Commander Or'es'Ka

A Tau Willing to Scorch the Earth to Win.

A massive asshole, but a man willing to do anything to get shit done, Shas'O Or'es'Ka is the Tau equivalent of that asshole who brings 30 Deathstrikes to an Apocalypse game or 60 shield drones and triptide to a friendly game. The Tau commander of Dawn of War: Soulstorm, Or'es'Ka is known for openly espousing the use of WMDs to achieve an objective, something he purportedly learned from the Imperium of Man, and plans to use Kaurava to show off what this new strategy (translated from Tau moonspeak as "Great Strength, Great Strike"), differing from the Mont'ka, Kauyon and Monat tactics, can do.

Whereas his predecessor, Shas'o Kais, tends to give a surrender ultimatum before attacking, Or'es'Ka prefers to lead off by orbital striking a population center, then threatening that his forces will cheerfully pound their area until it resembles the results of a protracted cyclonic torpedo bombing if they fail to see the wisdom of the Greater Good. To further this objective, his forces created a massive orbital ion cannon on one of Kaurava's moons and use it to airstrike their enemies before every attack.

What a dick. A badass dick, but a dick nonetheless.

Service

Or'es'Ka led his forces from Orridune/Nan'Yanoi, the second moon of Kaurava II, where he had built a bigass gun called the Ar'Ka Cannon, his system-wide Death Star analogue, and began using it to orbital strike the ever-living fuck out of the (likely fake) Gorgutz' Orks and the Space Marines under Indrick Boreale. He also went after the Kauravan Imperial Guard forces, dealing massive damage to all involved.

Given the widely-held assumption of an Imperial Guard victory in Soulstorm, Or'es'Ka ultimately was forced out of the Kaurava system by a very angry and very well-equipped Vance Motherfucking Stubbs. Stubbs used a Vindicare Assassin to kill the Ethereal Aun'Ro'Yr, which predictably threw the Tau forces into disarray and essentially guaranteed that Or'es'Ka's new tactic of nuking the shit out of anyone who pissed you off wouldn't have much of a chance to catch on with Tau high command. Although, if he did enough damage with his strategy it might be implemented in a supporting or spearhead role. The killing blow is a lot more killey when delivered with a WMD.

While it's never stated directly either way, it is implied Or'es'Ka survived his defeat, and may yet return, but considering the emotional breakdown he had as opposed to Kais' cold neutrality, it's unlikely. Still, if he does return, lulz and Exterminatus are sure to follow.

It has been revealed that Gorgutz actually won the campaign, and if the winning video is to be believed, by outshooting the Tau. Clearly, no little amount of therapy will cure him of such a devestating and humiliating loss. Most fans ignore this and assume the Guard, in possession of the planet’s continent-sized Baneblade factory from the Great Crusade, kicked the fuck out of everyone.

Statistics

Or'es'Ka is a tough son of a bitch. He's not quite as durable as Shas'o Kais, as his shield generator provides the same HP boost as Kais' iridium armor, but provides a unilateral 33% defense bonus to ranged fire, unlike Kais' general 33% defense bonus. Or'es'Ka lacks the HP boost of Kais' helmet, as well. However, unlike Kais, Or'es'ka's damage output is substantially higher—his multi-tracker wargear instead gives his weapons a meaty damage bonus. The two are otherwise very similar; their ranged weapons have the exact same damage, ranges, and pre-upgrade firepower, both get jetpacks, both get stealth fields, and both get shield drones. However, unlike Kais, who gets battle drones, Or'es'ka gets marker drones that further boost his accuracy, functionally giving all of his weapons 100% hit rates, and ensuring he cannot miss with his cyclic ion blaster or missile pods, making him death incarnate for unprepared foes. So while he is much less survivable than Shas'o Kais, the sheer damage output he has more than makes up for this.

Tabletop

To complete the symmetry with Shas'O Kais, here's a tabletop version of Commander Or'es'Ka.

As you can no doubt tell he is a hell of a lot more destructive than Kais, while being a fair bit squishier. Overall worse saves with lower Toughness and Wounds, he's not going to hang around as much.

However at the head of a properly prepared army he can straight up annihilate any opponent with his warlord trait to deliver the alpha strike of alpha strikes, by buffing certain weapons to the stratosphere.

HQ: Shas’O Or'es'Ka - 150 points

The test of a leader, is in battle!

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Name	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	Ld	Sv
Shas'O Or'es'Ka	4	5	4	3	3	4	5	10	3+

Unit Composition: Shas'O Or'es'Ka

Unit Type: Jet-Pack Infantry (Or'es'Ka is an Independent Character)

Wargear (Shas'O Or'es'Ka): XV-2-09 Surge Stealth Battlesuit, Multi-Tracker, Blacksun Filter, Cyclic Ion Blaster, Twin-Linked Flamer, Burst Cannon, Vectored Retro Thrusters

• Advanced Impulse Module - This piece of Wargear gives the model's Melee attacks the Rending USR.

Signature System: XV-2-5'9 Surge Stealth Battlesuit Aggressive, destructive Fluff This specialised suit grants +1 Init, +1 Attack, an Advanced Impulse Module, and the Fleet USR.

Special Rules: Supporting Fire, Independent Character (Or'es'Ka), Very Bulky (Or'es'Ka), Shrouded (Or'es'Ka)

Warlord Trait: Scorched Earth Agressive, destructive, Fluff Once per Game Shas'O Or'es'Ka can grant all Template and Blast weapons, and Seeker Missile attacks the Twin-Linked, and Rending USR's. This Warlord traits must be activated at the beginning of the controlling players movement phase, and lasts until the controlling players next movement phase.

Options:

• Shas’O Or'es'Ka may purchase up to 2 Drones for the following costs

• - Shield Drones 12 Points/Drone
• - Gun Drones 12 Points/Drone
• - Marker Drones for 12 Points/Drone
• - Missile Drones 12 Points/Drone
• - Heavy Gun Drones 25 Points/Drone

Tabletop (8E)

Shas'O Or'es'Ka

HQ: Shas'O Or'es'Ka - XXX Points

Name	M	WS	BS	S	T	W	A	Ld	Sv
Shas'O Or'es'Ka	8"	3+	2+	5	5	6	4	9	3+

Unit Composition: Shas'O Or'es'Ka is a single model equipped with a Burst Cannon, a Cyclic Ion Blaster, 2 Flamers, and an Advanced Targeting System.

Weapons

Name	Range	Type	S	AP	D	Abilities
Burst Cannon	18"	Assault 4	5	0	1	---
Cyclic Ion Blaster (Standard)	18"	Assault 1	7	-1	D3	---
Cyclic Ion Blaster (Overcharge)	18"	Assault 1D3	8	-1	1D3	---
Flamer	8"	Assault 1D6	4	0	1	This weapon hits automatically

Abilities

• For The Greater Good: Index - Xenos 2 (page 48)
• Overwhelming Force: Whenever this model ends a charge with 1" of an enemy unit roll a D6. On a 6 the enemy unit suffers D3 Mortal wounds.
• Advanced Targeting System:
• Advanced Impulse Module: Whenever this model rolls to hit in the fight phase, on a 6+ it deals an additional mortal wound.
• Camouflage Field: Your opponent must subtract 1 from all hit rolls that target Shas'O Or'es'Ka
• Manta Strike: Index - Xenos 2 (page 50)

Faction Keywords

• T'au Empire, T'au Sept

Keywords (Shas'O Or'es'Ka)

• Battlesuit, Character, Commander, Jet-Pack, Fly, Shas'O Or'es'Ka

Heroes of the Greater Good
Ethereals:	Aun'Shi - Aun'Va
Fire Caste:	Commander Farsight - Commander Puretide Commander Shadowsun - El'Myamoto Longstrike
Dawn of War:	Shas'O Or'es'Ka - Shas'O Kais