The journey towards 7.0 (Part3) news - Unification Mod - Dawn of War: SoulStorm for Dawn of War

Last time, we mentioned that we would reveal more about the Renegade Guard. But just like the turns the Damocles Crusade had, and because of high request from the Community, we have decided to cover the long awaited(and teased) Farsight Enclaves this time instead.

Adding the Enclaves has been a huge challenge. The main obstacle was making them a race that can stand on its own, without feeling like a Tau Empire clone with a red scheme or be compiled as just a branch addon in the base army. As either methods, would not make the hardships and backstories of the famous Eight. And thus, in the Team we have came up with an interesting(we hope) and unique mechanic, gameplay and visuals for this new faction.
For this, it is better to let our Fuggles, the one who came up with the idea and code for the new Enclaves to explain it better:

Whenever anyone mentions Enclaves on the forums it boils down to "tau that can melee", or distilled further, just "Farsight". So given that we are X years and Y races down the track, how do you extrapolate this into something that is fresh to play? Let's theorycraft.

Farsight is a rebel and so he is hated and hunted as all rebels must be. This likely means that he is engaged in guerilla warfare alongside his Crazy 8's and as such they are probably not big on static bases. This can only mean one thing...

The Enclaves rely nearly entirely upon units and resources being dropped in via Orcas and so if you need a hero dropping in then they're coming on an orca. Need troops outside of the HQ? Orca. Extra resources? Orca. The problem with this is that it's not exactly subtle as you are coming down from orbit, so the trajectory is likely tracked and this manifests itself in the game by a global ping going off when an orca lands.

Now this is a clearly a bit of a bummer, but if anyone has played Ruse then you know that mind games are a thing. The Enclaves can use ping devices to simulate the landing signature on the radar, causing a false ping on the minimap. Furthermore you can research stealth drives for the Orcas at later Tiers so they don't leave a ping and then you can combine this with ping grenades to spoof movement, if you like.

Once an Orca lands it can only stay in the combat zone for a short period of time, owing to the risk. Whilst it is on map it generates resources until it deploys a unit or a resource bundle so your opponent can either harass or just kill it. This creates a bit of risk/reward as you want your Orcas to sit there until the last moment giving you goodies, but your opponent does not.

The Eight are unlikely to all be within close range of whatever random planet is under attack so whilst you can request help, some are just going to be further away (conveniently the most powerful) but when they arrive the Eight are a mighty force, each with their own abilities. Indeed, ultimately, you can get all of the Eight deployed, if you have the means and resources and time to do so.
Indeed, as per Farsight's method of fighting, a lot of his Tau forces are good in melee. Much better than regular Tau that is.

It has been interesting to develop the Enclaves and we all are excited to see how they will be received, but certainly I can tell, they are distinct to the regular Tau. Time will tell... sooner or later, time will tell. Until then, please do enjoy a small taste from the beta, provided by the one and only, TheLaughingMax!

Of course, as always, please bare in mind all you will see are from beta and not final. All are subject to change in the final release.

And with that, we conclude this Dev Blog for today. We really hope you will enjoy and looking forward to hearing your opinions about the Tau with very far sight and his fellowship of fellow minded Commanders. As for our next meeting, again, only time will tell. But keep in mind, the last remaining uncovered races are indeed the reworked Steel Legion and Renegade Guard.

Until then, take and have fun everyone!

- Team Unification