Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I have 500 points of Orks

HQ - Big mekk with KFF
Troops - 21 Boys 1 Nob with PK BP
Troops - 21 Boys Nob with PK BP
Fast Attack - 2 Rockit buggies

Need some advice as how to handle the Tau empire!

Cheers in advance

ATO

Rush Rush Rush, and make sure you units are kept together, if you spread out against Tau you can be picked off easier as they will concentrate fire on units. If you stick together they will lack the firepower to stop the boyz before they hit home!

I have never faced Tau, but as far as I know, their main weakness is CC.

So I guess you should skip the footslogging army ( they will simply shoot you at distance) and try to put your 2 mobs in trukks, or any other way you can think of that will allow your boys to get in contact as soon as possible.

Personally, I would trade those buggies and a boy from each mob for two koptaz, so you can tie up some of the shooting until you get there. I wouldn't recommend trukks at that level, if your opponent gets first turn you can bet your choppa that your boyz will be walking anyways - just with half as many boyz.

Jidmah wrote:I wouldn't recommend trukks at that level, if your opponent gets first turn you can bet your choppa that your boyz will be walking anyways - just with half as many boyz.

But if he deploys first then the orks will be able to deploy around ruins and therefore out of sight which means a turn of shooting is wasted for the tau, it's not too hard to at least get a cover save from terrain and every little helps!

I ran an imbalanced list at 500 points that has seemed to work very well for me. It was a battlewagon full of boys and a trukk full of boyz led by a Warboss (No KFF? MADNESS!). The battlewagon takes point just ramming as far forward as possible while the trukk takes cover behind it. Against tau that aren't specifically built to take out AV14 at this level it is pretty damn effective. Plasma on suits can't hurt it unless they attempt for side shots, which should be negated by deployment and Missle Pods can only glance if I remember correctly. Fusion blasters would hurt your day, but at that point you are hopefully in and around 12" which is the perfect time for a waaagh. I even had points left for two Kannons, which can really put the hurt on some stuff if they hit with their astonishing BS3.

If your opponent brings a hammer head he has a 50/50 shot of hitting, a 50/50 shot at penning, and a 2/6 chance of taking out your ride. Its all down to luck at that point.

500 point games are pretty crazy in my opinion. Its either complete destruction for one side or the other or its mutually assured destruction and both of you have around 1 - 2 depleted units at the end.

So my opinion would be to stuff a battlewagon in at that level, though its a bit cheesy. If you don't want to cheese it up, I suggest going with a small kan wall or just straight green tide.

Well i am running the buggies down the flanks to attempt to draw the fire away from my boys. If im right the rockits are stength 8 so could easily take down a crisis team as double the crisis toughness. I have made a competitive tau 500 pt list and i reckon he will field a hammerhead, 2-3 crisis, 6 FW 10 kroot and a commander. I could get LOS on the hammerhead for first turn and either hit side armour or take on the crisis suits. With the KFF i will get a large number of boys into cc and then they will be running. I like the idea of a battlewagon but my list comprises all i have for now. I am just going to have to get lucky on the buggies rolls and hug cover.

ATO

If (and this is a big if) the tau is using an etherial as the HQ, target it because when he dies, all fire cast members (fw, stealth suits, pathfinders, broadsides, and crisis suits) that are not in vehicles must take a moral check. You should not have to worry about hammerheads because they are 135 pts base cost. Keep kroot out of woods so they don't get their 3+ cover save and rush the heck out of them.

I haven't played against Tau, but I've heard that storm boyz work well - and it makes sense because the extra movement gets you up the field faster.

samus5678 wrote:If (and this is a big if) the tau is using an etherial as the HQ,.

Really, what moron is going to run an ethereal at 500 points?
Not even an " and this is a big if ". Dude.

Du--ude.

OP, Alltheones:
Are you certain that you can't get ahold of three Deffkoptas? With scout Moves, the Alpha Strike could be a near guarantee. And a few Clawed DKs would tie him up fatally.

You should be able to get three deff koptas off ebay for like $10. That's how I got 15 of them.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

GoDz BuZzSaW wrote:

Jidmah wrote:I wouldn't recommend trukks at that level, if your opponent gets first turn you can bet your choppa that your boyz will be walking anyways - just with half as many boyz.

But if he deploys first then the orks will be able to deploy around ruins and therefore out of sight which means a turn of shooting is wasted for the tau, it's not too hard to at least get a cover save from terrain and every little helps!

A cover save is not going to save a vehicle which can be glance to death by about every single weapon in the tau codex. Tau can even reduce the cover save if needed, and deploying out of sight is not as easy as it sounds, and you might also have to deploy far away from the enemy, so he gets to shoot you before you arrive anyways.