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I'm new to 40k. I've been reading as much as I can, and am interested in the Orks for fluff/aesthetics, but of all the armies I've looked over, information on them seems like the most conflicting from post to post. I've read plenty of posts where Orks are listed as an army having one of the funnest playstyles, which I know is a totally subjective opinion, but I think they come up more than any other faction in those kinds of threads.

However, there are never any real lists included in those sorts of posts. And there don't seem to be tons of lists up in the lists sections, and ones that do have very few posts, or ones basically saying any possible choice is completely awful, and that Orks are just a horribly weak army that are only fun for your opponent.

In example: I find tons of posts saying to bring boys, cause you need tons as an Ork player, in huge mobs. Then people say huge footslog large boy mobs are terrible because you die and need transport. Then they say their transport is horrible because it gets blown up turn one and you have no army left, and various other posts of similar nature, lamenting the worthlessness of nearly every Ork unit choice. So I'm just kind of confused as to what you actually bring to the table, and what makes Orks tons of fun to play if 99% of their units are complete crap.

I'm not looking to be competitive, go to tournaments, or anything like that, but it probably isn't very fun to be tabled 90% of the time without putting up a fight. So I was wondering if any Ork players could give me the lowdown on them, and what a starting point would actually look like for them,

Thanks.

a list that works well for me for quick friendly battles (650pts). uses ghazzy's supplement so only 2 troops needed

warboss in mega armor
mek
16 boys (1 boy big shoota)
this all in a battlewagon with red paint job and 2 big shootas and riggers

10 gretchin for objective holding in own deployment zone

10 tankbustas in a trukk (with ram and red paint job)
2 squads of 1 deffkopta (don't fight with them, only for objective grabbing and some twin linked rokkit shooting)

2 lobbas

This was a quick list from the top of my head, but i think it's allmost correct.

it's fun to play cause it's a fast to move list, and your infantry can shoot and is protected. The tankbustas are a nasty surprise and the lobbas allways make up their points.

I like Orks and have pretty good luck with them. My list is usually around 60 boys broken up into groups always with nobs with klaws in each group. Then for HQ I take a warboss and pain boy. Sometimes I will toy with a KFF big mech if it seems right. Then I just fill in with stuff I want to try. Sometimes I use vehicles, Meganobs, planes and lootas, defdread and kans,, etc...my mood and what I played last week decides. I try to bring something different to the shop each week to mix it up a bit and to encourage me to keep painting different things. But the 60 some odd boy list with a boss is usually the "starting point".

Just take a balanced army and you'll do fine against all but the most competitive players.

My typical 1500 pts looks something like:

-Warboss with PowerKlaw, Eavy Armor and Bosspole
-Painboss
-10 Tankbustaz (usually mounted in the Battlewagon)
-10 Kommandos w/ 2 burnas
-20 Grots
-20 Sluggas w/ 2 rokkits and Nob with PK and bosspole
-20 Sluggas w/ 2 rokkits and Nob w/ bosspole
-20 Shootas w/ 2 Big shootas and Nob w/ TL Shoota and Bosspole
-12 Sluggas in a Trukk w/ rokkit and Nob w/ PK and Bosspole
-Deffdread
-Battlewagon w/ 3 rokkits
-6 Bikes w Nob w/ Bosspole

I find it has the numbers to soak up most anything and is versatile enough to deal with most threats. Just ignore anything that's too hard to kill, or tie it up if you need to. Swamp objectives and kill in the assault phase.

it's good fun.

I've only been playing 7th edition for a few months and I didn't play 6th, but I have nearly 20 years of Ork experience through various editions and they are never terrible.

Orks are a pretty balanced codex now, with few wildly unviable things. The best advice I can give is choose a theme and stick with it, because orks are the type of army that needs to reach the enemy lines all at once, waves of orks are fairly easy to repel.

Thanks for the replies everyone.

I really like the look of all the models in the mekmob box. Would it be possible to start up a balanced enough army with the models from two of the mekmob boxes and 6 killa kans? As far as I can tell, that would be around 1300+ possible points, depending on changes in upgrades and such, leaving me some points(and money) to fill in the other gaps.

I'm just not sure if I limit myself too much by taking two dredds and a squad of kans(this takes up all my heavy support choices, correct?), if a Battlewagon will be completely necessary for the meganobz unit, or whatever else. Also, the two trukks seem like they might get whatever is in them to the fight a bit too fast for the walkers to help, messing up the crucial timing everyone talks about. Unless they have a place in getting some troops to key places quickly to provide help/secure objectives.

So any chance you kind folks could give me a rough layout of the units I would be able to construct with those models, adding on what would be needed to round them out? Since I'm unsure of things like where to put the regular meks, or if it's gonna be acceptable to have meganobs walking it, etc.

Edit: Just occurred to me that everyone might not know exactly what's in the box, and looking it up would be a pain. The models in question would be something like this:

From two Mekmob boxes(at least I'm pretty sure I can get all this out of them):
-big mek in mega armor(thinking telly blasta and KFF) 150
-2x meks with grot oilers(maybe swapping out choppas for killsaws?) 100
-2x deffdreds (thinking rokkit launchas, grot riggers, and extra armor) 200
-2x trukks (no idea about upgrades for them) so 60+, depending on upgrades
-20x boyz (equipped whichever way is best is best to go with the rest of the army, as far as shooting or chopping, etc) 120+
-5x meganobs (unsure on upgrades) 200+

adding on:
-6x killa kans (rokkit launchas, grot riggers, extra armor) 420

And then whatever else might be needed to round them out, though I'd like to use as many of the models included in the box as is possible.

As far as a theme for my army, I guess it would be mek-themed with a lower model count, with some orks that think they're terminators, or something, getting in close and killing things with can-openers? I'm also a big fan of totally random "fun" sort of stuff, which makes me kind of sad that the big mek would be in mega armor, and not taking a shokk gun for table-rolling laughs. But I'm assuming he comes in that power armor by default in the model in the box, and my money is, unfortunately, not unlimited. So any of that that can be added in would be kind of neat, though it seems to me that the other main source of that would be mek guns, and I'm already at heavy support capacity, it would seem(and a unit of mek guns look like they would cost nearly as much as some small armies, in $$)

Instead of Killa Kans, I would recommend using Trukk Bitz and one box of mek guns to convert some of your own mek guns. There are instructions on a blog that I can't seem to find... It's something like watching paint dry or something like that.

I love the current codex. It's one of the most ballanced codexes so far. And it provides lots of decent options. You should look not in for lists, but for battle reports. People can theoryhammer a unit to be great and abyssmal at the same time. But you need real results to make up your mind.

As for me, i'm currently running:

Warboss [PK, Da Lukky Stix or Da Finking Kap, 'eavy armor]
Painboss
2 barebones meks to eat challenges
30 choppaboyz with a pk-bp nob
10-20 shootaboyz with a bosspole nob that sometimes has a PK (magnetized)
11-12 'ard boyz with a pk-bp nob in a truck - i'm planning to use meganobz later on
3-5 lobbas with ammo runts - those are absolutely amazing
0-2 Kustom mega kannons with ammo runts - they're fine for the cost

And for the leftover points i take either another shootaboy squad, 2*5 rokkin kommandoes or 10 stormboyz with a pk-bp nob

If you want to start an army, first you got to decide which path to take. Either you o speed freaky or footslogging. I've chosen footslogging. That's why i don't have bikes and wagons even though they're great units. But the thing is 1 wagon won't work. 2 will most likely fail either. But when you have 2 wagonz, bikes and some trucks, the enemy will just be unable to shoot them all down.

See what i mean? Orkses have 2 base principles: Timing and Chop the shooty - shoot the choppy. We're an army of bullies. And partially cause of this, it's always fun to play as an ork or against orks. This army needs you to be a real tactician to truly shine.

Oh, and don't take the internet rant too close to heart. More than half of doom-and-gloomers haven't actually played it on tabletop at all.

Value in any individual ork model is very poor. Lack of an invulnerable save in melee, lack of dependable shooting, and no transport that isn't flawed somehow. In the vacuum of the Internet any ork unit will be crushed by something.

Ork lists shine in quantities. It's not that you can turn flank on one BW and destroy it in a turn. It's that there are five of them with identical contents. I could mention any other example. Orkz need two CADs or more and several identical units.