).


EDIT: re drop pods.

To deal with the massed sternguard/kantor/in pods list where you are forced to go first you can place the army in reserve and you don't simply want to trust to reserves, then you can stick your iridium armour commander with his positional relay (which every tau will have going forward) and his squad on the table in a corner, and suck up the drop. You have 2+ armour and plenty of bodies (and i'd take a shield drone with the boss). He survives the drop, keeps your army off the table, and the marines start hitting round 2, after which you come on.

If what you've got marching on is a 600 point mass of rapid firing plasma death backed up by untargetable S5 power weapon, well, you just pretty much got an auto-win, but gun lines have a good change when they aren't being droped on.