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This is a collaborative report written by both parties involved. chupathingy's section will be in white, Claypool in green.

chupathingy's Tau

HQ:
Crisis Suit Shas'o w/ Missle Pod, Plasma Rifle, Positional Relay, Shield Drone x2, HW Multi Tracker, HW Target Lock, HW Drone Controller and Stimulant Injector - 172 pts

Troops:
12 Fire Warriors w/ Shas'ui, Photon Grenades and Bonding Knife - 147 pts
12 Fire Warriors w/ Shas'ui, Photon Grenades and Bonding Knife - 147 pts
16 Kroot - 112 pts
Devilfish w/ Disruption Pod - 85 pts

Elites:
Crisis Suit Shas'vre w/ Missle Pod, Fusion Blaster, Targeting Array, Shield Drone x2, HW Multi Tracker, HW Target Lock and HW Drone Controller - 109 pts
3 Stealth Suits w/ Team Leader, Targeting Arrays, Marker Drone and HW Drone Controller - 155 pts

Heavy Support:
Hammerhead w/ Railgun, Smart Missle System, Flechette Discharger, Disruption Pod, Multitracker and Target Lock - 190 pts
Broadside Shas'vre w/ Advanced Stabilization System, HW Multi Tracker, HW Target Lock, HW Drone Controller and 2x Shield Drone - 130 pts

Total: 1247 pts

Claypool's Orks

HQ:
Mad Doc Grotsnik - 160 pts
Big Mek w/ KFF - 85 pts

Troops:
11x 'Ard Boyz - 110 pts
10x Boyz + Nob w/ PK and Bosspole - 106 pts
11x Boyz + Nob w/ PK and Bosspole - 112 pts
11x Boyz + Nob w/ PK and Bosspole - 112 pts
4x Trukks w/ Reinforced Rams, Red Paint Jobs and Boarding Planks - 200 pts

Fast Attack:
14x Stormboyz + Nob w/ PK and Bosspole - 220 pts
Deffkopta w/ TL Rokkits and Buzzsaw - 70 pts
Deffkopta w/ TL Rokkits and Buzzsaw - 70 pts

Total: 1245 pts

Gametype - Seize Ground (4 objectives)
Deployment - Dawn of War
We roll off for objective placement and I win, placing my first on the edge of the trenches to my left and my second in the trees to my right.
My strategy was to place everything centrally, so I wouldn't have to hold any units back to claim them.

chupathingy mistake #1: I should have placed my first objective closer to the edge of the board (preferably in the second set of trees) to ensure that my Kroot could be effective no matter what table edge they came in on.

Overhead Shot of Deployment Zone w/ Objectives


I win the initiative, and elect to go second.
I choose to deploy nothing, keeping the Deffkoptas in true reserve and everything else in DoW reserve. I don't want to split my forces or leave a Trukk out in the open to be popped by railguns turn 1
I go next, and choose to deploy my commander and 1 squad of fire warriors, placing the fire warriors on the objective closest to my deployment zone. My stealth suits and crisis suit will deepstrike, my kroot will outflank, and everything else will be in DoW reserve.

chupathingy's deployment


Ork turn 1
Everything in DoW reserve zooms onto the field, and I lose a Stormboy to a rokkit pack explosion. I screened the Stormboyz and the KFF trukk with the other trukks. I run the Stormboyz and end my turn.



Tau turn 1
Movement: I roll a 6 for Slow and Purposeful, and my Broadside, Hammerhead and Devilfish enter the game.



Shooting: I roll for line of sight, and the only unit that can see is the hammerhead, which launches a submunition at the trukk with Mad Doc and the 'Ard Boyz in it, spilling over to the Stormboyz. (I've played Claypool before, and I know that what's in that trukk will cause problems, but I also don't want Stormboyz assaulting me next turn.) He passes his KFF save for the trukk, and 1 Stormboy goes down. With no assaults, I end my turn.

Ork turn 2
Movement: 1 Deffkopta comes in on my right table edge, and that Hammerhead is gonna be a pain in my ass, so I move to take it out. Mad Doc moves up 19 inches, and the other trukks move up 13 inches and get in position to claim some objectives. Storboyz move up 16" and stay within the bounds of the KFF.



Shooting: The trukk farthest left fires into his commander, and causes two wounds, which destroys one shield drone and puts a wound on the commander. Everything else fires but nothing happens. My deffkopta misses with both rolls on the hammerhead.

Assault: My deffkopta assaults the hammerhead and causes two weapon destroyed results. I was pretty happy that I removed half the railguns on the board and the submunition, but it can still contest my objectives.



I was pretty upset that this happened, considering that he had three attacks and was hitting on 6's. So, not only did he roll 2 6's to hit, he rolled 2 glances and 2 5's on the vehicle damage chart. The neutering of my Hammerhead set the tone for the rest of this game for me.

Tau turn 2

Movement: Stealth suits arrive via positional relay this turn, and i drop them directly behind his trukk wall. I move my hammerhead up the left side of the table away from his kopta, and it will sit there for the next two turns in hopes of a late game objective contest. The Devilfish moves up the right side of the table toward the objectives on that side. I maneuver my commander for shots at the trukks, and move on to the shooting phase.



Shooting: My Broadside opens up this turn, firing Smart Missiles into the trukk on the far right and the railgun into the KFF trukk. I get a shaken result on the Boyz' trukk and a KFF save on the Big Mek's trukk. My commander fires a plasma rifle and his missle pod into the trukk closing in on my fire warriors, and he makes all of his KFF saves. My fire warriors rapid fire into the 'Ard boyz' trukk and destroy it, but he rolls a Kerrunch! and gets out unharmed. My stealth suits unload on the KFF trukk, blowing it up and killing one or two boyz.

I wasn't too concerned about losing Mad Doc's trukk, as I was already in assault range and near an objective, but losing the KFF trukk was a blow because my trukks were now easy pickings for any shots that came that way.



Ork Turn 3

Movement: My deffkopta comes in on the left side next to his Devilfish, which gives me hope of killing both tanks in two turns. The other Deffkopta moves flat out toward his commander. I move Mad Doc closer to the Fire Warriors, and plan on wiping them this turn. I need to get rid of those Stealth Suits in my backfield, so I send the Stormboyz and both trukks back to dispatch them. I move my big mek and his boyz back on the objective to get them into area terrain.



Shooting: My kopta doesn't do anything to the Devilfish and nothing else shoots, so it's on to assaults.

Assault: The Deffkopta whiffs against the devilfish. I assault the Stealth suits with one squad of boyz and the Stormboyz and eat them. Mad Doc and his 'Ard Boyz assault into the Fire Warriors sitting on the objective and destroy them as well. I'm now sitting on two objectives, with squads heading for the last two and nothing in my backfield.



Tau Turn 3
Movement: I realize I'm gonna need as much firepower as I can get this turn, so I roll reserves for everything. Both the Kroot and my Crisis Suit come in...and my Kroot outflank on my left table edge. Away from anything that they can help. Great. My Devilfish comes back towards my table edge, because I need to take that objective and I pray that my kroot can take out the big mekk and steal his objective. My Crisis suit Deepstrikes into my backfield to help deal with Mad Doc and his boyz.



Shooting: My Broadside fires smart missles into a kopter and does nothing. The railgun destroys a trukk, which kerrunches. The crisis suit fires its fusion blaster and missle pod into the deffkopter, and it makes all but one of its saves. My commander wounds the other kopter with a missle pod, but fails to wound the first kopter with the plasma rifle.

Ork Turn 4
Movement: I forgot to move Mad Doc this turn, but I throw the deffkoptas back to the corner where the remaining Tau have gathered. The stormboyz also move back that way to try to wipe them all out, while the rest of the boys spread out over the objectives.



Shooting: The two deffkoptas fire at the Devilfish and the broadside and do nothing.

Assault: The Kopter assaults the Broadside, and neither can damage the other.


Tau Turn 4
Not much to say about this turn. I move my Kroot towards the center (they're behind the building to the back), and run them 1 inch. They do not want to help out this game. My crisis suit manages to blow up the other kopter, and my crisis suit kills an 'Ard boy. In the assault phase, my Broadside manages to cause the Deffkopter's final wound.

Ork Turn 5
The game starts winding down at this point. The Stormboyz roll another 1 for their movement, and I lose 1, while Mad Doc spreads out over the objective. The Stormboyz multiassault the devilfish and crisis suit, wrecking the Devilfish and destroying the Crisis Suit.



Tau Turn 5
My fire warriors finally have a clear idea of their mission right now, and move out to target the stormboyz. 24 rapidfire shots later, all the Stormboyz have been wiped. Other than that, I may have killed 1 or 2 more 'Ard boyz. Also, my Kroot still decide to run only 1 inch. I contest the objective I started on with my hammerhead and...the game continues.



Ork Turn 6

I move my trukk towards the fire warriors to prevent them from contesting the objectives I'm sitting on. The boyz disembark , multi assault the commander and fire warriors, and eat them both. Mad Doc assaults the hammerhead and blows it up.

At this point, Even if the game continues until turn 7, there's no way I can hold more than 1 objective and he's got four right now. I concede, and once again Claypool bests me.

For me, this game was a combination of bad tactics couples with terrible luck. Dawn of War is never my strong suit, and I still don't know exactly how I want to play it. Losing my Hammerhead turn 2 was a big hit, and my useless Kroot didn't help any either. (Any suggestions on things to do different next time are appreciated)

I thought I played pretty well this game, and the amount of saves I made certainly didn't hurt. Whenever I play this list, I grow to love it more and more. Starting in Dawn of War and being in assault by turn three gives me a huge advantage. Overall a really fun game.

Agreed

Orks are a real tough match up for Tau, as far as I know. My brother has Tau, and my buddy plays Orks, and my brother has been slaughtered every time they play. You have to have a solid strategy and stick to it tightly as Tau, otherwise, its gonna be a bad day for ya against Orks. Sorry I don't have anything more than that to say, I am not too familiar with the Tau.

I admire your dedication to the game. I'm too old to play on the floor. You could always add a eathquake rule, jump up and down near the playing area, any model that falls over has to take a dangerous terrain test.

I'm not taking a shot at you guys, I just can't do it.

Tough break for the Tau. The only time I've seen Tau beat orks is when the Tau are Fished up - skimmers are hard for orks to take out.

Vrakk wrote:I admire your dedication to the game. I'm too old to play on the floor. You could always add a eathquake rule, jump up and down near the playing area, any model that falls over has to take a dangerous terrain test.

I'm not taking a shot at you guys, I just can't do it.

Tough break for the Tau. The only time I've seen Tau beat orks is when the Tau are Fished up - skimmers are hard for orks to take out.

Living in an on-campus apartment poses a serious challenge to storing a 6x4 table so we make do .

Fast vehicles of any kind wreak havoc on me. With no deffrollas, skimmers aren't so bad but something that can move 12" and still shoot really ruins my day.

I agree, Vrakk- props for pulling this off without a table, guys! I actually really like the taped boundaries and stuff... takes me back . If I could carve out a space to play here, I might have to get that creative...

I can never get my Deffkoptas to come in soon enough, or on the right side when outflanking. Still, even with the low chance of a Deffkopta hurting the moving Hammerhead - why place it in its 18" assault range?

I would probably suggest reserving less/nothing in order to lay down more firepower sooner on those Trukks.

I always seem to have pretty decent luck with my Koptas; I expect the worst from them and then they always perform better .

I like the battle report, well done. The pictures and comments are excellent. My condolences to the tau player, I've never seen tau beat orks one on one, and I've been playing orks for a couple of years now. You really need more hammerheads to stand a chance against orks.

Nice report guys. Hope to see more soon

Battle for the great office floor space

Nice bat rep! My only comment is that a Multi-tracker on a unit just allows it to shoot at a seperate target than the rest of it's squad, it's the vehicle version that lets you fire two weapons at different targets. I don't have my codex with me at work, but I'm fairly certain that was the way it works.

Kroot Loops wrote:Nice bat rep! My only comment is that a Multi-tracker on a unit just allows it to shoot at a seperate target than the rest of it's squad, it's the vehicle version that lets you fire two weapons at different targets. I don't have my codex with me at work, but I'm fairly certain that was the way it works.

you're thinking of target locks, not multitrackers, but yes. Multi trackers allow a battlesuit to fire all its weapons, and a tank to fire as if it was a "fast" vehicle.

Ah yeah, Target Lock, whoops. I just noticed in the Batrep the broadside was firing smart missiles at one target and it's railgun at a different target, and I was pretty sure you couldn't do that.

I play orks and my buddy plays Tau...I usually win, and if I lose its because of objectives. The reason is as an ork player all I need to do is get there, the rest will take care of itself.
I think against an list like Claypool fielded you need a high volume of shots. The problem with railguns is that its just one shot per turn and if you miss; your done. Against this list you don't need str 10 shots you need lots of chances to hit/pen.
I agree, Skimmers are good, I would also experiment with more crisis suits, they can take lots of guns, all of which can hurt the trukks.
Also a trick my buddy uses, is he screens his units with drones and kroot, so I have to kill the drones first before I kill what I want.
Anyway Its too bad your kroot came in on the wrong side.....that hurt you

hey Claypool for a buzzsaw it cost 25 pts, right so you paid 25 pts for a str 7 weapon? imho i dont think thats all that worth it, and insted you should have put the points with your ard boyz for a pk'd nob, just a thought, but nice job other than that

chobarba wrote:hey Claypool for a buzzsaw it cost 25 pts, right so you paid 25 pts for a str 7 weapon? imho i dont think thats all that worth it, and insted you should have put the points with your ard boyz for a pk'd nob, just a thought, but nice job other than that

Not effective when it destroyed both weapons on the Hammerhead turn two? I think I'll keep it. Thanks for the tip though.

Interesting game, and pretty much sums up my experience of Tau vs Orks as well (Not least vs. rather capable Orks El Nicko and Arakasi). I'd echo the points made by Geemoney as well, broadsides are a waste against a trukk list with the 4+ save, what you need is lots of S7 shots. I am coming round to the idea of shelving broadsides below 1.5k.

At this points value Ion heads might make sense. chupathingy I don't know how you feel about Ion heads, I wrote them off when I started my army and have come round to them as they are great anti-light vehicle and are a must for taking down MC. 60 inch range is great too.

I think if you're using Kroot as an outflanking unit you need 2 units, 1 in 3 chance of wrong side is too chancy. 2 units of 20 is only 240 points - 40 s4 shots on anything unfortunate enough to be within 18' of the table edge. Not bad.

Finally, and it pains me to say it, I think you should ditch the stealth team. I love the models, love the idea of the unit but its one of the most overcosted and brittle units in the game. A unit that has to get into close range to do anything.. exactly the zone that they lose their stealth benefits. I live in hope that the next Tau codex will restore them to their rightful place as a unit that people can actually use.

Sorry that was a stealth rant (happens every few weeks).

Anyway chupathingy I feel your pain, I live in hope that the Tau will score a win over the Orks one of these days... good luck man.

Thanks Troy. Since this match, my list has undergone a lot of changes. Hopefully we'll put another battle report up soon with the new list.

Thanks for the pictured report.

The 'board' taped out on the floor really took me back to 1990 - 1994 when we would spend our weekends in the maths rooms at school (I went to boarding school) with 5-6 games all run on the floor.

Waaagh_Gonads wrote:Thanks for the pictured report.

The 'board' taped out on the floor really took me back to 1990 - 1994 when we would spend our weekends in the maths rooms at school (I went to boarding school) with 5-6 games all run on the floor.

Glad you enjoyed it! As chupathingy said, we should be putting up a new report within the week.

New Report is up.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/322141.page