And when the Tau went down, they went down hard!
Tau are really tough for Orks, maybe their worst match-up for many lists. I have always struggled against them with my Greenskins. In the past I always ran Trukk Orks and if I went first, I’d win as I had most of my army on them turn 1. If I went second, I’d get owned as everything was dead in my deployment zone before moving unless I could use some serious trickery and play to objectives. This edition I have struggled with Tau even if I went first! It felt like it had gotten even harder to do.
However, I finally took the Tau down. It was a solid list, but my opponent made a few mistakes that cost him dearly. Also, I didn’t face Missilesides which are the poor Orks worst nightmare.
At any rate, here is the list I played. A single Ork C.A.D. list.
| Orks | 1850 Pts | ||
| Unit | Description | Size | Cost |
| HQ | |||
| Warboss | Klaw, Da Finkin Kap, Bike | 1 | 120 |
| Painboy | Bike | 1 | 75 |
| Troops | |||
| Slugga Boyz | Nob, Klaw, Pole | 30 | 220 |
| Slugga Boyz | Nob, Klaw, Pole | 30 | 220 |
| Elites | |||
| Meganobz | Skorcha x 2 | 3 | 130 |
| Trukk | Ram | 1 | 35 |
| Meganobz | Skorcha x 2 | 3 | 130 |
| Trukk | Ram | 1 | 35 |
| Fast Attack | |||
| Warbikers | Nob, Klaw, Pole | 15 | 310 |
| Heavy Support | |||
| Lobbas | Ammo Runts x 5 | 15 | 105 |
| Lootas | None | 15 | 210 |
| Lootas | None | 15 | 210 |
| Fortifications | |||
| Aegis | None | 1 | 50 |
| Totals | 131 | 1850 |
My opponent was playing Farsight Tau. He had:
Farsight with 3 Crisis with dual Plasma
Suit Commander with Fusion Blades, Drone Controler, Fusion Gun, Fearless Warlord Trait and 10 Gun Drones.
Crisis Suits x 3: Two Missiles Each, Drones
Crisis Suits x 3: Two Missiles Each, Drones
Crisis Suits x 3: Plasma x 2 Each, Drones
Riptide: FnP, Bust Cannon, SMS
Riptide: FnP, Bust Cannon, SMS
Riptide: Earth Caste, Ion, SMS
The list above is from memory, might not be laser accurate, but it gives you a good idea. Mobile firepower is rough on the ‘Ole Orks, and this would be no different.
So, for my Warlord Traits, I got Infiltrate 3 units, which is incredible for Orks, and I got -1 to my enemy’s reserves, which would turn out to be really good. We were playing Emperor’s Will with Dawn of War deployment. My opponent won the turn to go first, but gave it to me which turned out to be a big mistake. He counter-deployed my Lootas and Lobbas well, going into a corner away from them to take most of them out of range. However, when I infiltrated 60 Boyz and 15 Warbikers I had him cornered. Going first, I was able to close in on him, guaranteeing a turn 2 charge and leaving him nowhere to run. He fell back shooting and blocked me off from one of the Riptides but all it did was delay the inevitable. The Bikers and Boyz took down all three Riptides, and kept them tied up n combat where they weren’t shooting most of the game.
However, Fear is BRUTAL against Orks. My goodness, it is punishing. With Ld7, you fail the stupid check a ton and going down to WS1 means you hit on 5’s instead of 3’ which cuts your average number of hits in half. It also means the Riptide (and many MCs) will be hitting you on 3’s. I was actually losing combat with 30 Boyz against a single Riptide?!?! Very, very frustrating, a mob of 30 Boyz should not be taking Fear checks. But the Boyz did get it done and eventually cut the Riptides down, also taking the Tau Emperor’s Will objective.
I was very impressed with the Warbikers. That unit puts out stupid firepower. 45 Twin-linked Strength 5, ap5 shots at 18″ range on a bike model that is resilient and fast is brutal. They were pulverizing whatever they shot at. With a Painboy on a bike, they were also very resilient, too. Their assault power was pretty lack-luster, though, and I feel that that is not playing to their strength. Going forward, running them as a pure shooting unit is a better bet, IMO. Plus, the unit looks awesome!
The Meganobz in Trukks were solid performers as always. They are just plain good. Cheap, hit hard, fun, great models. I dig em. One unit got shot to bits but they soaked a lot of attention, much more than their points cost would justify if they didn’t hit so hard. The other unit I kept back to defend my Emperor’s Will objective and shooty units. They earned their Teef, killing Farsight and his unit in a tough fight leaving just a single Meganob with a single wound left!
The deep-striking suits were a big threat but with my Warlord trait giving him -1 to reserves, only one unit came in a turn until turn 4, when the game was already over.
So, this game gave me a needed morale boost, and I learned a lot. As always, the trouble with Orks is leadership. You HAVE to have a way to mitigate Mob Rule in some way, even if that is just to flood the field with Boyz to compensate for Orks that fall apart on you. Mad Dok, the new Grukk, Zagstruck, the Big Boss Pole, even just adding a Big Mek for better leadership, etc. are all going to be critically important to keeping your Boyz doing what you want them to do and not beating the shit out of one another or running away in fear when you need to be krumpin the other guy!
Im glad the greenskins are comming along I love the two MaNz missiles there, they are very good.
Yeah, fast, cheap, hard hitting. Can’t complain about them at all.
Good for you! What does Grukk do? Are his rules in the new Stormclaw box?
He is about the ONLY decent thing in the Stormclaw box.
He comes with the Bellowing Tyrant warlord trait giving you a 12″ morale & pinning re-roll bubble. Crucial.
He also has FNP
He is equipped with a Power Klaw that has Shred, a Kombi-Rokkit Shoota, ‘Eavy armour, Attack Squig, Bosspole and Stikkbomz.
Not baaad. Not having Mega armour or a Bike makes him awkward to deploy though.
I guess plunk him down in a big mob?
Sounds decent, depending on how much he costs. Do you know? I’ll probably still go for Grotsnik and a Warboss with the Big Bosspole but another decent option doesn’t hurt.
He costs the same as 2 x Stormboss Zagstruk.
Just slightly more than a similarly equipped Warboss, which should account for the FNP and Shred on his Klaw.
I’m thinking Grukk & Grotsnik for my Primary CAD. Grukk’s LD re-rolls and Grotsnik’s Fearless should cover any morale issues.
You know you can only use the Big Bosspole on HQ selections using the Great Waaagh! Detachment and formations from the Waaagh! Ghazghkull book, right?
That Tau list is super lame and unimaginative…Sorry to whoever you are! Maybe branch out a little?
It’s a themed Farsight all Suit list, so it does have a basis in the fluff.
It is really powerful, either way, and intimidating to fight. Those Riptides are savage.
One man’s boring is another man’s fluffy.
Dat roller coaster !!!
Who doesn’t like roller coasters?! =P
Congrats on the victory, Reece!
I’m really liking your list. It seems to cover most of the bases, except maybe mass AV14 punching, but I’ll be damned if I know how da Boyz are supposed to address that. Maybe Killsaws on the Meganobz missiles?
Anyhoo, since you’ve been trying out the Warbikers what are your thoughts on them vs. Nobz Bikerz? For the same price you could have half as many Nobz who have more assault potential. Good tradeoff? Or are bikerz just better for their massed dakka?
I’m just trying to figure out what the zog to do with 40+ Nobz (more now thanks to Stormclaw). I don’t know how to field them now that they’re not Troops and Meganobz are better.
Thank you, sir! And yeah, Warbikers are pretty bad ass. They shoot like crazy for a really low price point, and are quite durable.
As for Nob bikers, they are so expensive now (45pts per model, yikes!) but they can hit really hard. If I were to run them, it would be a small unit designed to go hunt things in assault, like a MANz missile. Maybe 3-5 models, max, kitted for maximum carnage.
Nobz themselves I would throw into a Battlewagon. They would go great with Grukk. But yeah, they do struggle a bit. I have actually been thinking about a Ghaz supplement Ork list with 2 minimum units of Grots (as they don’t have ObSec, so who cares about troops?) and maxing out on Elites. As you can take 5, that gives you a lot of room for things like Nobz, Tankbustas, etc.
As for AV14, I always use Klaws for that. With Furious Charge, you get a lot of Str9 Ap2 attacks, that usually gets it done for me.
Perhaps 2 units of Fire Warriors in Devil Fish might find their way back into Farsight lists. 48 S5 AP5 shots and a taste of SMS…? All suit lists are not as well suited for horde lists, are they?
Yeah, that is a good suggestion. He should have started his suits on the board, he would have done great had he done that. But, like you said, they simply lack the shots to deal with massed bodies.
grats on the victory meng, how was the infiltrate possible? is that a new warlord I know nothing about because it sounds crucial as hell
Thanks and yeah, number 3 on Strategic is ridonculous! You infiltrate your warlord plus 3 non-vehicle units. So stupidly good. That is why I like Da Finkin Kap, gives you 1 extra Strategic Trait, plus you can roll your normal Warlord Trait on the table with a reroll, gives you 3 chances at getting it, or basically 50% odds.
Just had a 1850 tournament yesterday with 16 players. Fairly strong competition, one multiple GT winner. Top 3 spots went to 6×10 Ard Boyz in trukks with Infiltrating Nob Bikers due to FW Bike Boss and 2×5 Warbikes, two Green Tides got 2nd and 3rd. We played missions identical or very similar to BAO format.
The caveat is all 3 Orks lists on tables 1, 2 and 3 went first without being seized on in The Relic as primary, all Infiltrating because of the Strategic trait which I think the 2 Green Tide lists get about 60% of the time with rerolling 2 traits from Da Finkin Kap.
I was on table 2 and I rolled the same warlord trait but lost the roll off for infiltrating. If I had made it my 20 guardians would have pushed the Tide waaaaaaaaaay back. Firebase whiffed it’s only salvo and the game was basically over.
Good times and it was cool to see unusual Ork lists doing well. 2 sets of Traktor cannons had some Daemon Princes refusing to go into Swooping mode lol
Awesome to hear Orks doing so well, that’s great! And yeah, Traktor Kannons own flyers, like, ridiculously so.
The Green Tide Formation can’t take Da Finkin Kap, they can only take Ghaz Supplement Relics. But, if they had an attached character with it, that works, but then they wouldn’t be able to WAAGH!! every turn.
Exactly. Usually one charge is ask you need but you do sacrifice a little
For sure, typically you have one big push with Orks. Although, I have been thinking about trying a Warlord that can WAAGH!! every turn with 3 dakkajets, that would be good fun!
I am very happy to hear about a Trukk Ork player doing well. I was hesitant to run all Eavy Armor as it is so expensive and it only reduces the damage taken from an exploding Trukk from 5 casualties to 3. On average dice, you still take a pin and morale check, although, it does mitigate the damage from Mob Rule a lot.
” … and not beating the shit out of one another or running away in fear when you need to be krumpin the other guy!”
This made me laugh. Thank you.
If they riptides ws 2 and your 1 you hit on 4’s.
True story, I forgot they were WS2, I was playing them as 3. Doh!
Reece is a cheater!
Good job Reece! Now with your newfound confidence are you ready to face the Red Tide!!
Bring it, son! Your list is so hard for Orks, it will be good practice.
I played 2 games with a toned down list (1500 points), one vs Tyranids, the other vs Tau. Vs tau it all worked out as promissed, but vs Tyranids I came up with the issue that you cant charge turn 1 if you infiltrate (a thing I learned has changed in 7th ed during the game)
Still won that game but I lost one of my squads of boys for not being able to charge