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Ok, So I've heard alot that orks are the strongest army atm, keep on hearing that there codex is awsome etc etc.

Dont get me wrong I do play orks, but Im a newb.

But what actually makes them so good? Like what units?

and is there a winning tactic/army type (speed freeks?)


Cheers all!

Da Boyz.

There are some viable builds like the green tide, mechanized kult of speed, nob bikers...

...I, personally, did just play a game against IG and used some individually fitted nobz and a waaaghboss (roughly 250pts) to mop up 500 pts of his forces. Wound allocation abuse on T4 2-wound models is a mighty thing.

For a beginning player, three tips:
1. Boyz. Lotsa Boyz.
2. Lootas. You need anti-light vehicle fire support.
3. Fast Distractions/Leman Russ Assasinators. Kommandos, Nobz w/ P.K's, Stormboyz, Deffkoptas. All work.
Go forth and pawn, my greenies!

Rebel105 wrote:Ok, So I've heard alot that orks are the strongest army atm, keep on hearing that there codex is awsome etc etc.

Dont get me wrong I do play orks, but Im a newb.

But what actually makes them so good? Like what units?

and is there a winning tactic/army type (speed freeks?)


Cheers all!

I've been wondering this myself.

Aside from some pretty good elites, vehicles, hq etc, it comes down to the boyz every time. They are good at assaults(tons of attacks and eventually even termies will fail rolls) and in large quantities they're very hard to kill off. Ok so an ork player plops a squad of 30 boyz on each objective templates are the answer right? But aside from the IG who has that many templates in their army lists? Then in kill pt type games you have to kill 4 or 5 squads of 30 in very short order. Now others will toss out the warboss, big meks, killkans, etc but the boyz are the ones you have to pay attention to.

And the nice thing about orks these days is that it is easy money wise to build up a decent sized army quickly..with the AOBR set and all the plastics...orks are also an army you can go to town with conversions...

Fits their fluff really....and as the boyz say, orks never lose....they just get beat but come back for more...

In a word: Redundancy.

In an army units have three properties: synergy, flexibility, and redundancy.

Orks have redundancy in spades: they can take lots in a unit, and lots of units to boot.

I will have to go along with eveyone else.

Its the boyx really.

Be it footsloggers of in trukks. They are just a brutal hth unit.

I like to use boyz more then any other unit in there codex. It just makes me said that I can only have 5 units of them. my 1000point list has already used up all 5 slots. As well as 2 'eavys

Then all the nobz and pks you can throw in there donest hurt much ether.

A big squad of shoota boyz really is not to bad ether. Yes htere bs is horrible but with so many shots it all comes out and since they are assualt weapons they still do very well in cc as well.

My honest opinion is that it is a very very forgiving army.

Make a mistake and a squad gets shot up? Oh well, its only 100 pts or so.

In any type of longer tournament its a viable strategy to bring a tier 2 army that is easier to play than a tier 1 army that is very tough to play.

They also benefit a ton from playing inexperienced players. People who don't know how to deal with horde armies will make a lot of mistakes trying to kill off to many to quickly instead of playing to their armies strengths.
Orks make certain parts of the game very tough on the opponent. Things like threat priority and such. You really need to know the army inside and out to know what needs to be killed this turn and what can wait until next turn. Of course once this is learned Orks become a cakewalk for a lot of mech armies. But most of the tournament going crowd in 40k probably doesn't play more than 1 tournament a month (at the absolute most). Because of this you just don't run into competition you do at other hobbies where people play competitively every week.

And finally, they benefit from not being able to lose to certain armies. Certain builds just can't deal with horde armies so even if the ork player has a bad game they should still be able to pull out a draw.

When you get assaulted by a HUGE mob of boyz, that's what makes them strong.

My 3 man crisis suit team was assaulted by a mob and my friend was rolling 52 dice to hit....literally. "Hey lemme roll to hit. Oh, only 30 hit so far...oh wait, I have a whole 'nother bucket of dice to roll. Forgot, my bad".

Yes, 52 attacks on a 3 man team is definitely a bad day.

Orks are strong because they are very agressivly costed. 6 Points for 4 WS4 attacks is every marine players wet dream. Yes, they have a 6+ save, but you can take 2 or 3 for every MEQ fielded, and easily have enough to murderise any sort of non CC specialised unit once you get there. Take 6 Trukk Mobs and you know at least Two will get to the enemy Dakka

one lucky roll on the part of the ork player will shut down a space marine player... hard.

example.... the other day i'm playing against an ork player. I have my dual flamer tac squad in rhino move up 12", and pop smoke, about 15" away from the ork horde. i'm planning on disembarking, flamering, and then charging him next turn (his nob was at the front, so I didn't have to worry about killing too much) he calls waagh, rolls 6 for fleet (so he makes it to my rhino), rolls a 6 to hit my rhino with his claw, and then pen 6's it. I then fail my leadership test, and am pinned.

those 10 tac marines would have taken those boyz apart... kill like 15 with shots, kill ~ 6 more in combat, win combat and make em flee.... but because he got lucky and blew up a vehicle, my flank fell, and its game over.

on the converse, say I get a lucky pen6 from a krak grenade on one of his vehicles... he's fearless anyway, so who the hell cares, he just gets to assault me next turn and rock my world. if I get a lucky roll, he looses a cheap vehicle/unit.

he gets one, and my entire battle plan falls to crap.

Gwar! wrote:Orks are strong because they are very agressivly costed. 6 Points for 4 WS4 attacks is every marine players wet dream. Yes, they have a 6+ save, but you can take 2 or 3 for every MEQ fielded, and easily have enough to murderise any sort of non CC specialised unit once you get there. Take 6 Trukk Mobs and you know at least Two will get to the enemy Dakka

I was pegging my friend the whole game w/my suits and firewarriors chopping everything down but that one massive unit. He gets into assault range and wipes out almost my entire army!

Aiieeee!!

Orks have alot in thier favour.

1: Points - Nearly everything in the ork codex is cheap on points, meaning you will allways outnumber an opponant, and it usually tends to make them panic.

2: Psycology - same as above really. When players see an army of that size against them they tend to panic and make mistakes, if they havent played against orks before then they dont really stand much of a chance.

3: Variation - Orks have a unit for every type of fighting, and sometimes 2-3 of each.
The diversity means they can field an army full of units that all take on thier own roles.

4: Lootas - With a BS of 2, orks tend to miss alot, but for models that cost only 15 points and get D3 S7 shots each turn that more than makes up for it.
3 units of lootas (max size) can throw out anywhere from 45 - 135 shots per turn, meaning even with a low BS they will hit alot still.

5: Boyz - Boyz are cheap, and one of the best combat troops as standard.
Thier unit size makes them fearless, they have a large number of attacks.
Due to having such large units, and lot of them, its nearly impossible to kill an ork army simply through shooting alone before it gets to you.

6: Kustom forcefields - Big meks get to take KFF's, giving a 5+ cover save to nearby units, even when not in cover.
When put in the center of an ork army they can give that bonus to alot of units, meaning an unstoppable tide just became even harder to stop.

7: Waaagh! - special rule for them, allowing them to move an extra d6" in the shooting phase (once per game).
This alone allows them to get closer very quickly, meaning by turn 2 they could be in assault.
Ghazghkull gives you this ability, but a much stronger version.
All ork units move 6" rather than D6" in the shooting phase (once per game).
with this they can move 6" on the 1st turn and then run D6" in the shooting phase.
The next turn they can move 6", use the 6" waaagh! move in the shooting phase, then assault another 6".
This means that in 2 turns ork units can move from 25"-30".
this kind of distance means that by turn 2 they will be in combat, and you wouldnt have had much time to shoot them.

8: Special characters - mad dok is great, adding great rules to the unit he is with, and allowing any ork unit in the army to take cybork bodies for 5 points per model (gives you a 5+inv save)
Ghazghkull gives you the special Waaagh! move, in which he also gains a 2+ inv save that turn.
This means he is allmost impossible to kill, with 7 S10 attacks on the charge he will take down allmost anything in his way.
Wazdakka allows ork bikers to become a troops choice, allowing an all bike army to be made possible.
Giving you a highly mobile, very shooty and very killy army that can get anywhere when it needs to.
Bikes are then scoring units in the army, meaning that you can zoom off to grab an objective on the last turn, just to make sure you win.

9: Characters - Taking an ork warboss (ghazghkull is the same) allows a single unit of nobz or mega armour nobz to be taken as a troop choice.
Meaning that you can then field the highly powerful nob bikerz as a troop choice.
Big meks have not only the KFF mentioned earlier, but the shokk attack gun (weird and wonderful) which is capable of causing serious damage.
Big meks also let you take a single deff dread as a troop choice, meaning that you can field 5 deff dreads in an army with 2 big meks.


All in all, orks have alot of amazing rules and units.
When used well they are pretty much unstoppable unless you know how to play orks, or you have played them alot.

Hope that helps

JD21290 wrote:7: Waaagh! - special rule for them, allowing them to move an extra d6" in the shooting phase (once per game).
This alone allows them to get closer very quickly, meaning by turn 2 they could be in assault.
Ghazghkull gives you this ability, but a much stronger version.
All ork units move 6" rather than D6" in the shooting phase (once per game).
with this they can move 6" on the 1st turn and then run D6" in the shooting phase.
The next turn they can move 6", use the 6" waaagh! move in the shooting phase, then assault another 6".
This means that in 2 turns ork units can move from 25"-30".
this kind of distance means that by turn 2 they will be in combat, and you wouldnt have had much time to shoot them.

<nitpick> All ork Infantry can move D6" instead of shooting. It's called running. All Waaaagh! does is let them assault after.

Furthermore, RaW Ghaz's Waaagh no longer gives them an auto 6" move.

Doombot001 wrote:

Gwar! wrote:Orks are strong because they are very agressivly costed. 6 Points for 4 WS4 attacks is every marine players wet dream. Yes, they have a 6+ save, but you can take 2 or 3 for every MEQ fielded, and easily have enough to murderise any sort of non CC specialised unit once you get there. Take 6 Trukk Mobs and you know at least Two will get to the enemy Dakka

I was pegging my friend the whole game w/my suits and firewarriors chopping everything down but that one massive unit. He gets into assault range and wipes out almost my entire army!

Aiieeee!!

This would mean you let your tau get multi charged. (play mistake)

This is one of the major strengths of orks. They really need their opponents to make and capitalize said play mistakes.

Orks win with luck?! Pssh thats non sence.


Really man, its the boyz as said before. They are dirt cheap, theres always a bunch of them and you dont care if they die. Oh darn I lost a squad after 3 turns? oh well theres 60 boyz still running towards you.
My boyz squad are rhino KILLERS. I charge them into rhinos ALWAYS. and inside a turn or two, that rhino is TOAST. And anything that was inside of it, just pops out into an angry MOB of boyz.
Ive done some nasty things with nobz and warbosses, dont get me wrong. But the boyz are jsut a fantasic thing.

What makes Orks so strong? Malt Liquor

KingCracker wrote:Orks win with luck?! Pssh thats non sence.


Really man, its the boyz as said before. They are dirt cheap, theres always a bunch of them and you dont care if they die. Oh darn I lost a squad after 3 turns? oh well theres 60 boyz still running towards you.
My boyz squad are rhino KILLERS. I charge them into rhinos ALWAYS. and inside a turn or two, that rhino is TOAST. And anything that was inside of it, just pops out into an angry MOB of boyz.
Ive done some nasty things with nobz and warbosses, dont get me wrong. But the boyz are jsut a fantasic thing.

Its funny when you talk about kroot, which are basically the same thing w/initiative 5 thrown in, everyone claims how bad they are.

Timmah wrote:

KingCracker wrote:Orks win with luck?! Pssh thats non sence.


Really man, its the boyz as said before. They are dirt cheap, theres always a bunch of them and you dont care if they die. Oh darn I lost a squad after 3 turns? oh well theres 60 boyz still running towards you.
My boyz squad are rhino KILLERS. I charge them into rhinos ALWAYS. and inside a turn or two, that rhino is TOAST. And anything that was inside of it, just pops out into an angry MOB of boyz.
Ive done some nasty things with nobz and warbosses, dont get me wrong. But the boyz are jsut a fantasic thing.

Its funny when you talk about kroot, which are basically the same thing w/initiative 5 thrown in, everyone claims how bad they are.

Yeah, cause Kroot are like, 30 Strong, Fearless and cost 6 points each </Sarcasm>

Also, Kroot are not Initiative 5.

And cost 33% more than Boyz (if you buy them the 6+ Save)

And are not Fearless

And get less Attacks.

And are not as Tough.

They do shoot better though, so I guess that makes up for the multitude of ways they lose out to Boyz in CC eh?

Gwar! wrote:

Timmah wrote:

KingCracker wrote:Orks win with luck?! Pssh thats non sence.


Really man, its the boyz as said before. They are dirt cheap, theres always a bunch of them and you dont care if they die. Oh darn I lost a squad after 3 turns? oh well theres 60 boyz still running towards you.
My boyz squad are rhino KILLERS. I charge them into rhinos ALWAYS. and inside a turn or two, that rhino is TOAST. And anything that was inside of it, just pops out into an angry MOB of boyz.
Ive done some nasty things with nobz and warbosses, dont get me wrong. But the boyz are jsut a fantasic thing.

Its funny when you talk about kroot, which are basically the same thing w/initiative 5 thrown in, everyone claims how bad they are.

Yeah, cause Kroot are like, 30 Strong, Fearless and cost 6 points each </Sarcasm>

Also, Kroot are not Initiative 5.

And cost 33% more than Boyz (if you buy them the 6+ Save)

And are not Fearless

And get less Attacks.

And are not as Tough.

They do shoot better though, so I guess that makes up for the multitude of ways they lose out to Boyz in CC eh?

Kroot hounds are 6 each with Init 5. So 12 hounds + 18 kroot = 30 man squad. 6+ save is nothing special and doesn't really factor in. Especially when kroot are getting 2+ cover saves.
They easily destroy the boyz as far as shooting. In CC, no they won't stand up point for point. But with the inevitable round or 2 of shooting before the boyz get into CC I would put my money on the kroot.

Pray those kroot have a forest to hide in when they trade shooting phases against 30 shoota boyz. 60 dice will balance out BS2.

Ork's are tough because of their lameness they often have 30 boys and a warboss with a klaw.

Cuz orkz are da best dere iz

Almost everything in the ork codex is good and cheap. Add to that a really good variety of viable builds and they're just great.

The orks are great for numerous reasons, one- thier dead easy to paint and have a variety of coloour schemes two- you can field so many of them without breaking the bank and three- they're just so damn funny.

Well it's 235 points for a 30 boy mob led by a nob w/klaw, with three big shootas thrown in. That's not too shabby, especially when it's just a few points less than that for a tricked out squad of Space Marines w/ Rnino.

There has been some great insight here. Orks rule period!

The ability to move something like 13 inches across the board, jump out, then charge. It HURTS when you get charged first turn!!!