Tau hammer unit? WTF?

For September's monthly league at my FLGS I decided to mix it up and play Tau.

I have to say I was very impressed with how well the army played. I went with a full-on Farsight Bomb. First, the list:

HQ: Farsight
HQ: Bodyguard (all have shield generators, HW target lock, HW drone controller. Suits with 2 systems have HW multi-trackers)
1: TL Plasma, Gun Drone, Shield Drone
2: TL Missile Pod, 2x gun drone
3: Plasma, Airburst, 2x gun drone
4: Plasma, cyclic Ion, 2x gun drone
5: Plasma, missile pod, gun drone, shield drone
6: TL Fusion, gun drone, shield drone

Troop: 8 Firewarriors, Shas'ui
Troop: 10 Firewarriors, Shas'ui
-Devilfish, Multi-tracker, disruption pod, flechette dischargers

Fast: 6 Pathfinders, 2x rail rilfe
-Devilfish, Multi-tracker, Disruption pod, flechette dischargers

Elite: 3x XV8
1: Team leader, HW drone controller, HW mult-tracker, HW target lock, TL flamers, missile pod, 2x gun drone
2: TL Burst cannon, shield generator
3: Burst cannon, flamer, multi-tracker

Heavy: Hammerhead, railgun, multi-tracker, disruption pod, flechette discharger, SMS
Heavy: 3xXV88 3x A.S.S Team leader with HW drone controller, HW target lock, 2x shield drone

I have to say that the Farsight unit, with 7 suits all with wound allocation plus 12 drones for ablative wounds is just unbelievably good. The drones suck up battlecannon and lascannon hits until you get into combat. Combined with every suit having a shield generator I really didn't have to fear anything! Move, shoot, move, brings me into assault range quickly, which is where I want to be. oh, btw, the total for the unit comes to 865pts!

The markerlights were so useful, I can't see ever playing without them again. The main job was taking out cover saves from vehicles so the broadsides could do their job. The rail rifles never did much, so I might drop them. But the flexibility is nice, and infiltrating quite often gave me side armor shots. And of course the devilfish for helping the flamer suits get on target.

Broadsides: OMG this unit is by far the champs of the Tau codex. I only wish I could take 3 units and farsight at the same time! So resiliant, so powerful in vehicle-heavy 5e..I love them! I was constantly amazed how well they did..taking out a LR and a rhino in one turn one game, and a manticore and a vendetta in one turn another.

Game 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jq8AGmy_Ki8
vs Pedro Cantor marines. 2x sternguard, 2x tactical, 5 termies, 5 objectives
My opponent played everything in reserve. This reallly messed me up, and I didn't move to the objectives in time and the game ended on turn 5 before I could get there. I learned that being timid with the Farsight unit is a bad, bad idea. I think I was overly afraid of TH/SS termies.

Game 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsiMl_KKnuo
vs IG 2 demolishers, 5 chimeras, 2 vendettas, etc, etc
Smashed him aside. The railguns just opened up the tin cans like crazy, and the drones took all the demolisher hits until I could take them out. Easy win

Game 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePf7fdmqCfo
vs IG: 2 blobs, 2 vendettas, 3 LRBT
Again this really wasn't much of a challenge. farsight ran right at the IG and by the time he got there all the vehicles had been neutralized. My favorite part was using 2 markerlights and 10 firewarriors to kill 15 out of 20 guardsmen in one turn.

Game 4:
vs Blood Angels.
I lost this one, because I got hit by a blood talon dreadnought. He didn't do much damage but then I missed with all 4 of Farsight's hits, and the unit got caught in sweeping advance. before that I was doing really well, opening up the razorbacks and predators with ease. I'm sure I could have won or at least tied if farsight had opened up the Dread. This was the only game Farsight died.

Game 5; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnsdUTWl7JA
Vs IG..again. 2 manticores, 2 vendettas, 2x 30 blobs, Straken
This was a great game, my opponent is a top notch player. It was tough and well fought. Again though, the vehicles were like tin foil and I got them all. Farsight took out both straken and an entire blob, and probably would have done the same to the 2nd blob if the game went past turn 5. ended a tie, but I think I was in a better position in the end. Low light was a single guardsman assaulting 8 firewarriors, killed 1 and then I failed to wound on 7 hits back, and the warriors died to sweeping advance...sigh.


So that put me at 2-2-1, and I got 4th place for the month! It was a lot of fun, I've never played a 800+ unit before and it was amazing, worth every single one. Farsight is a good threat to everyone, with that I5, WS5 and 4 base attacks..plus 2d6 armor pen.

Tau is an interesting army. They still have the best tank killer in the game (I'll take 72" range over 18" range and lance that can be canceled any day..sorry zoans) . With 5e being so vehicle-heavy, that means Tau has an advantage if you can figure out how to mitigate the glaring weaknesses. Farsight bomb is one way to do this. Not only a usable CC unit, it is incredibly resilient.

Now if only stimulant injector wasn't special issue..