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I'm in the midst of building a Tau army as an extended project, but seeing as how I'm currently deployed far, far away from anywhere I could actually play and test the units out, I wanted to ask the community at large about their actual in-game experience with the much talked about Farsight Bomb. I know, the idea gets thrown around and debated a lot, but how many people have actually tried it?


Now, I've seen a couple people post about disappointing results from a couple of very poorly kitted out builds involving flamers and a bunch of burst cannons, but I'm talking about the big one, the fully equipped version that weighs in at nearly 1000 points:

Farsight
Shadowsun
Support suit
4 Double Plasma Suits
2 Double Fusion Suits
14 Gun Drones


Now, that should land and go off like a hydrogen bomb in the opponent's face and be VERY hard to pin down and engage, let alone kill. But has anyone actually, physically done it? Or had it done to them? How did it go down?

There's been a lot written on the farsight bomb so if you do a little digging through older forum posts you'll find plenty of tactics threads.

My first advice on the farsight bomb is to never deep strike it. If you use shadow sun as your warlord you can move 3d6 on the jet pack move, so it'll be able to get to the enemy in a turn or 2, and you won't have to worry about it not coming in or not having enough space for the deep strike.

With stealth and shrouded if you have intervening models you get a 2+ cover save. I find its best to bring a couple of rip tides and use them as intervening models. Many people use kroot bubble wrap, but I find riptides to be more mobile and tougher.

posting a link to SoS http://sanguinesons.blogspot.com/

he breaks down one of the more common lists out there and shows the failings of it.

Not that the bomb is bad, only that there are many mistakes one can do when weilding it. Very informative if you give it a good read.

 NinjaStars wrote:
My first advice on the farsight bomb is to never deep strike it.

Why not? It gives you the opportunity to drop in right within melta or rapid fire range without scatter. Seems like it would be more difficult to move such a large unit like that to get within range than to just set them up within range and let them fight from there.

Only one guy in my area has tried the farsight bomb so far, and he stopped using it because so few people in our area are prepared to handle it. In three turns it destroyed 8 units on it's own and he ended up tabling his opponent while only losing a few drones.

Rawrgyle wrote:
posting a link to SoS http://sanguinesons.blogspot.com/

he breaks down one of the more common lists out there and shows the failings of it.

Not that the bomb is bad, only that there are many mistakes one can do when weilding it. Very informative if you give it a good read.

While this article does do a good job of writing it up, it still doesn't answer the big question I was asking in this thread: "Has anyone actually used it?" While very comprehensive, the article is pure theoryhammer and while he does give the bomb tactic some credit, he also misses a few possibilities altogether. That being said, there was a single (albeit brief) mention of how the list performed from one of the commenters, saying that Super Psychic FMC Daemons defeated it very handily. Good thing to watch out for I guess, though not much that can be done to defend against it with Tau.

I've played against it once. I was not terribly impressed.

It does have a lot of force concentration, but it's possible for it to get out-concentrated. Plus, it has other problems like arriving late and being vulnerable to interceptor fire. Ironically enough, a farsight bomb would be terrible against a tau list.

 Savageconvoy wrote:

 NinjaStars wrote:
My first advice on the farsight bomb is to never deep strike it.

Why not? It gives you the opportunity to drop in right within melta or rapid fire range without scatter. Seems like it would be more difficult to move such a large unit like that to get within range than to just set them up within range and let them fight from there.

Only one guy in my area has tried the farsight bomb so far, and he stopped using it because so few people in our area are prepared to handle it. In three turns it destroyed 8 units on it's own and he ended up tabling his opponent while only losing a few drones.

I had one game where I rolled a 2 on my reserve re turn one, and a 2 turn 2. My oppone t was able to table me. If you give he bomb cover with riptides or kroot they won't be able to hurt you much while you get in range, and there can't be bad luck on the reserve rolls.

The I one weakness with the bomb is its hard to make it good against both hordes and meqs, I had to pick one. Usually the rest of my army was there to handle the other thing. I generally could decimate any army except demons, there invuln saves make it hard for the bomb to totally wipe them.

@Ninjastars: SOme good points there. I normally hate putting any significant portion of my force in reserves, but the idea of bringing that unit down in the middle of the enemy is just so tempting.

After re-reading the rules for Infiltrate, I believe that Shadowsun grants infiltrate to the unit when she joins it, allowing the Bomb to start much closer to the enemy. That article mentioned that some big deal was being made about it not being valid, but the very first line of the Infiltrate entry says that you only need one model in the unit to make it work, just like tank hunters and stealth. The more I look at this unit, the more I like it.

Anyone else have any experiences with the Farsight bomb, good or bad?

Are you positive that infiltrate is conferred to the whole squad if one person has it? Because then with that in mind, an eldar player can infiltrate 10 d-scythe wraithguard as long as they put Karandrad, or Illic in the unit. ( Those two have the Infiltrate special rule). I would check that again because i'm pretty sure you can't do that.

toocool61 wrote:
Are you positive that infiltrate is conferred to the whole squad if one person has it? Because then with that in mind, an eldar player can infiltrate 10 d-scythe wraithguard as long as they put Karandrad, or Illic in the unit. ( Those two have the Infiltrate special rule). I would check that again because i'm pretty sure you can't do that.

RAW Infiltrate cannot confer via ICs.

Some people House Rule it however.

Iranna.

Actually its incredibly questionable that Infiltrate ICs give it to non-infiltrate units, since the way people try to say its illegal makes 0 sense whatsoever to me (He/she must be joined by a unit in the deployment stage, not the infiltrate stage....um...A) how the hell does he/she join in the infiltrate stage to an infiltrating unit then, its still not the same stage per this bs and B) ITS STILL DEPLOYMENT TILL NIGHT-FIGHTING IS ROLLED FOR sheesh people can be dense sometimes...it does not say you declare where the HQs are right at this exact point, otherwise they will always infiltrate on their own and help to not get shot off the board before they can join the unit they infiltrated next to)
EDIT: I think people like to flame this idea so we Tau players cannot infiltrate shadowsun protecting a fully loaded Missilesides group with a team of stealthies to bubblewrap (anticharge)

However ICs cannot do this. The book directly states it cant deploy with a unit that has infiltrate and use the infiltrate...though im pretty sure you can still outflank i'd have to double check that though. Scout and other such unit-wide bonuses work with ICs that dont have it, but Infiltrate does not since that would let some pretty crazy melee monsters just appear 18" from a gunline lol

Deepstriking this bomb is what its all about. You want to be able to wreck all you can the instant you show up, or its going to die. If you outflank on the wrong side of the table (more possible than rolling 1-2 on Turn2/3, because you still have to worry about this roll anyway) and if you hoof it half your crap wont be in range and unless theres a lot of terrain to hide behind you will die before you get there. Crisis suits are not that fast, theyre just potentially fast and only in a defensive manner (they cant J2J and then shoot, so its 6" movement shoot 2D6 movement. Eitherway that unit is not doing anything for a couple turns)

Completely misread everything. I'm so English at good.

Iranna.

Actually Iranna, Rules as Written says you can do just that, as long as the IC has infiltrate and the unit does not (not the other way around):

BRB p28: "Units that contain at least one model with this special rule are deployed last, after all other units (friend and foe) have been deployed."

And then the exception at the end of the entry: "An Independent Character without the Infiltrate special rule cannot join a unit of tnfiltrators during deployment. "

According to RAW, Shadowsun can join and confer infiltrate to a crisis bodyguard unit, because she has infiltrate and the unit does not. But you could not do the opposite and join Farsight to a unit of Kroot.to try to have the IC benefit from the unit's USR.

I've had it done to me. I managed to get a squad of Assault Terminators with Thunder Hammers over there in time to crush them before too much terrible-ness happened. I did learn that accepting a challenge from Farsight with Vulkan isn't so hot of an idea.

I play Tau and want to do it. As a side note, I want to put a Space Marine librarian in the mix too. (Jump pack libby.) If I give him Gate of Infinity then we can Deep Strike over and over again, with no scatter! How awesome is that?

@Jim: How did you manage to catch them with assault terms? I would have thought that all the thrust moves would make them really hard to get to. Did the other guy not see it coming, were they penned in somehow?

 bossfearless wrote:
Actually Iranna, Rules as Written says you can do just that, as long as the IC has infiltrate and the unit does not (not the other way around):

BRB p28: "Units that contain at least one model with this special rule are deployed last, after all other units (friend and foe) have been deployed."

And then the exception at the end of the entry: "An Independent Character without the Infiltrate special rule cannot join a unit of tnfiltrators during deployment. "

According to RAW, Shadowsun can join and confer infiltrate to a crisis bodyguard unit, because she has infiltrate and the unit does not. But you could not do the opposite and join Farsight to a unit of Kroot.to try to have the IC benefit from the unit's USR.

Rather than derail this thread with this topic again, check the YMDC forum, its very argued... It centres around how an IC joins a unit and when.

I played once against the Farsight bomb, sight unseen in a tourney. The bomb came in T2 and by that time, much of my opponent's army was neutralized. Fire Warrior castle doesn't do so hot against AP4 ordinance barrage weapons. Anyway, the bomb definitely lasted the entire game but it's heavily dependent upon that one suit to buff all of the others. By sheer accident I ended up sniping that suit and shutting down most of the bomb's effectiveness.

Long story short, it depends on multiple force multipliers. The loss of one compromises the effectiveness of the whole thing.

I have played against the Farsight bomb three times now, all with my daemons.

Very first game was against a tourny list which was still be trailed, he had done rather well with it losing only once to a azreal guard blob list but close game iirc. I was also using a daemon tourny list and tabled him turn 3 or 4, basically killed his troops and riptides then put lord of change into the squad insta killed farsight then swept the unit. Afterwards we discussed putting a libby in there for know no fear and gate of infinity. On the drop the bomb killed about 5 horrors that game.

Second time was 3 riptides 60 kroot shadow sun farsight and gun drones, lots of drones!, didnt do anything on deepstrike really then prince went in and farsight done bloody well in a challenge tanking all the wounds then was insta gibbed and unit swept.

Third time was Friday night, faced the shadowsun farsight bodyguard and drone bomb!. They deepstruck down and deleted a unit of 12 hounds (24 wounds worth) just from the drones!, then my screamer council went into them, from their shooting killing off most drones and a few suits then misfortune and 9 screamers with prescience (36 attacks re rolling to hit, wounding on 4's and re rolling passed saves) I wiped out most of the unit leaving the suit with the upgrades, one plasma suit shadow sun and farsight on two wounds. Next turn he denied misfortune which helped him a lot but then the str 4 posioned ap3 warp storm table got them (thanks to fateweavers re roll!) killing off the suit with upgrades and putting a wound on another suit and 2 on shadow sun, bolt of change with ignore cover and locus killed the shadow sun and the woundd suit, screamers then charged farsight and killed him.

Overall its too many pts for the farsight bomb and my lists are usually quite resilient and I dont care about plasma shots, the gun drones did work quite well though.

There biggest weakness is that they are able to be swept, stubborn helps but cannot use it turn they deepstrike so if charged after they deepstrike they can still be swept quite easy!

I invest in a SM Libby. Gate is magical and allows for a ton of flexibility and fun tactical options. Also, Null Zone is hilariously effective on so many units.

I take a Libby, Farsight, Shadowsun, 14 Drones and a maxed squad. I either deploy or reserve depending on how much ignore cover my opponent has, mission, terrain, etc. I also take the Comms Relay to increase probability of coming in T2.

I've tried it with Eldar, or straight Tau but I think the Libby is best.

I also think Sky Rays are the best Farsight list support. They pack more punch for their price than Riptides and are also very durable. Skyfire Markerlights helps the bomb knock down Drakes/Vendettas.

DON'T DEEP STRIKE IT!
I lost the unit due to mishaps and I must have lost 800 points in one dice roll. :(

 migs6357 wrote:
DON'T DEEP STRIKE IT!
I lost the unit due to mishaps and I must have lost 800 points in one dice roll. :(

How? Farsight doesn't scatter. That's why it's a Farsight bomb. Because you don't scatter. Also, can you assault after using the Gate of infinity?

One good way I saw it run was with a Space Marine Librarian in there as well, and use the Libby to cast Gate of Infinity, that way you get the bomb on turn 1.

 McNinja wrote:

 migs6357 wrote:
DON'T DEEP STRIKE IT!
I lost the unit due to mishaps and I must have lost 800 points in one dice roll. :(

How? Farsight doesn't scatter. That's why it's a Farsight bomb. Because you don't scatter. Also, can you assault after using the Gate of infinity?

Nope you cannot assault my why would you want to? overwatch is a free shooting phase and the drones are there to take a charge then you hit and run out of there.

MarkyMark wrote:

 McNinja wrote:

 migs6357 wrote:
DON'T DEEP STRIKE IT!
I lost the unit due to mishaps and I must have lost 800 points in one dice roll. :(

How? Farsight doesn't scatter. That's why it's a Farsight bomb. Because you don't scatter. Also, can you assault after using the Gate of infinity?

Nope you cannot assault my why would you want to? overwatch is a free shooting phase and the drones are there to take a charge then you hit and run out of there.

Can't assualt, but why would you want to? As Mark pointed out, but most importantly you can't be intercepted either.

@Mcninja: You can't assault after deep striking, and Gate uses Deep Strike rules.

@MarkyMark: It seems to be shaping up that Daemons are a pretty hard counter to Tau, just from what I've seen so far and the battle reports that have come out. That particular Funky Bunch seems to be very good at killing off the blue fish people. I guess against Daemons, since you know already that they're coming straight for you, the Bomb could still be employed but defensively, putting all that fire down range and helping to whittle down the various MCs and fast units.


@Everyone who mentioned the Libby: That's such a great idea. I've been building my theoretical lists with an IG allied contingent for a healthy dose of autocannon spam and a Manticore. If I knew I was playing Daemons, I might rethink that plan and go with the Libby just for Null Zone

Played it personally. Had a great time with it. Deepstriking with it is silly. A decent bomb with 14 drones is going to run 990pts. Taking over half your army out of the game for even 1 turn is still. The thing to remember though if you're going to use a Farsight/Shadowsun blob though is that you're going to need support for killing hordes. So the rest of your list needs to be designed to kill 100+ GEQ infantry over the course of the game.

Oh, and Shadowsun should always be boss. The 3d6 move is to good.

Yep lvl 2 libby will null zone and gate would be horrible, jump forward turn 1 with gate kill a unit with null zone up, rinse and repeat. Maybe combine that with some infiltrated kroot for target saturation, if they go after your bomb the kroot will be ok (can always hit and run if they charge your bomb) horrible against Daemons.

Only problem I would have with that is its going to be a limited time only until what October when the new Marine dex comes out?. That and null zone only works during that one shooting phase.

Good point, MarkyMark. The librarian tactic will only work that particular way for a short time longer. However, there's no way to know what the new codex will have as far as psychic powers and absurd wargear options.

 bossfearless wrote:
Good point, MarkyMark. The librarian tactic will only work that particular way for a short time longer. However, there's no way to know what the new codex will have as far as psychic powers and absurd wargear options.

It will do, but it will be random, ala BRB tables, the mini CSM and daemon tables and Eldar tables/

MarkyMark wrote:

 bossfearless wrote:
Good point, MarkyMark. The librarian tactic will only work that particular way for a short time longer. However, there's no way to know what the new codex will have as far as psychic powers and absurd wargear options.

It will do, but it will be random, ala BRB tables, the mini CSM and daemon tables and Eldar tables/

if librarians are made to be level 1 andeach further level is 25pts like the chaos codex, then llevel three with three rolls on telekinesis to try for gate of infinity would be too terrible. Though it depends on what else is available.