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My buddy and I have been using the ShadowSight bomb since tau dropped and I must say we haven't been able to invent anything that can deal with it. With that said, the list as a whole is tailored around Farsight.

The bomb itself is as follows.
Farsight
Shadowsun
4 double plasma suits with advanced targeting
2 double fusion suits with target lock
1 suit with cmd&ctrl mutli-spec, vectored retro thrusters and the neurojammer (for 2 points its just funny)

I find that the bomb doesn't need any additional points in drone as it is already right around 850pts and does fine without them.

the rest of the list
2 riptides with early warning and velocity tracker
3 firewarrior squad 8 man
1 6 man firwarrior
3 5 pathfinders
2 ion hammerheads with distrupter pods
aegis and commlink

I have played about 20 or so games against this and have only killed the bomb once and that was because he didn't deep strike it and I killed three members from extremely good roles.He rolled bad moral and ran 15 off the board. Even with that, my buddy still pulled out a draw against air-cav crons. We have tried tailoring complete lists to deal with the bomb including; imperial guard with 6 colossus, landraider redeemer spam, daemon flying circus, and have not found an answer. The only thing have have not tried is warp quake GK dread knight spam with guard and two Master of the fleet. People who call the bomb a gimmick befuddle me because I like to thin I'm a decent player and I have no answers for this list.

Screamer council laughs at it. Seer council can also pull it off but again its a few pts and you do really need fortune off. Also you tried FMC against it?, how did they not get into combat with it? charge two or three princes/GD in there and it will wreck face.

With no drones, the bomb will be a pain in the neck to catch even for an FMC, surely?

Then again, with no drones, shoot it and gee gee.

i would take the drones. For 2 reasons.

1) 16 gun drones (am i counting right?) fire a TON of dakka on their own. When the entire unit having Target Locks anyway, have them fire at a random infantry in range (or if none in range...though unlikely...just unload them at SOMETHING). Even the 8 drones from my commander + crisis team puts the hurt on some infantry numbers as usually 14-15 of the 16 shots hit and wound on 2s or 3s depending on what im shooting. To me, this is awesome free dakka thats effective. I say free because of reason 2.

2) Ablative wounds. Without the drones, small arms fire probably wont even be pointing at the bomb unless he has nothing left and its still alive....somehow... - That is a ton of extra wounds for cheap, and with a model count that high they have to kill a lot of them to force a leadership 10 test....ooohh no a leadership 10...highly unlikely to fail that.

Drones are highly resilient for their cost. Theyre T4 models with 4+ armor that shoot well and are basically everywhere and numerous. Against common shots, they tend to soak a lot before dying. Its either force him to direct all his attention to the bomb, or just his big guns while his troops trek it down table for objectives. 1-2 pi plates with Ap3+ will wipe out the bomb without the drones in the picture...

And if it were me, i would either bubblewrap the hell out of my only pi plate or send my 2 pi plates across the table from each other so he cant possibly deepstrike instagib both of them.

I just recently played a Farsight bomb against necrons and playing with Shadowsun seemed like a total waste of points. She doesn't deep strike without scatter, and her cover save granting ability would have been totally useless. The blob costed me about 900 points. That itself is too much. Why add another commander for another 135???? No. Shadowsun doesn't belong in a Farsight list because when making your list you have to start focussing on troops and scoring units after you have maxed out the squad. I chose Darkstrider because he is the only infantry commander that is any good and can join a fire warrior squad and go around the field in a devilfish and claim an objective.

What I found worked:

The Neuroweb system jammer: Scored me first blood.... it made a ghost arc glance itself to death.
Tank Hunter: This ability is worth using the turn you get in, bust open a tank and pour shots into it.
Plasma Rifles: Got most of my kills

What I found that didn't work:

Most of my close combat signature systems including: (he didn't get into close combat at all)

Onager Gauntlet
Repulsor Impact Field
Vectored Retro Thrusters


The only thing that I didn't like was trying to remember to use all his special rules: If you don't forget to use them, then you are golden. Also am I the first to post on this thread that has actually used him?

So, in 5th everyone had stories about how easy this thing was to kill. What changed in 6th to make it the new hotness for Tau?

 TheCadreofFi'rios wrote:
I just recently played a Farsight bomb against necrons and playing with Shadowsun seemed like a total waste of points. She doesn't deep strike without scatter, and her cover save granting ability would have been totally useless. The blob costed me about 900 points. That itself is too much. Why add another commander for another 135???? No. Shadowsun doesn't belong in a Farsight list because when making your list you have to start focussing on troops and scoring units after you have maxed out the squad. I chose Darkstrider because he is the only infantry commander that is any good and can join a fire warrior squad and go around the field in a devilfish and claim an objective.

What I found worked:

The Neuroweb system jammer: Scored me first blood.... it made a ghost arc glance itself to death.
Tank Hunter: This ability is worth using the turn you get in, bust open a tank and pour shots into it.
Plasma Rifles: Got most of my kills

What I found that didn't work:

Most of my close combat signature systems including: (he didn't get into close combat at all)

Onager Gauntlet
Repulsor Impact Field
Vectored Retro Thrusters


The only thing that I didn't like was trying to remember to use all his special rules: If you don't forget to use them, then you are golden. Also am I the first to post on this thread that has actually used him?

You mean aside from the amazing drones Shadowsun can bring, along with the two BS5 fusion blasters? with the command link drone, they literally do not miss. That's aside from the fact that she give the entire unit stealth and shrouded for a 4+ cover in the open. Also, why would you ever have Shadowsun as your warlord if you intend to use a farsight bomb?

 TheCadreofFi'rios wrote:
I just recently played a Farsight bomb against necrons and playing with Shadowsun seemed like a total waste of points. She doesn't deep strike without scatter, and her cover save granting ability would have been totally useless.

Start on the board w/ her as Warlord and take advantage of her 3d6 assault jump. Don't bother with deep striking, it gives you less turns shooting. And how is Stealth+Shrouded useless?

Quark wrote:

 TheCadreofFi'rios wrote:
I just recently played a Farsight bomb against necrons and playing with Shadowsun seemed like a total waste of points. She doesn't deep strike without scatter, and her cover save granting ability would have been totally useless.

Start on the board w/ her as Warlord and take advantage of her 3d6 assault jump. Don't bother with deep striking, it gives you less turns shooting. And how is Stealth+Shrouded useless?

Another thing I forgot about. I think Farsight would be amazing as the Warlord when coupled with a Gate of Infinity Librarian so you don't scatter, but for some reason I see "don't scatte" and think to always make him the warlord because of that. I think many people do the same thing and miss the fact that Shadowsun could move over 30" in a single turn with some great rolls.

McNinja....The Command control node already does that without Shadowsun, the blob re rolls all their hits anyways, thats 20 points of nothingness. If you want drones run Shadowsun on her own with a blob of Stealth suits and watch her die to small arms fire. Also their armor saves are better than the cover saves it grants them. Thirdly, Quark, Shadowsun coming on the field turn 1 means a dead commander and Farsight coming on the field second turn without scatter is so much better than a 3d6 thrust move. I haven't experimented with Space Marines yet but that seems good if you want to have no troops to back it up.

That post doesn't make a lot of sense to me. To me, the biggest part of having the bomb on the table from turn 1 is to have it start soaking fire and influencing enemy movement ASAP.

Also their armor saves are better than the cover saves it grants them.

Yeah, their armor saves are better than the cover saves they have in the open with shrouded and stealth, but lascannons don't ignore cover saves. You shouldn't be afraid to eat a few dangerous terrain tests or even GTG to get yourself that 2+ save if you know you're going to face a ton of firepower in the following turn.

Shadowsun coming on the field turn 1 means a dead commander

How do you figure? All the important units should be buried in bodies with 2+ cover saves at all times. It'd be quite impressive if your opponent managed to off Shadowsun in 1 turn.

Farsight coming on the field second turn without scatter is so much better than a 3d6 thrust move

Debatable. If you like using Gate of Infinity a bunch, Farsight is the obvious warlord choice. Otherwise, moving 3d6 is a pretty good way to ensure nothing but the fastest units ever assaults you. Barring Librarian abuse, I think I'd rather have the extra movement.

 TheCadreofFi'rios wrote:
McNinja....The Command control node already does that without Shadowsun, the blob re rolls all their hits anyways, thats 20 points of nothingness. If you want drones run Shadowsun on her own with a blob of Stealth suits and watch her die to small arms fire. Also their armor saves are better than the cover saves it grants them. Thirdly, Quark, Shadowsun coming on the field turn 1 means a dead commander and Farsight coming on the field second turn without scatter is so much better than a 3d6 thrust move. I haven't experimented with Space Marines yet but that seems good if you want to have no troops to back it up.

except with Shadowsun you get an awesome commander with great rules in addition to having all of your models firing instead of one sitting around doing nothing.

How does she not use the no scatter? Farsight is warlord, so his group deepstrikes without scatter. She is attached to that unit, so she also deepstrikes without scatter.

Nothing says you cannot have 2 ICs in the same unit at the start of the game. In fact the only thing in the entire book that mentions multiple ICs is in the IC section saynig they can join a solo IC to make a duo IC group (though why i have no idea lol).

And 4+ cover in the open or 2+ when you have ANY cover save already available (intervening models, area terrain, ruins, barricades, etc) is totally not useless. It either forces them to utilize anti-cover tricks or only make you roll 4+ in the open rather than 3+ because i guarantee youre going to lose your armor save most of the time.

Also, aside from other Tau, wtf ignores cover that also pastes the suits/pens armor? Baleflamer pens the armor, but is S6 so it doesnt paste them. Riptide or Missileside support should be taking out any hellchickens when they show anyway.
(Correction: wtf ignores cover and pastes T4 models that is common enough to worry about? There are spells that can apply ignores cover, but ive never seen people take that with any army that had enough shots in 1 unit to paste that many suits, as the spell only affects 1 unit a turn)

Yea.... those things are true. But Farsight is going to take up half your army at 2k and at 2.5k and above you are going to need more troops to back him up or else you lose. Sure the bomb will get a nifty 4+ cover save that could be bumped up to 2+ but for another 135 points??? Maybe if you wanted to play a 2.5k game you could wiggle her in there but I doubt your opponent would want to play 2.5k points.

 TheCadreofFi'rios wrote:
Yea.... those things are true. But Farsight is going to take up half your army at 2k and at 2.5k and above you are going to need more troops to back him up or else you lose. Sure the bomb will get a nifty 4+ cover save that could be bumped up to 2+ but for another 135 points??? Maybe if you wanted to play a 2.5k game you could wiggle her in there but I doubt your opponent would want to play 2.5k points.

My 1850 list includes Farsight, Shadowsun with all drones and three bodyguards for a mini bomb. It also has a riptide, three units if kroot, and a missileside unit. At 2000, adding more bodyguards is easy. Hell, a terminator Farsight bomb I made at 2000 is required to have six troops because the dual force Orgs for both primary and allied. If you think that195 points is too much for rerolling ones, two 3+ Invulnerable saves, stealth+shrouded, two BS5 fusion blasters, and potential for 3d6 assault jump, you aren't doing it right.

 Vineheart01 wrote:
How does she not use the no scatter? Farsight is warlord, so his group deepstrikes without scatter. She is attached to that unit, so she also deepstrikes without scatter.

Warlord rules. You either get Farsight's no scatter or Shadowsun's 3d6 movement rule.

barnowl wrote:

 Vineheart01 wrote:
How does she not use the no scatter? Farsight is warlord, so his group deepstrikes without scatter. She is attached to that unit, so she also deepstrikes without scatter.

Warlord rules. You either get Farsight's no scatter or Shadowsun's 3d6 movement rule.

I think most people use the Deep Strike. As fun as 3d6 movement a turn is, it is still 3d6, meaning you could roll gak and get three 1's. Even though it might get you into shooting range turn 1, Deep Striking with Farsight as the Warlord is far more accurate, though the blob is massive with the 14 gun drones and eight crisis suits.

i'd much rather no scatter that massive blob than risk mishapping and have the 3D6. Which isnt even THAT great, one or 2 bad dice and its just an average movement and youre most likely in a bad place after you deepstrike because you cant guarantee your spot, so you deploy further away in case you do scatter. 2D6 is enough to spread your unit out even with bleh rolls, an additional die wont add much unless you happen to roll awesome.

Now if you could Infiltrate the whole thing, yea take the 3D6 since it lasts the game whereas the farsight thing is once. But he must deepstrike or outflank, and outflank isnt that favorable, so take the no scatter.

I had a lot of experience lately with a Farsight Enclave list (with Shadowsun and Libby, obviously), and i am not afraid to say that it is THE strongest list right now. And i don't mean the strongest Tau list.

I am currently 27-0 with it, with most games won by turn 4 or 5 by wipe-out. The majority of those games were in tournaments, not friendly matches. And around here the environment is VERY competitive, every single list i faced was something you can easily find on the first tables of major tournaments. I consider myself a decent player, but certainly not a great one, such an impressive winrate depends on the list, not on my skill. Although this is a list that can be punished very hard if you make big mistakes, it requires some skill to be used properly. But if you don't make mistakes, at least 90% of the matches are an auto-win (unless the enemy's list is tailored specifically to deal with it: i always play vs TAC lists). Sometimes i feel dirty when i look at the table, at my opponent's army, and i am absolutely certain i will table him in 5 turns before we even start deploying....

Biggest problem of this list: it will die in October, with the new SM codex. Enjoy it while you can.