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This is my 1st Ork list. I'm basing it on tactics I've seen some ork players use effectively. Please try to leave some helpful feedback.

HQ
Warboss
            eavy armor, bionic bonce, iron gob, bosspole, choppa, blasta slugga
Retinue
          5x nobs with eavy armor, bionic bonce, choppa, blasta slugga
          Mad dok with dok's tools, 3 grot orderlies, choppa, blast slugga             
          Mekboy with kustom force field, choppa, tankbusta bombs

Elites
Zagstruk and da vulchas   
          and 19x stormboyz with frag

Stormboyz 
           Nob with iron gob, tankbusta bombs
           and11x stormboyz

Troops
Slugga Boyz
          Nob with uge choppa, tankbusta bombs
          and 29 boyz with 3 rokkits

Slugga Boyz
          Nob with uge choppa, tankbusta bombs
          and 29 boyz with 3 rokkits

Burna Boyz
         Mekboy with kustom force field, choppa, and tankbusta bombs
         and 9 boyz with 4 burnas

Heavy Support
Killa Kans
          2 kans with armor plates and rokkits

Killa Kans
         2 kans with armor plates and rokkits

Killa Kans
         2 kans with armor plates and rokkits

Tactics
Da Iron Curtain
Basically, my primary tactic favors a non-escalation game with deep strike allowed. Line up the Kans facing the enemy or the fastest route to them. Put the two mekboys behind them to force all hits to glance. Put the boys behind them. Advance. The stormboyz and da vulchas will deploy depending on the objectives, terrain, and squishyness of the opponent's back line. Against opponents without a real flank they will deploy on board behind da iron curtain. Where the opportunity exists for a relatively safe deep strike landing they will take it and then advance up the flanks.

Questions I don't know the answer to:
How much fire will da curtain take before collapsing?
Is this enough boyz? (120 boyz and 3 grots)
Should I make more mobs rather than larger ones?
How well will this list handle armor?

It would not beat my list, it would not even be very close IMHO...

I do not know the exact rules for zagstruk, but he can't be that all powerfull. 2 units of stormboys die just as easily as the basic ork, but are just overly expensive. Even my Imperial guard (not a balanced or mechanised force) should be able to handle this list, and they are the one list I can't quite control jet...

I would drop the stromboys and zagstruk and the nobs and take 3 mobs of truckboys. This will give a bit more reliable speed and the same amount of boys. Left over points can be used to split up the mobs and get rockits and nobs for all of the mobs.

I would also advise the cans to take big shoota's, as you already have loads of rockets. Rockets are good, but against mass infantry with guns (guard, possibly eldar and tau) you can't relliably take out troops, while they are more then capable of decimating you... Just my Thoughts....

Posted By Ravurion on 03/20/2007 1:47 AM
It would not beat my list, it would not even be very close IMHO...

I do not know the exact rules for zagstruk, but he can't be that all powerfull. I would drop the stromboys and zagstruk and the nobs and take 3 mobs of ....

If you don't know Zagstruk you really shouldn't make the assumption that he's isn't all the powerful. Read up on him. He'll make that 19 strong stormboyz unit fairly amazing. I ran accross a similiar list in a tournament. 2 large walking squads, 2 small walking speciliast squads, 20 stormboyz and zagstruk (devastating with the speed they move) and a battlewagon (but no kans) and something else infantry like... this was 1500pts. It had escalation and my deathguard army was on the ropes most of the game, until my daemons finally came in and equalized the body count. I might drop the 2nd unit of stormboyz and make sure you have more guns.... whichever you need more of big shootas or rokkits. Zagstrucks squad is large enough and extra fast enough that it should surivive to get into assault.

So what if I drop the 2nd stormboyz and the mad doc. Rearrange the kans into two mobs of three. Add a Looted Leman Russ with hull HB,sponson HBs, and armor plates as well as adding one more nob to the boss's retinue and one more boy to da vulchas. The Leman Rus would draw fire like a magnet, hopefully increasing the survivabilty of da curtain.

Yak has an Ork tactica around here somewhere that is really really good. you should check it out.

The A number one, most gigantic huge problem with your list: where are the power klaws?!?!?!?! Every single nob leading a mob should have one, no question. the Uge choppa looks cool but it sucks, especially when compared ot the power klaw. the klaw allows Orcs to kill anything. With 20 to 30 wounds around it, and 4 attacks, a power klaw orc mob is a real threat.

and seriosuly, dont knock Zagstruck, especially if you dont know what he does! He makes the Stormboyz he is with really fast. If you are going to go that route i would suggest taking 3 mobs of stormboyz. You will have so many that your opponant will not be able to kill them all, especially if they are equiped to kill MEQ's. You will laugh at the las plas squads as your 60 Stormboys charge turn two.

The burna boys will probably get smoked quick, but if you screen them they may work well.

the Kan tactic works fairly well, but walking orcs is a tough proposition. You may want to break some of those mobs up a bit to get more Nobs with Klaws and more Rokkits. Really, the Kans just give something for your enemies anti tank squads to kill. You may be better off with just more boys and grots.

I would honestly ditch your expensive HQ retinue in favor of more boys. expensive Ork HQ squads look nasty on paper, but in my experiance they usually just end up giving up a lot of points.

I could go on, but rea Yak's tactica, it is very comprehensive.

Ok I've been playing Orks for about a year pefecting a Deathskull infantry army that does fairly well considering I face MEQs all the time. But lets face it they're Orks, so just because your losing a lot doesn't necessarily mean your list sucks. However there are several problems I see. Some have been mentioned, but I'll add my 2 cents anyway.

First thing to dump is the nobs. I loved them when I started Orks, but with a big retinue like that its very difficult to make back all those points. Either add your boss to a unit of truck boys or add him to a mad doc and bodyguard of cyborks and stick them all in a truck.

I'm not a fan of stormboyz. They're a good idea in concept, but 15pts per model is way too much. Its one thing to lose half a unit to get into combat, but its difficult for a unit to do that and have more then one good charge. Zagstruck is cool, I've used him once or twice. But you'll lose quite a few vulchas to difficult terrain checks before you get into combat. Whenever I look at ork units the most important thing is to balance what your paying by what you're taking from the enemy.

You have enough Orks, but I find units of 30 get very unwieldly. I stick to 20 or 25. I use 3-4 units of 20 sluggaboys with 3 rokkits and a mek with forcefield. Burna boyz are cool, but the unit is too small. Anyone who knows what they can do will wack them before they see combat. If you want to keep them attach your boss to 9 in a truck. Or even better add the boss to 9 scarboyz with 3 burnas. Uge choppas suck. Power claws are very important to any competitive Ork list. I don't have to many myself since my boys are all led by meks with force fields. However my boss, any any trucker nobs all have claws.

Drop the blasta off your boss/nobs. It is not worth the risk of wounding a pricey model. Tank busta bombs on the slugga nobs should be dropped. You have plenty more anti-tanking and 2 more bombs won't make any difference.

I don't like kans or dreads myself. They have a big "hit me" sign on them and don't often make back their points. But they're supposed to draw most of the fire in this list which I can appreciate. However the thing is that most 2000pt lists have enough ant-tank to deal with them. And most weapons that kill them won't be very effective at killing boys anyway. They're not taking the fire that really hurts your boys: heavy bolters, bolters and other mean guns.

I'm not going to say don't use the kans, I just don't think they'll be very effective. My heavy slots are usually filled with a looted bassie and leman russ. In a skull list I can take both. I strongly recomend a looted basilisk to help even the playing field with those damn MEQs.

I'd also consider taking one or two units of mercenery Kroot. I have found they are an excellent compliment to an Ork force. One unit of 16 with shaper and evicerator stuck in good cover can pump out a lot of st4 bs3 shots. They're no slouchs in close combat either. Your enemy can try to shoot them, root them out in cc or ignore them. All of these disrupts his attack plan and gives you some initiative. I usually take 2 units of 20 of them. They've been very successful and give Orks a good shooty and tactically flexible unit for cheap.

Sorry to stomp your list a bit, but Orks are a very difficult to play with our outdated dex and often sneaky tricks need to be utilized to give them a reasonable chance of wining. Read some of the tactica written by the vets and test out some lists in battle if you really want to try a particular unit that most other say is useless. Hope this is some help. Good Waaagh... er luck to you.

Wow, thanks for all the helpful comments so far. I guess ya'll are right about the retinue of nobs. They could make quite a few more boyz. I didn't pick power klaws because it wasn't until I looked it up in the main 40K rulebook that I found the stats for it (bloody poor editing). Maybe I just have an earlier edition of the Orks book.  Ah yes! the hidden powerfist. I understand the value of that. Klaws for all da nobs!

I chose the burna boys primarily for their mekboy.  The only other ways to field a KFF are a big mek or the warboss's retinue mekboy. I figure I'll need at least two KFF's to cover a majority of the boyz and kans.

I have a rules question about the Kustom force fields and vehicles. I read the FAQ and it seems that if my kans are under the field then they count as concealed. Are all penetrating hits are converted to glancing hits, much like fast moving skimmers?
That concealment is one of two reasons I've taken the kans. It should serve to increase their survivability. The other is the line of sight issue. If I line up the kans base to base then nobody gets line of sight to the boyz through them. Granted I don't really expect most of them to survive past turn two. But that does put me one foot closer to my opponent with most of my boyz intact.

Stormboyz are one of those units that can be either potential game winners or are just pogey bait. With Zagstruk's ability I can threaten any infantry within two feet. That is twice the range of any footslogger for less than twice the cost. Its worth the potential loss to dangerous terrain for the increased threat range and strength bonuses. If they get caught in the open, they will be just as likely as any old boy to be annihilated by rapid-firing flashlight volleys. I'll just be sure to field a really large mob to account for losses and increase the likelihood of a good Waagh roll.

The thirty boyz mobs seem a bit unwieldly to me too. Twenty-five might be more manageable and still allow for massive losses before either I fail a Mob check or lose scoring unit status.

I'll make some changes with the comments in mind.

One or two things to keep in mind. If you play Deathskulls clan (all clan rules are on the GW site) you can take a free mek for any troop unit instead of a nob, provided he takes tools and oilers.

The FAQ states with Zagstruck that every time you make a turbo swoop every model must make a dangerous terrain test. With as many vulchas as you have those tests are going to start to hurt pretty early, not to mention Zag has to take the test to. While a strong unit, it will start to lose its effectiveness pretty soon. I don't think they are game winners unless you are playing against Tau. This is largely due to the fact that you have no follow up units to immediatly reinforce your spear tip. Though I assume you may rectify this in your revision.

I'm not sure about the force field. The FAQ says vehicles count as conceal. Though the rule conceallment in the 4th ed rule book is a special mission rule that only applies to non vehicles. This is a major screw up. It effectively means that RAW says that the kff gives no benefits to vehicles.

Newly revised list. Still not a clan list, but I'm trying to figure out how to make lootas worth the points first (small units with self-inflicted wounds?).

Note the lack of da boss's retinue, the addition of fasta follow up forces, and finally da loota tank. Tactics remain similar but the trukks provide tactical flexibility. Cyborks look pretty 'ard to me. I got a feeling that my shooting phases are not going win the game for me. The Russ would be lucky to make it to turn 3 in most games, but that means a lot less shooting at the kans. The turbo-boostas on the trucks seem most useful in enabling simple objective grabs.

HQ
Warboss
            eavy armor, bionic bonce, iron gob, bosspole, choppa, powerklaw

Painboss
           cybork body, powerklaw, choppa
           and 9x cyborks
           and wartrukk with armor plates, red paint job, turbo-boosta 

Elites
Zagstruk and da vulchas   
          and 20x stormboyz with frag

Troops
Slugga Boyz
          Nob with Powerclaw, choppa
          and 24 boyz with 3 rokkits

Slugga Boyz
          Nob with[i] Powerclaw, choppa
          and 24 boyz with 3 rokkits

Burna Boyz
         Mekboy with kustom force field and choppa
         and 7boyz with 2 burnas

Fast Attack
         Trukk Boyz
          Nob with Powerklaw, choppa
          and 9 boyz with 1 burna
          and wartrukk with armor plates, red paint job, turbo-boosta

Heavy Support

Killa Kans
         3 kans with armor plates and rokkits

Killa Kans
         3 kans with armor plates and rokkits

Looted Leman Russ
         Hull HB, Sponson HBs, Armor Plates[/i]

I was under the impression that vehicles within 6" of the Kustom Force field count as hull down. So they'd convert penetrating hits to glances half the time. Not bad, but not spectacular.

Thats what a force field used to do. I'm not exactly sure if that rule still applies. It might be better to trade that Russ for a Basilisk with indirect fire, it will save you a few points and give your looted vehicle a bit more survivability. I rarelt ever use lootas. I don't think I need them to make a proper deathskull force. The only lootas I even tested are a unit of 10 with 3 plasma cannons. Not too bad. Its a much more competative list. If you drop the russ for a bassie use the extra points to give your boss a power claw.