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...or any humans trying to be orks.

Models-wise shouldn't be too bad. Catachans w/ orky bits, painted appropriately, should make nice diggas. Vehicles would all get red paint jobs naturally, etc. Any suggestions here are welcome, though.

I need some help with deciding on rules to use. I'v come up with a few possibilities:

Codex Imperial Guard: Not really ideal, but a possibility.

Imperial Guard w/ Abhuman Doctrines: Maybe gland warriors because they  drank fungus beer, or afriel because of the Waaagh! energy in their brains. If you think so, help me out with the doctrines please. I haven't gotten the WD yet but my local game shop should have it soon.

Catachans/Deathworld Veterans: Better WS is orky. Demo charges are orky. The points spent on jungle fighting seem like they'd be a big handicap however, and the lack of tanks is unpromising. Has anyone had tournament experience with these guys?

Armageddon Ork Hunters: Would be the best because of choppaz, shootas, and the Aaaagh! rule. Unfortunately, the last bit only works against orks, and the diggaz are sposed to worship the orks. I don't think the rules are valid anymore either. Any input here?

Lost and the Damned: Probably the best choice, but I still feel hesitant. Traitors would make decent Diggas, maybe with Ccw/Pistols or shotguns. Hellhounds would be skorcha traks, defilers stompas, gibbering hordes would be squigs/snots, etc.

Thanks for the help in advance. This is my first thread started here (I've been lurking for a while though) so my bad if I screwed somethin up. Oh and I forgot to say Hello.

DIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSS!

Man I loves me some crazy digga nutters. I voted LatD, only because I agree with you that it would really work the best. My first pick however is Ork Hunters, and I started a Digga army of OH back in the day ... but didn't get very far before the new Codex:IG came out and invalidated the old rules. So now my diggas are mostly retinues for =][= and such like that.

Luck on whatever you decide to do, I look forward to seeing models. I'll see if I can throw a pic up here later, I know I've got some of an all Digga army using Ork rules (with FW battlewagons and such).

Welcome to Dakka, DD

- Boss Salvage

Thanks for the welcome. Glad to here there are other Digga fans out there. The only pictures I've really been able to get were the one I clipped my avatar from and the human mercenary entry in Freebooterz.

I'd love to see those pics of the army you found. I wonder how they justified T4.

When I get stuff painted, I'll post it asap. May come a little slowly (high school), but I'll aim to have a unit or two of traitors by this summer or so.

-Da Digga

I have a unit of diggas that I just use in my Ork army as shoota boyz.

I'm thinking either Doctrines w/Abhumans or LATD, but leaning more toward the latter. You can use the mutie/big mutie rules to help tremendously in that regard, and use things like dreads (chaos rules, of course) and guys in 'mega-armor' (either power or termie armor, but modeled appropriately) etc.

Thanks for the input.

I have a enough orks for a small army, too, so when I get them together I'll probably field a unit of diggas or two in there as shootas or kommandos.

I'm getting a copy of the WD with abhumans today, hopefully those rules will beome more "official" in the future. If I went that route, which doctrine do you think would suit diggas best?

And for LatD, who would the muties be? They're similar to diggas, but if I used them as diggas hat would I say the traitors are?

My Regiment, the 82nd Catachans is a ad hoc unit consisting of a base regiment of Catachan's and it is constantly being infused by leftovers from other lost and degraded units. We have at our disposal, a very robust company of Diggas. The conscripts were turned back to the Emperor's light by teaching them about a few of the objects they'd found in the downside, and after a fine conversation ending when Commissar Lt Steel took charge of three tribes of them, either by explaining of the light of the Golden Throne, or by oughtright executing the Digganobs and conscripting the cowering masses of the tribes. Imagine our suprise when he rolled into Fort Moor with a company of scrappys.

(My unit consists of a combination of ChaosMarudars, Catachans, and Goliath bits, as well as a few of the old models from the range, and a couple of orkscrapped vehicles with humans. They are a great build, and it doesn't take long for an army to develope, almost overnight.)

(Use them as any IG regiment, but you better add a few more priests and commissars, because I added a special "Grunt rule."
They have a tendency of running for it when the chips are down, so keep an eye on them. Winning combats is great, they might even continue to fight, otherwise, the gits want to loot the dead and will not persue units that are falling back, unless they have a command influence of the commissar or the priest to show them the way of the Emperor. (-2 to leadership, without an imperial agent, will not persue if winning close combat.) Make sure that you beat them sufficiently and assign an IG sergent to them to continue the task of trying to civilize these, in Commissar Steels words , " Lost children of the Imperium being shown the light, after an age of darkness."
Another fun thing to try is to teach your diggas about heavy weapons and vehicles. They have an ingrained sense of mechanics, same as the greenskins, but thier very over enthusiastic, and our Techpriests have forbidden us to give them access to vehicles after an accidental discharge of one of the Lemun Russ's that resulted in damage to the vehicle, and the tankbay. ( Use the ork rules partaining to looted vehicles)The Digga shamen are a specal case in leadership, and of what I understand, the shamen need to be on a shorter leash then the average Digga, because they have a nusance habit of tearing things apart to find out how they work. Needless to say, the Techpriests have a very precarious relationship with them, and on a few occasions the shamen have had unfourtunate accidents.( Digga shamen is the same as an IG Techpriest. They don't like competition, and any action that brings the shamen into range with the techpriest will result in a combat between the two.)


(Your base units can be made up of a box or two of Chaose maruders, and Catachans. Combine a sprue of ork bits, IG bits, and get a load of the Gorkamorka weapon sprues and other close combat equipment. Brown, green, and combined colors of whatever your base regiment are what I used.)  They don't take to space travel very well, but can have the option of improving to " deathworld veterens, and Ork and Robot hunters, because of the fact that there was a fighting withdraw from the planet aganst an unknown foe as our forces were extracted from that hellhole. We called them the Skullaz, the Diggas called them Gods, but there were other more colorful names for them. You might know them by another name, the Necrons.

On an added note, There are numerous Muties within the wastes of Angelis, and in the event that you can gain access to them, they are a great addition to your unit, provided that you can get them to trust you, or can communicate with them. Be cautious in your dealings with the muties. They have a stronger intelligence that has yet to be explored, and our patrols have reported that they can no longer make contact with the mystrous beasts without being attacked by them.( you can use up to one unit of muties, provided that you have another imperial agent attached to the unit. they can be used as a fast attack, and every turn, They roll a D6 to find out if they try to kill the Agent, and escape into whatever environment that they are fighting in.)

Use the IG codex doctrines, everything else will quickly fall into place.

As of now, the Catachan 82'd, " The Lost Kidz" is under the direction of Inquisitor C'hantlae, and all other access is denied.

Grot: Would you reccomend abhuman doctrines? Gland warriors, homo sapiens variatus, and slave levies all seem like possible choices.

In the meantime, I've used the catachan interactive painter and photoshop to generate a plan for the conversion of catachans into diggas. This will be the rough color scheme, though of course I will add as many orky bits as possible.

Nice lasgun and boot checkers.

As promised, here are the couple pics of John Ragsdale's (?) Diggas, from I think a Minneapolis GT a few years back.  Not real fantastic pics, but cool to see a Digga army out and about:

- Boss Salvage

I'd recommend, Priests, and Heavy Weapon Platoons for command and control, as well as some long range firepower.

I recommend the Independent Commissars, Hardened Fighters, and Xeno's fighters for the addition of WS, Leaderhip, and some bite.


Abhumans could be cool if you have a unit or two of Ogryns to add along with the Mobs, for the " Scrimm". They work well for a good addition of a unit with some muscle that can use the savages as a shield, or a delivery device, kinda like how Orks use the grots sometimes.

I would use Codex: Imperial Guard and get warrior weapons and light infantry. Maxed out platoons of IG with CC weapons and Laspistols has always been appealing. Get ogrins with priests for abit of power in assualt and a few Leman Russes for support. Coverting might be interesting, but you get the swarmy assualty orkish humans you want.

I actully made an Army of Diggas about 4 years ago using the Ork Hunter Rules from the older edition, worked out well.....

I had a few "orks" in my army basically ork boyz, that counted as sergents.....HQ was a Nob sized ork counting as my Captian and the medic was a ork boy modeled like an "apprentice Dok"..

Could use the savlar chem dogs list, and use allot of the "counts as" for the chem inhalers and stuff??????

Light Infantry
Hardened Fighter
Warrior Weapons
Rough Riders or Priests
Heavy Weapons Platoons

The first three combined produce Infiltrating, WS 4 nuttas with CCWs and Laspistols and around the cost of an ork kommando. If I give enough guardsmen special weapons, the average price will reduce a bit. Works for me. WAAAGH!

Rough Riders are too cool a modeling opportunity to pass up. They'd either be digga bikeboyz or digga squig hoppers. Are they any good for tank hunting or are they more suited to suicidally crashing into an infantry unit?

Or would it just be better to take priests(digga shaman)?

Heavy Weapons platoons would really just be the "Flash gitz" of the diggas. I would probably only take one and max it out, because I've heard of the never go to battle with one tank rule.

Any other doctrine reccomendations?



It's a little to late to write up an army list (1:30 am over here, school tomorrow), but here's a run down on what I have in mind.

HQ:
Command Squad with full doctrines, close combat orientation, maybe a sentinel squad w/hardened fighters - Warboss and Kanz
Priests (if no rough riders) - Digga Shaman

Elites:

Maybe a squad of WS4 tank killing vets - Kommandos

Troops:
Guardsmen w/ LI, HF and WW, some squads specialized to kill tanks, infantry, monsters, but lots of reduncancy - Da Diggaboyz
Armoured Fists w/ HF and WW - Trukkboyz

FA:

One or two squads of Rough Riders (if not priests) - Bikeboyz/Squig Hoppas
Hellhound or Two - Skorcha Trakk

HS:

Two russes or Russ and bassie - Battlewagon/Looted Tank
Heavy Weapons, not sure which weapons, but either 9 lascannons or 9 HBs - Flash Gitz

Feedback on the list concept?

"Feedback on the list concept?"

Damn solid? I think you've merged the digga range and the ork list impressively with the guard list, with some really characterful choices in there - skorchas, kanz, looted tanks, flash gitz, etc. The shamans as priests is a very cool thing, and I'd rather see them then rough riders I think (though rr may be 'better' tactically). Also, LI lets you take heavy flamers on troopers, right? Burnas - more burny, less choppy - FTW, and there are catachan with 'em already ...

Looking forward to a list/models/army

- Boss Salvage

The burns idea is right on the money. The only other thing I could think of would be to maybe give them a couple of Hellhounds. Great list, you've inspired me to go dig those guys out again, as well.

Back to the Waagha!!!

That's quite a good concept. One can't help but having a certain affection for the little green-daubed buggers. Moving on to the list: (caveat: advice somewhat modified to fit theme)

HQ:
Command Squad with full doctrines, close combat orientation, maybe a sentinel squad w/hardened fighters - Warboss and Kanz
Priests (if no rough riders) - Digga Shaman

A suggestion on fighty (for Guard) Command units: Close Order Drill, Platoon Command Squad, Honorifica Imperialis and power weapon. At I5, the Officer has a chance to get in some attacks before he dies. Add one or more flamers to his unit and you could model him as having a burna. For more Orky endurance, add Medallion Crimson. COD mimics WAAAGH!!! and size checks to some degree. Iron Discipline - while not at first blush a particularly diggaish doctrine - is the closest an IG army will come to the Mob Up rule. Priests are not a strictly good choice, but with Litanies and an Eviscerator they should make a highly fluffy and interesting conversion to add to your list. For a second "Big Boss" you can get the HSO in the CHQ for +30, though he will only be I4. (hey, a Nob WAAAGH!!!s up to 6, after all)

Elites:

Maybe a squad of WS4 tank killing vets - Kommandos

Drop Troops is the hardest doctrine to justify in your fluff terms, but it would really help these small squads out a lot. Modelled with Rokkits using the plasma gun rules would probably be best if you can't think of a good enough fluff reason to give them free deep strike.

Troops:
Guardsmen w/ LI, HF and WW, some squads specialized to kill tanks, infantry, monsters, but lots of reduncancy - Da Diggaboyz
Armoured Fists w/ HF and WW - Trukkboyz

Here's where I might suggest an alternate take on da Diggas. I would use Shoota boyz as Infantry, with slugga and slugga/choppa models for the Veterans and Command units. If you think a buncha poxy 'umies deserve WS4, IMHO reserve it for the Command Squads. Diggas are relatively feral, so there's no reason to spank yourself by turning your serviceable Huntas into cr@ppy Slugga Boyz.


FA:

One or two squads of Rough Riders (if not priests) - Bikeboyz/Squig Hoppas
Hellhound or Two - Skorcha Trakk

The Squig Hoppers sound hilarious and with Rough Rider rules will also be effective. Ditto the Skorcha. Great choices, fluffy and effective.

HS:

Two russes or Russ and bassie - Battlewagon/Looted Tank
Heavy Weapons, not sure which weapons, but either 9 lascannons or 9 HBs - Flash Gitz

If you're comfortable giving diggas lascannon, then they should be in the infantry. Flash Gitz are more similar to HBs than LCs - plus I hate AT squads. Perhaps model the Heavy PHQ as sum Yoofs wiv spyglasses - you'll find they're great to deploy first. 40 points for another half-foot of breathing space and a miniature speedbump against armies 'arda than yer ladz is very handy.

Close Order Drill (WAAAGH! and size checks)
Veterans (Kommandoze)
Iron Discipline (Mob Up)
Heavy Weapons Platoons (Flash Gitz)
Priests (Shamans)

Officers=Nobs
Infantry=Huntas/Shoota Boyz
Command Squads=choppa boyz/yoofs

Hopefully this is acceptable to your sense of fluff.

Happy Gaming.

Definitely is. Light infantry doesn't give heavy flamers, thats Jungle Fighters. At least one squad of vets will have meltas though. Burnas right there.

Close Order Drill
Veterans
Iron Discipline
Heavy Weapons Platoons
Priests

is probably the direction I'll go. I like all of your rules analogues wight_widow. Actually, I really like them.

Close Order Drill
Vets
Iron Discipline
Heavy Weapons Platoon
Rough Riders

I like also. I think I'll proxy each and go from there.

Last Chancer are also a possibilty. Freeboota diggas?