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And get into an argument that they decide to settle through arm-wrestling. They hunker down over a table, glaring at each other. The table creaks under the weight of the Ork's massive bulk, and his gargantuan hand dwarfs the firewarrior's mitten in a painful embrace. Without warning, the ork and the tau both throw their entire weight into the struggle....

Twenty minutes later, the ork is sweating in disbelief that the Tau firewarrior is still holding him steady in the middle of the table, neither able to get an advantage. With an earth-shaking Waaaugh! the Ork's eyes kindle in rage as he....


Wait a minute. Tau firewarriors are strength 3. Ork boyz are strength 3. How are the big, burly ork doom only strength 3?

I think its because of their junky weaponry and training. Strength just determines wounding. Maybe the logic is that SMs at S4 may not be bigger or stronger, but they have chainswords and advanced training to make up for it, so they wound easier.

Oh, Spess Mehrens are strong, NL. Strong enough to throttle a monstrous creature or punch a large dent in a Rhino.

Because realistically there are only 2 strength ratings for your average grunt 3 or 4. Most agree that S2 is for the more weedy pathetic life forms of the universe and S5+ is dedicated to the truly fearsome creatures.

So yeah. Its a problem with the D6 and the wound chart. If the game was a D10 you could have a lot large variance in the strength and to wound rolls of the various races.

Orks are at the high end of Strength 3, while Fire Warriors are at the low end. If, like Jayden says, 40k was a d10 system, or if the stat ranges were used a bit more, this would probably not be the case, but within the limits of the current stat levels and wound chart, it works decently well.

Keep in mind that Orks also have Furious Charge and can therefore exceed their base Strength in some circumstances.

I guess it's not all about muscle mass, but about how you use it, too.

An ork is stronger than a tau, I'd agree on that. However, orks are rather dumb and not well known for their dexterity and elegance. The weaker tau may be more agile and may have the intellect to use their inferior strength with higher efficiency (even if they don't know jack about close combat).

In the armwrestling example, the tau may be able to position his elbow better and shift his weight correctly, while the ork is just trying to get his hand on the table and thinks being louder will help.

Orks are fairly clumsy. They don't really make efficient use of their muscles. If they did, they'd be stronger than Space Marines.

The only reason that they're Str 4 on the charge is because they charge like madmen and lunge foward swinging their choppas with their full body weight.

What are you talking about? loud means strong. IT'S BASIC LOGIC!

Any way wouldn't the tau prefer to settle it with a shoot out.

"Okay now take ten steps then turn around and fire. Last organism standing wins."

"Can't count that high. *Crack* Hur Hur Hur."

cody.d. wrote:What are you talking about? loud means strong. IT'S BASIC LOGIC!

Any way wouldn't the tau prefer to settle it with a shoot out.

"Okay now take ten steps then turn around and fire. Last organism standing wins."

"Can't count that high. *Crack* Hur Hur Hur."

I had to laugh at that...

"Me count good. one, two, three, four, five. er.... ordz?"

Tau are more agile, which is why they have a 4+ armor save while a greenskin has a 6+ armor save. That part makes sense for sure....they're good enough to dodge around and avoid some fire with that thin metallic armor of theirs.

Keep in mind that the orks' bulk probably gets figured into their Toughness of 4, while the average size of the fire warrior gives him only a base toughness of 3.

Muscle means tough, just ask Mr. T.

I thought it was the advanced armor that the gave the tau an armor save of 4+? Though shouldn't the tau be counted as str 5? I mean, your a tau, right? your getting charged. Do you

A) throw down that incredibly advanced basic infantry rifle that's comprable to a heavy bolter in Str, and charge bonding knife drawn.

or

B) Try to shoot the brute in the head, body, wherever you can get a good shot at with that same miniature heavy bolter at point blank range.

I mean the str advantage of a tau's rifle is much greater than that of any punch they can throw, so why would they just abandon their greatest advantage?

Ja, it is the armor, otherwise Eldar guardians would have a 3+ armour save