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I've been testing this Farsight Bomb in a number of games to great effect. Not one single unit has stood up to one round of shooting from this squad:

HQ (850pts)

Commander Farsight.

XV8 Crisis Bodyguard Team

Crisis Bodyguard x1.
Command and Control Node, Drone controller, 2x Gun drone, Multi-spectrum Sensor Suite, Flamer Twin linked.
Crisis Bodyguard x6
Burst Cannon, Fusion Blaster, Plasma Rifle, 2x Shield drone.

It's expensive, but it is that effective that you don't need another Crisis unit.

I used this unit to take out a number of units including an Ork Blob, my own Deathwing army in three turns and with Markerlight support a ten man Paladin squad just to name a few.

That's a pretty nasty unit. Is it completely crazy to add Shadowsun to the Farsight Bomb?

I tested it with other Commanders but OMG with Shadowsun it becomes pretty broken.

Only downside is that you can't shoot at a tank and split fire into the gooey contents of it.

I've been trying this uber unit with Railheads. Seems to be a great duo.

Also with some Riptides.

ShadarLogoth wrote:
That's a pretty nasty unit. Is it completely crazy to add Shadowsun to the Farsight Bomb?

Probably. 2+ cover save and more guns is nice, but probably overkill on a unit that is already too expensive. On the other hand it's already stupidly expensive so why not go all-or-nothing on it...

Btw, if you try that squad people will ask why are you taking that config on the suits.

Use Burst Cannon and Plasma on hordes and overwatch.
Use Fusion and Plasma on elite units.

Taking a second commander helps as he can have vectored thrusters.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I'm going to try Shadowsun later. It just seems too good not to.

That looks awesome, but also kind of an all-your-eggs-in-one-basket unit. Watch out for Battlecannons or Vindicators, if those things hit you'll be picking up the whole squad and be out about half your army.

So Ionheads are fun now. Pop a Rhino with something else, then pie plate the cute lil marines that were hiding inside. Tag them with at least 2 marker lights to make the average scatter no big deal and laugh when they disappear into an ionic warp puff.

The XV104 is an absolute BEAST. Didn't even matter that melta was flying it's way with 5++ 5FNP. It's a big scary distraction that kept my other deadly dakka units from getting shot at and it didn't die in either game I player with it. Just for the love of the Greater Good, do NOT charge anything with a half-way decent close quarters attack or you will get wrecked. Otherwise well worth its point cost and is incredibly demoralizing when it keeps jumping around into inconvenient locations after blowing up their stuff.

the markerlight rule is gone. so now you can use markerlight hits to generate MOAR MARKERLIGHT HITS (pathfinders are a must for this) just thought I'd throw it out there
its a dirty trick but someone gets to do it

I feel the ideal setup for pathfinders are 3 units of 6 infiltrated into ruins all over the place. ~3 markerlight hits allows you to strip cover and hit on 3s reliably.

katfude wrote:
I feel the ideal setup for pathfinders are 3 units of 6 infiltrated into ruins all over the place. ~3 markerlight hits allows you to strip cover and hit on 3s reliably.

5 Markers with a Rail Rifle guy?

Speaking of the rail rifle...what do people think of the Ion/Rail rifle on the Pathfinders? I wish they came with a target lock like they did when you took a special weapon on Pathfinders in the previous codex.

As it stands they seem like good guns but it seems like you would be stuck with a unit that doesn't know what it's doing. It wants to markerlight things for other squads, but you need to use markerlights to give your 10-15pt special weapon a decent chance to hit. At the same time I can see merit in the argument that it gives the ability to do damage to a squad that is primarily support, though if the guns are too strong it makes them an even bigger target. For the points I think I would rather have other units, but maybe I am looking at them wrong. Any thoughts?

 MandalorynOranj wrote:
That looks awesome, but also kind of an all-your-eggs-in-one-basket unit. Watch out for Battlecannons or Vindicators, if those things hit you'll be picking up the whole squad and be out about half your army.

More importantly... don't Deep Strike with a Riptide with an ion accelerator on the board with the Interceptor upgrade... but then, the Riptide is the answer to most questions atm

Here is the markerlight tactic I recommend:
Commander:
Weapon1, Weapon2, Target Lock, Drone Controller
2x Markerlight Drones
Crisis Team 1:
3x Suit w/ Weapon, Weapon, Target Lock
6x Markerlight Drones
Crisis Team 2:
Suit w/ Weapon, Drone Controller, Target Lock
2x Suit w/ Weapon, Weapon, Target Lock
6x Markerlight Drones
Crisis Team 3:
Suit w/ Weapon, Drone Controller, Target Lock
2x Suit w/ Weapon, Weapon, Target Lock
6x Markerlight Drones

There are 3 enemy squads.
Commander joins Crisis Team 1.
Crisis Team 1 shoots at enemy squad 1. drones are BS5 thanks to the commander. All Suits can fire at whatever they want in reality thanks to target locks, but end result is Enemy team 1 is still alive with ~6-7 markerlight tokens on it.
Crisis Team 2 shoots at Enemy Squad 2. All Crisis Suits in Team 2 use the target lock to shoot at Enemy Squad 1, and expend tokens to boost their BS to 5. Markerlight drones inherit their BS from the Suit with the DC, which is now 5. All members of unit are BS5 now. Enemy team 1 suffers BS5 from crisis team, and enemy Team 2 gets ~5 markerlight tokens placed on it.
Repeat again with Crisis Team 3.
Use remaining markerlight tokens by the rest of your army. You now have army-wide BS5 ignores cover. All markerlight drones can also JSJ and can move and fire.

I honestly think this is the tactic that's going to break our Codex into a very competitive tournament list. Combine this with Broadside Teams of 3 full of 6x missile pod drones all shooting at BS5 thanks to the plethora of markerlights and you have absolutely ridiculous amounts of dakka.

 Lotus wrote:
Here is the markerlight tactic I recommend:

Stuff...

you have to be careful here though... you are spending 240+ on drones that will light up units like a Christmas tree... but are otherwise not doing damage... remember, sometimes quality just can't compete with quantity.

Speaking of BS 5 commanders i was thinking him with an advance targeting system on a Icarus las cannon for character sniping (and if you get lucky with that warlord trait)
otherwise sit him with a neuro chip and maybe a support body guard with msss, ccn and you have a decent vehicle killer for first blood most games.

Has anyone tried Darkstrider?

He seems to make a lot of armies better, but he is very fragile.

Puscifer wrote:
Has anyone tried Darkstrider?

He seems to make a lot of armies better, but he is very fragile.

Oh I can see him being used to Great Effect... especially vs CSM and their DP, or Greater Daemons.

The tactic would be to have your line of Fire Warriors / whatever set up to take the charge... have Darkstrider behind them... fire your overwatch then use the D6 move to get In Front of the intended charge target, thereby blocking the charge and having it automatically fail... now shoot the SNOT outa whatever dared to charge you.

IMO a real hidden gem in the codex is mass sniper Kroot combined with an Ethereal and an ADL. Add on an allied Eldar Farseer w/ Doom, if you feel like it. Stick the ADL in midfield and infiltrate all your Kroot up behind it, and start sniping t1.

Bring your Farseer+Ethereal up ASAP to get Doom onto priority targets, and if your opponent tries to get close to you you can spring forward with your Kroot and put out 3 shots each thanks to the Ethereal's megadoubletap power.

I did the math for lols on 120 sniperkroot w/ Doom (and no markerlight help), you'll cause 30 saves and 15 rends, regardless of T. Ouch. Those kroot squads also cost only 840pts, and are still 120 scoring bodies w/ a 4+ from the ADL.

I wouldn't play 120 though, maybe 100 max, so you can still fit in Broadsides, some markerlights and a Riptide or 2 at 1850. Here's the list I was actually thinking of trying out: http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/520283.page

SaganGree wrote:

Puscifer wrote:
Has anyone tried Darkstrider?

He seems to make a lot of armies better, but he is very fragile.

Oh I can see him being used to Great Effect... especially vs CSM and their DP, or Greater Daemons.

The tactic would be to have your line of Fire Warriors / whatever set up to take the charge... have Darkstrider behind them... fire your overwatch then use the D6 move to get In Front of the intended charge target, thereby blocking the charge and having it automatically fail... now shoot the SNOT outa whatever dared to charge you.

Mother of god that's actually brilliant. DPs are T5 right? (use Darkstrider to ID them on a Icarus lol. )

 Desubot wrote:

SaganGree wrote:

Puscifer wrote:
Has anyone tried Darkstrider?

He seems to make a lot of armies better, but he is very fragile.

Oh I can see him being used to Great Effect... especially vs CSM and their DP, or Greater Daemons.

The tactic would be to have your line of Fire Warriors / whatever set up to take the charge... have Darkstrider behind them... fire your overwatch then use the D6 move to get In Front of the intended charge target, thereby blocking the charge and having it automatically fail... now shoot the SNOT outa whatever dared to charge you.

Mother of god that's actually brilliant. DPs are T5 right? (use Darkstrider to ID them on a Icarus lol. )

Icarus is S9.

 CthuluIsSpy wrote:


Icarus is S9.

Darkstrider drops Toughness (and ID threshold)

 Desubot wrote:

 CthuluIsSpy wrote:


Icarus is S9.

Darkstrider drops Toughness (and ID threshold)

Oh he does?

Now that's handy.

 Lotus wrote:

There are 3 enemy squads.
Commander joins Crisis Team 1.
Crisis Team 1 shoots at enemy squad 1. drones are BS5 thanks to the commander. All Suits can fire at whatever they want in reality thanks to target locks, but end result is Enemy team 1 is still alive with ~6-7 markerlight tokens on it.
Crisis Team 2 shoots at Enemy Squad 2. All Crisis Suits in Team 2 use the target lock to shoot at Enemy Squad 1, and expend tokens to boost their BS to 5. Markerlight drones inherit their BS from the Suit with the DC, which is now 5. All members of unit are BS5 now. Enemy team 1 suffers BS5 from crisis team, and enemy Team 2 gets ~5 markerlight tokens placed on it.
Repeat again with Crisis Team 3.
Use remaining markerlight tokens by the rest of your army. You now have army-wide BS5 ignores cover. All markerlight drones can also JSJ and can move and fire.

Devious..

If you attach a ethereal w/ a 20 man sniper kroot team can he infiltrate with them? I'm thinking about infiltrating said unit w/ a homing beacon for close 6" deepstikes. Is this doable?

 Tauownz wrote:
If you attach a ethereal w/ a 20 man sniper kroot team can he infiltrate with them? I'm thinking about infiltrating said unit w/ a homing beacon for close 6" deepstikes. Is this doable?

No. its under the infiltrate rule.
edit: on the bright side you can get a homing beacon on Stealth suits and infiltrate them.

Darkstrider suffers from 'Not enough HQ slots' and 'I could do better stuff with those points' syndromes.
Ethereals I think will be pretty good with their Auras.
Commanders are great for getting escort squads and/or marker drone fun.

Point 1: Darkstrider is 100pts. That's 10/11 Firewarriors or 8 pathfinders. Or a broadside. If you're using him, you really need to thing 'aren't there better things I could be doing with these points?

Point 2: The most novel use of Darkstrider is with 3 Ion Rifle pathfinders, using Overcharge to instant death T5 models.

Point 3: Other than that, lowering Toughness is not really something Tau need to do. Given the plethora of S5/7 shots we're taking, it's pretty damn unusual not to wound your target on a 2+. Pulse weapons benefit from his ability somewhat, but as in #1, they most likely don't benefit enough to cover an *entire second unit* of fire warriors.

Point 4: He could be alright with railrifle pathfinders to ID marine characters, but for the same points cost as that squad (minimum 189) you could get yourself a Riptide to do the same job.

5: You could use him + a grav inhibitor drone to become unassaultable, but who really bothers assaulting pathfinders? More likely they'd be boltered to death. He's a bit better with fire warriors but again, you could buy an entire fire warrior unit with his points cost.

The more I think about Darstrider the less I like him. He's too damn expensive for a few gimmicks that are outperformed by simply putting more bodies on the table.

The fact he decreases Toughness is a good thing for Tau.

I'll give him a go.

Honestly, I find the idea of using him with an ADL and lascannon leading a group of firewarriors makes a great base for a cheap Tau detachment. My other troop option then becomes Kroot (possibly a unit of 20) then I proceed to Mech up the rest of the list and use my allies to bring in two more troops. Gives me some amazing versatility. And probably the best cheap HQ to take with a Tau mech army.

Anything that decreases toughness is crazy. People nark on T5-6 because it "has no difference aside from S10 instapasting" well it also means youre hitting on 5s instead of 6s with random weaponry.

Nothing irritates my Bikernobz more than finding something that makes them go back to T4 and getting hammered by S8 attacks >.<

 Vineheart01 wrote:
Anything that decreases toughness is crazy. People nark on T5-6 because it "has no difference aside from S10 instapasting" well it also means youre hitting on 5s instead of 6s with random weaponry.

Nothing irritates my Bikernobz more than finding something that makes them go back to T4 and getting hammered by S8 attacks >.<

And not just T5 or T6. -1T to T3 is ID for a unit of multi-wound T3 models.