1500 Points Tau vs Orks 6th Edition

I got together with my friend Lonnie last Friday to finally tryout the 6th edition 40K rules.  We have both been reading, studying, the rules for weeks but we never had the time to play.  We decided on a relatively small battle of 1500 points (this would turn out to be too big).  Lonnie dug out his Tau army, which as not been on the table for several years and I brought my Orks that I have been working on for the last couple of years.

I don't have the exact army lists but the Tau had lots of suits, a couple units of Fire Warriors, a killer HQ, a couple of rail gun suits and a Hammerhead with an Ion cannon (snicker).  I had a Warboss with a mod of Nobz riding in a Battlewagon with a zzap gun.  I had two large mobs of boyz with sluggas.  One large mod of 'ard boys with shootas and huge mob of lootas.  I also had three Killa Kans and a Deff Dred.  Numbers were some thing like 92 models for the Orks and 52 models for the Tau.

I manged to take a few picture with my phone and they kinda look like grainy satellite pictures.

The Ork Deployment.  On the extreme left is the Deff Dred and the Killa Kans supporting the shugga boyz.  Hext is the Warboss and Nobz in the Battlewagon.  Grouped around the sphinx are the lootas.  The extreme right are the 'ard boyz.

The Tau Depoyment.  Extreme right are the rail guns on top of the Imperial base.  Then there is a unit of Fire Warriors in the base compound.  In the gap between the base and the hiil there are more Fire Warriors and a unit of suits.  The hill is occupied by the Tau HQ - can't remember his name -with a retinue if suits and drones.  To the left of the HQ are even more Fire Warriors and another unit of suits.  Finally on the extreme right is the Hammerhead with the ion cannon (haha).

The Orks managed to seize the initiative and went first.  They moved up across the line with the exception of the lootas.

The Ork flanks ran while the center laid down a base of fire.  The lootas the Battlewagon  focused their fire on the Tau HQ on the hill.  They got some good hits and destroyed the drone triggering a morale check...which the Tau failed!  But the 3d6 fallback roll was 4"...damn!  They just missed running off the board on turn one.

The Tau sought revenge for the humiliation of their commander and fired on the Battlewagon with the rail guns.  Take a close look as this thing will not be around for long.

Tau left flank is secure...

...as is the right.

The 'ard boyz advance on the Tau left to engage the Fire warriors and the Hammerhead.  It wouldn't be until Saturday morning before I realized that this was a mistake.

Anyone seen my Battlewagon?  The explosion would cause a massive amount of damage to the unit of boyz on the hill to the left of the BW.  Turns out they took WAY ore than they should as I was using toughness 3 rather than 4 for my boyz...doh!

To make matters worse the Fire Warriors fired on the same unit of boyz, and I made the same toughness mistake, and killed 9 more.  I lost 14 boyz in one turn and they were in cover.  Ouch!

The battleline close in.  We both wanted to make sure we tried as many of the new rules and as many situation as possible so we basically went full bore at each other.

In the face of the advancing Orks the Tau desperately try to get to the battlements!

And they make it!  This will make things tougher for me.

I have already lost two of the Kans but the third one and the Deff Dred make their assaults.  The overwatch fire is going to be fun, that Kan has already lost a hull point.

Meanwhile, back in the center the HQs prepare to face off.  The Tau have already had a health dose of loota luvin and are down to just the dude with one wound left.  The rest of the suits are gone.

The Ork right is looking bad.  Why did I send these guys over this hill?  Anyway, the Tau are setting me up for the coupe deville or something.  Whatever it is it will not be good.  Pay no attention to my dice in the corner, my rolling was no near as good as Lonnie would have you believe.

Can you say Challenge?  The Shazzy dude thought be could take a Warboss in a challenge in one turn.  HA HA, like that will happen!

OK, so the overwatch shots took out the last Killa Kan.  It is still good, no way he can take that Dred out so I still have a chance.

The Tau got really sneaky on the right.  The did a Hammerhead shock against the 'ard boyz  (ya know, cuz he brough and ion cannon, ha) and managed to get them to fall back.  Then those damn suits open fire and kill out the rokkit launcha and the big shoota.  The unit is now below 5 models and can't regroup.  Bastard!

After the Warboss put the smackdown on the Tau dude a huge gap formed in the Tau lines.  At this point the Warboss chose to go right towards the Hammerhead but probably should have gone left to have lunch with the Fire Warriors.

The Dred is still fighting but what is taking those boyz so long?

Where'd everybody go?  One turn of Fire Warrior shooting from two units blunted the boyz attack.

The Warboss makes it to the Hammerhead and punches the crap out of it but it would end up costing him all the Nobz as well as his own life.  Not a good trade.

Only two lootas left and about 14 Tau.  This is what 6 turns looks like.  The End.

That was a mammoth game!  We played for 6 hours to get through 6 turns.  Of course this was due to having to look up things every turn.  It is really important to not assume you know how something works.  If you have been playing lots of 5th edition it is amazing how much of it will filter back into your games.

I have a great time and I can't wait to get in more games.  So far I really like the new rules.  Lootas in 6th edition are stellar!  They were mu MVP unit and the Tau learned to respect them.  Now if I can just cut the game time in half I will really be onto something.