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Hello dakka, I just recently purchased the Tau codex and supplement codex and I am very interested in making a 1500 point Farsight enclave list. However, I don't really know what would work and wouldn't work in one of these lists (I have never played Tau before). I was wondering if you guys could give me some advise on what would be a solid 1500 point list? Also I would like to avoid using any tanks, would that be completely foolish?
My only reasons for this is that I normally run IG/BT which is mainly mech, and/or Orks which is also mainly mech. Thanks for your time!

Here is a link to a batrep Homeskillet posted of his Eldar vs my Farsight Enclave. Its 1500pts of how I play FE with the list posted. There are many varieties and ways to make it work, including no Riptides, etc. but this is a sample of what I've been running.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/559964.page

Hi Aboucher, I've been using crisis heavy tau lists for years and have logged in a few games with my farsight enclaves list. Vehicles are absolutely not necessary - you would actually do better without them. Your opponents will have some kind of anti-vehicle weaponry - if you have a tank or two, your opponent will shoot it all at those weapons. This will result in you losing several hundred points in the first turn or two. Without vehicles, your opponent will have to use their expensive weapons to hit drones or suits (which you can afford to lose here and there), but cover saves can help reduce the damage even further.

Here is a list I commonly use - it has gone through many revisions and I feel as though it is competitive (a farsight list won't win tournaments, but you can definitely have a positive win record in your local gaming scene):

165 farsight
199 commander bravestorm + 2x gun drone: 1x plasma rifle, 1x flamer, shield generator, stimulant injector, iridium armour, onager gauntlet

220 riptide: ion accelerator, TL fusion blaster, early warning override, earth caste pilot array

205 crisis(3) + 4x marker drone: 1x shas'vre /w TL missile pod, drone controller, 2x shas'ui /w TL missile pod, target lock, bonded
194 crisis(3) + 2x shield drone: 1x shas'ui /w 2x fusion blaster, target lock, 2x shas'ui /w 2x plasma rifle, advanced targeting system, bonded (bravestorm goes here)
208 crisis(3) + 2x shield drone: 1x shas'vre /w 2x fusion blaster, target lock, 2x shas'ui /w TL plasma rifle, missile pod, bonded
188 crisis(3) + 2x shield drone: 2x shas'ui /w 2x fusion blaster, target lock, 1x shas’ui /w 1x plasma rifle, 1x flamer, retro thrusters, bonded (farsight goes here)
75 crisis(1) + 2x marker drones: 1x shas'ui /w TL missile pod, drone controller, bonded

210 2x broadside + 4x missile drone: 1x shas'vre /w HYMP, SMS, velocity tracker, 1x shas'ui /w HYMP, SMS, bonded
86 sniper drone team: 2x marksmen, 4x sniper drone
----
1750

For a 1500 version, drop commander bravestorm, the earth caste pilot array from the riptide, and a drone from somewhere.

The list requires you to play fairly aggressively as the suits are not designed to trade in fire fights. Your weapon configuration on the suits will dictate how your army will play. This list uses a lot of plasma and fusion blasters, supported by missiles. The missile teams will hang back and "dance" with JSJ around ruins while the fusion/plasma teams will deepstrike with commanders attached.

Farsight's team is designed to target small elite units with high powered weapons and then assault them to finish them off (farsight should kill them with his AP2 I5 attacks). Bravestorm is designed to tank for his team will they engage in mid-range fire fights - you will win trades with him + drones absorbing damage. Bravestorm is T5 W4 2+/4++ FnP - good luck trying to kill him with light arms fire.

The riptide will do some damage, but is mainly meant to be a distraction - it takes many high str shots to bring him down. Every shot against your riptide is one that isn't targeting a more fragile crisis suit.

Farsight enclaves have a real issue getting markerlights into their list as pathfinders just don't fit the army's highly mobile play style. To get around this I've included markerdrones with BS3 through the use of drone controllers on my missile teams - the range of the teams means the drones will remain safe for the first turn or 2. I've also opted for a sniper team as those 2x BS5 markerlights are cheap and the sniper shots themselves are not to be underestimated with rapidfire at 24". Lastly broadsides provide some anti-air/transport popping capability.

Notes: quite a bit of my weapons are twin-linked which helps deal with the average BS of 3 (works well with the low markerlight counts - the few lights I do have can focus on removing cover with their counters).

Don't be afraid to assault if you fail to wipe a squad after you are done shooting, crisis suits have 3 attacks on the charge with str5 and a marine's durability - you can win CC exchanges when done at the appropriate times.

You'll notice that I have a crisis team with a single suit - I love this guy. He pumps out 2 TL missile shots, provides 2 BS3 markerlights, and is scoring. In more than 1 game my opponent has ignored this suit and allowed him to sit on an objective, winning me the match. I can't think of a better investment for 75 points.

Hope the info helps!

Attached is the key information for the Army. The plan would be to ally Farsight Enclaves with the main Tau codex in order to make a Shadowsight Commander Bomb. This bomb has almost no weaknesses. It is actually extremely strong in Close Combat as well as shooting.

This bomb has 10 models, 7 of which are commanders of some kind.

The point costs for the Tau Commanders being used in this list are:
Commander Bravestorm (199pt.): The Squad's Tank, should be put in front
Commander Brightsword (200pt.): A close-combat and antitank beast.
Shas'O Sha'vastos (174pt.): Anti-Infantry. More importantly, has a Puretide Engram Nanochip
Shas'O Arra'kon (169pt.): Support unit, has a good amount of plasma and a lot of support systems
Sub-commander Torchstar (154pt.): Extremely powerful anti-Infantry

Farsight, Shadowsun and all the other Commanders are being joined to the 3-man Crisis suit squad.

This is the Army List:
HQ
[ 2 ]

Commander Farsight (165)

Crisis battlesuit; Multi-tracker; Blacksun filter; Shield generator; Plasma rifle; Dawn blade;
5x - Farsight's commander team (896)

§ 1x Commander Bravestorm (199pt.); Flamer; Gun drone(x2); Onager Gauntlet; Plasma rifle; Shield generator; Stimulant injector; XV8-02 Crisis 'Iridium' Battlesuit;
§ 1x Commander Brightsword (200pt.); Advanced targeting system; Crisis battlesuit; Fusion Blades; Shield drone; Stimulant injector; Twin-linked fusion blaster; Warscaper Drone;
§ 1x Shas'O Sha'vastos (174pt.); Crisis battlesuit; Flamer; Gun drone(x2); Plasma rifle; Puretide Engram Neurochip; Shield generator; Vectored retro-thrusters;
§ 1x Shas'O Arra'kon (169pt.); Airbursting fragmentation projector; Counterfire defence system; Crisis battlesuit; Cyclic ion blaster; Gun drone(x2); Plasma rifle; Repulsor Impact Field;
§ 1x Sub-commander Torchstar (154pt.); Crisis battlesuit; Drone controller; Flamer(x2); Marker drone(x2); Multi-Spectrum Sensor Suite; Neuroweb System Jammer; Target lock;

Troops
[ 2 ]


3x - XV8 Crisis team (311)

Bonding knife ritual;
§ 2x Shas'ui (91pt.); Crisis battlesuit; Multi-tracker; Blacksun filter; Fusion blaster; Plasma rifle(x2); Gun drone(x2);
§ 1x Shas'vre (126pt.); Crisis battlesuit; Multi-tracker; Blacksun filter; Fusion blaster; Plasma rifle; Stimulant injector; Gun drone(x2); Shas'vre; The Talisman of Arthas Moloch;
XV8 Crisis team (132)

Bonding knife ritual;
§ 1x Shas'vre (131pt.); Crisis battlesuit; Multi-tracker; Blacksun filter; Flamer(x2); Plasma rifle; Gun drone(x2); Shas'vre; The Mirrorcodex;

Secondary Detachment

[ 1 ]
HQ
[ 1 ]

Commander Shadowsun (175)

XV22 Stealth battlesuit; Advanced targeting system; Fusion blaster(x2); Command link drone; MV52 Shield drone;
Troops
[ 1 ]




10x - Kroot Carnivore squad (70)

§ 10x Kroot (7pt.); Kroot armour; Kroot rifle; Sniper rounds;

So yeah thats the "Death Star". I would also like help with the list my self if anyone has suggestions. I hoped this helped. Again I would love suggestions.

Wow guys, thanks for all the help! Now I just have to get planning! So, using a squad of pathfinders in an allied detachment on foot in cover with their homing beacons and marker lights would be no good? By the way, I really like all the lists suggested, so this gives me a lot to play with, and is greatly appreciated!

Glad the list is giving you some ideas

The reason I am somewhat against the use of pathfinders is that they are very fragile and carry heavy weapons. They need to sit tight in order to land their markerlights. Half my suits are deep striking on enemy flanks while the remainder of my suits advance using JSJ through ruins/cover.

This means that my pathfinders will need to advance and have only snap shots/be exposed or sit tight and probably be out of LoS since I'll be fighting near enemy objectives/deployment zone. Crisis teams can't benefit from their own markerdrones but if you plan your shooting sequence, they should still be effective + markerdrones can keep up and be used to block incoming fire.


The list provided by Commander_Farsight is something I would advise against using if you play in a semi-competitive/competitive setting. the farsight command team is fun from a fluff perspective, but the suits are poorly configured and you get no point discounts (the costs for each commander are just a regular commander's + the associated gear).

The only farsight command team members I would consider using are:

farsight - perfect deepstrike warlord trait, amazing cc capabilities (one of the best CC weapons in the game) and the fairly standard plasma rifle/shield generator make him a bargain

bravestorm - he is basically draigo for tau, here is a fun example: 10 spacemarines with lascannons shoot at bravestorm - 7 hit, 6 wound, 3 are saved (inv save), 1 is prevented by FnP. Bravestorm still has 2 wounds (20 lascannon shots needed to kill him GG).

torchstar - At 154 pts he isn't too overpriced considering you get 2 marker drones at that price (with drone controller). Add him to a team with more markerdrones and they all become BS5. He is a good support commander overall.

Other than that the farsight command team is just a bunch of poorly optimized commanders that don't fit in any competitive list (o'vesa isn't bad, but regular riptides are cheaper)

Another thing to lookout for is the farsight bomb using shadowsun. This list involves farsight dropping with a full bodyguard team and shadowsun to give them shrouding. It is good on paper, but plays poorly on the table due to the sheer point cost of farsight and entourage. It is impossible to get all those suits out of LoS so after you drop and kill a bunch of stuff, your opponent will throw everything that have at you (and when you lose the farsight bomb, you lose the game). It is far more effective to base your army around several tough squads as you can lose some and still win the game where as a farsight bomb is all-in.

Glad I could help. I am a Tau expert as I have been playing it for a loooonnnggg time so if you have any questions At All PM me.