Well all my fears about the Farsight Enclave Supplement are unfounded. The GT I’m going to at the beginning of September is allowing allied Tau Detachments to take Tau Signature Systems, essentially reading Farsight Enclave Army as “Farsight Allied Detachment”.
Warlord Traits
Way of the Short Blade
Echoes of The Grand Master
The Warlord has one of the following traits Counter Attack, Furious Charge, Monster Hunter, Stubborn or Tank Hunter. Chose when the warlord trait is rolled. So, a poor mans Puretide Chip – which is awesome, but a bit random. It would be amazing if you got this on a Farsight Warlord and had an allied XV8 Commander with a Puretide chip!
The Way of the Broken Sword
One use only. For one turn you get a -1 on your opponents reserve rolls. OK, but situational.
The Fire Unquenchable
Your Commander is Fearless, and everybody within 6” is stubborn. Hmmm … you would need to be very careful with this one. There are many occasions when the last thing you want is for a unit to be stubborn – for example, a stubborn Kroot screen would be a disaster. You want them to crumble when assaulted, so you can shoot the assaulting unit in your own turn. Besides, you can turn stubborn on and off with an Ethereal.
XV8 Crisis Teams have a +1 modifier to their Reserve Rolls. OK, but only really useful if you have a bunch of XV8s in reserve. I very seldom keep XV8s in reserve.
Through Surety Destruction
One use only. For the duration of one shooting phase the warlord and his unit have the Shred special rule. Nice, but not really that exciting.
For 50pts you get to seize the initiative on a 5+, and at the start of each turn you roll a d6. On a 4 you get Preferred Enemy Space Marines, on a 5 Preferred Enemy Space Marines and Imperial Guard, and on a 6 Preferred Enemy everybody.
But here's a thought - ally him with Grey Knights and take Coteaz.... 2 rolls to seize on a 5+ isn't bad!
Seismic Fibrillator Node
The wielder and all models in its unit have Outflank, Move Through Cover and Acute Senses. Also any unit within 12” of the wielder who is outside their deployment zone treats difficult terrain as dangerous.
This is interesting. For 35pts you can outflank a team of Crisis Suits … or Broadsides …. or a Riptide, and pretty much choose the side they come in on. If you infiltrate a unit of Stealth Suits with a positional relay within 6” of your opponents back edge, they can even come in of that back edge. And then all your Kroot can come in there too ……. or pathfinders with special weapons …. and a homing beacon…..
Fusion Blades
For 30pts you get an S8 AP1 melee weapon that hits at initiative … which breaks if you roll a 1 on a d6 every time you use it. Oh and you need to fork out for a twin linked fusion blaster before you get it. So a total of 60pts …. to get a melee weapon … in an army that should never be in assault. Maybe in a Farsight bomb, but probably not.
Might be interesting on a Riptide with a Warscaper Drone!
Earth Caste Pilot Array
Now we’re talking! For 35pts you get to re-roll failed Nova Reactor rolls, and reroll 1s to hit. Perfect for a Heavy Burst Cannon Riptide.
Talisman of Arthas Moloch
This one makes a Farsight allied contingent a “must take” in all Tau lists IMHO. For 25pts you get to roll 4 dice to deny the witch, choosing the highest (so something like a 66% chance to deny), and not just for the wielders unit, but for all units within 12”. And if that wasn’t enough, the wielder gets a 5++….! If you take Farsight as a primary detachment and an allied Space marine Libby … with a psychic hood…. then anything within 6” is denying on a 5+ … on 4d6!
I no longer fear Jaws quite so much (or puppet master, or flickering fire etc. etc.).
Special Characters
If you take Farsight, and don’t take a command squad, you can take one or more of 7 special characters. There was some confusion over whether you had to take Farsight, but its now clear that you do. I’ve also seen some people argue you can not take a normal command squad instead of these guys, but I think it’s pretty clear that it’s an option – so you can still build a Farsight bomb using the Enclave Supplement.
The other problem of course is that there is a “Farsight tax” i.e. you need to take him, and if you’re not building a Farsight Bomb list…..why would you want to!
I’m not going to go through all of them in detail, you can read that for your self. I’m sure there will be clever ways to use each of them I haven’t thought of, but I’m not sure you can build a strong army around them.
FOC Swapping
Finally the biggie – in an Enclave Detachment, XV8s are troops.
I can’t make my mind up about how big a deal this is. On the one hand logic tells me that a balanced army will always be better than taking a whole bunch of XV8s …. but, man, taking a whole bunch of XV8s is way, way cooler!