XV86 Supernova Battlesuit
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9th Edition came and it gave us a new and completely badass-looking Battlesuit made specifically for Commander Farsight. And god damn it, does Farsight of all people deserve to have his own Lancelot Knightmare Frame.
Overview
As you can tell, the Supernova is a completely one-of-a-kind Battlesuit. There is nothing else quite like it, not even in the Tau Empire. The XV86 is for all intents and purposes, a completely Ace-Custom Battlesuit that is not licensed or approved by the Ethereals. Fortunately for Farsight, he has his own state to attend to which gives the Ethereals a middle finger.
Designed by Farsight's personal Tony Stark, O'Vesa. The XV86 provides new bleeding-edge technologies that has never been tested by the wider Tau Empire. Designed specifically to suit Farsight's needs, the XV86 is similar to Farsight's old XV-8 Crisis Battlesuit in terms of handling. However the XV-86 sports greatly enhanced command and control suites, which are all guided by an on-board AI – dubbed Supernova which is where its name came from. It is also bigger. Much bigger than your typical Crisis Battlesuits.
In terms of weapons, a lot of the equipment that Farsight used in his old Crisis Battlesuit has been implemented here. This includes his Shield Generator, a High-Intensity Plasma Rifle and his infamous Dawn Blade.
Crunch
Crunchwise, his new suit makes him a CQC professional. he's a WS2+, A5 Crisis Suit Commander with a 4++ Sv. His weapons include the Plasma Rifle which is a 36” Assault 2 S8 AP-4 D3, i.e. he just has 2 plasma rifles with +6" range. A pretty good infantry eraser. Likewise, his Dawn Blade has two modes of attack. The first is the A5, Sx2(10), AP-3, D3 single target attack, with the second being the A10, S+1(6), AP-2, D1 sweeping attack. Do take note that his WS is a 3+, so he will be hitting his targets most of the time. Yeah, he is pretty fucking deadly in CQC as expected.
The Suit, or shall we say Farsight, also has a special aura called Master of War, which grants CORE models in friendly FARSIGHT ENCLAVES CORE units within 6” re-roll 1s to hit. His other special abilities includes Tactical Acumen, which allows you to pick a friendly FARSIGHT ENCLAVES CRISIS CORE unit within 9” during your command phase. Until the end of this turn, it can shoot and charge after falling back, and its ranged attacks can ignore any or all hit modifiers. The last ability is Way of the Short Blade, which allows Farsight to select one FARSIGHT ENCLAVES CORE unit within 6”. Until the end of the phase, CORE models in that unit gain +1 to hit with melee attacks during the start of the fight phase.
So yeah, Farsight in his XV86 Supernova is a ludicrously strong special character. He is not to be fucked with.
For more information on Farsight's crunch and tactics, you can look at his own page.