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Uz Orks come to the average vew dat' dem tau gitz dont fight propur! So I wonda' oo would win?

win or lose, it would likely be a near run game in either direction.

All the orks vs all the tau?

The only people who might stand up to that are the Tyranids and Necrons.

The Imperium, Chaos Space Marines, Eldar, and what not don't even have enough munitions to prosecute that kind of war.

It'd look like a Tsunami rolling up a toy house made out of lincoln logs.

Not sure if this is a fluff question or tabletop gameplay question? In the fluff a big enough WAAAGH with a proper kunning and brutal Warboss could smash the blue gitz rite proppa.

On the tabletop Orks vs Tau is a hard matchup for the boyz. Tau is good at trying to table an Ork player and strong tactics like Green Tide and Dread Mobs have trouble with the volume of high str shooting Tau can put out. Blitz brigade style list are very good vs Tau as Tau doesn't typically bring a ton of weapons that can pen a large number of AV14 units.

In close combat the Orks can multi charge to cut down mutiple units at the same time. Supporting fire means multi charges aren't as difficult (Tau generally stay close together to get supporting fire) and firewarriors have defensive grenades so there isn't any real penalty to a multi charge over a single target charge as you lose the bonus from charging anyways.

 Vankraken wrote:
Not sure if this is a fluff question or tabletop gameplay question? In the fluff a big enough WAAAGH with a proper kunning and brutal Warboss could smash the blue gitz rite proppa.

On the tabletop Orks vs Tau is a hard matchup for the boyz. Tau is good at trying to table an Ork player and strong tactics like Green Tide and Dread Mobs have trouble with the volume of high str shooting Tau can put out. Blitz brigade style list are very good vs Tau as Tau doesn't typically bring a ton of weapons that can pen a large number of AV14 units.

In close combat the Orks can multi charge to cut down mutiple units at the same time. Supporting fire means multi charges aren't as difficult (Tau generally stay close together to get supporting fire) and firewarriors have defensive grenades so there isn't any real penalty to a multi charge over a single target charge as you lose the bonus from charging anyways.

All the Orks ever WAAAGH!ing against the little Tau empire would one of the more lopsided fights I've seen posited on this forum. The Warboss alone would be big enough to beat Cadres with their mantas.

Oh, you meant an all v all bout? in that case it would be a draw. the tau would try to do that eldar thing and try to refuse the field. the orks on the other hand, could never maintain a cease fire long enough without internecine fighting breaking out between the rival warbosses.

looked at it one way, Orks are a force of nature just like the warp that 40k denizens have to live with.

looked at another way, GW will never declare a winner so that they can continue to sell both lines.

 carldooley wrote:
Oh, you meant an all v all bout? in that case it would be a draw. the tau would try to do that eldar thing and try to refuse the field. the orks on the other hand, could never maintain a cease fire long enough without internecine fighting breaking out between the rival warbosses.

looked at it one way, Orks are a force of nature just like the warp that 40k denizens have to live with.

looked at another way, GW will never declare a winner so that they can continue to sell both lines.

There's more orks than there are shots for every pulse rifle in the galaxy by several orders of magnitude.

The orks would just surround the empire and advance on all sides leaving no avenue of escape if they were united under this hypothetical super warboss.

TBF, orks outnumber even humans, and all the orks combined into one force would be unstoppable. The only ones that would have a chance at winning would be 'nids (we don't actually know how many are out there) and fully awoken necrons (but only a tiny amount of 'crons are awoken, so that goes out the window).



Also, pulse rifles use a rechargeable energy source, so that means a near-infinite shots.
I'll shut up now.

I meant like an ork tribe vs a tau colony. This may clear things up a bit. Also, this is a battle on the table top. And the warboss is a typical size so about this big: http://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/Ork-Warboss-with-Big-Choppa : so hopefully that clears it all up.

Tau vs orks is always an interesting matchup in the fluff (and canonically the most common). The tau are expert ork fighters, but the orks continue to surprise them (as orks are apt to do).

It depends. If taken by surprise, Tau won't have much to offer. If with careful planning, Tau win.

 Co'tor Shas wrote:
Tau vs orks is always an interesting matchup in the fluff (and canonically the most common). The tau are expert ork fighters, but the orks continue to surprise them (as orks are apt to do).

You mean the TRUE Tau the Farsight Enclaves are expert Ork Fighters .

And it would depend a lot on the terrain, forces available and who was in command. A good example of this is found in the Farsight Enclaves book where Farsight has to combat a massive Ork Waaaagh with limited resources on a Desert planet, really awesome how in depth it goes.

And then theirs the tale about how a Ork Warboss stole a HUGE brand new Tau Colony ship and destroyed an entire system of Tau with it :-P

Orks are without a doubt the biggest "Enemy" of every race in the galaxy.

 Ghazkuul wrote:
And then theirs the tale about how a Ork Warboss stole a HUGE brand new Tau Colony ship and destroyed an entire system of Tau with it :-P

Orks are without a doubt the biggest "Enemy" of every race in the galaxy.

Orks are even the biggest enemy to other orks.

So in conclusion, the Orks win....Unless other orks show up, in which case Orks win. So yeah at the end of the day I think that Orks can only win if Orks. and then only on a day of Ork following a full moon of Orks. And my final thoughts on the matter.....Orks


WAAAAAGH!!!!!!!!!1

Win or lose, Orkz always consider fighting a win.

Us orkses never lose, because if we win, we win. If we die we die fighting, so it doesn't count. If we just run away, we can come back and try again so it doesn't count either!

Because we never lose, we always win, right?

Pretty much a no-brainer. A full-scale Imperial crusade has about dead-even odds of relegating the Tau to extinction. You wouldn't need all the orks in the galaxy, by far. Even just Gaz and his Waaaaaagh would be enough, easily.

Dis is dumb.

If der is only a bit of Orks, (like one eyeful), and dere is a big flat spot wit' da Tau basterds pointin at it, Da Tau is gonna git 'em all.

In every udder case, da Boyz crump dose Tau suckas.

ORKS they are very scary, if every last Ork gathered and attacked we would be screwed.

that's why Eldrad moved an Ork army to Armageddon with his psychic shenanigans. it has been a while since I looked at the book, but as far as I can see every race fears the Orks.

 Mumblez wrote:
Us orkses never lose, because if we win, we win. If we die we die fighting, so it doesn't count. If we just run away, we can come back and try again so it doesn't count either!

Because we never lose, we always win, right?

And if they are blown to bits by artillery, far away from the actual fight?

My personal opinion is that it's a 50/50 shot.

The orks are always adapting and always creating new orks. So when a planet is infested, it's nearly impossible to get them all off, without burning the entire planet.

However, Tau are thinkers and adaptors. They can create new technologies, new techniques, and new tactics as time goes by. It would be some sort of eternal struggle.

I think of this equal to the "Batman VS. Superman" question. Tau being Batman (the thinkers, planners, Given enough time they will win). Orks being Superman (Just plain unkillable, regenerates if hurt, and can just walk into a situation and input their influence.)

 Ashiraya wrote:

 Mumblez wrote:
Us orkses never lose, because if we win, we win. If we die we die fighting, so it doesn't count. If we just run away, we can come back and try again so it doesn't count either!

Because we never lose, we always win, right?

And if they are blown to bits by artillery, far away from the actual fight?

Hmm. Now that's a good question. I think it depends on the clan the orks belong to. Blood Axes don't like getting blown to bits before they get their namesake. Goffs on the other hand don't mind that half their mob dies along the way - there's so many of them they couldn't care less!

 Vanguard-13 wrote:
My personal opinion is that it's a 50/50 shot.

The orks are always adapting and always creating new orks. So when a planet is infested, it's nearly impossible to get them all off, without burning the entire planet.

However, Tau are thinkers and adaptors. They can create new technologies, new techniques, and new tactics as time goes by. It would be some sort of eternal struggle.

I think of this equal to the "Batman VS. Superman" question. Tau being Batman (the thinkers, planners, Given enough time they will win). Orks being Superman (Just plain unkillable, regenerates if hurt, and can just walk into a situation and input their influence.)

I think you massively overestimate the power of the Tau, the Tau survive in the fluff by plot armour, they lack the true military power to stand up to a waaagh of real magnitude.

If an ork waaagh had time to build true momentum and was lead by a suitably cunning leader then they could pose real problems to the Tau Empire. Ghaz would flatten them in a few years if he turned his attention on them. The casualties would be staggering but orks don't care, they would simply force more meat into the grinder, the tau would be unable to sustain battle and each loss would hurt them further.
The only true eternal struggle in 40k would be between an ork empire and a hive fleet tendril.

 Ugly Green Trog wrote:

 Vanguard-13 wrote:
My personal opinion is that it's a 50/50 shot.

The orks are always adapting and always creating new orks. So when a planet is infested, it's nearly impossible to get them all off, without burning the entire planet.

However, Tau are thinkers and adaptors. They can create new technologies, new techniques, and new tactics as time goes by. It would be some sort of eternal struggle.

I think of this equal to the "Batman VS. Superman" question. Tau being Batman (the thinkers, planners, Given enough time they will win). Orks being Superman (Just plain unkillable, regenerates if hurt, and can just walk into a situation and input their influence.)

I think you massively overestimate the power of the Tau, the Tau survive in the fluff by plot armour, they lack the true military power to stand up to a waaagh of real magnitude.

If an ork waaagh had time to build true momentum and was lead by a suitably cunning leader then they could pose real problems to the Tau Empire. Ghaz would flatten them in a few years if he turned his attention on them. The casualties would be staggering but orks don't care, they would simply force more meat into the grinder, the tau would be unable to sustain battle and each loss would hurt them further.
The only true eternal struggle in 40k would be between an ork empire and a hive fleet tendril.

I respect your opinion, but you are applying optimal situations to the Orks (Cunning leader, time to build up) but implying the Tau get nothing but basic defenses. In any situation this means the Orks would win. However if you gave this advantage to the Tau, (Cunning leader such as Commander Farsight, And time to fortify/prep for the Ork Invasion.) I think the Tau would be the victors.

In a 'fair' fight they are pretty even. However, war isn't always fair. It's sort of like an extremely well experienced chess player vs a Newbie. These are the hardest matches because the Expert (Tau) think with strategy and expect their opponents to do so. However the Newbie (Orks) don't follow strategy, and can simply make pieces move the way they weren't supposed to.

The Tau have a massive military force, Probably not as big as the whole of the Orks, but The Orks are far more spread out. The Tau are consolidated compared to them.

I still give it a 50/50 shot. Seeing as the Tau still have time to fall back, orbit bomb the planets and just retake them. Vice Versa, Orks can take any tech the Tau make and turn it against them. It would come down to Luck and situations In my opinion.

But what do I know? I'm just a Tau player

I have never seen anyone besides an Ork player try to roleplay a character from his faction at a game, or in these forums. And of those, I have seen many.

to me, an interesting side note.

Because Orks transcend time and space!

They live within all beings who wish to shoot, shoot, and continue shooting. Without Aiming, Without Caring, And just enjoy the Waaaaagh!