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I need some help on how to beat tau i have the assault on black reach set for the orks and a bommer (Not made yet also need advice on that) and my brother is getting the Tau battleforce so if anybody could help me i'd be grateful!
[b][u]

For a year, I only ever got to fight Tau, so here's what I've learned:

Dakkajets are great against them, at least until they get some AA.

Boyz vs. Tau in shooting: Tau beat you in range, Orks win in volume of fire.

Boyz vs. Tau in assault: Boyz win 95% of the time. Even Trukk Boyz.

Hit 'em fast and hit 'em 'ard! A speedy turn 2 strike (deffkoptas, bikes, trukks, battlewagons) really hurts Tau as they need to keep you away.

Best way to kill tau, Speed! with backup fire from dakkajets and lootas

As a tau player, 2 things can threat us, and 2 thins alone:

1-speed units.
2-deep striking monstrous creatures/masses.


Anything else is either fair game to us, or an easy picking.
Do NOT go for trucks, this will just be playing into Tau's hands, broadsides will open the trucks, and then fire-warriors can make Swiss cheese out of the boys while they slug into range.

Bikes, koptas and jets are the way to go. thses are the REAL threat.

Also, assume anything with armor 5+ or worse to be reduced to half or less, if not outright exterminated, before it gets a chance to do anything. as this is likely to happen.

If he is only using the battle force you shouldn't have that much of an issue. The battle force for Tau contains only one crisis suit which will probably be loaded out as an HQ. This will leave him with 3 stealth suits and maybe a couple drones if he puts them with the stealth suits in the elite section.

So the HQ shouldn't be a difficult target. It's got a 3+ save and is fast, but only has T4 and 3W. It's not going to be too difficult to shoot it to death.

Stealthsuits might be an issue. They can infiltrate and get a 2+ save in cover. Getting close and flaming them shouldn't prove too difficult. T3 and a 3+ save on an expensive unit. If you can't flame, then shoot the crap out him. You only need him to roll three 1's.

Firewarriors generally have bad leadership unless he takes an expensive squad leader to give them Ld8. You are going to have trouble out ranging these guys, but they come in a small unit so should still get shot up fairly easy.

Kroot are squishier and shoot less than FW but have infiltrate. These guys are pretty tame in CC too due to the lack of an armor save. So it's not too hard to pile the wounds on these guys and force them to break. That and LD7 make these guys easy to crumble.

Devil fish is a tough transport. It's not really worth shooting at due to it's coversave and lack of reliable weaponry. I'd suggest trying to ignore this unit for as long as possible. If troops are inside it, wait till they come out and shoot them up.

*rereads first post"

He got only a battleforce at a start?
Its a 500 point level match?


Wagon away, he won't have much answer to armor with that kit alone. and get some av 4+, as he can butcher everything with 5+ or worse, his entire battleforce is S5AP5 guns (and some S4AP5 kroot)

From what I can get from ur army list, cover run, run ur boyz and nobs and warboss cover to cover until you can chop the gits. Max up ur koptas with buzzsaw, bigbomm, big shootas and charge the f@ckers in first turn if you can. And do whatever with ur bommer, try to make it kill as many fire warriors as possble.
Thats what I'd do.

Load up your plane as a dakka jet, and tool up your koptas! If you only have black reach and planes, go with just two squads of ten boyz, and a tooled up dakka jet. Warboss chills with boyz, and the koptas can go hunting for stealth suits. you can add the buzzsaw to chop up things in cc, or the big bomm to blast open his troops. The dakkajet should easily handle his devilfish and troops. The koptas should run individually and hunt the stealth team, probably with buzzsaw tp bust 'um up close. Boyz will need to lay low, just because you don't have enough to do much with.

Ork can't beat Tau in 6ed they can move and shoot, plus Fire warrior have range 30" Str 5AP5 guns which means there is only 2 units in the Ork codex Fire warriors can't butcher mega nob and battle wagon, note i would say dreads to but thanks to the 6ed grenade rules and HP Dreads are useless in every army

 yorkskargrimironklaw wrote:
Ork can't beat Tau in 6ed they can move and shoot, plus Fire warrior have range 30" Str 5AP5 guns which means there is only 3 units in the Ork codex Fire warriors can't butcher mega nob and battle wagon, note i would say dreads to but thanks to the 6ed grenade rules and HP Dreads are useless in every army

Tau can't handle fast units.

Send in a squad of Nob Bikers with a Warboss.

Tau, far as i know, are the most pathetic melee combat opponents. I imagine 6 trukk boy squads charging up the battlefield would scare the bejebus out of them. Add in a BW instead of a trukk for a little more boyz and a good huddle for a KFF Big Mek to help keep things alive.

Tau are the (next to deamons) rarest i play against, but i do know they are horrid once you get close enough.

Biker forces would work too, as theyre wicked fast and have 4+/4++ saves and a 5+ FNP if you got a painboy. Take Wazdakka if you this though, youre going to want more bikes instead of boyz and if you dont you wont have any troops.

6 Trukk boyz are exactly what tau want you to send at them as they excel at picking off light tanks and infantry with massed S:5 AP:5 firepower even with a KFF.

I guess people have a hard time reading and missed the part where the OP says "I have the AoBR box and one other kit"? What exactly is the point of suggesting things like "bring six units of trukk boyz" when the OP has clearly stated that they don't have the models?


Anyway, the real answer is to forget about tactics. The winner will be decided by who happened to get the better models, not by who has the better strategy. Until you both expand your collections enough to allow you to build real armies the only thing you can do is just put your orks on the table, shove them forward, and hope that your battleforce had the better units. Oh, and bring your flyer at all times, since the Tau battleforce has no AA weapons.

 yorkskargrimironklaw wrote:
Ork can't beat Tau in 6ed they can move and shoot, plus Fire warrior have range 30" Str 5AP5 guns which means there is only 3 units in the Ork codex Fire warriors can't butcher mega nob and battle wagon, note i would say dreads to but thanks to the 6ed grenade rules and HP Dreads are useless in every army

Then how have I beat Tau before in 6th?

The three deffkopta and the jet should be enough of a challenge for Tau battleforce.

Once you expand your army, try and get more biker units than Tau markerlights to benefit from the ever cover save. Looted wagon with the 5'blast ap3 shot is also nasty, but you'll have troubles closing in range.
Lifta droppa wagon for some lulz.

OrkBomma wrote:
I need some help on how to beat tau i have the assault on black reach set for the orks and a bommer (Not made yet also need advice on that) and my brother is getting the Tau battleforce so if anybody could help me i'd be grateful!
[b][u]

This is not sufficient to field an army that will beat Tau. Sadly, you'll need to purchase more models before you can craft a Tau killing list.

 matphat wrote:

OrkBomma wrote:
I need some help on how to beat tau i have the assault on black reach set for the orks and a bommer (Not made yet also need advice on that) and my brother is getting the Tau battleforce so if anybody could help me i'd be grateful!
[b][u]

This is not sufficient to field an army that will beat Tau. Sadly, you'll need to purchase more models before you can craft a Tau killing list.

I more or less agree with this, My suggestion is to pick up a trukk and a unit of mega nobz. They are incredibly durable against the tau and loading them into a trukk garantees that your brother will need t shoot that trukk down, just make sure you flat out with your fast trukk it will allow you to move 24 inches in 1 round. The only upgrade I ever give to a trukk is reinforced ram so i can crash through terrain with hardly any worries about being immobilized this allows me to abuse cover saves as it is very easy to avoid damage if you do this, not an amazing mitagation tactic but one which should make it pretty hard for the trukk to go down easily.

next, your deff koptas need a buzzsaw or two, i dunno if you plan to use them as rokkits or big shootas but Tau crisis suits should be a concern for your forces and the easiest way to shut them down is rokkits which auto kill them, it will send them fleeing from your Deffkoptas and allocating basic troopers to them if they have been able to deal with your trukk after round 1, this means that when your mega nobz drop out of the trukk virtually unscathed you can advance toward the tau less molested by gunfire. Ultimately you want to assualt with your Deffkoptas carving through large units of fire warriors leaving the scoring units at a loss for how to claim or win and giving the mega nobz plenty of relief in the fight. Ultimately after all firewarriors have been decimated by close combat you should chase down and destroy the crisis teams and then anything else you like

As far as the ork Bomber you should consider the Dakka jet during the round in which you Waaagh you will have a 4+ to hit with 18 shots that are all twin linked, Strength 6 AP 4 with a 30 inch range. Save this waaaagh plane for a something like broadsides or a unit that happens to still be giving your army trouble or is within rapid fire range.

Don't listen to these players, Tau got a power upgrade but they are far from unbeatable by orks, tradiationally foot slogging is what went wrong with our codex you need to take a healthy mix of speed, strength and guns now imo other than our bad init we have created a very nice balanced style army since 6th came out. Mind you i miss the days of 180 orks own the battlefield but... this does encourage an ork to think

Going with what the kind gentleman posted above me, I'd suggest getting some Lootas. They're our only chance to outshoot the enemy and with the ridiculous amour of shots a squad of 10 can fire in one turn is worth it. You can also assemble the Burnas that also go in the kit; but those are to deal woth more assault or horde armies. Either way; Welcome to the WAAAGH!

 Billagio wrote:

 yorkskargrimironklaw wrote:
Ork can't beat Tau in 6ed they can move and shoot, plus Fire warrior have range 30" Str 5AP5 guns which means there is only 3 units in the Ork codex Fire warriors can't butcher mega nob and battle wagon, note i would say dreads to but thanks to the 6ed grenade rules and HP Dreads are useless in every army

Then how have I beat Tau before in 6th?

Hes just going to counter with something stupid like "Then your Tau players suck more then Orks suck"

 KingCracker wrote:

 Billagio wrote:

 yorkskargrimironklaw wrote:
Ork can't beat Tau in 6ed they can move and shoot, plus Fire warrior have range 30" Str 5AP5 guns which means there is only 3 units in the Ork codex Fire warriors can't butcher mega nob and battle wagon, note i would say dreads to but thanks to the 6ed grenade rules and HP Dreads are useless in every army

Then how have I beat Tau before in 6th?

Hes just going to counter with something stupid like "Then your Tau players suck more then Orks suck"

NO i was just going to say you better hope they never find out what marker lights do

 yorkskargrimironklaw wrote:

 KingCracker wrote:

 Billagio wrote:

 yorkskargrimironklaw wrote:
Ork can't beat Tau in 6ed they can move and shoot, plus Fire warrior have range 30" Str 5AP5 guns which means there is only 3 units in the Ork codex Fire warriors can't butcher mega nob and battle wagon, note i would say dreads to but thanks to the 6ed grenade rules and HP Dreads are useless in every army

Then how have I beat Tau before in 6th?

Hes just going to counter with something stupid like "Then your Tau players suck more then Orks suck"

NO i was just going to say you better hope they never find out what marker lights do

cutting cover saves isn't as impressive as you might think sir. Especially if you go first and blasted 24 inches forward the first turn with trukks, 48 inches for koptahs(12 scout, 12 move, 24 turbo-boost), and use dakka jets and battlewagons. Oh and lets not forget hit and run with your deff koptas as well. You can say that tau want to fight vehicles and the like but that isn't the point, the point is to have your entire army in the face of a shooting army as fast as possible if they get first blood you can pretty much grantee you will be getting line breaker where they will hold positions for the most part.

Based off your worries of marker lights it sounds like you might run KFF + horde and then it would make complete sense why you are convinced orks loose against tau. But i play in 'Ard boy tourneys, and large unoffical ones as well in KC for decent pay outs... the tau that i play give me good runs for my money using aegis defense lines, broadsides, firewarriors, pathfinders and crisis teams. I am not sure you may have changed your styles since 6th but if you haven't that might be the only reason why I'd agree with your statement orks can't be tau... cause otherwise no, i have few if any problems with them long as i take some fast attack options.

Then again I am a fan of a balanced list as opposed to all eggs in one basket approach.

 loota boy wrote:
Load up your plane as a dakka jet, and tool up your koptas! If you only have black reach and planes, go with just two squads of ten boyz, and a tooled up dakka jet. Warboss chills with boyz, and the koptas can go hunting for stealth suits. you can add the buzzsaw to chop up things in cc, or the big bomm to blast open his troops. The dakkajet should easily handle his devilfish and troops. The koptas should run individually and hunt the stealth team, probably with buzzsaw tp bust 'um up close. Boyz will need to lay low, just because you don't have enough to do much with.

I love how people keep reccomending hundreds of dollars worth of models you dont own OP. This right here is the most sound strategy based on TAU box vs AOBR nd dakkajet

 Big Mek Wurrzog wrote:

 yorkskargrimironklaw wrote:

 KingCracker wrote:

 Billagio wrote:

 yorkskargrimironklaw wrote:
Ork can't beat Tau in 6ed they can move and shoot, plus Fire warrior have range 30" Str 5AP5 guns which means there is only 3 units in the Ork codex Fire warriors can't butcher mega nob and battle wagon, note i would say dreads to but thanks to the 6ed grenade rules and HP Dreads are useless in every army

Then how have I beat Tau before in 6th?

Hes just going to counter with something stupid like "Then your Tau players suck more then Orks suck"

NO i was just going to say you better hope they never find out what marker lights do

cutting cover saves isn't as impressive as you might think sir. Especially if you go first and blasted 24 inches forward the first turn with trukks, 48 inches for koptahs(12 scout, 12 move, 24 turbo-boost), and use dakka jets and battlewagons. Oh and lets not forget hit and run with your deff koptas as well. You can say that tau want to fight vehicles and the like but that isn't the point, the point is to have your entire army in the face of a shooting army as fast as possible if they get first blood you can pretty much grantee you will be getting line breaker where they will hold positions for the most part.

Based off your worries of marker lights it sounds like you might run KFF + horde and then it would make complete sense why you are convinced orks loose against tau. But i play in 'Ard boy tourneys, and large unoffical ones as well in KC for decent pay outs... the tau that i play give me good runs for my money using aegis defense lines, broadsides, firewarriors, pathfinders and crisis teams. I am not sure you may have changed your styles since 6th but if you haven't that might be the only reason why I'd agree with your statement orks can't be tau... cause otherwise no, i have few if any problems with them long as i take some fast attack options.

Then again I am a fan of a balanced list as opposed to all eggs in one basket approach.

Mate i don't care about the 5+ cover save. It's every tau unit having BS 5 that is worrying and if any of the maker lights roll above average then they can remove the cover save

Again, get to them by the end of turn 1 and you wont care about cover saves

York, since everyone here seems to do just fine against all of the armies and setups that you claim are "Un-winable" for orks, I'm pretty sure that it isn't the ork codex that sucks. It's you.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Exalbaru wrote:

 loota boy wrote:
Load up your plane as a dakka jet, and tool up your koptas! If you only have black reach and planes, go with just two squads of ten boyz, and a tooled up dakka jet. Warboss chills with boyz, and the koptas can go hunting for stealth suits. you can add the buzzsaw to chop up things in cc, or the big bomm to blast open his troops. The dakkajet should easily handle his devilfish and troops. The koptas should run individually and hunt the stealth team, probably with buzzsaw tp bust 'um up close. Boyz will need to lay low, just because you don't have enough to do much with.

I love how people keep reccomending hundreds of dollars worth of models you dont own OP. This right here is the most sound strategy based on TAU box vs AOBR nd dakkajet

Oh, and thank you!

 loota boy wrote:
York, since everyone here seems to do just fine against all of the armies and setups that you claim are "Un-winable" for orks, I'm pretty sure that it isn't the ork codex that sucks. It's you.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Exalbaru wrote:

 loota boy wrote:
Load up your plane as a dakka jet, and tool up your koptas! If you only have black reach and planes, go with just two squads of ten boyz, and a tooled up dakka jet. Warboss chills with boyz, and the koptas can go hunting for stealth suits. you can add the buzzsaw to chop up things in cc, or the big bomm to blast open his troops. The dakkajet should easily handle his devilfish and troops. The koptas should run individually and hunt the stealth team, probably with buzzsaw tp bust 'um up close. Boyz will need to lay low, just because you don't have enough to do much with.

I love how people keep reccomending hundreds of dollars worth of models you dont own OP. This right here is the most sound strategy based on TAU box vs AOBR nd dakkajet

Oh, and thank you!

Bwahahahaaaa Ill 2nd that for sure

And don't forget the Red paint, so you can go fasta

What a lot of people forget is that the opponent is only going to field the tau battle force. So 1 suit, no broadsides, Stealthsuits if he can afford to bring them, firewarriors with a Devilfish, and one unit of Kroot. No markerlights.

You should have plenty available to take them down. The suit will be the only unit with a weapon that can damage the dakka jet.

Dakkajets are AV 10 mate.

Anything S4 + can damage them just fine.

A unit of Fire Warriors has a decent chance of downing one, especially if it's close to.

Using your models, I may also suggest that you use the Deffkoptas in three units of one Kopta each, and don't be afraid to get into combat with them as quickly as possible (i.e. flat out on T1 and charge in T2 if you're still alive). Yeah, your Koptas may get overwhelmed, but if they're fighting you, they're not shooting you, so your Boyz, Nobz and Warboss get that much closer to finishing the job. Slugga Boyz do have a hard time getting close to Tau, and IIRC, AoBR has a mere 20 Boyz which is nowhere near enough for any Ork army.

Considering the situation, I would probably advise you to expand your army sooner rather than later. Decide on a playstyle, then go for either Speed Freeks or Green Tide (or Dakka Dakka, but that's unlikely to beat Tau on an average day), either of which should be better than the AoBR lineup which lacks focus and looks as if it was designed to make SM win every time in AoBR battles and increase interest in that army.