Farsight Bombs Revisited.

A while ago I wrote an article questioning how effective a Farsight Bomb might be. The conclusion I reached was that it wasn’t that effective. Well, I was wrong!

A couple of weekends ago I played against Franco from 40k Global at Dark Millenium in Stirling. He played his Farsight Bomb (I played my bikes) and I must say I was impressed (great game BTW – I won the Primary objectives, but Franco dragged it back on Secondary’s for the win). The biggest problem I saw was keeping so many points off the table to deep strike down on (hopefully) turn 2. What I hadn’t really thought through was using an SM Libby with Gate of Infinity to “gate” the bomb around the board, benefiting from Farsight’s “no scatter” rule each time. I knew it was possible of course (there is a “little” rules issue over whether Farsight’s ability works with gate, but most TO’s are ruling it does), but I hadn’t really appreciated how powerful it was. I got a demonstration from Franco.

The Basics

For those who don’t know, to build a Farsight Bomb you take Farsight and his 7 man body guard. You equip them with twin guns, and add in as many drones as you can afford. Each suit has a Target Lock so can target a separate unit from the rest of the Bomb. One of the Bodyguards is kitted out as “Batman” with all the Signature Systems twin linking the guns, and allowing the Bomb to Ignore Cover and Hit and Run etc. To this you add Shadowsun for Stealth and Shrouded.

But the key to making it work is allying in an SM Libby and hoping he rolls Gate of Infinity on the Telekinesis Chart. Usually people take Tigger from the Ultramarines, who with his rerolls, has something like a 75% chance of rolling Gate, or if Forge World is allowed Severin Loth (a Forge World Librarian), who can choose his powers.

This creates a very mobile and absolutely devastating Death Star. The build Franco used had 6 Fusion Blasters, 5 Plasma Rifles, 4 Missile Pods and 13 Pulse Carbines (on the Drones).

Variables

There are 4 main variables in the list

·         Tigger or Severin Loth (assuming Forge World is allowed). Loth guarantees Gate, he also makes the Bomb fearless and brings a 2+ armour save, that he can turn into a 2+ invulnerable save if necessary. Tigger “only” has a 75% chance of rolling gate and a 3+ armour save and no invulnerable save. However, he has an extra wound, can roll on Divination (or Telepathy) if you get Gate early, and can reroll failed psychic tests. He’s also 10pts cheaper! I guess you take Loth for certainty, and Tigger for his added benefits,  if you are happy to take the risk of not getting Gate.

·         Shadowsun or a Commander. Getting Stealth or Shrouded is huge, but there are advantages in taking a Commander instead. First he can take Iridium Armour and tank wounds that ignore cover. Second you can give him the Puretide Engram Chip, protecting it more effectively (you could also give him the M3S and the C&CN, but you sacrifice the Commander’s shooting).Third a  drone controller on the Commander makes all your gun drones BS5. Finally, you can fire both his weapons separately – the problem with Shadowsun is one of her Fusions Blasters must fire at the same target as the main unit i.e. the gun drones. Usually firing a Fusion Blaster at a target more suited for Gun Drones is pointless. A more intriguing option would be to build the Bomb from the Farsight Enclave Supplement to snag the Talisman of Arthas Moloch on your Commander. Denying the witch on 4+ (because of the Libby), rolling 4 dice and choosing the result is pretty awesome! This works because Enclave Bodyguard’s are not characters, so the prohibition on not taking Empire Signature Systems don’t apply to them. Adding in the Mirror Codex and Coteaz too seize the initiative on a 5+, rolling 2 dice  is also attractive…..!

·         Bodyguard Load Out. How you equip the Bodyguards ….. Franco ran 2 with double Fusion, 2 with Double Plasma and 2 with Double Missile Pods, but the options are almost endless.

·         The Rest of the List. The Bomb and the Characters will run you around 1000pts. What else to add in? An obvious choice are a couple of squads of Kroot and a Scout Squad. Two or three Skyrays also work well – but other than that?

So, I’m trying to put together a 1750 list for an upcoming Tournament and here’s my take on it

Enclave List

Farsight

Commander, Twin Fusion Blasters, Target Lock, Drone Controller, Talisman of Arthas Moloch

I’ve gone for an Enclave list so I can include the Talisman. There will be a few Demon Players at the tourni, and Denying the witch on 4 dice, looking for a 5+ will help! Not sure about the weapons load out – I could swap for Plasma for the same points cost – what do you think extra Fusion or Extra Plasma?

BG 1       Twin Missile Pods, Target Lock, 2 Gun Drones

BG 2       Twin Missile Pods, Target Lock, 2 Gun Drones

BG 3       Twin Fusion Blasters, Target Lock, 2 Gun Drones

BG 4       Twin Fusion Blasters, Target Lock, 2 Gun Drones

BG 5       Twin Plasma Rifles, Target Lock, 2 Gun Drones

BG 6       Twin Plasma Rifles, Target Lock, 2 Gun Drones

BG 7       M3S, C&CN, Puretide Engram Chip, Vectored Retro Thruster, 2 Gun Drones

I’ve gone for a Mixed bag of weapons. Thoughts welcome. The Gun Drones are for Hordes (28 Twin Linked BS5 S5 shots which ignore cover should thin them out!), Fusion Blasters for armour, and the Plasma are for 2+ saves. The ones I’m not sure about are the Pods. They’re in for one reason – range. Everything else is 18 – 24” max. The pods allow me to shoot at something some way from the main action. I could however swap them for Fusion Blasters or Plasma Rifles for the same points cost. The one thing I thought about were Burst Canons on the suits. I’m a big fan of these on suits – and with Tank Hunter or Monster Hunter they become even more attractive. I also save 10pts for each suit kitted out with Bursters.

10 Kroot

10 Kroot

10 Kroot

Cheap versatile (but terribly fragile) scoring.

Sky Ray, SMS, Black Sun Filter

Sky Ray, SMS, Black Sun Filter

Sky Ray, SMS, Black Sun Filter

Anti Air, but also can be a pretty devastating alpha strike. Once they fire their missiles, the marker lights boost the Bomb (including against flyers – the marker lights are skyfire market lights) and the SMS pick of little gribbly scoring units (elder jet bikes..!)

Severin Loth

To guarantee Gate. I can see the arguments for Tigger, but Gate is so important to making the Bomb work well, I think Loth is the better option – he’s certainly the safer option

Scouts

Stay in reserve – hide and score. Simple!

Should be a few points below 1750.

So, what do you think?

EYIG