Review of Arks of Omen: Farsight
~By Calmsword
It's pretty rare for the Tau faction to get this much attention which is going to make the next week or so pretty chockablock full of articles, new PodCaste episodes and more.
Farsight gets a new model, Shadowsun has a new book and people seem to be going gangbusters on the Boarding Action box set.
That said... unfortunately when it comes to lore:
Re: Phil Kelly
By now, I'm sure, even the newest Tau enthusiast is going to notice that amongst the online forums and communities that something is... amiss? When compared to the Imperial factions you'll see that we don't have anywhere near as much lore.
We'll have an outline in the future of what books there are and where you can get them (some are out of print) along with reviews of the best. But one name comes up time and again and that is the former head of Warhammer 40,000's narrative: Phil Kelly.
He's a pretty divisive individual despite being involved with Games Workshop for 20+ years. An excellent fantasy writer and someone who has been adjacent to a lot of the chief movers and makers of the company, he was given the reigns of the Tau faction.
And... We really don't know why he seems to hate them.
Since the earliest publications with his name on them and the Farsight Series that is the only consistent Tau narrative, he seems to just straight up be uncomfortable with at least half of the community's reason for liking the Tau: the silver lining/"good as good can get" in Warhammer 40,000's universe of grim-dark.
Typically in Warhammer 40,000 we get some variety in our stories. You can take a book or a story with one perspective and then a few books later you'll see the same events from a completely different interpretation. This has always been the hallmark of the hobby where your story can shine through. The unreliable narrator serves 40,000 more than any other franchise.
Except... Not with Phil Kelly. Time and again during his interviews with the Warhammer Community team to go out of his way to determine canon. This would be fine if he was consistent, yet, to date we see all kinds of odd inconsistencies or decisions that just don't make any sense at all. We'll have a future article that explores this but it's all on display in Arks of Omen: Farsight and it really holds back this story.
Let's begin.
General Review (Spoiler Free)
OVERALL
Like most of these "event" codexes we've been getting they do the job of giving us new rules, artwork and lore that is effectively an extended timeline entry. Gone are the days of Forgeworld's tombs like the Taros Campaign or Siege of Vraks and to all those long in the tooth like me, I miss them.
That said, if you're happy with the "pulse-porn" as it's starting to be called around the various community sites, then I suppose you'll be happy. Wars are described as sweeping, multi-billion combatant affairs that exponentially shrink to the size of a "typical" 2000 point game. I don't find it very gratifying and it makes the command decisions irrelevant.
In terms of bringing anything new, narratively, this feels like a small campaign that could be summarized in a White Dwarf article. Nothing "big" happens and many of the community theories are decisively shut down by the last page. Honestly, this book does more harm than good despite being a welcome addition to what few books the Tau faction has if only for the number of times a lore possibility is utterly shut down. On top of which we're meant to feel things by the end of the story that haven't been earned.
ARTWORK
It's hard to talk around my frustration but a lot of this artwork is really bad and, what's more, at least two pieces are used twice. This isn't a big book, barely over 100 pages, and I don't see why they couldn't have just asked whoever photo-bashed the Tau images mixed with Chaos bits into doing a few more.
(One image is literally a pulse rifle randomly attached to a Tau leg)
Some of the more epic pieces are awesome and the studio painters really out did themselves. There is a piece that shows Farsight's second iteration, the resin one, which has him facing what could be Nazdreg which I thought was particularly noteworthy.
CONCLUSION
I really think this is a missed opportunity on behalf of GW. It's like this book started out with the idea that we'd get Chaos Tau (despite the in-lore difficulty this would have been). The Imperial Tarot, the ad campaign for these books, had some incredible implications it was alluding and I feel entirely unfulfilled.
The presence of the Eldar and other xenos boarding rules set a really unfortunate expectation.
I bought this book because I'll buy anything with the word "Tau" on it (or... T'au) and I'm a sucker that likes to share their thoughts with the community, but if I were you I'd wait for this to go on sale.
4/10
In Depth Review
Setting the Stage
The book opens with explaining the basics.
Vashtorr is wrecking the Galaxy after forming an alliance of convenience with Abbaddon the Despoiler. Sending fleets out with massive Space Hulks to collect pieces of an esoteric "Key" that will assuredly do some more nastiness in the next and final book, Vashtorr now sets his efforts to the Eastern Fringes.
Farsight is coming to the end of The War of Dakka with the Orks that he engaged after the successful reclamation two hundred and fifty some odd years ago. Grog Ironteef, the Warchief of Alsanta, was the original antagonist that may have been the Ork to bring the former Kroot Empire low.
Farsight eliminates Grog but instead of it ending the war, the Ork Nazdreg Ug Urdgrub steps into the former Warchief's boots.
Presumably has no problem's filling said boots.
And... Now it's probably time for a good break because this is about where I started noticing that the narrative is flying off the tracks and the flavor text that showcases Farsight somersaulting (literally) killing Orks while eye-flicking and making pithy conversation with his new AI just doesn't make sense.
And that's because this is obviously written by Phil Kelly.
Even though there is no authorship you can just tell by the style. He never mentions "hooves" of Tau always "feet", for example. It's small, but you get used to your authors.
Kelly always starts pulse-porn (bolter-porn) with the same mentions of Tau characters critical of the ridiculousness of whatever combat they find themselves in, monologuing, then conveniently solving whatever problem is before them in a fashion that feels a little like an Anime Filler episode. The scene ultimately, never, matters to any kind of plot that might be going on. It's just... stuff to fill the pages.
But it also showcases the absolute NOTHINGNESS for setting up what is going on. There is little to no consideration to world building while we
To begin with, why does Farsight have a unique suit, the XV86 Supernova? We get a casual mention that O'Vesa has designed it for him (who is a little'per'son, I'm not joking, there are so many mentions of his diminutive height, his stocky legs and his "short arms").
It's the same, exact, deservice that we get with Shadowsun's XV22 Stalker Battlesuit with four-arms. There will be plenty of people that read this and get a little annoyed and accuse me of being nit picky. But, my brother's in Tau'va, even Iron Man gets a brief explanation of new classes of armor and he gets 2/3 on average per movie.
So, we don't get to understand this new armor or the absolutely fascinating Supernova AI who sounds absolutely charming in the limited interactions we get with her. And I'll leave it there because, by page 14, I am not satisfied with the endless explanations of different purchasable units fighting one another.
Where were we...
Oh!
I don't mean to be theatrical, but I did want to add that another telltale that this is Kelly is the final nail in the coffin for anyone hoping they were going to fix our biggest lore-hole before Kelly got sent to write in the Forbidden Zone (Age of Sigmar).
Tau... still do not... have FTL.
We were on a little bit of a soft retcon to retcon that retcon with the 9th edition book outlining the possibility that the anti-matter drives would be brought back into general use, and maybe they still will since we don't have dates anymore.
It makes ABSOLUTELY NO SENSE.
If you can't go FTL in a universe where your opponents are going FTL you just lose. You auto lose. You completely utterly lose. Unless the 40k Galaxy is much much much much much much smaller than the Milky Way.
Right. Where were we.
Farsight gives chase:
Farsight determines that they have to follow up with a devastating attack Dregrokk after he receives a vision...
Okay, it's not really a vision. An Ork Weirdboy hits Farsight with some warp based pewing and he resists it thanks to O'Vesa's contra-empathic field generator. He then turns and the Ork shoots out a ball of energy that showcases such highlights as Farsight using an ax and Vior'los, the capitol of the Enclaves, being overrun.
But Supernova records it? A recording that then Farsight keeps secret in one of the most Ethereal moves he's made to date (Keeping information from the rest of Tau because he needs to think about it and they might not know better? mwahaha).
As Nazdreg pulls back to the system of Arthas Moloch (only slightly more odd since it's on/closer the Commonwealth side of the Gulf) Farsight chases after him. Nazdreg has been having his Meks accelerating the creation of a "tellyfragger" weapon system that can be attached to mutliple kroozers and sent back to slag the Farsight Enclaves.
Which. Now that I'm writing this, sounds disturbingly like:
Farsight arrives relatively early to Nazdreg's planning, filling the sky with a dedicated fleet to curb stomp the remaining Orks. While their attack is sudden it's picking a fight with a planet that has trillions of greenskins on it.
They rise to the occasion with Nazdreg himself launching is mobile fortress to where he thinks Farsight is leading the main assault on the walls of his city.
But! It's a fake out. Farsight and the Eight along with aerial support smash into Nazdreg's most important workshops and begin to lay waste--
This is a great moment but one I wish there had been some narrative tissue connecting us to Farsight's recent past.
As you may have heard on the PodCaste, I don't have a very high opinion of Farsight. He has, since his ascent to Shas'O, routinely suffered massive losses because of his uniquely aggressive and close-in tactics. It makes him an incredible Sub-Commander.
But put in charge of the Reclamation Fleet after the Damocles Gulf Crusade? A poor choice culminating in him seeking to fill that chip on his shoulder by engaging with Grog on the outskirts of known space.
He continues this with oversight and failure at almost every turn. Grog even manages to outsmart him by launching an attack on Atari'Vo (a densely populated Tau world) drawing Farsight into a strategic trap. When Farsight arrives he realizes his mistake and is outsmarted by an Ork Warchief. Grog doubles back and assaults the Enclaves directly.
Farsight would appear to have learned something employing the same tactic on Nazdreg. Instead of being at the front of a speartip assault with all the glory and radical awesomeness that is a Crisis suit attack--
Farsight thinks things through and deploys at the exact right moment.
This would have been an awesome narrative realization to have been made on the page. A missed opportunity in my opinion.
Nazdreg realizes his mistake and teleport jumps back into the workshops. A brief but fatal battle ensues. Nazdreg's fortress's generator is hit by Brightsword which causes a teleporta/warp portal to open and drag the Warlord and his gang into it.
Farsight withdraws to orbit and his awaiting fleet to prepare for mop up operations when, you guessed it, MASSIVE TEMPORAL RIFTS open and the forces of Chaos sweep out of translation ready to do battle.
More about that in our followup, but, it should be noted that all the while the Tau and Orks are being observe by a Deathwatch frigate which has, interestingly, been infiltrated by Alpha Legion who are in league with Vashtorr. I find this only slightly unusual since "How does Vashtorr have Alpha Legionnaire followers, already?"
More next time!
~Calmsword
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