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Ok, so I've been playing Tau recently and the most frustrating problem that I have found is that my friend always fields an army with either Eldrad, a full seer council, or at least a decked out Farseer. Because of this, Fortune has become a major problem. To give an example his last 750 point army included a huge squad of Eldar Jet Bikes complete with a Warlock and a Farseer that would spam fortune every turn. The end result was a squad of 12 jet bikes that could move 24' in a turn and had a 3+ re-rollable cover save or a 3+ re-rollable armor save when they didn't move flat out. They could shred Kroot with shuriken catapults before launching into CC to finish the job or tie up and shred Firewarriors just as easily all the while relying on fortune to keep the squad at full power no matter how many shots were thrown at them. Is there any strategy or rule that would enable you to pick off an attached Farseer or otherwise help negate the benefits of fortune spam?

With Tau there is no way you can stop the Farseer casting fortune as you have no psychic defense. The best way to kill jetbikes (with or without fortune) is with either massed firepower if they have boosted (they are only T4 and 3+ save) or try and hit them with AP3 or lower weapons when they don't have a cover save. As far as picking out the Farseer, if the unit is small enough/you have enough S6 or higher shooting then you can possibly cause enough wounds to the unit that he has to allocate to the Seer and if he fails his save then he suffers Instant Death. You can also pick out the Farseer in combat if you are in base to base with him but killing him in combat is a pretty tall order for Tau. Also try and stay in cover to make them take dangerous terrain tests when they assault you and let you go first.

However based on what you have stated above your friend might not be following the rules with regard to boosting and casting Fortune. A model which turboboosts can do nothing else that turn including casting Fortune (casting Fortune would have to happen beforehand, so if the Farseer plans to turboboost he can't cast Fortune in the same turn). He could have the Farseer next to the unit, cast Fortune on it and then have the rest of them boost away from him but that means that next turn they are going to be out of range to cast it again.

As tau you do have some weapons at your disposal to deal with jetbike fortune spam. In small point games such a unit is very tough to beat unless you tailor to beat it. If you are prepared to then try using a full squad of pathfinders. Markerlights can be used to strip their cover save allowing you to hit them with ion cannons, rail guns, seeker missiles or sniper drone teams. They can also be used to lower leadership for a pinning test.

So
If he has turbo boosted use your markerlights to eliminate his cover save and then attack with as many low AP guns a you can fit it.
If he hasn't turbo boosted use your markerlights to boost your ballistic skill or use a sniper drone team to cause pinning wounds and then use markerlights to lower his leaderships for pinning tests

Ion cannons and Helios pattern suits (PR, FB, MT) are also effective weapons at fighting jetbikes

The end result was a squad of 12 jet bikes that could move 24' in a turn and had a 3+ re-rollable cover save or a 3+ re-rollable armor save when they didn't move flat out.

Sounds like you need to remind your friend that farseers can't turbo boost and cast fortune in the same turn.

OMG I HATE THAT!

grankobot wrote:

The end result was a squad of 12 jet bikes that could move 24' in a turn and had a 3+ re-rollable cover save or a 3+ re-rollable armor save when they didn't move flat out.

Sounds like you need to remind your friend that farseers can't turbo boost and cast fortune in the same turn.

That's debatable.

p.76 wrote:Controlling their bike at such speeds takes all their concentration and skill,h however, so they cannot move through difficult terrain, shoot, launch assaults or execute any other voluntary action in the same turn.

Seems pretty straightforward to me

grankobot wrote:

p.76 wrote:Controlling their bike at such speeds takes all their concentration and skill,h however, so they cannot move through difficult terrain, shoot, launch assaults or execute any other voluntary action in the same turn.

Seems pretty straightforward to me

There are several old threads about this. The most recent turn into GWAR one word answer fests, but the older threads contain some of the actual debate. Here is the first one I found.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/217203.page#365897

Basically, if you believe that an Eldar psychic power is cast as the beginning of the turn, before movement, as the Codex Eldar suggests, then you would be able to cast a psychic power before you are prohibited to from turbo-boosting. But that's enough thread-jacking from me.

Marker lights are the answer to your problems. There is something monumentally fun about stripping those re-rollable cover saves.

follow up with whatever unit you have that can put the most strength 6+ AP3 or lower shots into them (Helios suits in rapid fire range works well). So it will ignore their cover and armor (leaving them with whatever invulnerable save they have) and you have a chance to insta-kill any multi-wound models.