Print

[Jedibean]

making the Farsight Bodyguard a set of 7 special characters is a very interesting way to go about it, and would definitely be completely unique in the 40k universe. Unfortunately, such a unit would have to be incredibly expensive. Keep in mind that a regular 7-man bodyguard team with nothing but TL-Flamers and BSF in the third slot totals over 400 points when farsight is included.

What could be done is to make those particular configurations into upgrade characters only allowed to be taken in Farsight's bodyguard. Make them each either cheaper than normal and/or with some perk not normally available to suits and you're good to go.

You've pretty much got the idea exactly.  I was expecting the unit to be tremendously expensive.  Whenever I run commander farsight he and his bodyguard generally run about 1000 points.  I was thinking to make them upgrade characters like you said.  They can only be taken as members of farsights bodyguard or as squad leaders for crisis suit squads in farsights army.  You would be able to mix and match too.  You dont have to take all of them at once.  You can take certain ones for specific situations or just your favorite ones.  It could be kind of cool.  I'm just having a writers block on coming up with abilities 

[Floobosaurus]

It's can be very straightforward, really. We can start by identifying 7 good types of crisis configs, and their strongest gameplay traits, purpose in game, play mechanics, etc. Then we can flesh characters out of them by distilling and magnifying the key traits.

Eg:

Fireknife BG --> med-long range, general purpose, high strength, decent volume of fire --> poor BG, but good supporting squad leader + leadership abilities.

Helios BG --> short-range, heavy firepower, esp. vs heavy infantry --> cc "specialist" with a "counts-as" powerfist (FB), good against MEqs, TEqs, MCs

Sunforge BG --> Short range, fire-based weapons --> Demolition specialist, FB+Flamer, Bonuses against Hordes and Armor

Deathrain BG --> longest range --> Sniper

Firestorm BG --> med-range, high RoF --> generalist, but good against infantry


^By no means final or absolute. Just throwing out ideas to get the ball rolling.

[Charistoph]

Just for some added character, make one a Hazard suit pilot, one a Stealth suit pilot (maybe with a Rail Rifle), and possibly a Broadside?

[Jedibean]

Just for some added character, make one a Hazard suit pilot, one a Stealth suit pilot (maybe with a Rail Rifle), and possibly a Broadside?

I like your creativity but I disagree with the idea.  It would ruin the unit cohesiveness if they were all different unit types.  Also, commander farsights bodyguards should all be crisis suits.  I think for the purposes of fluff that commander farsight shouldn't have access to newer Tau technology.  He should only have access to the technology that he had when he came to his part of space, or he should have technology that he's acquired through fighting with members of other alien races.  All in all I think that his standard units should be veterans that are better than standard Tau units.  They just dont get the newest coolest Toys. 

[wasted]

OK, if Farsight is Shimada Kanbei, then the rest should play out as follows:

"Katayama Gorobei" - 2/4/5/4/2/3/2/8/3+  80pts
- XV8 Crisis Battlesuit
- Rail Rifle
- HW Drone Controler
- 1 Marker Drone
- Targetting Array

"Shichiroji" - 3/3/5/5/2/4/2/7/3+ 90pts
- XV8 Crisis Battlesuit
- Fusion Blaster
- Flamer
- Burst Cannon
- Multi-Tracker

Hayashida Heihachi - 2/4/4/4/2/2/2/8/3+ 80pts
- XV22 Stealth Suit
- Twin-Linked Burst Cannon
- Fusion Blaster

Okamoto Katsushiro - 2/3/4/4/2/3/2/7/3+ 95pts
- XV8 Crisis Battlesuit
- Plasma Rifle
- Airbursting Fragmentation Projector
- Multi-Tracker

Kyuzo - 3/4/5/5/2/4/3/8/3+ 110pts
- XV9 Hazard Battlesuit
- Twinlinked Burst Cannon
- Missile Pod
- Multi Tracker

Kikuchiyo - 4/4/5/5/3/3/3/7/3+ 115pts
- XV89 Extra-armoured Crisis Battlesuit
- Power Weapon
- Burst Cannon
- HW Drone Controller
- 2 Shield Drones

.....hehehe.....

[Kaphias Kha]

I get it.

But poor Heihachi finds that his generator is next to useless while standing with his buddies.

[Charistoph]

Just for some added character, make one a Hazard suit pilot, one a Stealth suit pilot (maybe with a Rail Rifle), and possibly a Broadside?

I like your creativity but I disagree with the idea.  It would ruin the unit cohesiveness if they were all different unit types.  Also, commander farsights bodyguards should all be crisis suits.  I think for the purposes of fluff that commander farsight shouldn't have access to newer Tau technology.  He should only have access to the technology that he had when he came to his part of space, or he should have technology that he's acquired through fighting with members of other alien races.  All in all I think that his standard units should be veterans that are better than standard Tau units.  They just dont get the newest coolest Toys.

True, but I was trying to keep in the spirit of the 7 Samurai/Magnificent 7 how they were of disparate styles, and in one or two cases, size.  Since this is more for fun or Apoc listing, we can right it up how we want.

And who's to say how the Enclave managed to get their hands on it, Rogue Traders go all over the place...  After all, they do have access to XV25s, Rail Rifles, and Piranhas, and those are VERY new.

[Jedibean]

I never got the impression that XV25's and piranhas were all that new.  I just thought that they were technology that the imperium hadn't encountered yet.  Since for some reason unknown to God and Man all of our fluff seems to be written from the view point of outward imperium observation.... *grumbles* *nashes teeth* 

[Charistoph]

I never got the impression that XV25's and piranhas were all that new.  I just thought that they were technology that the imperium hadn't encountered yet.  Since for some reason unknown to God and Man all of our fluff seems to be written from the view point of outward imperium observation.... *grumbles* *nashes teeth* 

Same thing could be said of any ForgeWorld unit.  The XV-9 pilot in Farsight's enclave could have been the original XV-92.  At this point we get into circular reasoning.  I only pointed those out as they are newer to 40k than Farsight is.