T’au Empire Vs. Orks 2000 point game:
40k 8th Edition
My list: 1995pts , 118pl
Outrider Detachment
HQ:
Longstrike:
RG and gun drones
Comander x3MP,
EWO, x2 Shield Drones
Fast Attack
X3 Tactical Drones 4/each (gun drones)
Brigade Detachment
HQ:
Shadow Sun w/command drone
Fire Blade
Dark Strider (with breacher team)
Ethereal
Ethereal on Drone, equalizers
Troops:
X7 Strike Teams 5/each; x4 Mkr Drn, x1 Guardian Drn
Breacher Team 10, in Devilfish
Heavy
XV88 HRR, x2
Pls, EOW
X2 MV71 Sniper Drn 3/each
Fast Attack
X3 Tactical Drones 4/each (gun drones)
Elite
X2 Firesite Marksman
X2 Stealth Suits 3/each, x3BC, x2 Drn Con, x1 VeloTrac, x1 Shield Drn
Dedicated Transports
Devilfish w/ burst cannon and gun drones
His List 1998pts, 111pl
Battalion Detachment
HQ
Big Mek: Big Choppa, KustomFF
Warboss: Attack Squig, Power Klaw, Shoota
Troops
X2 Ork Boyz: 29 Boyz w/ Choppa/Slugga, Nob W/ power klaw and Shoota
Ork Boyz: 19, x2Big Shoota, Nob W/power klaw and Shoota(in battle wagon)
Elites
Burna Boyz: 11 Burnas, 1 Mek (in truck)
Tankbustas: 5 w/rokkit launcha (in truck)
Heavy Support
Battlewaggon: x4big shoota, deff rolla
X6 Big Gunz - X6 Kannon, 12 Crew
X2 Deff Dread, 1 w/ 2 dread klaws & x2 skorcha, other x4 dread klaw
Flyer
Dakkajet: x6 suppa Shootas
Dedicated Transports
X2 Trukk w/ big shoota, wreckin ball
Mission was Endless War with Slay and Secure Victory conditions, using command points. T’au 13cp, Ork with 6cp
We played on a mirrored board with not given advantage to either side. One objective marker were in opposite corner deployment zones and the other two were in the middle of the board just left and right of center.
On the Ork first turn he super rolled his Burna squad across the board and torched the most forward squad of fire warriors without batting an eye. One of the two deff dreads was inches behind the truck of Burna boys. All of which promising death to my troops in hand to hand. On the other side of the board the Tank buster squad in their truck also zoomed into range to unleash their firepower on my Longstrike. Longstrike only suffered 3 wounds from the assault due to amazing armor save luck. The Dakka Jet unloaded on my stealth suits, and dealt an impressive amount of damage that the drones gladly jumped in the way of.
https://ibb.co/bBTOck
T’au first turn, mostly out of fear shot, all things threatening immediate death. One turn earlier than expected I use Kauyon with Shadowsun to reroll to hits. My opening volley with my XV88 on is Burna truck rolled boxcars on the wounds and vaperoized it in a single salvo, with the trukk failing its ramshackle roll to reduce the wounds. The ensuing rail gun and missile pods on his closest Deff Dred ensured its death to pulse-guns shortly after. Only a hand full of fire warriors were needed to kill off his Burnna with the added extra volley given by the FireBlade. The opposite end of the board bused the majority of its fire power to down the dakka Jet and kill off the Tankbusta squad and their truck.
https://ibb.co/cL9kq5
(At this point in the game the power went out at my game store and any photo is absolute garbage)
Ork turn two saw his forces move forward the Deff Dred on a rerole advance got a 1. A large number of shots went into my gun drones reducing to one if not elimination the small units outright. The Artilery focused fire on the breacher team in cover who survived their armor roles. The remaing throngs of Orc moved forward. His battlewagon, eager to use the new hand to hand rules for vehicles, challenged long strike to a duel, and rammed straight into him. It dealt enough wounds to heavily cripple it, but left the tank alive. Longstrike did manage to hit and would on overwatch which was nice for the T’au.
On Tau turn two, I shot down the Battle Waggon, and then the mob of 20 boyz that replaced it. Attempts at shooting the
Def Dread did not succeed in inflicting more than a few wounds. The breacher team got back into their Devilfish and moved toward the big gunz. The remaining drones, stealth, and shadow sun moved towards one of the center objectives. The fire warriors, Ethereal , and fire blade followed suit.; not because I would have made it to the objective but because I needed a buffer away from the one in my deployment zone. Durning this turn an wonderful and terrible thing happened; the sniper drones managed 6 of 9 hits and 6 of 6 wounds to his warlord. The Orc warloard failed all 6 4+ saves even using the last of his rerolls on one. Much sadness occurred. This proved quite decisive.
With his forces in range the Orcs charged across the board with his reaming units. His
Def Dread made quick work Longstrike in hand-to-hand. The two relatively untouched Orc boy units charged my fire warriors and the reaming drone ball with Shadowsun and stealth units in it. The charge went well against the drones and suits. However due to the
MSU design Shadowsun, the stealth units, 1 snyper drone team and 2 drone squads survived hand-to-hand. The attacks against the fire warriors were abismal. Somehow, 15 orks in hand to hand managed to only kill 3 fire warriors, leaving a large number of fire warriors alive to fight another round. His Big Gunz fired and left the Devilfish with 2 wounds.
In the Tau last turn the suits and drones jumped to their objective and shot any remaining Orc in sight. The Breacher team tried to kill off some Gunz at close range that were in cover and only managed two. The Fire Warriors stayed to fight their Orcs and the
Def Dread was eliminated by the Comander and Broadside. At this point we called the game before resolving the last fire warrior hand-to-hand because the game length had been reached and the objectives were clearly owned.
The Orc’s had two objectives, the one their Big Gunz sat on, the other left of center.
The T’au had two objectives, their start position and the one right of center.
The T’au won because they managed to slay the Ork arlord.
Tactical Victory T’au (if the game went another round it would have been decisive depending either way depending on how hand-to-hand went.)
Take aways:
From Tau:
The Orc need to use trucks to get across the board fast. If his whole army was mechanized the picture would look a lot different. I do need to mention the Orc dice were against him this game rolling significantly below average where the T’au were slightly above average. The use of command points were only necessary for the T’au to reroll failed to hit or to wound w/ heavy guns. With such small squads and the leadership boost from the ethereal, I auto passed moral roles, because either not enough wounds happened or the squad was wiped. I got lucky with my initial heavy gun wounds however I ended the game with 6 unused command points.
Still getting armor roles changes the dynamic of the game for T’au opponents. Still having strength 5 does make it useful to try and pick off the remaining wound on a vehicle. Hand-to-hand is survivable… ish for T’au. The ability to use suits and fly away and shoot is awesome. Playing the list, though competitive and maximizing my strengths . . . was a little dull. I plan on playing casual games differently in the future even though I will probably lose; I will have more fun.
From Orks:
I have to say, the T'au
msu brittish gunline army is tremendously tough to break. The army is a giant porcupine, with no real good place to approach. It was like trying to eat a cactus.
I made a lot of mistakes this game. I positioned by Dakka Jet in OMG range of his breachers, which cost it half it's wounds. I should have kept it a little more central and used it to light up the fire warrior teams on the far left side. Then, my boyz would have been able to whiff their attack rolls on some more worthwhile targets. I also allowed my big mek to let out the leash too long on his dread mob, causing them to recieve more deadly anti tank fire. Lastly, I used my dice. This is an incredible handicap.
All in all, I love what
GW has done for orks. With the wall of pulse bullets the T'Au were able to put up, I can say 7th ed orks would have quit the field by turn 2. The fact that I was able to make it to hand to hand with BOTH blobs mostly intact is pretty spectacular. New hand to hand rules, and rules for assault weapons, are fantastic.
Still only lost because my warboss decided to get WREKT
