Topic: God Damn Tau

[*RepticFreak]

I hate the god damn tau. I want to smash der skulls but i get killed running up to them. An oppenent i rugulary face uses 48 fire warriors, 3 broadsides, kroot, and a battlesuit team against me. I dont have must trouble with the kroot but by the time i get to tanything else i get my ass shot off. I have 2 squads of 16 sluggas, 16 ard boyz, 5 nobs and warboss, some kans, lobbas, battlewagons, wartrukk, and a mekboy. Whats an ork to do?

[darkhand]

What points game is that? The first thing I'd advise would be dropping the retinue. Taking it means they can be shot out seperately, and that spells death for anything perceived a serious threat. Up the mob sizes to 20 for your boyz- get 3 speshul weaponz and a nob in each- this helps with morale and waagh checks, as well as giving you more boyz! Slow vehicles probably arent the wisest option- the tau have plenty anti vehicle stuff and even their basic gun can hurt kanz and penetrate trukks!

The other thing that is very important is what size of board are you playing on, and how much cover do you use? GW states there should be 4' between each player with a 1' deployment zone, so that's a minimum of 3' and a max of 4' between the players. (2' if he's an idiot ) 25% of the board should be covered by terrain. Dont be fooled, that is a LOT! If you're doubtful, arrange all the terrain you use in one table quarter and see if it fills up. There should be 33% terrain which blocks LOS and doesnt give cover, like buildings and high walls, 33% which blocks LOS and gives cover, like forests, (remember he cant see THROUGH forests, only INTO them, regardless of how thick they are) and 33% which doesnt block line of sight but gives a cover save, like low walls or long grass. Thats 2' square of los blocking terrain on the board- dont let him trick you out of it. If you play on an open plain, orks dont stand a chance. With decent terrain, the game is much more tactical and more enjoyable than 'orks move forward- tau shoot.' repeated six times.

[CaramelThunder]

The only way i've been able to beat Tau is with a speed freaks army. Get as many trukk boy mobs as you can and send them down the table as fast as you can go, same with any hqs and elites. Maybe take a bike squad to soak up some of the shooting from the first turn. Also, as Darkhand said, use cover as much as possible.

[Orkemedies]

I took apart a tau army in 1000pts with two hammerheads using moving cover. Using the terrain and vehicles to block line of site a lot meant that my boyz made it there and pilled onto the tau like no tomorrow.

[BLAH!]

I was able to dismantle the Tau army in a 1000 point game. I used a Grot based force, with 30 Grot and a Slaver, and then I wued about 40 boyz as well.

[Banned Solorg]

well, here is an idea.  You have more than one BW, so drive these toward the Tau full speed.  If they get shot, too bad... but they will sit there for the rest of the game and the Tau can't shoot past them.  This way, free cover for your Boyz!  Just like Orkimedes said.  If they DO survive, blow the Tau to bits at close range... Tank Shock, Skorchas, anything fun like that.  Put a StikkBomb Chucka on the BW for extra Tank Shock Action!

Good luck, you'll get 'em next time,
Sol

[BLAH!]

Yeah, you should win if you get a better tactic than just charging. They have too many ordenance weapons and the extra 6" on their guns helps their shooty ness.

[Orkemedies]

The biggest thing to remember is what I like to call plugging the gaps. Shooty armies rely on several factors for victory, one of which is control of firing lines and positions. Terrain naturally blocks line of site and players normally face the problem of balancing the need for firing lines with the placement of cover for thier own troops. So use the existing terrain with the vehicles that you have.

Use vehicles to fill the gaps in the terrain that your opponent can shoot though, even if your vehicles are destroyed this then still gives you total cover to move behind and set up an assault from. Weathering one turn of fire if your lucky is well better than your boys taking 3 or 4. This is also one of the best possible situations to use stormboyz in. Use their extra movement and possible 24" charge (with the character) to tie up a few units from shooting while your other boyz pull up to reinforce.

[Nuclearfeet]

KoS works wonders against Tau.  Seriously.

[Dr. Ravingburger]

If you can, use your vehicles as sheilds. They are harder to take out then boyz, and if taken out, the boyz behind them have cover. Or, use Grotz or Warbikes for the cover save.

[Stu35]

One sneaky tactic that i employed once was having 3 trukk mobs in their trukks, while having three units of 10 boys in my army as troops choices...

i made a big deal about sneakily telling my mate (not opponent) that i was deploying my mobs away from my trukks, and attempting to lure him to shoot at my trukks (and thus waste 3 units worth of fire in an army that only had about 6-7 units - he prefers large amounts of firepower in large units, rather than large amounts of small units), naturally i got my mate to reveal this to my opponent just to make sure he knew that was my "plan".

Anyway, i distracted him just enough during deployment so that he thought i had deployed the boys and trukks as one (i hadn't, i deployed the boys as my last 3 troops choices, then my 3 trukks as fast attack), so anyway, he falls for it, ignoring my useless unupgraded trukks (that boosted right next to his battleline), in his first shooty phase, so naturally, next turn i unload and assault (he got pissed off, demanded to see my army list, insisted that you can't assault on the same turn you disembark (after showing him the open-topped exception, he caved), anyway, those 27 Orks and 3 nobs managed to tear their way through his entire army on their own.


Still, its a risky strategy that could fail miserably if your opponent is not convinced(i.e. pays attention when you're deploying)/shoots your trukks anyway because they're targets... also, you can't really use it more than once.

Still, it was a laugh.


Other than that, i recommend using a Kult Of Speed, i once tried deploying 3 units of 5 Warbikes, but they got the amphetamine parrote shot out of them very quickly, they did soak up three units worth of fire, but still failled in their role of giving cover to the following orks long enough to make a difference.

I have attempted on numerous occasions to overcome using large mobs of boys (3 units of 30 sluggas, as well as 3 units of 30 Grots), and that still got massacred before i could get within killing distance.

I play against a Tau opponent reguarly, and, with the exception of KoS, Orks are just not cut out for killing them... we die too quickly however, after some reviewing of this board, my next time out i'm going to try something insane, and probably impossible - out shooting a tau army with Orks...  i know it sounds dumb, but i'm going to get a large number of shoota boys as well as flash gits, and simply try to blow the hell out of him by having more guns than him (i doubt it'll work, but you gotta experiment).

[darkhand]

One sneaky tactic that i employed once was having 3 trukk mobs in their trukks, while having three units of 10 boys in my army as troops choices...

i made a big deal about sneakily telling my mate (not opponent) that i was deploying my mobs away from my trukks, and attempting to lure him to shoot at my trukks (and thus waste 3 units worth of fire in an army that only had about 6-7 units - he prefers large amounts of firepower in large units, rather than large amounts of small units), naturally i got my mate to reveal this to my opponent just to make sure he knew that was my "plan".

Anyway, i distracted him just enough during deployment so that he thought i had deployed the boys and trukks as one (i hadn't, i deployed the boys as my last 3 troops choices, then my 3 trukks as fast attack), so anyway, he falls for it, ignoring my useless unupgraded trukks (that boosted right next to his battleline), in his first shooty phase, so naturally, next turn i unload and assault (he got pissed off, demanded to see my army list, insisted that you can't assault on the same turn you disembark (after showing him the open-topped exception, he caved), anyway, those 27 Orks and 3 nobs managed to tear their way through his entire army on their own.


Still, its a risky strategy that could fail miserably if your opponent is not convinced(i.e. pays attention when you're deploying)/shoots your trukks anyway because they're targets... also, you can't really use it more than once.

Still, it was a laugh.


Other than that, i recommend using a Kult Of Speed, i once tried deploying 3 units of 5 Warbikes, but they got the amphetamine parrakeete shot out of them very quickly, they did soak up three units worth of fire, but still failled in their role of giving cover to the following orks long enough to make a difference.

I have attempted on numerous occasions to overcome using large mobs of boys (3 units of 30 sluggas, as well as 3 units of 30 Grots), and that still got massacred before i could get within killing distance.

I play against a Tau opponent reguarly, and, with the exception of KoS, Orks are just not cut out for killing them... we die too quickly however, after some reviewing of this board, my next time out i'm going to try something insane, and probably impossible - out shooting a tau army with Orks...  i know it sounds dumb, but i'm going to get a large number of shoota boys as well as flash gits, and simply try to blow the hell out of him by having more guns than him (i doubt it'll work, but you gotta experiment).

A very kunning strategy, but it would only ever work once and wouldnt gain you any friends. Theres no real rule about revealing whats in transports, but i always do it anyway- it doesnt particularly disadvantage me and keeps my games friendly and informal.

[Stu35]

and wouldnt gain you any friends.

True, but he was already my friend, and he laughed with me.


I suppose it might seriously piss some people off though.

Theres no real rule about revealing whats in transports, but i always do it anyway- it doesnt particularly disadvantage me and keeps my games friendly and informal.

Normally so do i, it was just this one instance.

(Just want to make it clear that i'm not a complete tool)

[CaramelThunder]

My group has an unspoken rule. You don't have to reveal what's in a vehicle unless you're asked. But if you're asked what's in your vehicles you must say it.

[canadianmoose]

if u really want to try to outshoot tau, u could take a amphetamine parrotload of buggies, i know they would die easilaly, but AP 4 schorchas woulding on a 2+ rape those Fire Warriors, and st.8 AP3 rokkits can insta kill crisis battlesuits. Just some food for thought.

[ElPhantasmo]

My advice is this: try to work with psychology.

The first part is to guide him to more suitable targets. Run some big, scary mobs of Slugga Boyz at him. Make them extra extra scary - maybe consider buying a box of Fire Warriors and scattering the bitz around the Orks' feet. Play up how badly they will tear up his army when they assault. Name the mobs. Name the Nobz. Generally make him want to pour all his fire into them.

Put the Warboss and Nobz into the battlewagon with the Mekboy. Give the Mekboy a kustom force field to make the battlewagon tougher. Drive the battlewagon toward his army and emphasize how badly the Boss and his Nobz will stomp him in close combat.

Also use a looted Basilisk; all players tend to react badly to ordnance templates, particularly when they're coming from behind a hill where they can't return fire. Make sure you hide it in terrain. Try to hit battlesuits with it, which will both irritate the enemy and eliminate some of the more difficult targets for you.

Then run some Trukkboyz - two or three full trukks - through the terrain at top speed. Remember that you can change directions, so wind through the terrain and make sure he can't get LOS on the trukks. Don't make a big deal out of them. Subtly plan it out so that the turn you drive out of cover is the turn you launch ten angry Orks into the Fire Warriors... but play it cool so he doesn't catch on. Act surprised when the Orks tear straight through all 48 Fire Warriors; remember that you can consolidate out of one combat right into another.

Charge the Broadsides and Crisis suits with some Orks as well - you'll rip them apart too. Remember that they only get a 4+ save against choppas. If any Orks from the big mobs survived the rush at him, use them to kill Kroot or battlesuits.

The emphasis here is on getting the Orks into close combat. Once that happens, the rest will take care of itself.

[Boss Hussar]

Would the well loved skorcha wartrakk work? It is great versus infantry but those pulse weapons are nasty... Then again if he wastes a round of shooting on a 45ish point vehicle. And the Wartrakk has another secret bonus. It's open topped.

IF (big big IF) you can get close the chance for the explosion to blast his infantry is rather great.

What is Tau Fire Warrior armor anyway?

[canadianmoose]

4+

[Boss Hussar]

Perfect, that means Skrochas just make it.