So had a game vs. my friends all comers list he would play at a GT. His mech tau list was broken down as this.
Shas'o: plas riffle, missile pod, multi track 112
3x crisis plas, missile, multi 186
3x crisis plas missile multi 186
4x stealth suits targeting array 160
10x fire warriors 100
devilfish 80
10x fire warriors 100
devilfish 80
6x pathfinders 72
devilfish 80
2x broadsides drone controllers, 2x shield drones each 200
hammerhead rail, sms, target lock
hammerhead ion cannon, burst cannons
13x kroot 3x kroot hounds
For a test game we agreed to have almost mirrored terrain, one wood and one bunker in each deploy, and 4 other pieces large enough to shield stuff scattered symmetracly in the middle. No mission, just kick each others asses. 12 inch deploy. Lootas were set in either corner for a wide arc of fire, one in bunker one in trees. Lobba set behind the trees close to board edge. Trukks hiding behind bunker, wagon on opposite side of bunker from his broadsides and railhead. 30 man squad of shootas with the big mek and 2 kans right behind em, pretty much set in the middle to hopefully get to where they needed to be. Zagstuck and the stormboyz in reserve to deep strike in. I won roll for first turn.
Turn 1:
30 man squad of shoota boyz moves forward, with big mek and kans in tow. Trukks drive 20" to hide behind a bunker out of los to the majority of his army. Battlewagon and payload coming up board edge. Shooting starts with the lobba, I guess 2 inches off the pathfinders but it scatters onto em. 3 wounded and 2 fail there saves. Good start. Lootas in the trees shoot at the infiltrated kroot in the middle of the map, I get 10 shots, but all but 2 miss. One wound, but one dead kroot. Second squad of lootas fearing what will happen to there 4+ cover save if the pathfinders live open up on them. 30 shots. 12 hits. 8 wounds, but 6 saves. Still they fail LD, and run away never to be seen again. Zzap gun on the wagon opens up on the ionhead, but fails to hit.
His turn one is a tad bit better. After depositing his stealth suits in front of my big shoota squad, he moves his troops and empty devilfish from the pathfinders to the opposite side, denying me any use out of my wagon/meganobz. The only mistake I saw him make was depositing his first unit of fire warriors next to his broadsides, thinking even with super trukk speed, it would be at least 2 turns before I got to him. First shot the ionhead rips one out about 12 inches away to the side of my battlewagon, hits, and promptly blows it up. Bummer. No ramshackle rules for this baby, im entangled. To make it worse one of the nobs even takes an unsaved wound from the explosion. I pile out on the side where only the crisis can see me, but unfortunatley its enough. They are in rapid fire range. 6 plasma shots kill my nobz.
The railhead unloads a pie plate on my 30 man squad, who are probably a little too closely packed together to take advantage of the kff. 8 wounds, but luckily that very same force field saves 5 of em. Stealth suits open up with there guns, and score 6 wounds. 3 saves and 3 more dead boyz. The kroot open on em and manage to kill 2 more. The broadsides robbed of basically there best target and unconcerned with the kans for the moment attempt to cause a panic check on the lootas closest to them. However even though they are twin linked, they both fail to hit. The final crisis suit and the tau leader open on the big squad of shootas, killing 5 more after cover saves. jetpack moves are done, and the cocky crisis suits nearest my warboss (and rightfully so) advance toward his entangled behind.
Turn 2:
Sort of a painful turn for me last turn, but I was hopefull for this one. Roll for reserves, net a 6. Zagstuck is placed 8 inches behind the fire warrior squad, A hit is rolled with a smile on my face. Warboss tries to lift a old refitted land raider off of himself, but hes not making much progress. Same stuff that moved last turn does the same. BOTH truck squads make difficult terrain tests driving thru the half building they were hiding behind rather than waste movement going around. Despite having to roll 2d6 for both, due to reinforced rams both make it through. One squad disembarks about 8 inches from the stealth suits, the other stays put in there trukk, hiding from his entire army save the kroot in the building the stealth suits jumped behind. Waagh! is declared, zaagstuck moving up 5", trukk boys moving up 3, the now 20 strong squad sadly rolling a 1, but making room for the big mek and kans behind who roll a 3, 4 and 4. The last group of lootas have no targets but the hidden crisis suits, so move out of terrain then move another 6" from waagh!
Eager to try the new shoota guns, I open up on the crisis suits, the beauty of 32 shots makes itself known to me as 2 crisis suits die-from orkey shooting no less. The kans open up on the railhead and manage to halt its shooting for a turn. The empty trukk lets loose with a hail mary missile into the rear of the ionhead and downs it with an immobalized result. The lootas in the woods make a target priority test and shoot at a devilfish. 30 shots are rolled. In the worst rolling in history 3 hit. One glance, cant shoot next turn. The disembarked trukk boyz open on the stealth suits, managing to kill one with a rokkit shot. Zagstuck's group kills 3 fire warriors through shooting, then charge in. One of the most one sided fights in 40k history follows as they are easily wiped to the man. The shoota boys are short on the charge to the crisis by one stinking inch. The trukkboyz charge into the stealth suits, losing one and wiping them out, moving 3 inches toward the crisis.
His turn two has most of his forces consolidate on zagstucks position. The second team of fire warriors is dropped 5 inches to the side of him and his boyz. Both of the devilfish line up to unload on him. His hammerhead is flown into the corner, taking line of sight to it away from my lootas. His kroot are moved out of the trees, hoping to be the superior fighting force to the shoota boyz. His far side crisis suilt team kills the warboss with 2 unsaved missile wounds and 6 plasma wounds (every shot hit and wounded, it was ugly). Realizing that a power klaw armed ork and 14 of his buddies could ruin there day, he opened up on them with 10 rapid firing warriors, 2 devilfish, 3 crisis suits, and his leader. After the smoke had cleared zagstuck stood alone and wounded. An amusing leadership test of snakeeyes would see him stay for revenge. The broadsides again tried to panic the lootas scoring 2 wounds, but the mightiest trees ever proved too tough a foe to defeat with mere 40th century technology.
Turn 3:
Zagstuck moves to take some frustration out on expensive broadside units. Lootas hold. Trukk boyz move toward crisis suits. The other trukk boyz squad moves to within 6 of the kroot and disembarks. The remaining shoota boyz inch toward the crisis, along with the big mek, while the 2 kans move toward the hammerhead. 2 weaponskill dosent matter when you need 6's to hit anyway! The moved lootas can see the fresh 3 crisis suits, and roll a 6 for 30 shots. In a total turn around of last round, 22 connect, but only 16 of those wound. In a sickening display of luck he manages to save 15 wounds. 15 3+ saves, not 2+, but 3+. I offer to buy his dice but he just laughs. The other lootas get 20 shots and open up to soften up the kroot, killing 8. The trukk boyz kill one with a lucky slugga shot. The trukks both open up hoping for a repeat of the ionhead on the devilfish, but both miss. The 10 fire warrior squad is now closer to the shoota boyz, so they decide what the heck and open on them. 5 of them fall to orky shooting, but hold. Zagstuck charges in on the broadsides, and manages to kill 3 of there shield drones, before embarasingly dying to a railgun clubbin. The trukk boyz charge in on the kroot, and lose 2 of there own before killin the squad. The shootas charge the fire warriors, and lose another man and kill the remaining 5. And the trukk boyz charge the crisis suits and wipe em out, consolidating into the leader.
His turn 3 sees another pie plate land on my shootas, and with the smart missile system manage to take them down to 9. Broadsides target a kan, but again both miss despite being twin linked. He was about ready to jump up and down on them at this point. The devilfish transports concentrate fire on the open squad who just killed the kroot and kill em to the man. The virtually unhurt crisis unit opens on the unengaged 9 shoota boys, but are out of rapid fire range and only manage 3 wounds, which are all saved. The valiant shas'o falls to massed ork choppas, and a nasty power klaw.
Turn 4:
The kans advance on the hammerhead, but fail to even glance with one rokkit hit. One squad of lootas opens on a devilfish, scoring 7 glances and a kill. The other squad copies with only 20 shots, 4 glances and it dies. Between 2 trukks, 9 shoota boys, and 12 trukk boyz worth of shooting and assault the much hated crisis suits finally die. And despite getting a hit with a str 10 kan, not even a glance is scored on the hammerhead.
At this point he calls it, and we review the game.
His feedback is that now that he knows how the new orks function, it would be a far different game next time. He also said that he does not have another hammerhead, or else it would be in his list in place of the broadsides. He feels knowing about zagstuck he could keep his entire army mobile until he shows, then set up a firebase to kill me with. He also said that his first target priorities would be to kill the lootas first every time. But he was glad to see some much needed changes to orks, the biggest change is there shooting round isnt a joke anymore.
My thoughts are a fast mech tau army kept on the move would definatley give me more trouble than this. He did not know about deepstrike charge in the same round. Indeed if he hadent spent the majority of his army firing on zagstuck that one round it would have been alot closer. With all the tough vehicles the tau can fight with, playing a mission like meatgrinder where I have to kill everything he has seems to be an auto loss. And that just dosent seem to fit with the spirit of warhammer. I think from the few games I have trial tested these rules on, there are just some missions/matchups that are going to be auto lose for the orks. And that does not make a top tier army, such as mech eldar, las plas space marines, duel lash chaos, mech tau, or nidzilla. Strong tier 2, but we probably wont shake up the tourney scene enough for these armies to care to change.
8k points
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3k points
