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Hi everyone,

For the past 8 weeks or so, we've been playing in a Progressive League at Game Kastle in Fremont. It was our first league type experience - and we learned a huge amount.

We played most weeks with our Ork army - only a couple of times with Space Marines.

How did we do? Well, mostly we lost. But, we did have lots of fun - and we did learn a great deal about how to play.

What's odd is that we did our best in the middle games -- and did our worst during the final games.

Toward the end, we got into a number of conversations about "More Boyz - Less Toyz" -- and this really did seem to be the way we should learn to play Orks. In a 2500 point battle we had things like a Stompa and Morkanaut and such - and then a darned AC1 weapon would take them out in a single shot. (Well - not the Stompa - but yes for the Morkanaut).

Was wondering if everyone else agrees with the More Boyz Less Toyz thinking for how to play Orks ???

Week 1 -- Orks vs. Space Marines
- We tied! Wish we could say it was highly intentional - but it wasn't. Ghasghkull Thraka did a great job for us.
Week 1 -- Orks vs. Eldar
- We lost -- but it was close. We were able to kill lots of Eldar.
Here's our detailed write-up: http://battlegaming1.blogspot.com/2014/10/warhammer-40k-playing-in-league.html

Week 2 -- Orks vs. Tau
- We actually won! Again GT did a great job for us
Week 2 -- Orks vs. Space Marines
- We actually won again! Once again, it was GT to the rescue.
Here's a detailed write-up: http://battlegaming1.blogspot.com/2014/11/warhammer-40k-league-play-week-2.html

Week 3 -- Orks vs. Space Marines
- We lost - lots of forgetting on our part - have to say it felt that most of the loss was due to our poor decisions....
- Posted a post w/ lots of very helpful suggestions from other DakkaDakka members after that battle
Here's a detailed write-up: http://battlegaming1.blogspot.com/2014/11/warhammer-40k-league-play-week-3-how-to.html

Week 4 -- Orks vs. Tau and the Nasty Missile Battery
- It was close - but we couldn't get much of our army (including Stompa) into close-combat range

Week 5 -- Orks vs. Space Marines
- We tried to get fancy and run the Council of Waaagh!
- It was pretty ugly. We lost
Here' s a detailed write-up (for weeks 4 and 5): http://battlegaming1.blogspot.com/2014/12/warhammer-40k-weeks-4-5-league-wrap-up.html

All in all - it really seems that the fancier we get - the more take a drumming.

That formation with the Tellyporta Strike is pretty cool - a bit random - but it has seemed to help us. But, even the Council of Waaagh! seems like a bright shiny object which we should stay away from.

Seems that instead, we should build lots and lots of Boyz and Mek Guns and such - and keep things simple.

Is this a generally recognized strategy?

(Of course, it has been fun to try different things - and the Stompa is a very cool model even if we couldn't win with it!)

I read through all your games. Did you paint any of those models yourself? The Kans look great.

I think the reason you did better in the smaller games was because of better army selection. In order to fill up the points in the bigger games, you had to add big, high-cost models rather than more of your staple units. I don't know if one can make the generalization "boyz before toyz" but I definitely believe in taking several large mobz of boyz. As you said, if you take enough bodies, you can absorb a lot of shooting and still have enough strength for that counterattack.

I think an Ork army is actually a lot like a Warboss in a duel with an enemy character: you have to be able to take the enemy's best shot right to your face, shrug it off and then unleash that nasty S10 power klaw attack that will wipe them out. I feel like I often have to advance into the teeth of the enemy's firepower with my boyz and when I finally get there, I better have enough strength left for that metaphorical power klaw up their army's arse.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also, in my opinion, the type of toys that I can do without are things like grot riggers and other wargear I have to remember to use or can only be used in certain situations. Grot riggers don't help if your vehicle gets killed in one turn. Or if you forget about them. Far better, in my opinion, to get more models. They are useful all the time and harder to forget about! Also, upgrades rarely seem worth the points, other than power klaws, of course!

Thanks very much for the advice on army selection. We're working hard on increasing the size of our units of Boyz. We'll keep at it. And, really seeing your point on upgrade Toyz. Once the model is dead, those haven't done us any good.

Except for a couple of the squads which we were 'gifted' from others - we've done all of the painting ourselves.

The younger one of us did all of the painting on the Killikans. He's a very big van of having metal show through the paint with lots of blood on top to make things look Orky.

If you want to successfully play orks you need a strong body of ork boyz in a game of 1850 I bring at the least 100 boyz then fill the rest with toyz..

Boyz are decent units can easily do board control and great for swamping other units down.