1,500 Pts Tau Farsight Army Lists [A or B]

[Katharon]

Hello there to my fellow BoLS loungers. Here are two lists that I am considering to take for a competitive gaming event soon. I'd appreciate some observations and feedback on them, some suggestions on where *you* think it might be better. Cheers!

List A


HQ

Commander [143]

• Cyclic Ion Blaster
• Burst Cannon
• Shield Generator
• Drone Controller

TROOPS

XV8 Crisis Suit Team [252]

• 3 x Suits
• each w/ two burst cannons & shield generator
• Bonding Knife Ritual
• 4 x Gun Drones

XV8 Crisis Suit Team [258]

• 3 x Suits
• each w/ two plasma rifles & shield generator
• Bonding Knife Ritual
• 2 x Gun Drones

XV8 Crisis Suit Team [258]

• 3 x Suits
• each w/ two plasma rifles & shield generator
• Bonding Knife Ritual
• 2 x Gun Drones

ELITES

XV104 Riptide [210]

• Ion Accelerator
• Velocity Tracker & Early Warning Override

FAST ATTACK

Drone Squadron [152]

• 12 x Gun Drones

HEAVY SUPPORT

XV88 Broadside Team

• 3 x Broadsides
• each w/ rail guns & plasma rifles
• Bonding Knife Ritual
• 1 x Gun Drone

TOTAL POINTS: 1,498


List B


HQ

Commander [140]

• Cyclic Ion Blaster
• Burst Cannon
• Shield Generator
• Vectored Retro Thrusters

TROOPS

XV8 Crisis Suit Team [204]

• 3 x Suits
• each w/ two burst cannons & shield generator
• Bonding Knife Ritual

XV8 Crisis Suit Team [234]

• 3 x Suits
• each w/ two plasma rifles & shield generator
• Bonding Knife Ritual

XV8 Crisis Suit Team [234]

• 3 x Suits
• each w/ two plasma rifles & shield generator
• Bonding Knife Ritual

XV8 Crisis Suit Team [234]

• 3 x Suits
• each w/ two plasma rifles & shield generator
• Bonding Knife Ritual

XV8 Crisis Suit Team [234]

• 3 x Suits
• each w/ two fusion Blasters & shield generator
• Bonding Knife Ritual

ELITES

XV104 Riptide [210]

• Ion Accelerator
• Velocity Tracker & Early Warning Override

TOTAL POINTS: 1,490

[ShadowcatX]

As they are now, I think I prefer list A. However, I think list B has more potential and I'd probably tweek it. Specifically, the second list seems to be spending around 400 points on just shield generators. I would drop those, get a couple drones (probably marker drones since you have 0 markerlights) per unit, and buy a second riptide with a heavy burst cannon and ecpa.

[Katharon]

I prefer to have longevity and survivability in my units, hence the shield generators. Also, unlike most people, I'm not afraid of BS3 so that the lack of Markerlights has never affected me. Also, I believe the heavy burst cannon on a riptide is one of the more useless aspects. It just lacks punch and takes too many risks when trying to use its Nova charge profile for the gun.

Thanks for the suggestions.

[Saint_Anger]

Instead of using shield generators, I think I will use 2 shield drones for each XV8. It can also provide 4++ and more models. That can also make you have a little more points to use and perhaps add some support systems (Early Warning Override, Vectored Retro-Thrusters, etc.)

[Katharon]

Instead of using shield generators, I think I will use 2 shield drones for each XV8. It can also provide 4++ and more models. That can also make you have a little more points to use and perhaps add some support systems (Early Warning Override, Vectored Retro-Thrusters, etc.)

But Drones have a worse armor save, meaning that more normal small arms fire could take them down. I'd rather take gun drones than shield drones, personally, just for the firepower additions.

[ShadowcatX]

I prefer to have longevity and survivability in my units, hence the shield generators.

More units and more offense increases over all survivability as well.

Also, unlike most people, I'm not afraid of BS3 so that the lack of Markerlights has never affected me.

Even if that was all that marker lights did, using a 44 point unit of pathfinders to gain a 33% increase in effectiveness for a 150 point unit is still a net gain. But they allow you to ignore cover saves as well, and that can more than double the effectiveness of some units.

Also, I believe the heavy burst cannon on a riptide is one of the more useless aspects. It just lacks punch and takes too many risks when trying to use its Nova charge profile for the gun.

I disagree. On its own it has the strength of 2 missile crisis suits, and if you nova charge it it can cut through a land raider. And with rerolling 1s to hit, it is pretty impressive, especially if you have a couple of marker lights increasing its b.s.

Thanks for the suggestions.

No problem. That's one of the advantages of the tau army, they're strong enough to be played multiple ways.

But Drones have a worse armor save, meaning that more normal small arms fire could take them down. I'd rather take gun drones than shield drones, personally, just for the firepower additions.

That's true. 1/6th of the time, when making an armor save, a drone will fail where a crisis suit will succeed. However, 2/6th of the time both would fail, and so you lose a 12 point drone rather than a wound on a model worth nearly 80 points.

[Katharon]

Fair points. I'll do some test games with both your suggestions and as the above lists are currently written, to see how they deal with various things.

[Dioxalyn]

I've been playing Tau and focusing on a suits only list for a while now. A note on rules/legality of the riptide since you will be playing in a competitive environment you will want to follow the rules 100% In 7th edition you cannot use both Skyfire and Interceptor at the same time. Also after Intercepting with the Early Warning Override you cannot shoot that weapon next turn, but you can intercept with the nova profile of your weapon if you successfully charged it in your movement phase.

As for list building, I would personally drop all(or most) of the shield gen's in favor of another riptide with a Heavy Burst Cannon and Earth Cast Pilot Array and/or Commander Farsight. A normal Farsight Enclave list i'll do is:
HQ-
Farsight
Commander:2Missle Pods,Drone Controller,Stimulant Injector,Shield Gen

Troops-
3Crisis:2Missle Pods,Target lock,bonding,6marker drones. --Commander goes here and deploys on the field at the start of the game. This setup allows you to put lots of missles on one target while lighting up another with 6 BS5 markerlights. A tip with these guys is you can move the suits only during movement phase to still get BS5 markerlights then JSJ and catch the drones back up if you are safely within reach of cover. These guys can safely sit midfield and bait the enemy into trying to kill your markerlights as your Commander can tank quite a bit of fire before you need to consider using Look out, Sir!

3Crisis: (2Plasma Rifle,Vectored Retro Thruster)(2Plasma Rifle,Flamer)(2Fusion Blaster,Target lock),6gun drones,bonding --Farsight goes with these guys and their goal is to drop down close enough to get the Fusion suit into melta range and still be able to shoot at an infantry/termi squad since they can handle both easily with AP2 and volume of fire+the flamer.. You can't shoot the flamer if the template hits a friendly target, be sure to give him a clear shot before you JSJ your drones/suits back into tanking position. I take the flamer over other support systems because I view it basically as one. For 5pts(same cost as most other support systems) you can give up a plasma rifle shot to template infantry or Wall of Death those few guys up front to deny the charge. My meta likes to put a couple 2+/3+ guys in front of infantry blobs so with this you can drop down, plasma away the strong guys then roast/blast the rest with the gun drones.

3Crisis:Burst Cannon,(2)Flamer,Stimulant Injector,(1)Vectored Retro Thruster,bonding,6gun drones --This group is the ultimate hoard/infantry destroyer. 24 S5AP5 shots and 2 template with a save of 3+/5++ they can drop down and wipe out 10-15 models and easily survive whats left with the 5+ Feel No Pain. Since these guys need to be up close and personal to make some barbecue I give one guy the Vectored Retro Thruster instead of the Flamer and stick him in the very back, that way if they decide to charge you with 2 Wall of Deaths and manage to make it through you can (usually) leave combat at 3D6" before CC even starts just to shoot at them all again!

3Crisis:2Fusion Blaster,(2)Target Lock,(1)Vectored Retro Thruster,3shield drone,bonding --I take Target Locks on 2 of the suits in case my opponent groups up multiple vehicles. I take shield drones here to absorb Lascannon or equivalent shots. Keep one drone in the back if you are in danger of being charged at any point, with all drones gone you go back down to Initiative 2 for getting away from CC.

These are the main variations of crisis suits that I normally take. With the leftover points I would take 1 Riptide(or 2 if everybody was OK with it) and/or more plasma suits. This list is difficult because with such a small model count when you start taking bases away your fire/staying power drops dramatically, but with all crisis suits and riptides your opponent usually ends up going for the Mark'o(Commander with marker drones) or Riptides. This leaves your Crisis teams free to move in on the objectives. Don't get caught up in trying to table your opponent in a glorious victory.
Play the objectives and terrain. I assign objective markers to each group of suits and have them try to capture them by turn 3. The Fusion/plasma suits can easily get you Linebreaker and hold the objectives in your opponents deployment zone. While the Mark'o and riptides can sit back and hold the mid/backfield objectives and still bring the pain. Once the game starts to get close you can split off your Commander/Farsight from the main groups to capture 2 objectives per group.
If your opponent is a Drop pod or "in your face" by turn one list, deploy your plasma suits on the field at the beginning. This will deter your opponent from dropping in behind you and with JSJ your suits can easily get back into the fight. If you don't take a Heavy Burst Cannon Riptide with Earth Cast and Velo Tracker then you should just try to ignore any and all air units. Sure they can and will do some damage to your suits but they can't hold objectives unless they Hover and then you can just wipe them out with your Mark'o/riptides. This list has a small number of models so I try to take Vectored Retro Thrusters in every group. VRT also allows ours suits to hover within Melta/Rapid Fire range without fear of getting Swept or bogged down. With VRT you can use Tau's amazing Overwatch ability and (most of the time)completely nullify our main weakness. Also with the VRT you can strategically charge a weaker group of enemies to hide from lots of shooting then escape next turn or whenever its safe.

These lists are fluffy yet powerful and a lot of fun to play! Good luck and have fun