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My local tournament organizer recently decided to decrease the army sizes from 1850 to 1500 so I am revising my list.

I have tested the following vs Tau and had poor results because of ignoring my jink:
CAD:
Zadsnark 150
Painboy,bike 75
3 Warbikers 54
14 Warbikers,1 as nob,klaw 287
9 Tankbustas 117
9 Tankbustas 117
Gun wagon,kannon,ram 70
Gun wagon,kannon,ram 70

Great Waaagh! Detachment:
Warboss,lucky stikk,big bosspole,klaw,bike 155
3 Warbikers 54
3 Warbikers 54
9 Tankbustas 117
Gun wagon,kannon,ram 70

I think I need all of the bike units to be threatening or else I can be focus fired on.
I was thinking of changing to the following:
CAD:
Zadsnark 150
Painboy,bike 75
9 Warbikers,1 as nob,klaw, bosspole 202
9 Warbikers,1 as nob,klaw, bosspole 202
5 Tankbustas 65
Mekboy Junka,deff rolla,2 grot bomms,3 big shootas 95

Great Waaagh! Detachment:
Warboss,lucky stikk,big bosspole,klaw,bike 155
9 Warbikers,1 as nob,big choppa 197
11 grots, runtherd 38
5 Tankbustas 65
5 Tankbustas 65
Mekboy Junka,deff rolla,2 grot bomms,3 big shootas 95
Mekboy Junka,deff rolla,2 grot bomms,3 big shootas 95

The junkas can fire the grot bombs at anything not in cover or annoying turn 1 and the bikes can mop up. My only concerns are flyers and heavy armor which is why I still have some tankbustas in the list but they might not be worth in in such small number. Should I cut down the bikes without hqs to 6 per unit to get more tankbustas or just not bother with bulkier transport to get more in trukks?

If it's any help... a friend of mine playing orks has proven to me at least, that Deaffkopters are the way forward! Twin-linked Rokkits overcome your BS issue, 2 wounds at T5 means you don't get ID'd very often and they have Scout - so you can be where you want, when you want.

List he's been running at 1500 for comparative example (not sure on exacts but more or less from what I remember it's as follows)
split onto 2 force org charts...

Warboss on Bike, Powerclaw and the lucky stick
2x Big Mechs on Bike with Powerclaw
1x Big Mech on foot, in Mega Armor (he sits in the artillery - S&P transfers to them allowing artillery to move and shoot)

3x 5 Deffkopters with Rokkits and 1 Buzzsaw
2x 7 Warbikes with a Nobb w/ Powerclaw
4x 11 Grots+Herder
1x 4 Kustom Mega-Cannon with 4 extra crewman

Hope that helps a bit?

That's an interesting idea--I used to run single deffkoptas for grabbing maelstrom objectives. I would have to find 12 more deffkoptas in order to use this. I am also restricted by Zadsnark to not be able to use mek gunz, deff dreds or killa kans from his warlord trait that lets bikes be troops. I would love to bring mega kannons though

Do the warbikers at 7 per mob get to the enemy lines consistently? I'm worried about failing morale and driving off the board early on.

Generally speaking from my own games against him... One unit dies but the other makes it through most of game until later, as the deffkopters have to be focused. Also, I have to deal with or evade the MCs fire... So nothing to spare to deal with second unit of bikes.

I actually posted my list in a separate topic yesterday... So you can see what he's been facing. (blood angels)
I've not lost to him yet, but I usually don't have much left by the end... So they're always a good game.

Mass Ignore cover is the bike stars only real weakness and force you to rely on 4+ armour (which is easily overcome) and 5+fnp. So tau can give a list that relys only on a bike star troubles.

If you do a bike star it's best to combo it with something not relying on jink like bullyboys. Mass 2+ save melee troops can be an issue for tau as well.

I'm sure your gunwagons were decent vs tau though? How long did they last? Were they able to make it to turn 2?

With the nerf to tankbustas in melee I'd reduce those and add in the bully boyz squad.

The wagons were the only thing left by turn 3, I couldn't get my tankbustas into combat with his riptide because of all the supporting fire. The biker star was dead in 2 turns and only managed to kill a broadside unit and 2 fire warrior units. He bubble wrapped his stuff well. I was thinking about the bully boyz but it's a tight fit points-wise. My locals do not use the FAQ rulings yet so tankbustas are still viable in melee.

How about this:

CAD:
Zadsnark 150
Painboy, bike, bosspole 80
11 Warbikers, 1 upgrade to nob, big choppa 213
6 Warbikers, 1 upgrade to nob, klaw, bosspole 148
6 Warbikers, 1 upgrade to nob, klaw, bosspole 148
Deffkopta, TL rokkits 30
Deffkopta, TL rokkits 30

Formation: Bully Boyz:
5 MANZ, trukk, ram 235
5 MANZ, trukk, ram 235
5 MANZ, trukk 230

Kind of a threat overload idea, lots of ap2 punching. Deffkoptas for objectives and absorbing overwatch when needed. Nob in the 11 man unit for eating a challenge. I could get gun wagons instead of trukks for the MANZ but I would have to drop the koptas and downgrade the smaller biker units to 5 man. I couldn't find a way to get a Warboss in here for lucky stikk, big bosspole and another klaw in the star but it might not be needed here.

I just don't have good experiences with trukks.
Gunwagons or really av13/14 are really hard for tau to deal with. They have extremely limited str9/10
Tankbustas are just boys with rokkits. they die just as quickly, but prefaq nothing took out vehicles better and cheaper.
Other then tau few can deal with zhardsnark bike star with its 2+ cover saves.
This is similar to a list I've used.
CaD
150pts zhardsnark
75pts painboy on bike

184pts 8 warbikes upgrade one to nob w pk and bp
54pts 3 warbikers

117pts 9 tankbustas

30pts Deffkopta
30pts Deffkopta

260pts Gunwagon x4 w ram

Bullyboy formation
600pts Bullyboys

Total 1500

So you basically have 3 gunwagons going flat out with bully boys and 1 gunwagon with tabkbustas
You have a zhardsnark star and another min 3 bike obj grabber.
And 2 deffkoptas to annoy as well.

Thanks for the help I guess the other bikers don't need to be upgraded past min unit size if I have the MANZ.

StrikerTommy wrote:
Thanks for the help I guess the other bikers don't need to be upgraded past min unit size if I have the MANZ.

Concentrate those 3 min bike squads on grabbing objectives and using thier str5ap5 guns to kill off things like marker lights. They are small units so low threat but still durable enough at t5 4+ cover/armour and obj secured to be annoying to kill. They also are no where near as tough as zhards star with his skilled rider, assault grenades, and painboy 5+ fnp and high leadership.
Even if you have to proxy some models. I'd love to hear how your game goes against that tau player.

This list should be a pain for most armies without high ranged armour penetration.
Or lists without ignore cover
Or lists without a lot of ap2
Or lists that have a hard time with mass fearless str9 ap2 melee atks.
You have 3 fast units that are good for grabbing objectives
But Your biggest issue and it's Orks in general... Is a lack of range atks beyond that one squad of tabkbustas and str5 ap5 bike spam
And Orks lack thier own ignores cover. So an army like Superfriends with Thunderwolves with thier mass melee str10 ap2 atks and dark Angels ravenwing with rerollable 2+/3+ cover saves on grav bikes is a no win situation and I don't know what Ork players can do against that type of list. Our zhards star doesn't compare to ravenwing and our mega nobs don't compare to Thunderwolves but it's based on the same concept.

Usually an army is good at killing 1-2 of those things but rarely all of those things.
Also an easy way to bump this list to 1850 tourney points is adding a renegade knight warden for 375 pts. It pairs extremely well to the gunwagon spam and adds good range and melee. 12x str6 ap4 rending hurts most infantry and is a threat vs many other targets.