Farsight Enclaves 2K Army

[Katharon]

So here is the army that I intend to build at some point. Comments or recommendations are welcome.


====
HQ [676]
====

Commander [180]
-Cyclic Ion Blaster
-Twin-linked Burst Cannon
-Target Lock
-Vectored Retro-Thrusters
-Talisman of Arthas Moloch
-Earth Caste Pilot Array

XV8 Crisis Bodyguard Team [158]
- 2 x Crisis Suits
- 2 x Bonding Knife
- 2 x Burst Cannon, on each
- 2 x Shield Generators

Commander [160]
-2 x Missile Pods
-Shield Generator
-Velocity Tracker

XV8 Crisis Bodyguard Team [178]
- 2 x Crisis Suits
- 2 x Bonding Knife
- 2 x Missile Pod, on each
- 2 x Shield Generators


======
TROOPS [1314]
======


XV8 Crisis Suit Team [204 Points]
- 3 x Crisis Suits
- Two Burst Cannon, on each
- Shield-Generators
- Bonding Knife Ritual

XV8 Crisis Suit Team [204 Points]
- 3 x Crisis Suits
- Two Burst Cannon, on each
- Shield-Generators
- Bonding Knife Ritual

XV8 Crisis Suit Team [234 Points]
- 3 x Crisis Suits
- 2 x Plasma Rifles for each
- Shield Generators
- Bonding Knife Ritual

XV8 Crisis Suit Team [234 Points]
- 3 x Crisis Suits
- 2 x Plasma Rifles for each
- 2 x Shield Generators
- Bonding Knife Ritual

XV8 Crisis Suit Team [219 Points]
- 3 x Crisis Suits
- 2 x Missile Pods for each
- Velocity Tracker
- Bonding Knife Ritual

XV8 Crisis Suit Team [219 Points]
- 3 x Crisis Suits
- 2 x Missile Pods for each
- Velocity Tracker
- Bonding Knife Ritual




Total: 1,990

24 Models (Crisis Suits)

[Katharon]

Also, I am thinking of dropping one unit and adding a Riptide in for the heavy anti-tank work. Or a unit of Broadsides.

[Gleipnir]

Curious what Tactics you are anticipating using? looks like you are building them for a combination of Deep Strike and Jump forward shoot and jump back, also curious about the lack of drones particularly with the Commander since they act at initiative 4 and can help avoid Sweeping Advances if you do happen to be caught up in an assault.

I would probably swap in at least 1-2 Stealth Teams in place of your Burst Cannon Crisis Teams, they accomplish the same thing apart from being scoring and are harder to hit with both Stealth and Shrouded and a 3+ Armor save you just have to worry about those weapons that ignore cover and are AP3 rather than invest a lot in Shield Generators, plus your commanders can join them to gain Stealth+Shrouded as well, so they probably function as better bodyguards than an actual bodyguard team. Homing Beacons and the ability to infiltrate are just two more pluses, and the Shas'vre can get targetlock and a markerlight to allow him to fire both his markerlight and either Fusion Gun/Burst Cannon at a separate target that you might want to give another team ignores cover or a better BS against.

Remember in Overwatch your battleuits can only fire one weapon, Some Deep Striking Fusion Guns can be nasty anti tank, another option might be to replace one of your two commanders with an Allied Tau Commander that has full access to Tau Codex Signature Systems that you might want, and a Unit of Fire Warriors or Sniper Kroot w/ a Kroot Hound Outflanking.

[Kirsten]

looks interesting but I would definitely say you need some anti tank fire power in there. get a team with fusion blasters in there, and either target locks, or take several individual suits. riptides are awesome, I would say take one with a heavy burst cannon and give him the earth caste array, it is wasted on the commander. 12 shots re-rolling ones shreds a lot of stuff.

[Gleipnir]

Missilesides put out great anti-tank in volume, downside is they aren't Relentless like the other suits so are fairly stationary platforms for their Heavy Weapons

[Katharon]

The main idea for my tactics is continuous movement and fire. The objective is to split the enemy's attention in as many different directions as possible and confuse or derail any set-piece strategies they may or may not have.

I have two teams of each to deal with different targets: burst cannon teams will focus on enemy infantry; plasma teams on MCs, terminators, and warlords; the missile pod teams are to focus on fliers and vehicles. My commanders are there to offer a similar combat roll and support where needed.

I might just drop the 2nd commander and bodyguard team to gain a Riptide.

[Katharon]

OK, so following in the vein of some of the comments and advice offered, I change my army list accordingly. The first list did lack a lot of heavy hitting ability.

====
HQ [308]
====

Commander [120]
-Cyclic Ion Blaster
-Burst Cannon
-Target Lock
-Vectored Retro-Thrusters


XV8 Crisis Bodyguard Team [158]
- 2 x Crisis Suits
- 2 x Bonding Knife
- 2 x Burst Cannon, on each
- 2 x Shield Generators



======
TROOPS [1314]
======


XV8 Crisis Suit Team [204 Points]
- 3 x Crisis Suits
- Two Burst Cannon, on each
- Shield-Generators
- Bonding Knife Ritual

XV8 Crisis Suit Team [204 Points]
- 3 x Crisis Suits
- Twin-linked Fusion Blaster, on each
- Shield-Generators
- Bonding Knife Ritual

XV8 Crisis Suit Team [234 Points]
- 3 x Crisis Suits
- 2 x Plasma Rifles for each
- Shield Generators
- Bonding Knife Ritual

XV8 Crisis Suit Team [234 Points]
- 3 x Crisis Suits
- 2 x Plasma Rifles for each
- 2 x Shield Generators
- Bonding Knife Ritual

XV8 Crisis Suit Team [234 Points]
- 3 x Crisis Suits
- 2 x Missile Pods for each
- 3 x Shield Generators
- Bonding Knife Ritual

XV8 Crisis Suit Team [234 Points]
- 3 x Crisis Suits
- 2 x Missile Pods for each
- 3 x Shield Generators
- Bonding Knife Ritual


======
ELITES [240]
======

XV104 Riptide [240]
-Ion Accelerator
-Earth Caste Pilot Array
-Velocity Tracker
-Early Warning Override


=============
HEAVY SUPPORT
=============

XV88 Broadside Team [132]
- 2 x Broadside Suits
- Bonding Knife Ritual


Total Points: 1,999

[fedratsailor]

your commander has 1 to many support/weapon choices. can only have 4. might just make the TL-burst a normal, he does have BS5.

[Katharon]

your commander has 1 to many support/weapon choices. can only have 4. might just make the TL-burst a normal, he does have BS5.

Good catch. I didn't even notice that. Duly changed and updated.

[Katharon]

Missilesides put out great anti-tank in volume, downside is they aren't Relentless like the other suits so are fairly stationary platforms for their Heavy Weapons

All Jet Pack units have the Relentless special rule...

[fedratsailor]

broadside's are not jetpack infantry.

[Katharon]

broadside's are not jetpack infantry.

Didn't say that they were. His comment was in reference to my Crisis Suits using the missile pods. His comment, if you look, came before the 2nd list was posted. Besides which, the Broadsides won't be doing much moving - so it's never a real problem that they don't have Relentless USR. If they did it might make them a bit broken.

[Gleipnir]

Didn't say that they were. His comment was in reference to my Crisis Suits using the missile pods. His comment, if you look, came before the 2nd list was posted. Besides which, the Broadsides won't be doing much moving - so it's never a real problem that they don't have Relentless USR. If they did it might make them a bit broken.

Actually no I never commented on your missile pod crisis teams(it was your burst cannon teams I said you were better off using Stealth Teams for), my post was about missilesides, missile loadout broadsides, but guessing your intent was already a mobile battlesuit army I mentioned their lack of Relentless, in case that did matter to you.

If you are building for a bit of a battlesuit take all comers force, I would suggest using Broadsides for your anti-air, they do it better per point than a Crisis Team, and are getting better armor saves twin-linked shots and a smart missile system out of it.

A Stealth Team with advanced targeting units and fusion blasters, and a Shas'vre w/ Vectored Retro thrusters target lock and markerlight plus 2 marker drones are my go to anti personnel unit, sure they have toughness 3 as opposed to 4 of a crisis team but they have a 3+ cover save standing in the open and pass that on to drones and IC that join them and can effectively precision shot out a lot of the more dangerous units buried in an infantry blob on 6's and w/ fusion blasters for heavily armored leaders. Drones allow for you to roll at an Initiative value of 4 rather than 2 for the Vectored Retro Thrusters. And use the markers to finish it off with other volume of fire units like missilesides or an Ion pie plate from a Riptide w/ ignores cover.

Also for their cost a 14 point Shield Drone w/ wound to give up and to give your unit Initiative 4 probably a better investment than a 25 point shield generator and you can take a lot of them for 75 points.

[Katharon]

Actually no I never commented on your missile pod crisis teams(it was your burst cannon teams I said you were better off using Stealth Teams for), my post was about missilesides, missile loadout broadsides, but guessing your intent was already a mobile battlesuit army I mentioned their lack of Relentless, in case that did matter to you.

Ah, that's my mistake then. Your post looked like it was inputted from an iPhone or something, so it kind of confused me in the wording. Point taken though.


If you are building for a bit of a battlesuit take all comers force, I would suggest using Broadsides for your anti-air, they do it better per point than a Crisis Team, and are getting better armor saves twin-linked shots and a smart missile system out of it.

A Stealth Team with advanced targeting units and fusion blasters, and a Shas'vre w/ Vectored Retro thrusters target lock and markerlight plus 2 marker drones are my go to anti personnel unit, sure they have toughness 3 as opposed to 4 of a crisis team but they have a 3+ cover save standing in the open and pass that on to drones and IC that join them and can effectively precision shot out a lot of the more dangerous units buried in an infantry blob on 6's and w/ fusion blasters for heavily armored leaders. Drones allow for you to roll at an Initiative value of 4 rather than 2 for the Vectored Retro Thrusters. And use the markers to finish it off with other volume of fire units like missilesides or an Ion pie plate from a Riptide w/ ignores cover.

Also for their cost a 14 point Shield Drone w/ wound to give up and to give your unit Initiative 4 probably a better investment than a 25 point shield generator and you can take a lot of them for 75 points.

I can see what you mean there...but still, that just doesn't suit my style nor the style of the army I wish to build. I might try that sometime after I've finished building my present army list. Speaking of which, for the 2nd list, do you think I should adjust the Velocity Tracker on the 5th or 6th Crisis Suit team over to something else?

[Halollet]

@OP

I really don't agree with shield gens on your suits. I see no reason why you shouldn't be in cover every turn. Maybe on your fusion blaster suits but other wise I can only think of two things you need to worry about: helldrakes and that one imperial guard tank.

You can easily drop enough shield gens to buy yourself another riptide that would soak up all the heavy fire power that you're trying to prevent with the gens in the first place.

That's my two cents. :)

[Katharon]

@OP

I really don't agree with shield gens on your suits. I see no reason why you shouldn't be in cover every turn. Maybe on your fusion blaster suits but other wise I can only think of two things you need to worry about: helldrakes and that one imperial guard tank.

You can easily drop enough shield gens to buy yourself another riptide that would soak up all the heavy fire power that you're trying to prevent with the gens in the first place.

That's my two cents. :)

If I were playing IG, then I'd be taking advantage of cover. With a Tau suit list and my own tactical abilities, I require maximum maneuverability. Also, I don't believe in spamming MCs.

[Katharon]

Would appreciate some more input on the 2nd list.

[Halollet]

If I were playing IG, then I'd be taking advantage of cover. With a Tau suit list and my own tactical abilities, I require maximum maneuverability. Also, I don't believe in spamming MCs.

Personally, I don't think bringing 2 MCs in at 2,000 points is really spamming; 3 at 1,500 would be spamming for sure. Nids, at this point level would probably show up with 6-10 MCs but its your list so I'll work around it.

Question for your tactics. You have more shield gens on your long range suits (that are still effective in cover far away from the enemy) then you do on your short range suits (which are best in the enemy's face). Why is that?

[Katharon]

Question for your tactics. You have more shield gens on your long range suits (that are still effective in cover far away from the enemy) then you do on your short range suits (which are best in the enemy's face). Why is that?

Actually, just about everything has a shield generator. The reasoning being that I want as much to survive for as long as possible. I can't depend upon everything going my way. Preparation for any such situation is therefore required.

[Tyrendian]

Actually, just about everything has a shield generator. The reasoning being that I want as much to survive for as long as possible. I can't depend upon everything going my way. Preparation for any such situation is therefore required.

I'd say for redundancy most things are better than making your units even more expensive than they are already... especially since you still die to small arms fire all the same, and as stated (especially with a mobile army like you're going for) you should be in cover most of the time anyways. Don't like more Riptides? Fine - there's a whole lot more out there to sink those 260 points (if I counted right) into, like a couple of Tetras (for mobile Markerlights) or even Stealth Suits

[Gleipnir]

Too many points invested into too few units vulnerable to small arms fire and STR 8 weapons that don't care about the number of wounds they have each, no ablative wounds from drones, too much redundancy in units makes for simpler target priority, and again other battlesuits can accomplish the desired battlefield role for a better points investment, total lack of markerlights means the majority of the army is firing those weapons at BS 3 without any advantages for ignoring cover or increasing BS, which means you may as well make sure all your suits use twin linked weapon systems at that point, also not sure why you would take bonding knife rituals on units of 3 models, since they always would have at least 25% of their models for the purpose of regrouping, basically a lot of wasted points in there. Curious why you would want to use this army as a Farsight Enclave army at all with how you are loading it out apart from wanting Crisis Troops.

3 man broadside team with SMS and High Yield Missiles for anti air and ignore cover shots out to 36" you can slap them front and center behind some cover. 3 man stealth team w/ 2 drones and an attached commander all uses toughness 4, want more stealth team with burst cannons, add 2 commander drones and tag on 2 more team members, your commander will live longer with those bodyguards than he would with a 2 man bodyguard team without drones, oh and it cost you less points, let the stealth suit shas'vre take the vectored retro thrusters, only 1 man in the unit needs one, free up a slot for a drone controller on your BS 5 commander. Consider adding more marker drones to the Crisis Teams for ablative wounds and to give you better BS and Ignore Cover. Consider mixing weapon systems particularly Missile Pods w/ Fusion Guns or Burst Cannons to make them a longer range threat as well. Easy enough to find points for all this dropping overpriced shield generators. Add two drones to the riptide and the commander and his two drones can join it to be Toughness 6 as well.

I favor using Target Lock on my Crisis Teams. Advanced targeting for Stealth Teams to precision shot out special weapons that present threats to riptides/crisis team/broadsides, Velocity tracker for broadsides, and Interceptor/Feel no Pain for the Riptides.

[Katharon]

Too many points invested into too few units vulnerable to small arms fire and STR 8 weapons that don't care about the number of wounds they have each, no ablative wounds from drones, too much redundancy in units makes for simpler target priority, and again other battlesuits can accomplish the desired battlefield role for a better points investment, total lack of markerlights means the majority of the army is firing those weapons at BS 3 without any advantages for ignoring cover or increasing BS, which means you may as well make sure all your suits use twin linked weapon systems at that point, also not sure why you would take bonding knife rituals on units of 3 models, since they always would have at least 25% of their models for the purpose of regrouping, basically a lot of wasted points in there. Curious why you would want to use this army as a Farsight Enclave army at all with how you are loading it out apart from wanting Crisis Troops.

Practically *everything* is vulnerable to small arms fire and S8 weapons -- that's why they have shield generators. Had no room for drones to keep it under 2K points. There is redundancy so that I have the maximum amount of response to various enemy units across the entire board simultaneously - to a degree. I'm an IG player so BS3 doesn't scare me as much as some players, and that is why the suits have two of the same weapon and not twin-linked; statistically speaking I can get a higher hit rate with more shots than with fewer shots that simply get to re-roll. Also, the fact that I am so maneuverable will mean that I can outflank and move around an enemy's cover. All Farsight armies are required to take the bonding knife ritual on every unit that is capable of taking them; no wiggle room allowed.

One of the only reasons to take a Farsight Enclaves army is BECAUSE you can take Crisis Suit units troops.


3 man broadside team with SMS and High Yield Missiles for anti air and ignore cover shots out to 36" you can slap them front and center behind some cover. 3 man stealth team w/ 2 drones and an attached commander all uses toughness 4, want more stealth team with burst cannons, add 2 commander drones and tag on 2 more team members, your commander will live longer with those bodyguards than he would with a 2 man bodyguard team without drones, oh and it cost you less points, let the stealth suit shas'vre take the vectored retro thrusters, only 1 man in the unit needs one, free up a slot for a drone controller on your BS 5 commander. Consider adding more marker drones to the Crisis Teams for ablative wounds and to give you better BS and Ignore Cover. Consider mixing weapon systems particularly Missile Pods w/ Fusion Guns or Burst Cannons to make them a longer range threat as well. Easy enough to find points for all this dropping overpriced shield generators. Add two drones to the riptide and the commander and his two drones can join it to be Toughness 6 as well.

Already gone over why I won't be using stealth teams in a previous post. Just doesn't suit my army's style (pun intended). I agree with you on the Broadside team weapon choices, and in fact for when I want more heavy support, I've got that exact unit type to field -- but this is my Crisis Suit high maneuver army, so the slow guys get left behind for the most part.


I favor using Target Lock on my Crisis Teams. Advanced targeting for Stealth Teams to precision shot out special weapons that present threats to riptides/crisis team/broadsides, Velocity tracker for broadsides, and Interceptor/Feel no Pain for the Riptides.

I don't see Target Lock being that effective on a Crisis Team, unless you give it a particular suit in a mixed-weapons unit; but for my list that's unfortunately not going to be the case. Velocity Tracker is a standard one for broadsides, but no points this time around, and I felt like giving it and Interceptor to my Riptide instead -- as my all-round air and ground vehicle killer.

[Gleipnir]

Crisis Teams use Target Lock in my mobile force to unlock them from target selection of attached marker/gun drones, plus since I typically do not use Burst Cannons on Crisis Teams, preferring to allow fire warriors, Stealth teams, or Broadside teams with multiple missile drones to fulfill that role, most Crisis Teams are outfitted with Plasma Rifles or Fusion Guns w/ missile pods for use against Vehicles and Heavy Infantry.

[Katharon]

Crisis Teams use Target Lock in my mobile force to unlock them from target selection of attached marker/gun drones, plus since I typically do not use Burst Cannons on Crisis Teams, preferring to allow fire warriors, Stealth teams, or Broadside teams with multiple missile drones to fulfill that role, most Crisis Teams are outfitted with Plasma Rifles or Fusion Guns w/ missile pods for use against Vehicles and Heavy Infantry.

Once I've run my army list through a few games I'll get back to you on whether or not the burst cannons were effective on the suits.

[Kirsten]

I like burst cannons on crisis suits, get a squad in close and let rip, highly entertaining. I have a squad of three with four burst cannons, a flamer, and an air burst launcher between them, gives you high volume of shots, plenty of ignore cover, and a good deterrent against charging light infantry. As far as the shield generators go, I favour them as well personally, especially as I regularly play eldar, the ridiculous volume of rending shots you face makes the invulnerable save very handy. marker lights are cool to be sure, but with the volume of fire your army list has they are not essential, and it can be hard to fit a decent number of marker lights in to the army. pathfinders spoil the all suit theme, marker drones are only BS2 so either you miss a lot, or you attach a suit model to them to boost the ballistic skill, which means fewer suits else where. I know missile pod armed broadsides are the best thing since sliced bread for many people, and they are undoubtedly good, but the rail gun is the better choice obviously for heavier armoured vehicles, and they just look so damn cool...

[Katharon]

Thanks for the reply Kirsten. I'm actually going to be including two units of three broadsides in my next list, one all missile pods and the other all rail guns. We'll see which does more damage!

[Kirsten]

yeah I have one railgun broadside and I plan to do the same thing, get two more rail guns ones, and three missile ones... my main opponent has a chaos space marine army, and an eldar army. basically I would take railguns for the first, and missiles for the second.