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I know there has been some debate over this strategy. I'm just wondering if what the most optimal Farsight death star would include. Personally I like variety, I know that I can use Farsight in many creative ways. Some people say Shadowsun should be included. I am leaning towards this strategy now because she gives stealth and shrouded to the Farsight blob. I was wondering if it would be better for Shadowsun to start on the field in a big blob of stealth suits and call down Farsight to join him on his epic crusade, or for Shadowsun to drop down with Farsight. Thoughts?

What is in your farsight bomb really depends on your meta and the rest of your army list. But here are some things to consider.

farsight - obviously
1 buffing suit- multispectrum sensors and command and control node for twin linked ignore cover goodness.
2-3 tank poppers- suits equipped with either double fussion or double missile pods and a target lock. Pen chip makes these guys great and versatile
3-4 infantry killing suits - suits equipped with weapons to kill infantry, I like double plasma as s6 tl ap2 ignore cover evaporates just about everything. Target locks are nice to take with these to kill more than one unit at a time.
14 drones - drones add a lot of wounds to your wound pool and can dish out some damage with their pulse carbines. I like 2 marker drones mixed to let fire warriors finish off units that didn't die.
1 HQ tank- You really need an HQ tank for survivability. Shadowsun is the normal go to unit as steal and shroud are good but keep in mind that moving into cover can be dangerous and your unit is so big it rarely ever is all in cover so people can focus your 4++ units. Another option is a tank commander. Equipped with iridium armor and stimulant injectors he can tank a beating with w4 sv2+ fnp all ap1/2 shots at him should be redirected at drones. He can also take a drone controller, making your drones bs5. 12 bs 5 drones dish out 5.17 wounds to MEQs a turn. The downside of a crisis commander is he needs to be in front so your flanks are exposed.

Making one fo your cheaper bodyguards carry an iridium suit is advised when you're running shadowsun, so you can pass wounds off to him from both the ICs.

I havent actually tried the farsight bomb but i always think about what would happen in this game if i had it while im waiting for my CSM friend to take his 45min movement phase (I HAVE OPTIONS is his excuse).

Every time i play against him, the only place i see i could land that would cause enough damage to justify the bomb puts me in a semi-surround as well as easily found by his hellchicken. You wont ever get that Iridium Armored commander in front of more than 1-2 units in my situations and unless he totally forgets about it i doubt the hellchicken would be on the side with the iridium in front.

Yes, the hell chicken will strip the cover save and pens your armor. But even a 4+ cover in the open from shadowsun will make it so basically only the hellchicken or noise marines have any reliable odds of killing them....and forests/craters are/should be common anyway.
I'd rather have Shadowsun. You also have to remember your own units generate intervening model cover save if you shoot over them, so its easier than you think to find a 5+ somewhere. Often i find myself giving it out to my target, or making one of my units do absolutely nothing so they stay out of the way.

here is the build out I would go for in a farsight bomb: 3 suits with 2 fusion and target locks, 3 suits with double plasma target lock, support suit with sensors and command and control node I also slap the 2+ armour on this guy as he is the guy who makes the unit deadly, then max out shouting drones that are placed infront of the unit. This unit will kill 1-3 units a turn

I personally don't think shadowsun is worth it because there is mass ignore cover but to each their own. Back it up with a couple of riptides and some firewarriors, kroot and an ethereal and go to town.

Slightly off topic but involves farsight.

Is he viable at ALL outside the bomb? i have the old farsight model and im contemplating just scrapping him for another crisis suit and getting the new farsight model since its so much cooler, but i dislike "all or nothing" strats since dice tend to hate me when i depend on a few choice rolls to change the game.

Personally, I prefer the old model.

Also, stick him with an iridium suited bodyguard with flamer + tl flamer and he's a survivable tough HQ who can brutalise people who think charging tau suits is a good idea. Not a particularly strong setup, but less weaknesses than the bomb itself...

 Vineheart01 wrote:
Slightly off topic but involves farsight.

Is he viable at ALL outside the bomb? i have the old farsight model and im contemplating just scrapping him for another crisis suit and getting the new farsight model since its so much cooler, but i dislike "all or nothing" strats since dice tend to hate me when i depend on a few choice rolls to change the game.

Well, he's not old anuva, but he does not really donate anything to a tau army, except some anti-charge.

Its just...he's a good model, but he's the only true melee around. and even that with JET packs, rather then JUMP packs, the difference is massive.

Biggest thing to me that makes no sense is hes a melee model with a plasma (doesnt even have a second weapon waddafuq?) in a purely ranged codex lol. Regular commanders can melee decently as well, just lack the AP Farsight brings. At least make his bodyguards WS4 lol.

 TheCadreofFi'rios wrote:
I I was wondering if it would be better for Shadowsun to start on the field in a big blob of stealth suits and call down Farsight to join him on his epic crusade, or for Shadowsun to drop down with Farsight. Thoughts?

It depends on your preference for the warlord trait. But Farsight can deepstrike without scatter or if you pick Shadowsun the unit will get 3D6" thrust moves. I think the deepstrike without scatter would be more effective since there are very few armies that can really handle a unit that will put out that much firepower the turn it comes in.

Id like to add though, what you guys think of Mass missile pods vs drop fusion plasma bomb?

Missiles, IMHO, are for suits that aren't planning on recieving support. AP4 means that more often than not infantry are better off with their armor save than cover, so no point in marker support on that. Assault 2 at 36" really helps with the suits low BS and often won't benefit too much from getting T/L or higher BS as much as lower shot weapons like plasma or fusion blasters.

If I was taking a suit unit in a list that had very little markersupport they could use, I would give all three dual missile pods. In a Farsight bomb I think that Fusion and Plasma would be far more effective even if the fusion isn't in 2d6 pen range.

My strategy actually involves Darkstrider or another infantry commander such as a Fireblade. I equipped my Farsight blob with my old battle suit load outs:


Commander Farsight (Warlord): With 7 Bodyguards:
3 Fire Knives= 3 Advanced targeting systems
3 Helios= 3 Target locks
1 Support Suit: Multi-spectrum sensor suite, Command and control node, Vectored retro thrusters, Drone controller, Onager gauntlet, Puretide engram neurochip, Neuroweb system jammer, Iridium armor, 14 Gun drones= 922 points

I know its a lot of points but I like the idea of dropping in with a lot of fire power.
reference:
Fire Knives= Plasma rifle, Missile pod
Helios= Plasma rifle, Fusion blaster

I have heard that the new FAQ supports two weapons that aren't twin-linked. I am convinced that there could be some good changes here, so I would change to the following:

Commander Farsight (Warlord): With 7 Bodyguards:
4 Dual Plasma rifles= 4 Advanced targeting systems
2 Dual Fusion blasters= 2 Target locks
1 Support Suit: Multi-spectrum sensor suite, Command and control node, Vectored retro thrusters, Drone controller, Onager gauntlet, Puretide engram neurochip, Neuroweb system jammer, Iridium armor, 14 Gun drones= 920 points

What attaching dark strider to the farbomb?

IMPOSEBUU as he is only able to join pathfinders or fire warriors.

No silly, he is going to be in a blob of fire warriors for outflank.

Ah that tactic. yeah that one is fun.

But yea I'm interested to see what people think of the two lists I have up. I think both of them are viable.

Also as another discussion question: What is the best way to set up a Farsight blob?

Didn't farsight+bomb used to count as an IC all together such that they could join up with someone else?

They took that away right?

I think they did. But I've heard people taking a crisis commander and sticking him in the Farsight blob, giving him a drone controller to give the 14 gun drones bs 5. Personally I think that is making an expensive unit even more expensive.

Yeah, they kept the whole "join together as one IC" thing when it's drones, right? So a commander can bring 2 more drones to the party. It was probably smart to stop letting bodyguards come in with them though.

Farsight bombs dont take ATS
Whatever you are shooting at is DEAD, the entire squad. you don't need to pinpoint characters.

Yea I guess your right. Revised:

Commander Farsight (Warlord): With 7 Bodyguards:
4 Dual Plasma rifles= 4 Target locks
2 Dual Fusion blasters= 2 Target locks
1 Support Suit: Multi-spectrum sensor suite, Command and control node, Vectored retro thrusters, Drone controller, Onager gauntlet, Puretide engram neurochip, Neuroweb system jammer, Iridium armor, 14 Gun drones= 920 points