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I'm a returning Wh40k player, my last game was in 3rd ed. For the last month, I've been reading several forums on 5th ed. Now, I'm humbly asking your advice please.

I'm posting 2 different Ork army lists. The premise is that I've learned (from your posts) that Orks can be of many different army types, but should focus on 1 at a time.

The 1st list is a footslogger army designed for superiority of numbers. The 2nd is a mechanized list for mobility.

I'll be facing the following army types in terms of popularity (with the top being the most popular):

- Space Marines
- Imperial Guard
- Orks or Chaos Marines
- All other races

Please let me know the following:

- with the above mix of opponents, which army list is more appropriate?
- what improvements do you suggest please?

----------------------
Footslogger: 1,000 pts
----------------------

HQ: Big Mek
w/ power klaw, bosspole, kustom force field
115 pts

ELITE: 15 Lootas
225 pts

TROOPS: 30 Slugga Boyz
w/ nob, power klaw, bosspole
220 pts

TROOPS: 30 Shoota Boyz
w/ nob, power klaw, bosspole
220 pts

TROOPS: 30 Shoota Boyz
w/ nob, power klaw, bosspole
220 pts

Looking forward, at the 1,500 pts level, I plan to add a Shokk Attack Mek and a Kommandos unit with Snikrot.

----------------------
Mechanized: 998 pts
----------------------

HQ: Big Mek
w/ power klaw, bosspole, kustom force field
115 pts

HQ: Biker Warboss
w/ power klaw, bosspole, warbike
130 pts

ELITE: 10 Lootas
150 pts

TROOPS: 6 Biker Nobz (rides with Warboss)
w/ warbikes, 1 power klaw, 1 big choppa, painboy
330 pts

TROOPS: 11 Trukka Slugga Boyz (joined by Big Mek)
w/ nob, power klaw, trukk
136 pts

TROOPS: 12 Trukka Slugga Boyz
w/ nob, power klaw, trukk
142 pts

In scaling up to 1,500 pts, I'll likely attach more Lootas and Biker Nobz to their existing squads, while adding 2 new mobs of 12 Trukka Shoota Boyz.

----------------------

I'm deliberately keeping my comments to a minimum to avoid causing bias in your responses. I will visit different forums for advice. Thank you in advance for your time.

Welcome back to 40k! I'm in a similar situation as you, having played my last game in 3rd ed and I've decided to start playing again with Orks. I've decided on a footslogging army because the large numbers allow Orks to do what Orks do best: get into CC. I really like your first list, its simple, it has 90 boyz at 1k points which will be scary to just about any army you face. Perhaps change one unit of shootas to sluggas. I havn't been a fan of most mechanized armies I've seen at this points level, but I do like this one more than many others. Realize that your biker boss and nobz are going to take a HUGE amount of fire from the moment the game begins. If you end up losing that unit, you aren't left with much and you only have two units that can hold objectives. If you choose, sacrifice the nobz for more boyz in trukks or maybe some killa kanz. Think about re-adding the nobz when you move up to your 1500 points. All of that being said, starting a new army is more about what you're going to enjoy painting and how you prefer to play. I'd love to know what you eventually decide and why since I'm starting out new as well.

Mechanised list is better. Foot slogging may have more troops, but lets face it a 5+ cover save isn't anything to write home about is it?

Also out of a 1,000 list those nob bikers are swallowing up a lot of points...

Thanks for your feedback and votes thus far. I'm reading posts from different forums and, when available, the blogs of their respective authors.

I'm still keeping my comments to a minimum as to avoid bias. However, I'll post my reasoning to show how you helped with my final decision as a token of appreciation.

Personal preference in those two is the sloggin. They've got to kill 20 orks from each unit in order to even begin to slow you down. It'll never happen. 90 orks in that small of points is scary.

I do prefer mech lists, but with yours I would worry about not having enough troops to hold objectives. I'm new to 5th as well - old space wolf player from 3rd edition, but it seems like there are just too many objective based missions not to have your army prepared for it.

At 1000 points, I'd go with one hq (currently, you've got nearly a quarter of your points in hq) and lots of troops. keep the bikers and warboss, but consider dropping the mek and lootas to buy two more units of truck boyz. 5 full trukks gives you better staying power.

just my front two teeth

Guys, thanks for your thoughtful comments. I studied them thoroughly, then went through various tactica and the rulebook again. I've a few conclusions, but not a final decision just yet.

Across the different forums, overall people preferred the footslogger list slightly, but I noticed it's because the mechanized list was too "Toyz Over Boyz" (especially the Nob Bikerz.)

Now, I've reconstructed both lists to spread out the points more evenly. Both lists benefitted, but the improvement is probably greater in the mechanized list. Please take a look.

For those that've already posted, have these changes changed your mind please? For new posters to this thread, what do you think is better?

Please also keep in mind my opponents mix of 1) Space Marines, 2) Imperial Guard, 3) Orks/Chaos, 4) everything else.

----------------------
Footslogger version 2.0: 1000 pts
----------------------

HQ: Big Mek
w/ kustom force field
85 pts

ELITE: 15 Lootas
225 pts

TROOPS: 30 Slugga Boyz
w/ 2 big shootas, nob, power klaw, bosspole
230 pts

TROOPS: 30 Shoota Boyz
w/ 2 big shootas, nob, power klaw, bosspole
230 pts

TROOPS: 30 Shoota Boyz
w/ 2 big shootas, nob, power klaw, bosspole
230 pts

----------------------
Mechanized version 2.0: 1000 pts
----------------------

HQ: Big Mek
w/ kustom force field, grot oiler
88 pts

HQ: Big Mek
w/ shokk attack gun
95 pts

ELITE: Lootas (joined by SAG Mek)
225 pts

TROOPS: 11 Trukka Slugga Boyz (joined by KFF Mek)
w/ nob, power klaw, bosspole, trukk
141 pts

TROOPS: 12 Trukka Slugga Boyz
w/ nob, power klaw, bosspole, trukk
147 pts

TROOPS: 12 Trukka Shoota Boyz
w/ a big shoota, nob, power klaw, bosspole, trukk
152 pts

TROOPS: 12 Trukka Shoota Boyz
w/ a big shoota, nob, power klaw, bosspole, trukk
152 pts

----------------------

I'm coming closer and closer to a final list. I appreciated your pointing out the flaws in my previous lists, and I hope to hear more of your opinions.

For the footslogger list you may consider a dreadbash. This is basically where you stick 9x killa kans and a bunch of deff dreads infront of your footslogging boys in that last 500 pts. Consider taking a second big mek with KFF. 2x meks with KFF will give a bunch of your dreads 4+ cover saves to outright ignore fire incoming on them. The big wall of kans with grotzookas, rokkits or the like can spit out a considerable amount of high strength firepower while walking or running forward every turn with a fat wall of 90 something orks behind them, which get a 4+ cover save from hiding behind the kans.

It's incredibly scary to fight.

I second ARRRGH, Kan Wall can be quite intimidating, for opponents who are expecting a plain Footslogging list.

I just noticed this thread is only 1000pts though haha. Kan wall only really works in 1500 pts and up. But give it a try.

Thanks for all your insight. I promised to reply, sorry I been busy recently, but I've basically decided on the footslogger approach.

I want to explain my reasons to show appreciation for both sides of the "footslogger vs mechanized question." Really, the decision really came down to "why play Orks in the 1st place."

1st, I noticed a lot of minor, yet good, variations on the footslogger theme. I think the fundamental point was that there were more options for footsloggers available to Orks.

2nd, I had a tough time tweaking the mechanized list. Every time I fixed 1 issue, another seemed to come up. Ultimately, it was really how trukks have few defensive options (no smoke, low armor) yet can only carry a relatively small unit. I always feel like the opponent will just divide and conquer my forces if I had to spread them to fit in trukks.

3rd, it was about the opponents' mix of armies. They'll probably have better mechanized AND anti-mech counter-measures. It's like if I went mech with Orks, I'll be trying to face my opponents on their terms rather than mine.

4th, I was looking at scaling up to 1,500 points. With the footslogger, I could see adding Killa Kans, which naturally compliments the army's style. For the mechanized, there's still a lot of argument, especially since the anti-mech threats seem to grow as the points level goes up.

5th, there's few horde armies, which gives me an extra edge. Yes, Imperial Guard and Tyranids can do hordes, but I've never seen them IRL. I'm not doing something different merely for the sake of being unique, but I'm playing up the special characteristics of Orks IMHO (high Toughness, Mob Rule, etc.)

In conclusion, there wasn't 1 single key point, but it was how every single issue regarding an Ork army. For footsloggers, every idea was like "that seems to fit Orks." For every mechanized suggestion, I thought "that's cool, but man, I should be playing Space Marines or Chaos Marines instead."

---

I'm still tweaking the footslogger list, such as replacing some Choppa Slugga Boyz with Gretchen or splitting my Lootas into 2 squads, but those are minor adjustments.

For painting/modelling, I'm going with an old technique, which is to separate the Mobs based on their Clan colour schemes. Whereas I find 5th ed is more about choosing 1 theme and sticking to it through out, back in 1st ed there was a lot more variety in painting schemes in a single army. With units of 30, I think this is a good practice, and a lot of fun to show different Ork kulturs in the same army.

Just FYI, at the beginning, I really weighed both choices quite equally, but this process really helped. Thanks all. I'm still considering mechanized armies, but I think I will do it with another race.

Edit - I fixed a typo in the early paragraphs, sorry for any misunderstanding.