Warhammer 40K: Are T’au The Best Army To Kill Ghazghkull In Combat?

Can the T’au kill Ghazhkull in combat in… one round?

Ghazghkull Thraka is one of the most deadly close combat fighters in the galaxy. The T’au Empire are notoriously bad at close combat. You would think that T’au would never want to get close to Ghaz. However some new tricks in their book might actually make them the best way to take down the big green boss. Let’s take a look at that.

How Hard To Kill Is Ghazghkull?

Ghazhkull is of course an absolute beast in combat. He rocks an impressive stat line that not only means he can kill most things he touches but is pretty hard to kill. T7, 12 wound and a 2+ is already up there with most tanks. Just with that alone he’d be no easy target. However his rule Prophet of Gork and Mork really turns things up to 11.

A 4++ save puts him right up there with the most hard to kill things in the game. But the real kicker is that he can only lose a maximum of 4 wounds in each phase. End of the day that means, no matter how absolutely badass you are, if Ghaz has 5 or more wounds, you aren’t killing him in one round of combat. At least that was true – till now.

Can T’au Put Out Some Combat Damage

T’au are not normally known for their close combat ability. Indeed for the average T’au their melee rules just read “don’t”. But the new codex does have some tricks in it to make one or two decent fighters. One of the best options they have is the Onager Gauntlet relic. This bad boy goes onto a Battlesuit and gives them a nasty punch. S12, Ap -4, D3 might not be super impressive to some armies, but for T’au its worlds above what they are used to. With this you can have a T’au Battlesuit hit like… well like an Imperial Battlesuit.

Plop this on the hand of any Battlesuit Commander, Thanos inspired paint job is optional, and you’ve got a decent combat platform. With 4 attacks at WS 3+ they can technically put out 12 damage in a turn. Of course they get a ton of shots and with luck you’ll have weakened Ghaz with gun fire. But even if you didn’t 12 damage is enough to take him down. Or it would be if he didn’t limit the damage you could do.

Can T’au Beat Gork and Mork?

This brings us to the Farsight Enclave and their warlord trait. Master of the Killing Blow does two things. The first is on any attack if you roll a 6 to wound you get an extra 3 points of AP. While this will take your Onager Gauntlet to a hilariously lethal AP -7, thats not what we are really here for. The second part of the rule states that the model the attack is allocated to cannot use any rules to ignore the wound it loses.

The Debate

Now this is where some debate comes in, as that rule is a little confusing. What exactly is a rule that ignore wounds? It seems clear that the model would still get armor saves and invulnerable saves, as saves are made before wounds are inflicted. On the other hand it seems that Feel No Pain type rules don’t work against this as they let you ignore wounds after they are already taken. Rules that reduce the damage of attacks also seem to work vs the trait as you determine damage first then deal wounds.

So what about Gork and Mork. Gork and Mork says he can only lose a max of 4 wounds a turn, but it triggers after wounds are done, not before. Does this count as ignoring wounds? To my mind: yes. This is a clear case of ignoring wounds. Wounds are done to Ghaz and then vanish. I don’t know what else you can call it but them being ignored. Many people agree with this.

Other people argue that it doesn’t work vs Ghaz because his rule doesn’t specifically say he ignore those wounds. The argument seems to be he still takes the wounds, and doesn’t ignore them, but someone just doesn’t lose them. Wounds are done, but not ignored. I think some of this comes down to people thinking that it only works on FNP rules. If I had to guess it’s because they remember old FNP rules, like the Ulthwe rule above, that actually says “the wound is ignored”.

However newer FNP rules, like the Iron Hands rule, have removed that wording. They no longer specifically say the wound is ignored. So by this logic the T’au rule wouldn’t work vs Iron Hands, or effectively really anything. But it is a debate.

Killing Ghaz

Assuming Master of the Killing Blow Trumps Gork and Mork, which is should, we are now in business. With it a Tau suit commander can roll up to Big Green and do what no one else in the game can. Put 12 wounds on him in one round of combat and take him down. An impressive feat for a weak Tau. Of course this is very unlikely to happen. The Tau would have to hit and wound with everything, not impossible, but not super likely and Ghaz would have to fail four 4++ saves in a row, far less likely.

Luckily for, Master of the Killing Blow works for both shooting and combat. Given that Tau are much more deadly at range, the more likely situation is for one to run up and shoot Ghaz to death in a single round of fire. Ultimately the T’au FAQ should tell us one way or another if Ghaz needs to be really scared of T’au suits, but for now, that chance that T’au, alone of all the races of the galaxy can punch Ghaz to death in one fight phase.. is kind of cool. 

Let us know what you think about this trick, down in the comments!

Author: Abe Apfel

Abe is that rare thing, an Austin local born and raised here. Though he keeps on moving around, DC, Japan, ETC., he always seems to find his way back eventually. Abe has decades of experience with a wide range of tabletop and RPG games, from historicals, to Star Wars to D&D and 40K. He has been contributing to BOLS since almost the start, back when he worked at and then owned a local gaming store. He used to be big into the competitive Warhammer tournament scene but age has mellowed him and he now appreciates a good casual match. He currently covers 40K tactics and lore, as well as all things Star Wars, with occasional dabbling in other topics. Abe remains in mourning over the loss of WFB to this day.