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Hi, I'm only just starting to play 40k and I thought I would make things difficult on myself by making an almost entirely converted army. I'm going for a Chaos worshipping Mad Max-style road gang, using the ork codex. With that in mind, this is the first army I'm trying to put together, and I would appreciate some feedback on it.

HQ

Warboss (120pts)

- Power Klaw
- Attack Squig
- Cybork Body
- 'Eavy Armour
- Bosspole


ELITES

Burna Boyz (130pts)

6 Burna Boyz
2 Meks
- 2 Rokkit Launchas


TROOPS

Truck Boyz A (151pts)

10 Choppa Boyz
Nob
- Power Klaw
- 'Eavy Armour
Trukk
- Red Paint Job
- Reinforced Ram


Trukk Boyz B (162pts)

11 Choppa Boyz
Nob
- Power Klaw
- 'Eavy Armour
- Bosspole
Trukk
- Red Paint Job
- Reinforced Ram


Shoota Boyz (160pts)

19 Shoota Boyz
- 2 Rokkit Launchas
Nob
- 'Eavy Armour
- Bosspole


FAST ATTACK

Warbikerz (135pts)

3 Biker Boyz
Biker Nob
- Power Klaw


HEAVY SUPPORT

Battlewagon (140pts)

- Red Paint Job
- Deff Rolla
- Kannon
- 2 Big Shootas
- Stikkbomb Chukka


TOTAL POINTS: 998


The intention is to have the Burnas in the Battlewagon going after particularly tough/numerous infantry, the boss in the first trukk boy mob and the bikerz going after vehicles or other tough infantry, the second trukk boy mob hitting troops and getting to objectives quickly and the shoota boyz moving up to hold objectives.

This will be for casual rather than tournament play, but any recommendations are welcome.

The lower number of burna boyz can be a problem if your fighting stuff over I3 and with numbers yours burnas can be owned but everything else is cool.

No it isn't. 3 Warbikes aren't even a reliable speed bump. You're literally throwing those points away, I recommend more boyz, or Deth Koptas.

SPEEDY9123 wrote:The lower number of burna boyz can be a problem if your fighting stuff over I3 and with numbers yours burnas can be owned but everything else is cool.

If the burna boyz are heavily outnumbered I will probably go for a driveby template attack rather than an assault. There is also the option of applying wounds to the Meks first, cos once they're off the battlewagon they become somewhat less useful.

Elessar wrote:No it isn't. 3 Warbikes aren't even a reliable speed bump. You're literally throwing those points away, I recommend more boyz, or Deth Koptas.

Its actually 4 Warbikes when you include the Nob, but I see your point. The bikerz are there largely for theme, but I thought they could potentially be useful for either hunting light vehicles or getting into the back ranks and hitting artillery crews. What would you say is the minimum number of bikerz that would be useful for that purpose and is there anything that stands out in the list as trimmable to get them? Attack squig on the boss or deff rolla on the battlewagon maybe?

11. Minimum Bike size is 11, and only if you can't afford a 12th. Seriously.

more boyz. i always suggest 30 basic shoota/slugga boyz per 500 points of the army.

Orks can do anything that any other army can do and do it better than they can. However, they cannot do everything that any other army can do. Make sense? If you make an ork assault army, they'll out-assault any other army in 40k. If you make a shooting army, you can outgun IG or Tau. If you go foot-slogging, or mechanized, or kan-wall....all those options make you a completely awesome army, but there's a catch. You can only do one of them at a time with an army list.

If you combine a mechanized and a foot-slogging list, you're going to lose. If you have part assault, party shooting, you're probably going to lose. Your strength is in being able to pick something and be completely awesome at it. So before giving you advice on where to go next with your army, you need to pick a theme and build around it. If you want a bike army, or a shooting army; an outflanking army, mechanized, assault, figure out what your playstyle is and start building your units and armylist around that idea.

THAT is the strength of Orks.


Thraka in 1k points could be *VERY* funny, and you would do some serious damage. If you want a road warrior / mechanized list to take in 1k points, try this:

HQ1:
Ghazghkull Thraka (225)

HQ2:
Big Mek with KFF (85)

Troop 1: 10 Boyz in a Trukk (With Ghazghkull), Nob, PK, Red paint, boarding plank (140)

Troop 2: 11 Boyz in a trukk (With Big mek), Nob, PK, Red paint, boarding plank (146)

Troop 3: 12 Boyz in a trukk, Nob, PK, Red paint, boarding plank (152)

Troop 4: 12 Boyz in a trukk, Nob, PK, Red Paint, boarding plank (152)

Heavy support 1: 2x Killa kans with Grotzookas (90)
--------------------------------------------------------
There's still 10 points or so in there (I think) to play with. This gives you a 29" assault range potential with Ghazghkull, 27" for everyone else, a 4+ cover save on all your vehicles, extreme mobility, anti-tank options on every vehicle, assault 2 blast template awesomeness on your kans which also have 4+ saves, and they're STR10 in close combat with their dreadnought weaponry. If anyone brings anything scary that can actually kill boyz (terminators with lightning claws, other things with lots of power weapons)....Ghazghkull gets out of his trukk and assaults it solo with his 2+ invulnerable save, WS6 x7 STR10 attacks. Even land raiders melt like butter.

^ That's one of the best Ork lists I've seen - I recommend trying it before realising how awful Trukks are.

Elessar wrote:^ That's one of the best Ork lists I've seen - I recommend trying it before realising how awful Trukks are.

Is that sarcasm? Honest question, I can't tell your tone from online.

There's not much mechanization OR anti-tank in 1,000 points, and what anti-tank he might come up against with that list is going to contend with a 4+ cover save. Half of his opponent's hits will miss from his to-hit rolls, half of those won't get through the armor, and of the ones that do, he'll save against half of them. Those trukks will be just fine.

No, I'm serious. I can't recall a better 1k Ork list that I didn't write, and I've only played 1k with Orks twice, and both times I knew the opponent. I won't say there aren't better lists, of course, but that is good, for Orks. Trukks are awful though. If only they were AV11, then it'd help in my (seemingly) one-man crusade against the Heavy Bolter...

Ah. The answer to your heavy bolter crusade is a mek with a KFF.

If a heavy bolter is shooting at your trukk instead of the boyz inside, its a winning scenario. If your opponent goes first turn, stay off the board in reserves, and come screaming on 19" turn 1. If you get to go first...its pretty much an auto-win for orks.

No, by my crusade, I mean trying to stop people using them...they're outdated and poor. There are a few notable exceptions, like DakkaPreds and Razorbacks, but in general Heavy Bolters should not be fielded.

What's wrong with heavy bolters?

They're S5, so they can't pop a Rhino reliably, or a Chimera/Valk/Serpent at all. Heavy weapons should be heavy, as in anti-tank. MMs and MLs are miles better fr the same (lol) cost. Lascannons are worth the investment. Also, AP4 is poor, because of the amount of cover.

Well, if a bolter is a troop killing weapon, then I would think that a heavy bolter would be a more effective troop killing weapon.

If I have an M16, and I upgrade to a heavy machine gun (say a squad automatic weapon or an M240) it doesn't become a rocket launcher, its still a troop killing weapon. =p

Dashofpepper wrote:Well, if a bolter is a troop killing weapon, then I would think that a heavy bolter would be a more effective troop killing weapon.

If I have an M16, and I upgrade to a heavy machine gun (say a squad automatic weapon or an M240) it doesn't become a rocket launcher, its still a troop killing weapon. =p

If you are relying on a heavy bolter to pop tanks you are in trouble =P

The heavy bolter is a nice weapon but it could be better =(. If they made it an assault weapon that I would take it 100% on troops but ATM I think it's the kinda thing you take on Dakka Preds and just for side sponsons, so add to troop killing ability really lol.

Dashofpepper wrote:Orks can do anything that any other army can do and do it better than they can. However, they cannot do everything that any other army can do. Make sense? If you make an ork assault army, they'll out-assault any other army in 40k. If you make a shooting army, you can outgun IG or Tau. If you go foot-slogging, or mechanized, or kan-wall....all those options make you a completely awesome army, but there's a catch. You can only do one of them at a time with an army list.

If you combine a mechanized and a foot-slogging list, you're going to lose. If you have part assault, party shooting, you're probably going to lose. Your strength is in being able to pick something and be completely awesome at it. So before giving you advice on where to go next with your army, you need to pick a theme and build around it. If you want a bike army, or a shooting army; an outflanking army, mechanized, assault, figure out what your playstyle is and start building your units and armylist around that idea.

THAT is the strength of Orks.

Like I said, the idea is a Mad Max-esque Road Warrior gang, using the ork codex because it seems to have the best options for crazy vehicles.

The main reasons I included the foot-slogging shoota boyz in the list were that
A: I would have a scoring unit that could sit tight on an objective and still make a contibution to the battle by shooting at stuff
and B: I would have a larger scoring unit that would be a bit more resilient because of that.

Would I be better off replacing them with another Trukk Boyz mob, and what is the best way for a purely mechanized army to hold objectives?

Dashofpepper wrote:Thraka in 1k points could be *VERY* funny, and you would do some serious damage. If you want a road warrior / mechanized list to take in 1k points, try this:

HQ1:
Ghazghkull Thraka (225)

HQ2:
Big Mek with KFF (85)

Troop 1: 10 Boyz in a Trukk (With Ghazghkull), Nob, PK, Red paint, boarding plank (140)

Troop 2: 11 Boyz in a trukk (With Big mek), Nob, PK, Red paint, boarding plank (146)

Troop 3: 12 Boyz in a trukk, Nob, PK, Red paint, boarding plank (152)

Troop 4: 12 Boyz in a trukk, Nob, PK, Red Paint, boarding plank (152)

Heavy support 1: 2x Killa kans with Grotzookas (90)
--------------------------------------------------------
There's still 10 points or so in there (I think) to play with. This gives you a 29" assault range potential with Ghazghkull, 27" for everyone else, a 4+ cover save on all your vehicles, extreme mobility, anti-tank options on every vehicle, assault 2 blast template awesomeness on your kans which also have 4+ saves, and they're STR10 in close combat with their dreadnought weaponry. If anyone brings anything scary that can actually kill boyz (terminators with lightning claws, other things with lots of power weapons)....Ghazghkull gets out of his trukk and assaults it solo with his 2+ invulnerable save, WS6 x7 STR10 attacks. Even land raiders melt like butter.

I didn't really make it clear in my initial post but the army I'm making is actually human/mutant chaos worshippers. I'm basically using the ork codex to make a road cult themed Lost and the Damned army. For that reason I'm rather loathe to use a special character, especially one with as much personality as Ghazghkull. I also don't really see the kans fitting into the style of the army, especially as I don't know how I would go about modelling them.

I'm quite keen on keeping the battlewagon and burna boyz too, cos drive by flamethrower attacks seem like a lot of fun.

My current thoughts for the army, based on what you guys have said, are to replace the shoota boyz with another Trukk Boyz B and to swap the bikerz out for either 3 deffkoptas with TL rokkit launchas or 3 buggies with TL rokkit launchas and 2 extra burna boyz, unless anyone has any better ideas on what to spend 135 points on?

Forge World Chaos Ogyrns would be ok Kans.

Still, not especially Mad Max.