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So I've been playing against the Tau rather consistently it seems. I've been having issues getting into CC. Recently, in a 500 pt game. I ran 3 groups of 15 Boyz, Warboss HQ, and a squad of 3 Deffkoptas. He had a Broadside, 4 suits (equipped with missile pods and plasma), Suit HQ, and two 6 man FW teams. Now My deffkoptas got blown out of the sky first turn by his broadside and suits. I ran every turn and used WAAAGH! in the third round, but the only kill I had all game was when my HQ used his shoota/rokkit kombi to instant death his damn broadside (got lucky, rolling sixes). My whole force got blasted on the fifth turn. He just kept retreating a few inches at a time toward his control point. I know that I need more fast attack/transport. I basically need advise on what purchase should be next/ how I can make do with what I have while putting together my new purchase.

I'm quite often on the Tau side of this match-up, and I'll tell you what gives me fits:

1. Snikrott + Kommandos with 2 Burnas. Max out the number of Kommandos and come in where there are two are three squads close together to get the multi-charge. Make sure you get most of your attacks on the squishiest squad, and have just one model in contact with each of the more durable units (and use the Burnas as Power Weapons!). The idea here is to do a LOT of wounds to the squishy squad in order to have a huge Leadership penalty when the enemy loses combat. You can run some really expensive stuff right off the table that way.

2. Larger mobs of Boyz. Your basic mob should be 30 Boyz, a Nob with PowerKlaw and three Rokkits (or Big Shootas if you've got enough light anti-tank already). Keeping your mobs Fearless is important! You'll have to practice with Mob shapes so that terrain doesn't slow you down too much. Beware of bunching up too much, but you don't need to get a lot of Boys into close combat to win. Also, a Shoota Boyz mob of 30 will average six or seven dead Firewarriors with just their shooting, so don't discount that.

3. Use the Deffkoptas to Outflank. 2/3 of the time you'll come in on the side you want, and with their 18" charge range (12" move + 6" charge) it'll be difficult for your opponent to avoid close combat. Again, try to pull of the multi-charge tactic I listed in point #1 with the Deffkoptas.

4. At 500 points, Trukks are a bad idea. Tau have TERRIFIC ways of taking out light vehicles, so if you go that route, make sure you give him too much to shoot at in one turn.

Good luck!

3 x 30 gretchen is a great screen

Squig_herder wrote:3 x 30 gretchen is a great screen

Not really. One AFP can cause several gretchen squads to become pinned, and then they are roadblocks.

As was mentioned, Snikrot is the best option vs. any gunline. However at 500 points he's not an option. You want to run nothing but boyz at that level. A list like this

29 boyz, nob with pk and bp 220
29 boyz, nob and bp 195
Big Mek with KFF 85

Don't try to shoot just run straight at them.

Alternatively, get trukks, use them to screen your mobs.

I remember the one time I played 500 points vs tau, he heard I was playing orks, so he cleverly put his bad ap high volume of fire list down. It was so funny when the counts as troops meganobs got out of the truck after it blew up. (I had first turn) He failed to hurt any of them, so I turn 2 assaulted into his command team and a FW squad. The other truck (it had cover turn 1) had elite mega nobs and ate the remainder of his army. This could never have happened if he hadn't tried to list tailor, but still is the only time I have tabled tau in 3 turns with orks.

This list is terrible, but Its really annoying at 500 points if you have the wrong weapons.

mega armored warboss, cybork bosspole

3 mega nobs 1 scorcha, 1 rokkit, 1 twin linked shoota truck with red paint
3 mega nobs 1 scorcha, 1 rokkit, 1 twin linked shoota counts as troop truck with red paint
10 gretchin w/ 1 slaver

I play Tau and Ork both, and I'm very good with both.

As an ork player, you need to get into close combat as absolutely quickly as possible. Tau have horrible ballistic skill and initiative; they're the ONE army that Orks can consistently thrash in close combat; even IG have more CC goodness. The previous poster noting Snikrot is absolutely correct. In a 500 point game, taking Snikrot + Kommandos is literally an instant win; you can table the whole Tau army with just him if you can get a good multi-assault.

As for speed, you can either:

1. Take trukks. 12 boyz per trukk with a nob and powerklaw, trukk with red paint and a reinforced ram = 152 points. In bigger games, I have a mek with a KFF in a battlewagon in the middle of a cluster of 4-6 trukks giving them all 4+ cover saves as they run up the board.

2. Take Gretchin. If you don't want to go mechanized, then take a squad of 29 gretchin + 2 runtherders (107 points). String them across the center of your deployment zone, plunk your foot slogging troops behind them, march them across the board together and voila: You have a 4+ cover save the whole way.

Thanks for all of the advice guys. I really appreciate it. I really liked both ideas of having a mek with KFF in a truck with in it and surrounding it so all get the save.

How much cover do you have on the board? At 500 points it's still important to have several pieces of LOS blocking terrain to make the game much more interesting.

Of course, in orks versus tau more cover is a big advantage to the orks, so ask your opponent if wouldn't mind trying a game with more scenery (and in the middle of the table too, not just round the edge.) I play orks and against tau I have had many fun, interesting and close fought games this way.

I should point out that cover can help the tau too, as the FW can be in cover to strike first in CC (not that they'll do much ) also the battle suits will you off even more with all their JSJ shenanigans.

There's generally two to three MEQ height hills played. I try to be fair to the Tau player also. But he uses JSJ fully to his advantage.

The 40k rulebook notes that 25% of the gaming surface should be covered in terrain. On a standard board (also from the rules) that comes out to be 6-7 pieces of terrain if they are roughly 12" squared.

As an ork player, you want trees. Lots of trees. If there's a hill, stick trees on it to make it a forest. Ruins are good too. Any 4+ cover saves that you can get to offset that horrible 6+ armor save is nice.

I second the mek with KFF... I've seen how effective they are, especially in a footslogging army. I use gaunts as a screen in my tyranid army vs. tau, but the only reason I do that is because they're fearless. If it wasn't for that I wouldn't dare because they WILL take lots of fire.

Thanks for all the advice, maybe this will cure some of my issues.