Ok the main Tau list is now frozen for at least a year. Hopefully we can get some work started on Tau variant lists at this point.

Now I personally am not going to write a variant list unless it looks like no one else is going to do one of the main two variants - that is

Farsight Enclave and Tau Armour List

Other possible lists that could be done off the top of my head are Kroot Mercenaries or a more general mercenary/auxillary style list etc

If anyone has an interest in doing a Tau variant list can they pm me and I will give them my email details so we can discuss their ideas and also so I can coordinate a bit if two or more people have the idea of doing the same list.

For us non 40K rulebook purchasing folk, can you give some insight into the Farsight Enclave? The Armor list seems fairly obvious. I'd also like to see a more drone heavy list incorporating some of the FW models that are not currently in the list; not sure if that can be incorporated into the Enclave or not.

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author of Syncing Forward and other stories...

It's a dog-eat-dog world, and I've got my Milkbone underwear on.

Farsight Enclave: Less of the more recent Tau tech, and less armour/tanks in general, but on the flipside they have a seemingly greater access to Crisis Battlesuits. They also emphasise close range firefights, and even close combat(!), compared to other Tau armies.

FW's Havoc Battlesuits would seem to be a good fit for such a list.


More info here: http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Commander_Farsight

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Do you mean "Hazard" XV-9 battlesuits or did I miss something?


Edit: I thought the Hazard suit was new tech. If so, that doesn't make background sense with the Enclave, even if the idea of having it as a higher-FF suit fits mechanically.

Also, is there a separate army list/dex for the Enclave?

Edit Edit: To clarify, I know the Enclave has a different army list. I just don't know whether it's a few notes of "you can't take this, but you can get that instead" or if it is a full blown alternative structure.

Uh yeah, Hazard, sorry.

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I think a major difference between the Farsight Enclave and loyalist Tau would be doctrine. also they would use Crisis Suits with different weapons load outs.

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"Don't use finesse, if force will solve the problem."

- Lieutenant General Michael O'Neal

Here is a general overview of the Farsight Enclave, as far as I know. Remember, these are for the 40k scale:

Bonded Teams - every squad that can be bonded, is for no extra cost.

Broadsides/Hammerheads/Skyray/Stealth Suits/Pathfinders/Piranhas - In 40k, these are all 0-1 in a Farsight army. Meaning you can only have one of each in a 40k game (Apocalypse of course breaks this rule).

Kroot - Gone.

Ethereals - Gone

Crisis Suits - These are 1+, meaning you have to take at least one group in a 40k army. The Enclave doesn't get greater access to Crisis Suits specifically... however Farsight's personal retinue can be 7 Crisis Suits, whereas a normal Tau commander only has 2 Bodyguards.

Fire Warriors - in addition to the bonded team, the current rules have them as "Preferred Enemy: Orks", a close combat special skill. The first Tau codex has their stats being upgradable - they could be WS3 / Initiative 3 instead of WS2 / Initiative 2 for a few points. That takes them to Imperial Guard standards.

Pathfinders - Rail rifles were in service when the Farsight Enclaves broke off, but they were still experimental/rare.

Tetras - didn't exist when they broke away as far as I'm aware.

Tigershark AX-1-0 - didn't exist when the break away happened.

Sky Rays - possibly rare even compared to the other armored vehicles. That is more because it didn't exist in the original Tau codex though, rather than any specific information in the fluff.

Custodian - will need to be reworked as Explorer.

Tactics -

Farsight himself made his name using ambush tactics against the Orks. Luring them into gulleys/canyons/etc then surrounding and destroying them. Also seems to have a much stronger willingness to committ to a more static defense and actively defend it than most other Tau commanders - The Arkanushu War ended with the Orks surrounding Farsight in the "natural fortress of the Argap Highlands." The Orks battered themselves on the defenses to the point that they were scattered easily the following year.

"The War of Dakka" is the most recent account of Farsight Enclave tactics. Generally the same type of deal - Orks attack the defenses, get thrown back. Much more aggressive now though - rather than doing the cautious thing and holding the defenses or falling back to a new defensive position to lure the Orks into another trap Farsight ordered his soldiers to pursue the enemy.

Unfortunately the retreat was fake and the Orks in turn trapped the Tau forces. The Enclaves are in a bad way now because they are suffering from Armaggedon syndrom - the Orks have all heard there is a good fight to be had so more keep coming and the Enclaves haven't managed to restore their reputation of 'not fighting proppa' yet. Lure them into the trap and don't let up once they are on the run? Not sure what to do with that.

There were also some modeling articles that had Farsight as "Necron-Tau" but I don't think we should go for that.

I'm probably forgetting something though...

I'd say go the Sword Wind Aspect warrior route with upgrading the Crisis suit formation size, but their size is fairly flexible already. Maybe drop the missile pods from their statline for a twin flamers ignore cover AP attack, though missile pods are perfect for popping Ork truks, so I dunno about that.

Maybe upgrade the firewarrior/crisis suit/pathfinder CC (and maybe even FF?) values by one, turning them into more of a n assault army, the downside being that you're turning them into a more assault army, just like every other one.

Another quite plausible theory is that Farsight has been possessed (through the ancient artefact weapon he found and uses), possibly by Khorne even - he and his warriors fight for themselves rather than the greater good, he and his warriors have an unusual un-Tau like preference for close combat, he can be accompanied by a much larger bodyguard than normal of 7 crisis suits (which including him them making 8 - the sacred number of Khorne) and lastly his armour is blood red in colour rather than traditional Tau camouflage.

As for variants generally I'd quite like to see a Drone heavy list - which could include the current missed out units of heavy gun drones, dropped gun turrets, aerial drone mines and remora stealth drone-fighters and their carrier craft Tigershark variant. Kroot could be lost plus perhaps other things and there could be core Drone formation, with Crisis maybe moving to a support slot. I don't have time to write/test it myself, but I reckon it could be an interesting option.

I can see avenues for developing interesting lists from:

- Drone heavy
- Tank heavy
- Battlesuit heavy
- Kroot Mercenaries

I'm way too busy to have time to work on any for quite a while though.

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Currently doing a plastic scenery kickstarter

Agreed, though Battlesuit heavy might as well be done as the Farsight list IMO.

There should be a Farsight Enclave list going up fairly soon, none of the other potential lists have had any interest shown so far. I would like to see a Drone Heavy list and a Tank variant list, hopefully someone will be interested in doing a list for these.

I've posted a "Battlesuit focus" list earlier, it could be updated to the new rules.

Did it include the new 9 series battlesuits from Forgeworld?

Seems the perfect place to do them.

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I doubt they were out at the time... as the list was a submission to the SG Army Creation Contest... ancient history! *laugh*

What about the Gue'veshi (sp?!) human/Tau combination force lists?