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This has come up almost every time my friends and I get together to play 40k: how to set us up the terrain. I play orks, and one of my friends commands the Tau, so the terrain setup can be pivotal. The book suggests 25 percent terrain, but I'm wondering if any of the players with more experiance can lend some tips to creating an equal engagement battlefield.

In that particular matchup it's difficult because your army benefits very much from terrain - any terrain - whereas Tau don't really benefit and in truth suffer real detriment from having cluttered fire lanes.

The rulebook says 25% terrain coverage. In my games, we take a mishmash of various terrain pieces and pile them onto the table until we've got a 4'x2' section of the table completely covered. There's rarely an overall 'theme', so we'll have buildings, ruins, hills, trees, water, bridges, etc. all mixed together.

Then we roll off to see who places the first terrain piece.

What exactly is the problem that you face during setup? I would guess it's the Tau player pushing all terrain off to the sides while you try to make it more centralized?

I really like your idea, I'll try it out next time we play.

The problem we have been faced with is amount and placement, pretty much as you described it. It usually comes down to deciding wether to add in that one more forest.

Remember that the rules suggest 25% terrain, and that terrain need not necessarily contribute cover. There's plenty of terrain that might only be difficult terrain. I suggest using 50% terrain, with 25% of that providing a cover save. Remember that as Tau, you can use terrain to slow down an enemy that's trying to assault you while you use your skimmers and jetpacks to move around freely and jump from cover to cover.