What to say about Farsight? For one thing, he is the only tau with any CC ability. Still not great at it, all things considered, but pretty good. Basically, a Shas'O with -1BS, +1WS, and +2I, given a plasma rifle, a shield generator, and a power weapon (it is 2D6 for vehicle armour penetration, but who cares? still only str 5, and average 12 for armour penetration), and the cost for all this is +95 points. It's his special rules that make him...unique?
+Dawn blade, decent weapon.
+Blood Brothers, Bonding knives for all! Can decrease his price when it is taken into consideration. useful.
+Ork Fighters, pretty useless, only works against one faction, and at I2 for most tau it won't do anything, but might as well have it.
-Breakaway Faction. The major reason not to take Farsight. Crisis suits become 1+ (because that matters, right?) but you can NOT have ethereals or auxiliaries (no kroot!?!) and, more importantly, Broadsides, Hammerheads, Sky rays, Piranhas, Stealth suits and pathfinders become 0-1...what? So units essential to our army (Hammerhead, Broadside, Pathfinders) are 0-1? Why? Basically everything except FW, Gun Drones, Crisis suits and Sniper teams become 0-1 or not present at all. Very bad.
-Bodyguard. I know what you're thinking "But O'Canada, how can having up to 7 bodyguards, with no penalty, be a bad thing?" the answer: Because it is very, very tempting to go with a huge bodyguard. Huge bodyguard=bad. Temptation=bad. Therefore, potential to go to huge bodyguard=bad.
Conclusion: Too expensive for his statline, makes most competitive army lists impossible, would only be worth it if he made Crisis suits troops. Avoid him.
EDIT: May actually be worth it in the new edition. His sword is now comparatively better ("ignore armour saves", so it isn't technically a power sword, so it is still ap1 against infantry), his FoC modification is now less terrifying with the chart doubling up at 2000pts, and preferred enemy is now extremely useful for the tau. I wouldn't jump on him immediately, but I am...cautiously optimistic.
Other than the Broadside limit, I don't find the Farsight FOC limits that bad. But then I tend to max out at 2 teams of Broadsides and give the third Heavy slot to Hammerheads or Sniper Drone Teams depending on the list and point levels I want.
ReplyDeleteThe so called Farsight bomb is tempting, and probably the closest thing to a Deathstar the Tau can field. I've run some numbers on it and if kitted out right it can and will shoot just about anything that isn't an Apocalypse unit off the table. That sort of power does offset the loss of the extra Broadside team not that bad a trade for me.
But I prefer redundancy in my lists. 2 Broadside teams, two crisis teams . . . sometimes even 2 pathfinder teams (though I think I'll start running Tetra pairs instead). The Farsight bomb is the opposite of redundant. It's all your eggs in one basket and pray for the best.
I also don't see the Dawn Blade as a big asset. I wouldn't charge with Farsight. I'd shoot with him. Charging would be a tactically opportunist thing in order to tie up a shooty unit or deny an assault unit a charge. I think of the Dawn Blade more as a deterrent to the casual assaults that sometimes happen with the Tau. When someone knowing how bad the Tau are in Close Combat charges a Tau unit with something that isn't assaulty knowing he'll either wipe it out or keep it from shooting next turn. The dawn blade raises the specter of actually losing such contests in the opponent's mind.
When I charge with farsight, it is not to press the attack, it is to mop up a weakened unit. It's a win-win (if they've been sufficiently pounded) because you either get protection during their shooting phase via the Close Combat, or you remove a target without using more shooting.
DeleteAn example unit with Farsight I found (credit to shasocastris over at ATT)is:
Commander Farsight (510) [HQ]
-farsight
-shas’vre w/ plasma rifle, fusion blaster, targeting array, HW multi-tracker, 2 shield drones, iridium armour
-shas’vre w/ plasma rifle, fusion blaster, targeting array, HW multi-tracker, 2 shield drones, stimulant injector
-shas’vre w/ TL flamer, 2 shield drones, failsafe detonator, bonding knife
Though the bonding knife does nothing and the iridium armour is sort of hit or miss, I can see it working, theoretically.
I find Bonding Knives very useful. I've never had a unit with a bonding knife run off the table from being below half strength, even though I have had several start running that way. With Farsight it's a free upgrade so might as well put one on everybody.
ReplyDeleteIrridium doesn't help that formation IMHO, it slows it down considerably (have to move at the speed of the slowest and only getting 1D6 on the assault move drops the average formation travel by about 25%) and only 1 model is getting the better save out of it.
The throwaway Shas'vre with the failsafe detonator is an interesting one. Hopefully his shield drones die before he is called upon to use it.
The Iridium needs to be taken in context. Normally, a krak missile would force a drone to rely on it's 4++, meaning a salvo from a Long Fang squad can basically wreck a solid number of drones. Now, you have two drones with 2+, who are very likely to be able to stop that missile and survive.
DeleteAnd, of course, the Shas'vre with the detonator will see his drones die first (Were I to run this build, I would always put the first wounds on those drones)