Home >> Eldar >> Farseer Tactica, Part 1 >> Printer-Friendly Version
Thanks to Exarch Karrandas for this.
Since GW has released their FAQ on their rulebook. The uses for our beloved Farseers has changed Drastically. I think post i intend to go over the the different their power and potential strategies on how to get the most pts effective use out of them.
Disclaimer: As a biel-tan player i concentrate on a fast moving style, as such it is possible that some of my views may be skewed to benefit similar lists. However, all advice i offer here is truly what i think is most effective. I am also an optimist when it comes to performance.
Let's get on with it, in the new codex our beloved farseer has a new and improved basic wargear set.
Pros: Ghosthelm, Witchblade
As a result he now cost a bit more as a standard, however, these points are well worth-it. The new ghosthelm would easily be a 10 pts upgrade by itself. he also has a withblade. In a limited number of games the Ghosthelm has protected my farseer on several occasions, but do not forget that you have one. The witchblade makes it possible to upgrade to a SS for 3 pts, which is kind of a steal.
Cons: T3
No one is surprised or upset by the loss of T4 except for giant seer council lovers, but they have bigger fishes to fry. The farseer should have always been t3 and in the past if your farseer got caught in a volley of shots or in CC, he was usually dead anyway. The T4 doesn't mean much. So far based on its stats, the pts cost is fair given what it can do for us with its powers.
The base farseer scores a nice: 7.0
Singing Spear - 8.5 is simply fantastic at this pts cost, this probably so cheap in response to the fact that we are forced to take a witchblade now. However, a model that cost 58 pts with a str 9 anti-tank weapon is decent. This upgrade can prove to be very useful when combined with a jetbike, or if you plan on having the farseer ride in a transport(which i don't recommend). Overall, i like this upgrade and usually will have 3 pts left over to squeeze it in anyway.
Runes of Warding - 4.0 is GWs way of bring eldar to the top of the psyker game, by ruining other psykers. However, it is circumstancial, and as will circumstancial upgrades it shouldn't be taken in "Take on all comers List" since in that type of list it will rarely be pts effective. However, if you know your opponent is a boo librarian lover, then this might be a nice way to ruin his day.
Runes of witnessing - 2.0 - this upgrade seems pointless to me, you already have a ghosthelm and ld 10. So this upgrade would make the ghosthelm entirely pointless. The one advantage this upgrade has over a ghosthelm is that you will probably always successfully cast the power(very unlike to get 3 6's). However, its just not worth taking. I would only take this if i had a game where i failed to cast a power everytime i tried and then the next game wanted to make sure it all worked. In others words, forget this option.
Spirit Stones - 7.0 - With the emergence of DOOM, and the point reduction. Spirit stones are now a very handy choice. It will allow you to cast Guide and Doom, which will make your unit re-roll misses and re-roll wounding. Imagine the power this could bring. 10 fire dragons with doom and guide, that is nasty, makes meqs have nightmares. However, spirit will be wasted in many circumstances since you cannot cast power within a transport. This means that in order for this to be useful the guided unit, the farseer, and the doomed unit must be outside transports at the beginning of the turn. It can be used to great effect inspite of this fact.
Eldar Jetbike - 6.5 - This upgrade is almost neccessary in order for certain powers to now be used effectively. The update to the rulebook, has made this choice a very very tempting one. A jetbike will allow your farseer to keep up with faster units like a falcon, warp spiders, swooping hawks, fire prisms, etc. Depending on which unit you are tagging along with you'll be able to either guide of fortune them accordingly. Keep in mind you still cannot guide or fortune a unit in a transport. This is the main reason why a jetbike only scores 6.5. Despite, its ability to turn the farseer into a tank hunter, and a booster to our speedy units, it simply doesn't allow him to boost any unit in a transport, like we used to be able to do. Second, any farseer with a jetbike becomes expensive, over 100 pts guaranteed, Is this worth the cost? well that really depends on his role and your army composition.
Now let's talk about the meat and potatos of our farseer,
Doom - 10 - This is possible the best power available to the farseer, it can take any enemy unit and make it vulnerable. The eldar have undergone a change in this codex, one that takes us from quality low ap firepower, to a High Dakka Dakka army. As a result doom becomes more important than ever. Almost every new farseer will have it, with very good reason. This power rocks.
Eldritch Storm - 6.0 - Yes, that's right E-Storm scores a 6.0. Now before you call me crazy hear me out. The spinning abilities of e-storm have been greatly improved and it also can damage a tank unlike before. So this makes this power viable for a certain farseer configuration which i will talk about later in this tactica. However, I think e-storm wins the most improved power award. That may be because it was the only powered improved ::). Keep in mind i used to score this a 1.0-2.0 in the old codex.
Fortune - 7.0 - Fortune used to be a solid 8.0, but now with the advent of the FAQ its lost significant playing cred. This is because now fortune is for specific units, tranported units lose almost all uses for it. So gone are the days of fortuning banshees and scorpions, and price is now high enough where you think twice. Now it is reserved for those units which are on foot. Still a very good power (despite being expesive) if casted on the right units.
Guide - 8.0 - Guide is a great power, it used to be the best power IMO. However, with the need of a jetbike to make it useful for a large portion of our units it becomes and expensive power to take. However, when used properly and in combonation with doom, you don't get any deadlier.
Mind war - 8.0 - Slight price increase is in no way killing mind war's usefulness. The ability to kill a p-fist from a squad is very useful. Place the farseer with a nice CC unit and watch him make champion's brains ooze our their ears. This can be given to a cheap farseer config that remains very useful.
The farseers retinue is a squad of 3-10 warlocks. Representing something similar to a seer council. While expensive, a squad of these with witchblades, fortune, enhance and destructor, will really put a hurt on the enemy. They will also be feared to no end and absorb a lot of fire. So this unit is great but has lost some abilities like AUGMENT. losing that warlock power hurts, it used to be cheap and made mind war spectacular. Overall, this unit can be effective, but is an expensive gamble, i don't recommend taking them in large numbers. However, if you like the unit and you can make it work then go for it. Also, be wary you may be called a "Powergamer", its that kind of unit.
This next section is dedicated to suggesting farseer configuration i consider valid, and really usable for certain jobs. Some will be more effective than others, but all are meant to be viable if used for the purposes described.
The Blitzseer - 9.0 - Jetbike, spirit stones, doom, and guide , SS (optional)
The blitzseer is a very handy seer, probably one of the most playable seers around. Just take this guy and follow around a falcon, or a unit with a high shooting potential that is not mounted. Guide either the tank and doom the targets. He is an expensive HQ but he will turn those hard to finish squads into easy pickins. Once he is doing being support if you have SS on him you go tank hunt. Getting back shots cus of your high movement.
Works with- Warp spiders, Falcon, Jetbikes, Swooping Hawks, Vypers.
Tankbuster Seer - 7.0 Jetbike, E-Storm, SS (optional)
I like this config, something about just feels right. Simply use this guy to go around spinning tanks to ripen them for the busting. Now E-Storm is alot more reliable for spinning tanks now. Most tank are weakened with just their side armour exposed, it doesnt have to be back shots. This guy will net you tons of side-shots. If you have him Trail behind a squad of warp spiders he can turn then into serious tank busters, that accomplish the destruction of a tank 1 turn sooner than in the past. Also E-Storm can pin low armor units, if neccessary. The beauty of this seer is actually how good E-Storm is at spinning tanks to expose at least side armor. All it takes is 45 degree spin in either direction and you should have a side shot. that means that the dead zone for not exposing the side is 90 degrees which means 3/4 of the time you will expose side armor or better. This does even take into account the times when you roll a hit on the scatter. However, it will only work if the seer is combine with some str6 guns to back up the spinning and we should have plenty of those. if you dont then gun behing the tank and use your SS. It only gets a 7.0 though because its an experimental seer that needs testing.
Combo- Any Fast unit toting a str6 gun or gun that can bust a tank open.
Traditional Fortuneseer - 7.5 - Fortune , SS(optional), Jetbike(optional, probably not recommended)
This seer is simple he hangs back with shooty units and keeps them alive. His most attractive feature is how much resiliency he provides a unit, at a minimal pts cost. This guy should commonly included in static eldar forces. Mounting him up is useless and so static forces benefit most from it. The SS is so cheap that many will probably give him it in case the enemy bring a tank a bit too close. A jetbike can be given to him so he can fortune speedy units that do not need tranports such as spiders and Hawks. However, this is very costly and probably won't be a good enough return for the investment. Overall, a nice cheap seer with a healthy boost to the unit its supporting. Very good in static style armies.
Dooming Fortuneseer - 8.0 - Doom, Spirit Stone, Fortune , SS(optional), Jetbike(optional, probably not recommended)
This guy functions similar to the traditional fortuneseer but he also dooms incoming squads that are approaching your static force. This could make for a seriously deadly static line. This guys bumps up the power rating significantly. The 24" range of room isnt really wasted when you consider that in most game every deploys at least 1 foot up in the board. So as soon as 1 unit moves it will probably come within doom distance, this makes doom worth taking. As my biggest worry in a static style eldar would be to make sure everything is dead before it reaches my firebase, this guy can help make that happen.
Walking Doomseer - 8.5 Doom
That's no frills no thrills , just DOOM!. This guy is good because of what i stated above. all it takes is a single 6" move by either the farseer or the enemy to bring things within doom range. All the while your farseer will probably be protected by IC shooting rules. Meaning that it wont be easy to kill him. This guy will probably makes his points back. I have used this guy and liked his abilities very much so. He is very cheap, and very helpful.
Combo - anything with long range weapons
Mind MeltSeer - 8.0 Mind War, SS(optional recommended)
This guy rides around inside a transport with a squad capable of some beefy CC, Striking scorps perhaps. The turn you disembark and are about to go in for the charge use this guy to mind war away your opponents P-Fist. In a majority of games, there will be a champion of sorts for you to mind war ensuring this isnt wasted. If he successfully melts brains out of ears, then your SS's became top dog in the CC department. I like this guy because he can be transported and is cheap and serves a significant role with its buff. Alternatively, you could give him fortune as well, no spirit stones needed, and cast fortune if you end up going for more than 1 turn of combat.
Guideseer - 7.0 Guide
This guy is made cheap for a reason because he is there to make sure those long range DAKKA heavy units make it count while they are alive. This guy is perfect for War walker support, dark reaper support, and guardian support. Overall, he'll make sure you precious shots count. Also he is cheap which is a big plus.
Do not take guide or fortune on farseer that is going to be mounted. Unless you clearly expect to spend alot of time outside your transport you will probably not see a true value out of what you paid for.
Do not take eldritch storm on a foot slogging seer. E-Storm's best uses are in tank hunting ways, a footslogging seer can't possibly tank hunt. A footslogging e-storm farseer will only be useful against things that can be pinned. In most situations, you can expect you enemy not to be pinnable, sooo, this farseer becomes a waste in most cases.
Do not bother taking Runes Of Witnessing, and only Take Runes of Warding when you know your facing a powerful enemy psyker(and you gearing up against an opponent).
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