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Introduction
The Farsight Enclaves is probably one of the most diverse and interesting armies currently in 40K. It is the foundation of many tournament builds, such as the Farsight Bomb or O'Vesa star, and is generally a strong codex, with most choices being usable in almost any scenario.
Pros and cons
+ Strong codex
+ High degree of customisation
+ Synergises well with allies
- Requires Tau codex
- High army cost in some builds
- Can be seen as "Flavour of the month" or Bandwagoning.
Narrative
One of the most incredible things the Farsight Enclaves codex does is introduce Farsight's backstory, revealing his motivations, successes and - most importantly - his failures.
For once, GW made a character that isn't a win-all god. They made a character with flaws. This is a major step for GW's writing, as Farsight is unique in this aspect; he is a believable character because he is shown as imperfect. Compared to some of GW's other works (Draigo, Calgar, Shadowsun, and other flat characters that cannot help but win) Farsight is a marvel of character development.
The book then takes us further, to the Tyranid invasion of the Enclaves, the Eight, and finally to Farsight today.
Tactica
So, there are a number of ways you can run Farsight Enclaves.
The first thing to note about the Enclaves is that Anyoen that can take a Bonding knife must do so - so Firewarriors, Pathfinders, Crisis Suits - all of them will cost an extra point. You must also take one max squad of Crisis suits, so you will always have at least one team of three Crisis suits. However, the major draw to Farsight Enclaves is this:
Crisis Suits are troops.
This means you have mobile high power infantry, which is scoring. Your opponent deals with them or suffers.
There are two basic builds, which often see variation to differing degrees:
The Gunline utilises mass Fire Warriors in a static position, often supplemented with a Cadre Fireblade or Ethereal for extra shots. This line will often be supported by Broadsides, Hammerheads, Riptides, Skyrays, Stealth suits and Crisis teams with specialised weapons. Although usually seen in Codex: Tau, Farsight can also utilise this strategy. A The Firewarriors can be replaced with Kroot with sniper rounds for a similar effect.
Its strengths are defence, survivability, and holding objectives.
The second tactic (and my favourite) is the Crisis Spearhead.
Max Crisis Teams.
This tactic is the complete inverse of the Gunline Tau. It's fast, low model count, with devastating firepower.
Its strengths are speed, objective taking, and strong firepower platforms.
How to play
Option one is pretty damn simple; you set up behind an aegis line and shoot. Get target priority right and you're fine. Seriously, there's not much thought goes into it.
Option two is where things get complex. The idea is easy enough: Crisis
Suits move 6", then 2D6" in the Assault phase. This gives you an average movement of 13", and most weapon ranges effectively 24"-30". You can then jump an average of 7". This gives you your mobility, which can be used to push forward for objectives or linebreaker, or to jump out of assault range, line of sight, etc.
While deep strike is an option, remember that those suits won't be contributing until turn two at the earliest, and it's often better to have them on the board to start.
Loadouts differ and are based mostly on preference and meta: flamers are nice for overwatch, Burst cannons for clearing hordes, Plasma for MEQ and TEQs, which fusion blasters complement quite well. MIssile pods provide long range support, though don't see much use outside of solo suits.
Common loadouts for the full team include:
Crisis suit, two plasma rifles
Crisis suit, two plasma rifles
Crisis suit, two fusion blasters, target lock
This allows the team to engage MEQs and TEQs effectively, while also being able to tackle vehicles. Note that the weapons are not twin linked, and may fire separately. A variation is to switch the plasma rifles for burst cannons vs hordes, such as Guard or Orks. A variety of weapons is important, but randomly throwing weapons on suits (flamer, missile pod, for example) isn't the best idea.
Wargear is expensive, so follow the (general) rule of boys before toys - that is, make sure you have enough guys on the table before you go overboard on wargear - having said that, drones and a Tankmander (more on these in part two) are important parts of any Farsight list.
Part two
Strengths and Weaknesses.
Already covered above are the mobile and devastating firepower an Enclaves list can bring. Not only is this list twice as fast as almost any other foot list, but it also has the option of deploying by deepstrike. Certain builds of Crisis Team benefit more from this than others, mainly Flamer and Fusion Blaster combos. However, most lists will want the suits on the board turn one to be pumping out fire from as early as possible.
The weaknesses of the Enclaves lists comes in the form of survivability. Despite the huge suits, a Crisis Shas'Ui only has two wounds and a 3+ save. If you can kill two marines or ID a Captain, you can kill a Crisis Suit. Tau leadership is also less than brilliant, and you don't want to be running an Ethereal around trying to babysit Your highly mobile suits in a 12" bubble. While the bonding knife is mandatory for Farsight, a much better fix is to take drones or a buffmander.
Drones
Drones are often overlooked by Tau opposition as annoying little frisbees that don't do much, and your opponent might be right. What they don't know is that those frisbees are far more useful to you than just extra meat shields.
IMO, every squad should take a drone or two, regardless of where they are in the army. The type is important, so we'll cover them by type.
Gun Drones
Gun drones are the quintessential support of the Tau gunline. They can be taken in squads or have two slapped onto a Firewarrior or pathfinder squad, usually the latter. Gun drones give you a couple more shots at close range, and are actually better for overwatch than Firewarriors due to their twin linked rule. They also benefit from an Ethereal's storm of fire, allowing for three twin linked shots each. While this may not seem like much, a couple of drones on key squads with supporting fire can make the difference between a charge decimating your lines, and failing because that one guy died during overwatch. Their use for crisis suits is limited however, because of the utility offered by...
Shield Drones
4+Inv. 12 points. Jetpack Infantry. These little guys can keep pace with your crisis team and eat shots for them. Meltaguns, Missile Launchers, Plasma, forget about it. This guy will eat it for dinner. And if he goes down, he'll have his buddy take over. I always take two on each crisis squad.
Marker Drones
Outside of a Buffmander with Drone Controller, I don't see much use for these guys. Like pathfinders but infinitely more meh... Though I suppose they have the jump move, but still...
This brings us to our last point on direct support:
The Buffmander
The Buffmander is a Shas'O specially equipped to increase the damage output of a Crisis Team he is attached to. He comes in two flavours: Markerlight support and Direct support. The Markerlight takes a Drone controller and Marker Drones, giving you a squad of BS5 Markerlights to throw onto priority targets. The second uses a Multi-Spectrum sensor suite, Puretide Engram Neurochip and Command and control node. This allows models in the unit to do the following:
-Ignore cover
-Re-roll failed To Hit rolls
-Gain Counter Attack, Furious Charge, Monster Hunter, Stubborn or Tank Hunter until the end of the turn. This delivers an insane amount of firepower potential at the cost of the Shas'O's own shooting. Seeing as you gave him Iridium armour (2+ save, +1T) anyway, so can't actually take another system (aka, arm him), it doesn't really matter, does it?
The Tankmander A variation of the Buffmander, the Tankmander has an Iridium suit, Shield generator and Stimulant Injector, followed by wargear suiting the needs of the user. The role of the Tankmander is to, well, tank. He'll eat the Strength 8 melta shots, shrug off Krak missiles, and doesn't give a toss about those lascannons. In short, he goes at the front and eats bullets, so the rest of his crew can do their business.
The buffmander synergises particularly well with Plasma rifles, missile pods and cyclic ion blasters, depending on your opponent, though most weapons benefit from him (except flamers
).Other support So a major weakness of the Enclaves is the lack of anti air. This is usually remedied by taking a Skyray or two, but for the purists out there that want nothing but suits, there is another way:
XV104 Riptide battlesuit, with Heavy burst cannon, Interceptor, Skyfire. You can have a Buffmander to benefit from tank hunter, Nova charge the gun for 12 shots and rending, and let rip. Odds are, you'll do some pretty serious damage, taking ~ hull points from the interceptor fire (if my maths is right).
[spoiler=Mathhammer]12 shots at BS3: 6 hits, .16 chance of damage (pen) per shot.
16% of 6 = 1 HP = 50% chance to down a flyer from reserves.[/spoiler]
In short, you have a 50% chance to take out a flyer as soon as it enters the battle.
Option two is the Broadside Battlesuit with Heavy Rail Rifles and skyfire. A team of 2-3 is best, though keeping an Ethereal around these guys for the 12" LD bubble is a smart move.
[spoiler=Mathhammer vs Helldrakes]
TL BS3 shot = .75 hits, .375 chance to remove a hull point, .248 chance to pen per broadside.[/spoiler]
Two broadsides have roughly a 50% chance to penetrate a Helldrake (.496, or 49.6%) chance to land a penetrating hit on a Helldrake, which better pray it's INV will save it. Otherwise an AP1 hit on a flier means goodnight Vienna...
These options are also great for popping infantry and tanks respectively. Plus they're big, scary and distracting, allowing you to play the mission while they worry about your big guns. How many objectives can a Riptide actually take? Exactly...
Psychic Defence Talisman of Arthas Moloch. Done.
Countering Farsight
The million dollar question is countering Tau. However, countering Farsight isn't too hard.
For starters, they're generally the equivalent of six marines in terms of toughness, just far faster and more dangerous. Close Combat still messes them up nicely if you can get there. You don't have to worry so much about overwatch fortunately, though be aware that a full team will hit you with something. As with any elite army, high strength low AP weapons are lethal. If using drones, force them to save against small arms (bolters, etc) before firing the big guns. Shoot your Tacs before the Tri-las predator, basically. If they deepstrike, either that Land Raider is toast, or they're not thinking.
If all else fails, play the objective. This goes for both sides.
Right, that's all I can be bothered to do for now. If there's anything people want to ask me about the Tau of Farsight Enclaves books feel free to ask and I'll add it to the article. I'd rather not have to cover Forgeworld stuff as it's A) Expensive and
Not used in my meta, but I can theory/mathhammer out some stuff for you to consider.Part three will include a weapon guide, sample list and more suit tactics, in particular Monats and the O'Vesa Star.
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Cheers,
Authrix.
