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.

Lately at my gaming club I have been playing this Tau player with my beloved orks and have seem to hit an impassible gunline. Usually we'll play a 1250-1500 point game with whichever game type and I cant seem to even get close to him. With him being a Tau junky he has all the toys that they can play with; riptide, crisis suits, hammerheads and broadsides. He also has the infamous fire warriors scattered here and there on his gun line to beef them up. I dont know his exact list because I dont have the tau codex but I've had first hand experience on what the weapons do. Anyways I run a generic foot slogging list consisting of 2 30 man shoota boyz with a painboy and boss nob in each. I also will substitute a warboss for a boss nob in there as well. I then have 10-15 man loota squad in the back to support and then from there I'll either squeeze a 30 man stormboy squad in there or a couple single man deffkoptas or nob squad. So far I find that I try to run up the board and get blown to nothing. This happened twice before I needed a new tactic so I decided to move up all on one side which did cause quite the panic but the riptide boosted over there and the hammerhead started lobbing pieplates and it was over before it began. I have the ork supplement so I decided to get orkey with it and run ghazzys formation so I could deep strike in. This has been the most successful as the boy mobs of 30 pop out of nowhere while the tau interceptor did knock a decent chunk out of them but didnt have the firepower to take out the whole mob. The only problem is mishaps and relying on the deepstrike which I may or may not get. It was an awesome feeling to wipe out 3 12 man firewarrior squads in one assault phase with the mob of remaining boyz but after that they had the wind knocked out of them and the remaining tau troops mopped the boyz up. So basicly what Im trying to say is, is there any way of reaching tau with orks that is moderately or a solid tactic that has a good chance of succeeding? Any help would be great!

Ion Accelerator Riptide does that, as do Markerlights making all their shooting very effective.

I don't play Orks (Nids, Necrons and starting Dark Eldar), but to beat Tau (which I have had good success with Nids and Necrons) you need to remove the heavy hitters and support, the Marklerlights, Broadsides and XV8 Crisis Suits. Take them out and you should be on your way to winning. The Riptide Ion Accelerator looks very deadly, but careful and proper position of troops minimizes it's impact.

I'm not sure if it is AV14 but if it is Battlewagons could be very useful in transporting your boyz up since Tau do have a bit of a problem with AV14. If you're opponent takes a Hammerhead to get rid of it, that's one less unit of Broadsides to worry about.

Long range weapons, preferably with pie plates to hit gunline troops is going to help you win the objective game. Always remember to play to the mission.

Also, lots of units for lots of target saturation. Tau may be deadly in shooting, but if you can present lots of units, your army is going to be relatively intact for when the choppin begins.

It doesn't help that Tau have a good codex...but I think with enough bodies and targets Orks can give them a run for their money.

unfortunately all of my knowhow of orks vs tau are spawned from owning both armies. I have never faced either with either lol.


However i look at just my general, run of the mill, untailored Tau list and go "unless i spam battlewagons, i'd be shocked if i even get across the table..." and battlewagons arent that hard to kill either after turn 1 since i know no matter where i deploy, something will have side armor after they move up once.

Very hard matchup for orks.

Speed freaks spearheaded by a couple battlewagonz totally murderize tau gunlines. But since you're footslogging, you need another, more cunnin' approach.

Firstly, what's his source of markers? That's very important cause you must kill them ASAP. Than focus on crysis suits/broadsides/firewarriors. Don't bother shooting a riptide. If you can, just charge and tie him up. If not, just spread out and ignore.

Why markers first? They're a huge force multiplier. His 70pt pathfinder squad will make other shooting almost twice as effective. He's gona hide them as good as he can - that's why you need lobbas. They're very important. Lobbas + a cleanup from bigshootas or lootas will do the job.

Crysis suits are killed with basically anything you got. And doubled out with rokkits/kmk. Broadsides are tougher here due to 2+ armor, but if you have a battery of KMK or a SAG mek, this bulky t4 2+ guyz without invul that cost like 70 ppm will sweat. Range baubles are very important. 36' with KMK is avoidable if you place it wrong. In the worst case you'll have to move forward and loose a turn of shooting. Firewarriors are killed with anything in range, but crysis suits are more killy point-to point.

Other than target prioritizing, there are other tricks that's gona help you out. Movement and blos. Broadsides - the main hard-hitters, are basically immobile. Use it to your advantage. You need decent BLOS terrain in the middle of the board to have a chance against tau with footslogging orkses. Another option is to take dedicated 30 pt trucks and simply block broadside's los with them. With new damage table, they're unlikely to kaboom and will be a nice wreck that's gona force him to waste a turn or two on movement and basically neutering the threat of a 250+ pt squad with 30-60 points of trucks. If he shoots them, he's wasting shots on empty 30 pt vehicles and risks leaving extra blos on the map. If he ignores them, you keep blocking his hard hitters. In this case it's worthwile to kill melta wielders first. Remember, your 30-strong blobs can have dedicated obsec trucks.

I've tried to save you from buying lots and lots of models like bikers/wagonz that are gona cost quite some money and plain shift your gameplay. Instead, i've pointed out the ones you need for your footsloggas anywayz: big gunz. And a couple of trucks are never gona be useless. You could alwayz run a single squad of 'ard boyz or man missile in any game later on.

Try a central mob of 30 with a MegaArmor Lucky Stick Warboss at it's front and a Painboyz. Just LOS anything S10 or AP2 and bounce anything else off your 2+ Rerollable AS and FNP.

Or throw the Lucky Stick Boss on a Bike and Tank for a squad of Warbikers, then split and Multiassault for profit.

BattleWagons can work, Tau have difficulty with aV14 at range, and our only option really is DSing Melta.... And that's why after Turn 1 you are already 12" forward.


Basically, if it's a Lucky stick MegaBoss or a BattleWagon the Tau will struggle to hurt it before it closes. Once you close make sure you Multiassault that Riptide, killing anything else make sweeping and catching it trivial.

I like Lucky Stick BikerBoss, Warbikers, and BattleWagons. But if you are going to footslogger it the Lucky stick MABoss is the best bet. The unit will get there, and whatever it reaches it will kill. Just make sure the Boss is up front and you LOS the AP2. Even better if you can give them some cover too.


Or just find use of a Stompa and fill it with Meks and practice your best Orkie laugh as it repairs all damage dealt to it every single turn.

I run green tide and speed freaks

I find green tide utilizing kommandos is effective vs Tau. I usually run the biggest blob possible with 2 shoota squads to shoot. The big mob is armed with choppa/slugga and run up the board as fast as possible.

 Zagman wrote:
Try a central mob of 30 with a MegaArmor Lucky Stick Warboss at it's front and a Painboyz. Just LOS anything S10 or AP2 and bounce anything else off your 2+ Rerollable AS and FNP.

I'd warn you from putting SNP models in footslogging squads. No matter how durable they are. Inability to run and benefit from waaaagh makes them 2 turns slower at reaching enemy lines. And that's gona be turn 5 AT BEST. Basically, you're taking the whole squad out of the game yourself.

 koooaei wrote:

 Zagman wrote:
Try a central mob of 30 with a MegaArmor Lucky Stick Warboss at it's front and a Painboyz. Just LOS anything S10 or AP2 and bounce anything else off your 2+ Rerollable AS and FNP.

I'd warn you from putting SNP models in footslogging squads. No matter how durable they are. Inability to run and benefit from waaaagh makes them 2 turns slower at reaching enemy lines. And that's gona be turn 5 AT BEST. Basically, you're taking the whole squad out of the game yourself.

Actually T3 can charge into an enemy deployment zone on average, T4 deep into enemy Deploy,net zone. T5 can threaten anywhere on the board.

It's about board control, your opponent has to stop the unit, otherwise it will kill whatever it touches. It controls where your opponent can move and what they can do. Make them Shoota Bouz and they can kill off Firewarriors or other soft targets on the move.

Also, a BikerBoss in Boyz can work as well, tank until close, then split off and hit a separate target.

Mogrok's Bossboyz formation from Sanctus Reach to give d3 units outflank & acute senses, a finkin cap on boss for good chance at infiltrate trait, and kommandos (a unit in CaD or the formation) are all quite useful for footsloggers vs gunlines.

 Zagman wrote:

 koooaei wrote:

 Zagman wrote:
Try a central mob of 30 with a MegaArmor Lucky Stick Warboss at it's front and a Painboyz. Just LOS anything S10 or AP2 and bounce anything else off your 2+ Rerollable AS and FNP.

I'd warn you from putting SNP models in footslogging squads. No matter how durable they are. Inability to run and benefit from waaaagh makes them 2 turns slower at reaching enemy lines. And that's gona be turn 5 AT BEST. Basically, you're taking the whole squad out of the game yourself.

Actually T3 can charge into an enemy deployment zone on average, T4 deep into enemy Deploy,net zone. T5 can threaten anywhere on the board.

The thing is that you make your squad effectiveness even more dependant on the enemy's movement. And tau forces can be quite mobile. And a single chaff unit will ensure your 30 boyz are not reaching anything important at all during the whole game. But the most important part is that they are slower than the rest of your army. Orkses are all about timing. Thus, other units loose effectiveness too. That's exactly the reason why you shouldn't mix speed freaks and footslogas. In this case you mix footslogas and super-slow footslogas.

Few units that may help vs Tau I couldn't find above are:
- Lobbas vs Firewarriors/Kroot (perfect to clean objectives)
- Lootas spam vs... anything ^^ but mostly Crisis

As said above, an Ork army should go 100% in one tactic. Or you go full footslogging, or full speed. Otherwise you lose a lot of efficiency and impact.
I also agree that Kommandos are great vs Tau, and vs any shooty army though. I usually give the 2 skorchas or 2 RL, depending the opponent. And if you can field Snikrot, it's the cherry on the cake

I played 2 times vs Tau with Ork Dakkas, and it went pretty well That means SAG, Lootas, KMK/Lobbas, Dakkajets, Shootas boyz.

I've had similar experiences with footslogging vs Tau, and in general i'd advise against it.

It sounds like you met a pretty hard counter, he had pie plates, the riptide, markers and the like, all suitably equipped to burn a horde down. Whereas in terms of your counters to him, you had very little. A damn tough situation.

But as others have suggested, loobas - for the barrage is almightly effective against his hiding markerlight units. Vehicles if you can, I mean even in trucks, your units would go from - 1-2 x 30 boys --> 6x10 boys in trukks. For the tau player he's gone from having two targets to having 6. With this not only have you reduced the effectiveness of his markerlights (as markerlighting a 1 unit blob is a damn effective way to remove that blob), but you've also reduced the amount of boys he can actually remove in a turn, as hes guaranteed to overkill a few places (whereas if your one blob he has no chance of overkill). Plus with trukks, their OS and dirt cheap.