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I've seen a lot of talk about the good that is the Farsight bomb, but I've seen very little talk about what else you would add to a Farsight list to support it. Assuming you go full out with the Farsight bomb (roughly 800 points give or take, 1000 if you take also Shadowsun which I never will for fluff reasons and cause thats too for me) What else do you add to support it in say, a 2k game? Even there, the deathstar still takes up almost half your points, so what else can you field to still stay strong?

I generally roll a farsight unit that runs at 600 pts. and then build an anvil on my side with an aegis. I generally run two units of broadsides with HYMP for anti horde. and then buy a hammerhead w/ longstrike to pop some transports for farsight. Basically I use farsight and piranhas to put pressure on their side of the board while mantaining a strong influence on my side with a gun line.

At 1850 points I field the Death Star, 2 units of 2 broadsides, 3 units of 5 pathfinders, and 80 kroot.

If I ran Farsightbomb, I'd take a Librarian from Codex Space Marines and give him Gate of Infinity.

That bomb just became the most mobile thing going.

Iranna.

Farsight at ~900, 1 unit of 3 HYMP Broadsides with missile drones, 2 Skyrays, a bunch of Kroot and Pathfinders -- this runs me into the 1500-1750 range.

If I have more points to play with, I drop them on a unit of 2 Crisis Suit suicide Fusions (1850) or a Riptide (2k).

@Iranna: But then you have to deal with a useless ally who can't Assault Jump with you. Why not grab a Farseer with Fortune and Runes, on a Jetbike? Everyone still gets to jump move 3D6, and you can re-roll failed saves! Not to mention, JotWW is now a bugger to cast on your unit

In the 3 games I've played with Farsight at 1850, I took 2 Ionheads and a Riptide as my main support. The rest was troops, mainly for objective grabbing and small arms support. I also had a unit of pathfinders to buff the rest of the army. I really like pie plate spam with the Farsight bomb since hordes just straight swarming you is a possible downfall of the bomb.

Why not grab a Farseer with Fortune and Runes, on a Jetbike? Everyone still gets to jump move 3D6, and you can re-roll failed saves!

I'm not sure why I never thought of that, but that's freaking brilliant.

You can never go wrong with a Hammerhead with Longstrike in command. Misslesides are always a welcome edition that can compliment everything in the Tau army.

Hammerhead wirh longstrike costs almost as much as 2 skyrays, which synergize with farshadow bomb much better (immediate alphastrike against anything scary, skyfire markerlights).

True. I guess my love of Longstrike has tactically blinded me to better options that are out there. I still stand by Longstrike as my man though

 Ferrum_Sanguinis wrote:
I've seen a lot of talk about the good that is the Farsight bomb, but I've seen very little talk about what else you would add to a Farsight list to support it. Assuming you go full out with the Farsight bomb (roughly 800 points give or take, 1000 if you take also Shadowsun which I never will for fluff reasons and cause thats too for me) What else do you add to support it in say, a 2k game? Even there, the deathstar still takes up almost half your points, so what else can you field to still stay strong?

How the hell do you take a Farsight bomb without Shadowsun? Shadowsun is the only thing that makes it viable, otherwise you're a battle cannon away from becoming a 1000 point smoking hole in the ground.

Asmodai Asmodean wrote:

 Ferrum_Sanguinis wrote:
I've seen a lot of talk about the good that is the Farsight bomb, but I've seen very little talk about what else you would add to a Farsight list to support it. Assuming you go full out with the Farsight bomb (roughly 800 points give or take, 1000 if you take also Shadowsun which I never will for fluff reasons and cause thats too for me) What else do you add to support it in say, a 2k game? Even there, the deathstar still takes up almost half your points, so what else can you field to still stay strong?

How the hell do you take a Farsight bomb without Shadowsun? Shadowsun is the only thing that makes it viable, otherwise you're a battle cannon away from becoming a 1000 point smoking hole in the ground.

It can be used without Shadowsun, just in a different way. If you can deepstrike it near all or most of his tanks, he won't have any battle cannons left to shoot you with. Also don't forget it has 14 drones for ablative wounds. It can take a few turns to chew through that. Its definitely a riskier way to run it, but on the other hand it leaves an HQ slot open for an ethereal.

@NinjaStars: Nope. There is no "Farsight Bomb", it's "FarShadow". Farsight with a bunch of bodyguards is just a blobby deathstar that dies to AP3.

 NinjaStars wrote:

Asmodai Asmodean wrote:

 Ferrum_Sanguinis wrote:
I've seen a lot of talk about the good that is the Farsight bomb, but I've seen very little talk about what else you would add to a Farsight list to support it. Assuming you go full out with the Farsight bomb (roughly 800 points give or take, 1000 if you take also Shadowsun which I never will for fluff reasons and cause thats too for me) What else do you add to support it in say, a 2k game? Even there, the deathstar still takes up almost half your points, so what else can you field to still stay strong?

How the hell do you take a Farsight bomb without Shadowsun? Shadowsun is the only thing that makes it viable, otherwise you're a battle cannon away from becoming a 1000 point smoking hole in the ground.

It can be used without Shadowsun, just in a different way. If you can deepstrike it near all or most of his tanks, he won't have any battle cannons left to shoot you with. Also don't forget it has 14 drones for ablative wounds. It can take a few turns to chew through that. Its definitely a riskier way to run it, but on the other hand it leaves an HQ slot open for an ethereal.

Battle-Cannon Ordnance Weapons remove casualties from the centre of the blast marker, and insta-kill your 3+ save suits. You need Shadowsun to make it viable.

Why have no one mentioned riptides? Go 2 or 3 riptides. They complement the Farsight bomb perfectly with a blend of firepower, anti-air and mobility to get away from dangerous units.

And then, of course, kroots for troops.

Asmodai Asmodean wrote:
Battle-Cannon Ordnance Weapons remove casualties from the centre of the blast marker, and insta-kill your 3+ save suits. You need Shadowsun to make it viable.

Actually, that's barrage weapons, not ordnance.

 jy2 wrote:
Why have no one mentioned riptides? Go 2 or 3 riptides. They complement the Farsight bomb perfectly with a blend of firepower, anti-air and mobility to get away from dangerous units.

And then, of course, kroots for troops.

Asmodai Asmodean wrote:
Battle-Cannon Ordnance Weapons remove casualties from the centre of the blast marker, and insta-kill your 3+ save suits. You need Shadowsun to make it viable.

Actually, that's barrage weapons, not ordnance.

2 riptides with ewo and vt runs 420, definitely a worthwhile investment against hellturkeys or jotwwspam. Also, skyrays.

 chrisrawr wrote:
@NinjaStars: Nope. There is no "Farsight Bomb", it's "FarShadow". Farsight with a bunch of bodyguards is just a blobby deathstar that dies to AP3.

This is probably worth it's own separate topic thread, but I'll respond 1 more time without starting a new thread. If you don't run the bomb with shadow sun, its still viable, it's just a different unit. The farshadow bomb is a there to dish out damage while being unkillable itself. The farsight bomb is a suicide unit, you drop it in the middle of your opponents army knowing its going to die, but hoping you can kill him before he kills you, and at the worst just make your points back. I've run farsight without shadow sun twice and found this to be the case. In both games I was able to do 1000 points of damage immediately after deep striking, and in one of the games I was able to table my opponent before he could destroy the bomb. I've added in shadow sun because in the end its a better list, but running farsight alone can still win you the game.

@op, I don't agree with keeping shadowsun out of your list for fluff reasons. Couldn't you make up a new character with shadow sun's abilities but that isn't shadow sun? Like sub commander nightide, sworn brother to farsight and his most trusted scout from his early campaigns against the orks. Joining him in exile, and armed with a mysterious orb found in the crypt with the dawn blade, letting him vanish from sight. You get the Idea

 NinjaStars wrote:

 chrisrawr wrote:
@NinjaStars: Nope. There is no "Farsight Bomb", it's "FarShadow". Farsight with a bunch of bodyguards is just a blobby deathstar that dies to AP3.

This is probably worth it's own separate topic thread, but I'll respond 1 more time without starting a new thread. If you don't run the bomb with shadow sun, its still viable, it's just a different unit. The farshadow bomb is a there to dish out damage while being unkillable itself. The farsight bomb is a suicide unit, you drop it in the middle of your opponents army knowing its going to die, but hoping you can kill him before he kills you, and at the worst just make your points back. I've run farsight without shadow sun twice and found this to be the case. In both games I was able to do 1000 points of damage immediately after deep striking, and in one of the games I was able to table my opponent before he could destroy the bomb. I've added in shadow sun because in the end its a better list, but running farsight alone can still win you the game.

@op, I don't agree with keeping shadowsun out of your list for fluff reasons. Couldn't you make up a new character with shadow sun's abilities but that isn't shadow sun? Like sub commander nightide, sworn brother to farsight and his most trusted scout from his early campaigns against the orks. Joining him in exile, and armed with a mysterious orb found in the crypt with the dawn blade, letting him vanish from sight. You get the Idea

I'm going to go on the record as stating: "Running farsight alone should not have won you any games, and will not win you any games against an aware and skilled opponent running a similarly competitive list."

It's like running skarweaver in 5e with a regular LoC instead of fateweaver. It might be powerful, but it really shouldn't win you serious games, luck not wiithstanding.

 NinjaStars wrote:

 chrisrawr wrote:
@NinjaStars: Nope. There is no "Farsight Bomb", it's "FarShadow". Farsight with a bunch of bodyguards is just a blobby deathstar that dies to AP3.

This is probably worth it's own separate topic thread, but I'll respond 1 more time without starting a new thread. If you don't run the bomb with shadow sun, its still viable, it's just a different unit. The farshadow bomb is a there to dish out damage while being unkillable itself. The farsight bomb is a suicide unit, you drop it in the middle of your opponents army knowing its going to die, but hoping you can kill him before he kills you, and at the worst just make your points back. I've run farsight without shadow sun twice and found this to be the case. In both games I was able to do 1000 points of damage immediately after deep striking, and in one of the games I was able to table my opponent before he could destroy the bomb. I've added in shadow sun because in the end its a better list, but running farsight alone can still win you the game.

@op, I don't agree with keeping shadowsun out of your list for fluff reasons. Couldn't you make up a new character with shadow sun's abilities but that isn't shadow sun? Like sub commander nightide, sworn brother to farsight and his most trusted scout from his early campaigns against the orks. Joining him in exile, and armed with a mysterious orb found in the crypt with the dawn blade, letting him vanish from sight. You get the Idea

Hmm I suppose you're right, I'll just have to paint her(him?) red to match the other suits...

what ive done, or rather started doing and plan on doing, is i am paiting my tau to match my battlefield, (mainly snowy ice fields) so a light blue/white/grey scheme. ive then gone in with a dark red paint and done a segment of leg armor, or a shoulder band band, or something else to tie the army to farsight. i would do something simaler for shadowsun. instead of making her red, just give her a section of armor to paint red, or better yet, rig up some banners simaler to farsights. to sort of signify that shes not part of his enclave, but is working with him as an ally for the time being. you know... for the greater good.



edit: as for list crunching... im trying to figure out a way to squeese a farsight bomb in, along with 3 riptides, 2 broadside units, a hammerhead and my troops.. its tough going.