Tau Help Desk: Commander Farsight

Help Desk Query:

Recently when I bought some Crisis Suits a Farsight model was included.  First do you recommend using him?  Second, how big of a bodyguard if you recommend him? I do have enough crisis suits to field a full guard and the mandatory elite crisis team. I have experimented a little with the full 7 man body guard each with 2 shield drones against my Dark Eldar and it is a pain to kill requiring my entire army charging in and still requiring the sweeping advance to kill the unit p.s. If it matters a friend has an  ork army that I play relatively often Image taken from Games Workshop without permission.  Help Desk Response: Interesting question as I have been toying around with some ideas ion how I would use Farsight lately. A word of warning, I have never fielded Farsight but I have seen him played in many instances. I think the Tau Community has lots of insight though so definitely look to comments on this post for good tips. I am sure ol' Pearly Gates has used this renegade before. One thing I know is that the "Farsight-bomb" is well-known on the internet but I am not sure it works really well. While I am known for deep striking my XV8s, Farsight is 170 alone and far too expensive to risk tossing out there and hoping for a good scatter roll. With O'Shovah, your entire army gets Preferred Enemy: Orks and free bonding knives for every Shas in the army. OK. Great. What a neat gimmick.Too situational.Honestly if you getting charged by orks, preferred enemy will not help you. Bonding Knives...ok I could use those for free why not? But really neither buff is not going to make your army much better. Unforunately, he limits your access to Tau units, the most notable restriction is on Kroot units. An army that takes Farsight cannot field any Kroot so you're limited to Fire Warriors as your troops choice. While, I played without Kroot for about a year or so, they've made it back into my list and are there to stay. They are too valuable as outflankers in my opinion. He is not a bad choice however. Farsight provides you with a close range unit that can protect your vulnerable units from the assault. As a Shas'O, Commander Farsight is a daemon in close-combat. With I5 and four S5 power-weapon attacks, he is the only model in the Tau range that can hold his own in the assault. On top of that he has access to a rather large bodyguard. At first, you may be tempted to field Farsight with a large bodyguard of 7 Shas'Vre suits. Personally I wouldn't do so.  Instead I would make his unit compact with drone support. I'd make each Bodyguard unique to allow for wound allocation. I'd make them close assault specialist by giving them twin-linked flamers and a second weapon of your choice(fusion, missile or plasma) with Hard-Wired Multitrackers, supported by Shield Drones. I'd keep their points down so you can field more support units. My overall battleplan would be to keep my distance, using the world renowned Tau firepower from a distance. I'd let them enemy close and when the time was right, I'd released Farsight to attack the enemy once they are in striking distance. It's important not to drop too many points of Farsight and his Bodyguard. You are going to need support units that can dish out damage from afar so you can whittle units down to manageable size for Farsight to swallow. Start there and remember, experience is the best teacher. After a few games, you'll begin to realize where his strengths lie and what kind of Bodyguard he should be fielded with. One last point, avoid Terminators and any units capable of causing any instant death wounds. Farsight, while expensive, can be killed by a single punch from a powerfist as he does not have Eternal Warrior.