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I've been experimenting with army lists for my farsight enclave. I'm trying to keep my list fairly competitive - the goal is to have a unique list that isn't copy/paste tau (I don't except to beat WAAC tournament lists). To try and make the best out of drones I came up with the following list:

165 farsight

208 3x crisis + 2x marker drone: 1x shas'vre /w 2x missile pod, early warning override, 2x shas'ui /w 2x missile pod, early warning override, bonded
204 3x crisis + 2x shield drone: 1x shas'vre /w 2x fusion blaster, target lock, 2x shas'ui /w 2x plasma rifle, advanced targeting system, bonded
208 3x crisis + 2x shield drone: 1x shas'vre /w 2x fusion blaster, target lock, 2x shas'ui /w TL plasma rifle, missile pod, bonded
207 3x crisis + 5x gun drone: 1x shas'ui /w 2x fusion blaster, target lock, 2x shas'ui /w flamer, burst cannon, (1 /w drone controller, 1 /w retro thruster), bonded (farsight goes here due to the CC loadouts and retro thrusters to use his I5)

218 2x broadside + 4x missile drone: 1x shas'vre /w HYMP, SMS, drone controller, 1x shas'ui /w HYMP, SMS, velocity tracker, bonded
116 sniper drone team: 2x marksmen, 6x sniper drone

Tau empire allies

180 Commander: 2x plasma rifle, shield generator, drone controller, iridium armour, onager gauntlet, neuroweb jammer

100 7x firewarriors + 1x marker drone: shas'ui /w markerlight, target lock, pulse rifles
100 7x firewarriors + 1x marker drone: shas'ui /w markerlight, target lock, pulse rifles

144 drone squad: 10x gun drone, 2 marker drone (iridium commander goes here for BS5 goodness)

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1850

The reasoning behind tau allies is to A) avoid the bonding knife tax on the firewarriors and B) an excuse to rock an iridium commander.

The army consists of 35 drones (the majority of which shoot at BS5 and the remainder at BS3. I feel as though I've covered most of the bases with a nice variety of missiles, AP 1&2, fusion blsters and a large amount of str 5 weaponry for MEQ/hordes. I've avoided vehicles as 1 or 2 would just stick out like sore thumbs.

I'm very interested to see how the iridium commander would do with his entourage of BS5 TL carbines. I'd probably land 18+ shots and wound with most of them due to fairly high strength.

Criticism is welcome

I would actually run dual Burst Cannons on the Iridium Commander, or Burst Cannon Cyclic Ion Blaster.

With the Dual Burst Cannons that squad will average 26 hits at S5.

The Cyclic Ion blaster takes great advantage of his BS5 and has synergistic range with the Burst Cannon and Pulse Carbines.


I wouldn't discount the idea of running a squad with 2x Fusion Blaster Target Lock, 2x Fusion Blaster Target Lock, 2x Plasma Rifle Retro Thruster as the squad to join Farsight to. You have the ability to 2x Fusion Blaster two hard targets while Plasmaing a 3rd with 0 chance of scatter. With some markerlight support its one nasty T2/3 strike. I'd run that squad with Shield Drones over Gun, but Gun Drones will still work well.

That farsight squad is something I was considering (gun drones would definitely be dropped in favour of shield drones).

The army is pretty much what I planned on using at 1750, just slightly modified and boosted 100 pts by the 12x drone squad. That drone squad kind of through off the balance of the army as before I needed that flamer/burst cannon suit team for anti-infantry, but now there is plenty of pulse weapons to handle that.

Drone controllers currently do not affect missile drones, so there is no point to the controller on the broadsides.

Just a FYI

Good catch on the Broadside Drone Controller.

I'd also drop the large squad of drones in favor of running two single Suit squads. 2x Missile Pod with 2x Marker Drones, comes out to 67pts each, 75 if you give them Drone Controllers. Its another two long range support scoring units and in area terrain and going to ground the first couple turns if need be will win you games. With the two drones up front and area terrain your opponents will have to devote more firepower than they would like to to hand them. 2 scoring units vs the non scoring non denial drones.


Edit: I had one of these little squads win game 4 in a 1k tournament recently. I started him along the board edge and moved him towards my opponents deployment zone Missile Podding and Marker lighting his flank while my main army was central. I made sure to kill off anything that was even near him and he won the game for me with Linebreaker. We were running BAO format and Linebreaker was worth 4 of the 12 Battle Points. Granted he was only a TL Missile Pod to save points but 2x Missile Pod is better if you have the extra 10 pts.

Really? Is that in the FAQ or book cause I must have missed it.

Edit: nevermind found it under the drone controller entry, didn't realize missile drones weren't included in the entry.

I'm also not sure how a 2x missile suit with 2x marker drone = 67 pts. I calculate it to be 76 pts and 84 with drone controller - still a neat idea for a little annoyance unit.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I'm still in the process of refining the list, but here is the refined version based on your suggestions:

165 farsight

208 3x crisis + 2x marker drone: 1x shas'vre /w 2x missile pod, early warning override, 2x shas'ui /w 2x missile pod, early warning override, bonded
204 3x crisis + 2x shield drone: 1x shas'vre /w 2x fusion blaster, target lock, 2x shas'ui /w 2x plasma rifle, advanced targeting system, bonded
208 3x crisis + 2x shield drone: 1x shas'vre /w 2x fusion blaster, target lock, 2x shas'ui /w TL plasma rifle, missile pod, bonded
188 3x crisis + 2x shield drone: 1x shas'ui /w 2x fusion blaster, target lock, 1x shas'ui /w 2x fusion blaster, target lock, 1x shas’ui /w 1x plasma rifle, 1x flamer, retro thrusters, bonded (farsight goes here)

230 2x broadside + 4x missile drone: 1x shas'vre /w HYMP, SMS, velocity tracker, 1x shas'ui /w HYMP, SMS, velocity tracker, bonded
116 sniper drone team: 2x marksmen, 6x sniper drone

Tau empire allies

180 Commander: 2x burst cannon, shield generator, drone controller, iridium armour, onager gauntlet, neuroweb jammer

100 7x firewarriors + 1x marker drone: shas'ui /w markerlight, target lock, pulse rifles
100 7x firewarriors + 1x marker drone: shas'ui /w markerlight, target lock, pulse rifles

144 drone squad: 10x gun drone, 2 marker drone (iridium commander goes here)

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1843

My apologies, I gave you the point cost for my TLMissile Pod, not the 2xMissile Pod.

I still don't like the Drone squad nor the loss of drones in your other squads, but it makes the most out of your Drone Commander. I would suggest grouping the non Farsight Fusion Blasters into the same unit as well as the Plasma, give them a bit more of a set role.

I find 2 shield drones to be good enough for my crisis. If you are going up against light arms such as bolters - put the suits upfront and make look out sir rolls as necessary, if heavy weapons then put the drone out front. The 2 drones combined with JSJ goes a long way.

I agree that the drone squad could be scrapped for something more competitive, but the point of the list pretty much revolved around its usage for fun. I plan on testing it out to see how effective that many BS5 str 5 shots turns out to be.

I also thought long and hard about my fusion blaster shas'vres. I have to keep them as they have proven themselves to be effective every game. Often you may find your crisis suits over extended and near enemy armour, you'll want those 2 melta shots. Also they are mixed in with squads using AP 2 weapons, they fit the role of heavy infantry hunting quite well. Since they are on characters, precision shots mean I can on occasion pick out HQs or other valuable multiwound targets (usually insta killing them).