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Hello all,

I've dug my Orks out of storage and am in the process of constructing some army lists for them.

Since 5th edition nullified the Armageddon codex, I haven't played Orks very much at all.

I have been getting in a few practice games here and there, but they are few and far between.

Sufficed to say that I am not too familiar with the effectiveness of certain Vehicle upgrades and I want to avoid the all-too-common mistake of wargear overload.

From your experience(s), which vehicle upgrades fit into the following categories: necessary / nice-if-you-have-the-points / poor choices.

Thank you in advance for your help!


-Ruffgutz

RPJ, Reinforcedram/deffrolla, and possibly stikkbomb chukka all fit into 'necessary' categories. Although depending on the terrain you tend to play on, the stikkbomb launcher may prove a bit excessive, but it is only five points, that's essentially a 50% discount.

Armor plates is Extra armor. Grot Riggas are neat to keep you moving. but those two are kinda "Oh I have 10 points left over what can I spend them on"

The Wrecking ball is sort of useless. You can't use it going flat-out on your trukk, and the hit is only S9, and it is one shot on a 4+.

Normally the boarding plank is a kind of useless upgrade....unless you have a warboss with a power klaw and attack squig, which you should. If he rides around in a trukk or battlewagon, 6 S10 power Klaw attacks will make even the monolith cry.

The rokkit will most likely never hit anything while on a trukk, four of them on a battlewagon might hit something, but only if the wagon didn't move.

The Grabbin klaw is almost useless (battlewagon/looted wagon only) but it could be good if your warboss is in that wagon. Lets say he rolls up to a land raider that moved 12", so he needs 6s to hit from the boarding plank, misses everything. Next turn space marine player tries to move his land raider "Wait, I have a grabbin' klaw on here!" and now it can't move, if your warboss lives to next turn all 6 attacks automatically hit!

Grabba klaws are great, but only take them on battlewagons that will have a PK unit present. It's a great AT strategy. I like boarding planks for Warbosses and nobz to take a swipe at something without leaving the safety of their transport, but it's a matter of taste.

Deff rollers are great for tankshocking troops. It's nice to roll right through an enemy's line with def rollers to cause havok before you unload your orks. If they try for death or glory they get hit agian by the deff rolla so you can bet no one is going to try a death or glory attack.

I like my ork transports cheap though so I usually don't get much more than this.

Boss_Ruffgutz wrote:I've dug my Orks out of storage and am in the process of constructing some army lists for them

Welcome back to playing Orks!

Sadly, most of the 'useful units' are now garbage units -- such as looted Basilisks.
The battlewagon, which was a novelty at best, has become your bread and butter tank. Truuk models are now more to scale, and you no longer wonder how 12 orks can manage to fit on them! Killa Kan spam is great, and utilize some Deff Dreads to add punch. Here are the things I will suggest.

BattleWagons
The primary role of the battlewagon is to deliver your boys to the fight. One of them with a KFF mek on it will really add to the durability of your wagons. Grot riggers, Red Paint, and Armour Plates all help them to achieve this objective. Deff Rollas have great potentional, and if your FLGS allows them to strike vehicles as well, then they make the best AV14 penetrates in the ork list.

A boarding plank, as mentioned, can make a really nice surprise against hard targets. Its not as useful against skimmers/fast vehicles as the model still needs to hit on a 6 vs those vehicles, though its better than a kick in the jimmies.

Don't overburden your wagons with weapons. Their goal, like truuks is to deliver troops and not shoot. If you keeping them stationary to fire weapons, they are not filling their job.

Truuks
Truuks are cheep. Keep them that way. If your truuk starts climbing near 50 points, then your doing something wrong.
Red paint will help you get to the battle fasta. That extra inch can really make or break your boys.
Grot riggas will keep your boys from being stuck the game, but even 1 turn of not moving makes the boys in a truuk a sitting duck.

Wagons are a must for any ork force now.

tank shock and ramming with a def-rolla can crunch land raiders. don't take reinforce ram on BWs it dosn't do ANY thing, (+2 to front armor up to a maximum of 14 and counts as a tank for ramming? when the BW already has 14 FA and is a tank, what were they thinking )

use the battle wagon to Zoom your nobs and warboss into the heart of da fightin nice and orky, stik-bomb chukkas can help if there's lots of terrain.
on the BW load up on Big shootas or nothing at all, once you are close the extra fire power can just add to the confusion.

don't expect a Bwagon to last long once you are close because its side and rear armor is rediculesly east to penetrate, one melta hit and you are toast.

Trukks are cheap get lots of them, you will lose some if not most of them but the ramshacke rule can save you. there is a chance that the trukk will zip right up to the enemy and fall apart right there and then you have 12 Boyz right in front of your opponents ready to pound in some e'ads

course there is also a chance that it will go boom and kill your boys or zip into the enemy, go boom and kill your boyz and da udder gits(always pretty funny when it happens)

If you run any buggies/wartrakks - don't bother with red paint, - just keep em cheap.
Red paint is worth it on your BWs and Trukks though.

My BWs usually look like this:

RPJ
extra armor
boarding planks
big shoota

Totals 110 points. The big shoota is there just to soak up 1 weapon destroyed result, everything else is just to keep it moving. Boarding planks, at least in the games I've played, has been invaluable. The biggest problem with Orks is that after you blow up a vehicle in CC you get shot to hell the next turn, and for 5 points the planks get rid of this pesky problem. Grabbin Klaw I've never been taken with, needs a 4+ roll....meh.

Stikkbomb chukka I don't really use since the boyz usually are going last regardless. I can see where they'd be useful, but I don't really ever use them.

Always use them as a 'fist' with the KFF Mek in the middle. Pretty much doubles their survivability. Necessary.

You can never go wrong with Red Paint. It is the silliest and most awesome upgrade available for vehicles. Plus the extra inch can be a game winner in some cases.

Cheers

Trukks need that reinforced ram. Not only does it let you speed through terrain but you suddenly tank shock! An upgrade with a multitude of uses.

Red Paint Job. Always. Never leave BW or Trukk without it, because each time I haven't, they have been blown up on the first turn!

I am also a former Armegeddon player with a Speed Freaks list. A lot has changed, some for the better.

RPJ is good on BWs but I don't put it on Trukks anymore.

I've never put Grabbin Klaws on though they could have their uses.

I always use Deffrollas, they're allowed to ram where I play but even if they didn't they still have uses against troops. At least put a ram on for re-rolling difficult terrain.

I run 3 HS KillKannon/Kannon shoulder-to-shoulder with with BigMek with KFF and 10 Burna's and an extra mek with Bigshoota in the middle one with a troop of 11 boyz plus PK Bosspole Nob each in the other 2. They move 7" a turn up the middle shielding trukk boyz whilst my 11 bikerboyz with PK bosspole BikerNob and BikerBoss attack/annoy other targets from the sides.

But if you aren't running other fast units then you want your BWs to move 13" a turn so forgo the KillKannons. 1 Big Shoota keeps it cheap. Extra armor keeps it moving.

Ram or Rolla is vital for my trukks and wagons.
We tend to have a fair amount of terrain, and exploded vehicles/craters later in the game.
Red Paint? If I have spare points.
Armour plates for transports is useful.

The cool thing about the kannon someone pointed out to me last week, is that if you shoot frag, it counts as a defensive weapon (meaning you can, actually, move and fire it)

Grey Templar wrote: Wagons are a must for any ork force now.

Here I must disagree with you.

Wagons are a must for any ork force that wants to complete the game quickly -- which is required in timed games commonly found in tournament settings.

However, for casual play, a pure horde option is still quite viable. My 1750 ork list is a complete foot slogger list, and has seen many more victories than defeats.

Thank you all for your replies.

The opinions on here seem to echo my own experiences for the most part.

RPJ, Boarding Plank, and Reinforced Ram are usually what my trukks are kitted out with.

I tried out the wrecking ball and extra armor ugrades for my trukks in my last 2 games, and wasn't overly impressed.

@ Grey Templar
I don't think EVERY ork force NEEDS a battlewagon. I've been doing just fine with nothing but trukks filled with boyz, lootas, and buggies/wartrakks.

That being said, I still really, really, really want one....at least.

One idea i've been kicking around, is loading up a battlewagon with a full unit of burna boyz and unleashing a bunch of power weapon attacks all over any TEQs or MEQs...although I'm sure this is common practice.

Also, because there seems to be some confusion amongst my gaming group, what is the ruling on the deffrolla's multiple hits working against vehicles?

Keep the info coming; I'll take all the info I can get.

-Ruffgutz

The ruling as far as we (in my own mind and in my game group) are concerned is that you can't tank shock vehicles...period (the more I hear about the "Deffrolla Ram" the more it seems like shaky ground), besides, if you get that close, just boarding plank-power klaw it!

(And I don't think a battlewagon is a 'need' really, but it is nice to have some AV14 in the ork list)

I either ram it with a trukk goin flat out, or the battle wagon, it's got 14 front armor, so if you can get some momentum goin, you dont need the deffrolla to work on vehicles that bad anyway.