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I just played a game with my SM friend and I realized something, my Tau do unusually well in CC, like surviving 3 turns against a dreadnought and killing an Assault Squad. So, I wanted to here some discussion about an idea for Farsight that I thought of.
So I can live out my CC Tau fantasies.

Taking an idea from Anrakyr the Traveller and the Death Korp IG, Farsight confers


Descent to Mont'au
Hardened Fighters +1 WS, maybe +1I too?
Furious Charge

To Fire Warriors, Pathfinders, Crisis Suits, Stealth Suits, and Broadsides.

Crisis Suits also gain a new piece of wargear. A reverse engineered version of the Dawnblade that is a rending weapon and takes up a hardpoint. Shas'Vre and above can take a variant that is a power weapon instead of rending.

Constructive Critique is appreciated.

+1 strength would be nice (Tau are S2, right?), +1 I and WS is a must; if you're looking at Tau trained in CC, then they need to be able to duke it out with Marines viably. How about a Pfist for Crisis suits, or a similar system that allows +3 Strength and counts as power weapon attacks but drops him to I1?

Tau are S3. So basically, they become Space Marines.

Well with these changes, FW would be S3/4 I3/4 WS3 so they would fight about as well as guardsmen.

Maybe give them a pulse pistol and CCW for +1A or allow them to use their Pulse Pistol in CC 1A at S5?

crisis suits would be S5/6 I3/4/5 WS 3/4 depending on the rank.
So I don't think they would need a fist.

Also, on the topic of marines. Giving bonding knife equipped units some form of ATSKNF would be nice to prevent the unit from being run down after cc especially if you only lose a guy and have to take a I test on I2-3.

In another thread, I suggested that Photon Grenades give the unit +1-2I and Hit-and-Run for the purposes CC. To help with MAYBE killing a few guys and then allowing the unit to break off.

Descent to Mont'au should reflect the fire Caste being on their own with limited and less effective equipment.

Its an interesting idea, and one that is fun to play with, but at a certain point it might make sense to just run them as counts as. (Counts as what is beyond me, but hey, it makes your CC Tau street legal.)

I just thought of an idea, for a last stand kind of thing, it seems kinda fluffy and interesting..

For the Greater Good: When a Fire Warrior unit loses combat and fails its leadership, the unit immediately fall back, however, one member of the unit stays in base contact with the enemy unit, and strikes blows one final time, and then is removed as a casualty, however, if a d6 is rolled and the dice comes up as a 6, the fire warrior survives and his confidence is bolstered by his abilities, he gains +1 weapon skill, Attack, and Leadership, and becomes an IC, however he is still locked in combat and may be killed off.

A kind of last stand, maybe a blast would be more fitting, like a battlesuit failsafe detonator, it is quite fitting IMHO..

Sounds interesting. To be fair, it'd have to be the Shas'Ui to do it. Something like this.

Take a leadership test. If the 'Ui passes, the unit fallsback and you place the 3" blast template on him no scatter. Everyone underneath is hit by a S5 AP5 hit on 3+. The unit then is not allowed to consolidate.

Basically the Failsafe Detonator for infantry.

Also I'm going to address CpatToms proposal. Until I can find a good codex to proxy, I'm going to stick with friendly games with house rules.

Two new rules.

Breakaway Faction:
Number of each of the following units cannot exceed the number of Fire Warriors in the Army.

Stealth Suits, Sky Ray, Sniper Drones, Piranhas
Also, Auxiliaries may not be taken.

Descent to Mont'au
+1WS +1I to all units.

Crisis suits gain Power weapons as a weapon option for 15pts.

The problem is that if the Shas'ui did it, which was my original intention, you would lose your markerlight..

I am still highly in favour of a Failsafe Drone myself.

Also, perhaps a rule that gives the Tau a chance to fall back without fear of sweeping advance when the enemy charges but before actual blows are struck.

Mor or less I feel that the best Tau CC unit is one that gets out of CC in a hurry with minimal loses.

A failsafe drone sounds like a good idea...

Other than Farsight himself, his Enclave do not use combat unless as a last resort. He drills them for it, and they train, but they don't choose it over Tau tactics of hit-and-run.

I was just looking through the old 3rd edition codex on the internet, and I noticed that Farsight's old Ork Fighter rule was much more useful and represenative of the fluff.

It said that he trained his Fire Warriors in hth as well as shooting so they were +1I/WS for a small cost. Combine that with hit-and-run and maybe furious charge, and it'll be all set.