Mech Tau with 'The Man Himself'
Content by T0nkaTruckDriver, Written by T0nkaTruckDriver, Edited by T0nkaTruckDriver
Ok, I admit it. I’m addicted to Farsight. I am, it’s true. I’ve tried going a few games without him but it’s gotten to the point where the urge to put that model on the table is just too great. No matter the cost, no matter the army restrictions, I’ve just got to have him.
I also like Mech Tau. Problem is, the two don’t mix well together. The biggest problem is the limitations on Anti-Tank units. Until now, I’ve been reluctant to go full Mech simply due to a lack of rail-guns on the table. I’ve traditionally brought a unit of Broadsides to take down the big vehicles and an Ion-Head for Power Armor crowd control and done rather well with it. But take away the Big Guns and I don’t quite know what to do. I imagine many of you would-be-Farsight-players have realized the dilemma! Therefore, I've listed here a sample army list and some of the lessons learned from playing Farsight in a Mech Tau Army.
- Farsight (170)
- Shas’o [Ork Fighter, Plasma Rifle, Burst Cannon, Shield Gen, Hardwired Multitracker, Hardwired Drone Controller + 2 Shield Drones] (168)
- 1 Bodyguard [Ork Fighter, Plasma Rifle, Flamer, Multitracker, Hardwired Drone Controller + 2 Shield Drones] (104)
- 6 Stealth Suits [Bonded] (190)
- 3 Crisis Suits (189)
- [Plama Rifle, Fusion Blaster, Multitracker]
- [Plama Rifle, Fusion Blaster, Multitracker]
- [Plama Rifle, Fusion Blaster, Multitracker]
- 2 Crisis Suits (113)
- [Twin-Linked Missile Pod, Target Lock]
- [Twin-Linked Missile Pod, Flamer]
- 12 Firewarriors in Devilfish [Shas'ui, Multitracker, Decoy] (225)
- 12 Firewarriors in Devilfish [Shas'ui, Multitracker, Decoy] (225)
- 8 Pathfinders in Devilfish [Shas'ui, Hardwired Drone Controller + 2 Gun Drones, Multitracker, Decoy, 4 Seekers] (241)
- 1 Rail-Head [SMS, Target Lock, Multitracker, Decoy, 2 Seekers] (200)
Seekers: 6
The list itself isn’t that great of an achievement. At 1850 pts there’s not much you can do with the Farsight restrictions, the trick is making a list like this work… and I think it can be done. How you ask? We need to follow a few rules of thumb:
1. Hide Your Suits
The key to your success is your Crisis Suits. Because of our lack of Heavy Support options, the Crisis Suits have been pressed into this role. They’re one of the few selections that are unrestricted in the Farsight Army, so nobody can accuse you of being cheesy by bringing 9 (or more!) Crisis Suits in an 1850 battle since we really don’t have much else to fill out the points with! With that in mind, one team of suits have been given Fusion Blasters and Plasma weapons in order to be able to get in close and chew through the 3+ and 2+ armor that seems ever-present on the battlefields of the 41st millennium. It’s these 3 Elite suits that also have the responsibility of dispatching enemy command squads since, as we’ll see in a bit, our HQ’s really just aren’t equipped to deal with them. The other Crisis Team is our artillery. With their Twin-Linked Missile Pods, their job is popping enemy transports and light vehicles at range.
2. Engage Jump Troops and Fast Vehicles First
While a Farsight army offers you some small close combat ability, we need to be able to choose where and when that close combat takes place. An enemy rushing at you with transports and assault marines will spell certain death. More than ever, a Farsight army relies on being able to out-maneuver your opponent and these fast troops will take you to the cleaners in the movement phase. Fortunately fast vehicles generally have light armor making them viable targets for a first turn rocket barrage and/or Seeker salvo. It is the job of the Deathrain Crisis Team to dispatch any oncoming transports before they can close to assault range.
3. Use Terrain to Get Close
Because this army lacks large numbers of Railguns, we’re primarily relying on Fusion to do our heavy vehicle killing. Furthermore, Farsight himself needs to get in there to do his dirty work carving through the mooks with the Dawn Blade. Both of these facts mean our troops need to get close to the enemy without being shot up on the way! We’ve got 3+ armor and multi-wounds, but we can’t rely on these things. If there isn’t a piece of terrain where you need it to hide behind, consider Deep Striking. By turn 3 or 4 there should be a few vehicle wrecks you can use as cover as well.
While our HQ’s want to get in and mix it up in close combat, our Plasma/Fusion Suits need to be operating in the 9-18” range to be most effective (and stay out of range of being charged!). Get ‘em there and keep ‘em there. It’s a dangerous game, but one that must be played in order for this list to work. This is most effectively done on a terrain-heavy board. Furthermore, leaving your Crisis Suits in terrain allows them a cover-save against stray Las-Cannon shots that you were unable to hide from with your assault move.
4. Don’t Leave Your Wingman!
Taking a cue from Top Gun, don’t separate Farsight and your Commander! In spite of his impressive (for a Tau) statline and big sword thing, O’Shovah can’t go it alone. And your Ork Fighter Commander definitely can’t run by himself, even with the Bodyguard. Furthermore, with the Bodyguard and 4 Shield Drones, the Commander can survive a fair amount of heavy weapons fire, and Farsight can benefit from the "no targeting rule" by hovering near the Commander's squad. The two operate best as a team. With their good BS, they can generally move in, kill 4-5 marines with their guns and then charge in and reliably take out another 3-4 in close combat. If the squad is bigger than that, they shouldn’t be engaged. Why not you say? Well I’m glad you asked…
5. Don’t Engage Units with Powerfists Unless you are SURE You Can Wipe Them Out on the First Turn of Combat.
This generally means they must be 4 models or less. Between shooting and close combat, you’d be really unlucky to not kill 4 standard marines. Your opponent is going to remove the power-fist wielding bad guy last… so you can kill 9 out of 10 marines between shooting and close combat, but that power fist is still coming back at you with it’s ability to insta-kill your 170 pt army general. It’s for this sole reason that we’ve given our Shas’o a shield generator. We don’t want to be relying on a 4+ save to keep our Commander from being squished, but there are times it’s unavoidable and 4+ is better than nothing. If there is a Power Fist or Force Weapon present in the squad you're assaulting, take care to keep O'Shovah out of base to base contact with its wielder since Independent Characters can only be attacked by models in base to base contact with them. I'm assuming there won't be any Shield Drones left by the time you get into close combat, although if there are, that can be a huge boost on the first round.
It’s this reason why we don’t engage enemy HQ squads with our tag-team trio. HQ squads are generally filled with Power-fists, power-weapons, and all kinds of nasty special weapons that do horrible things to us. And to top it off, they generally have initiative on us. Always use Farsight and your Commander as a team, and only use them to engage normal marines. Never assault enemy HQ with your close-combat team!
Don’t forget that in 4th addition, Monstrous Creatures count as 10 models for the purpose of outnumbering… and guess who counts as a Monstrous Creature in close combat? *evil grin* That means your HQ team will be weighing in at 16 models, without drones. If you've planned things right, you’ll be winning combat, and even if you don’t wipe out the squad, there probably won’t be that many left… so they’ll likely be outnumbered by a lot!
6. Use Farsight to Target Vehicle Rear Armor if Possible
While you don’t want to put yourself in a position to be shot by heavy weapons, if the opportunity arises, break through their lines and get behind their tanks. Although he’s only S5, most artillery-type tanks don’t like to move, meaning you’ll be automatically hitting with all 5 attacks and rolling 2d6 for armor penetration. Heck, against armor 10 and 11 your Commander can even get in on the action. Depending on the urgency and the opportunity, Farsight can even be used to engage Defilers and Dreadnaughts. They generally have high Strength and can insta-kill you, but you’ll be going first and if the situation is desperate enough, the risk might be worth it. With your WS 5, Defilers will be hitting back on 5’s. As we said from the beginning, the one thing this list lacks is heavy weapons, and in a pinch, the Dawn Blade can be used as a heavy weapon!
7. Only ever give the Ork Fighter upgrade to Shas warriors of 'Vre rank or higher
A Shas'vre with Ork Fighter will be fighting on even footing (in terms of WS and I) with Marines and will have the upper hand against most other normal troops in the game. And as we've said earlier, the only thing you ever really want to engage in close combat with your Battlesuits are normal troops. Since Shas'vre's only come one per squad or as bodyguard for your HQ's, the only time you'll be wanting to put Ork Fighter on anything other than your HQ is if you're bringing Monat suits or bodyguard.
8. Concentration of Firepower
Due to the large numbers of expensive Crisis Suits that a Farsight list practically mandates, you will often find yourself light on guns. For this reason, it is imperative to conentrate your fire early on in order to cripple a few enemy squads. While it is generally a good idea to deploy your troops in a spread out fashion in order to dupe your opponent into doing the same, you should immediately bring those troops to a point and drive a hole in your opponent's lines along one flank. In a Farsight army, you just don't have enough guns to engage the enemy along the entire front. Mont'ka is the name of the game!
This discussion did not focus on (or even mention) the Firewarriors, Stealth Team, or Rail-Head. That’s largely because these are used in the standard Mech Tau manner and really need no mention other than to say, “use them as you normally use them.” These three units do have one dedicated task however. Since the Crisis Suits have so many tasks on their plate, it falls to these units to soften up the squads that you intend to assault with Farsight and the Commander. As I’ve mentioned several times in this article, you don’t want to be assaulting with that team unless the odds are heavily stacked in your favor, and it’s the job of the remainder of your army to make sure that those odds are such. Therefore, if you plan to assault with your tag-team trio, the number one goal of your Firewarriors, Stealth Team, and Rail-Head is to make sure that your Assault HQ’s will be successful by sufficiently perforating their intended target prior to the assault.
In summary, I’ll mention a two other things. As much as I wish it didn’t, this list revolves around one model. In order to bring O’Shovah, we’ve sacrificed so much, that if he dies to a stray Las-Cannon shot, we’ve in essence handicapped our entire army to bring one model that died before ever accomplishing anything useful. For this reason, he must be protected at all costs. All of the strategies above are geared towards protecting Farsight while ensuring that he has an influence on the battle (which he must do in order to justify all the restrictions he’s imposing on us).
Secondly, play off your opponent’s prior experience. If your opponent’s never fought a Farsight Army, he’ll be mighty surprised when those three suits smash into his lines! However if your opponent knows what 'The Man’s' capable of, perhaps hold Farsight in reserve, using him to draw out your opponent's strongest units before unleashing a barrage of fire. Then and only then when the coast is clear should you consider letting your HQ’s jump in and mop up.
More than ever, a Farsight Mech Tau army is about selective engagement and concentration of firepower. In order to achieve this, mobility is paramount, and crippling our opponent’s mobility is an early priority. In the early game it may look like you’re vastly out gunned… and you usually are. But hopefully you can even the score with some clever generaling.
Mech Tau with Aun'Shi
Because he is considerably cheaper (pointswise) and confers considerably fewer army restrictions (none), Aun'Shi is understandably much easier to use than Commander Farsight in a Mech Tau force. He offers all the standard benefits of an Ethereal along with some boosted close combat stats, an extra wound, some special wargear and a few nifty rules. In fact, if you add up the wargear cost and estimate the value of the improved stats, Aun'Shi is one of the most economical Special Characters around. So much so, that if an Aun with Honor Blade is standard equipment in your list, finding an extra 45 points to upgrade him to Aun'Shi probably isn't a bad idea. In fact, many players feel the hardwired Shield Generator to be worth the extra points all by itself.
Aun'Shi's special ability adds +1 attack and +1 initiative to any Tau unit he joins. Since the squad he joins will also be fearless, this makes for a formidable (for Tau) close combat unit. While obviously not on par with Marines, the sheer number of attacks often more than makes up for their poor statline. Throwing your precious Ethereal into close combat often seems risky, and Aun'Shi's parry ability lends a measure of security to the gamble. By always opting to parry, you can ensure that any opponent striking Aun'Shi will never get more than 1 attack, and even if that hits (he's WS 5 by the way) and wounds, you've still got a 4+ invulnerable save. And although allocating your attacks to parrying reduces Aun'Shi's effectiveness in combat, you've still got your mob of troops around you, each with +1 attack and +1 initiative to do your killing for you. In reality, as long as Aun'Shi keeps himself alive, the surrounding Tau should be able to beat back any aggressors, provided you did your job at softening them up before they got to you of course!
With their assault weapons, a squad of Pathfinders seems like a perfect place to put Aun'Shi. Lending his Leadership to early game targeting tests and lending his special combat rules to late game assaults is a fun combo. Furthermore, in this role you won't find yourself needing to upgrade a Pathfinder to a Shas'ui since you'll already have all the leadership you need!
Mech Tau with Anghkor Prok
Being a limited edition model whose rules are only available online (althouth they are Chapter Approved), Anghkor Prok understandably doesn't see much use. His rules are available here.
Prok's great advantage comes from his ability to give Kroot a much needed Leadership boost and incredible enhancement in close combat. The inclusion of Anghkor Prok and a 20 strong unit of Kroot infiltrated into some woods can provide a formidable shooting force for 2 turns (one being rapid fire) while the enemy crosses the table and then will strike first (enemy assaulting into cover) with 45 re-rollable S4 attacks. This combo will result in 10.9 dead Marines before they even get an attack in. Not bad for a 215 point unit.
Anghkor fits so well in with the standard use of Kroot Carnivores that he really needs no significant adjustment of playstyle to make him work. In short, he simply makes Kroot do their job better.