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I am new to orks and 40k in general but have been making the rounds on various forums doing searches regarding tactics and lists. I have an upcoming game against a space marine player at 1000pts and am planning to run the following list if I dont go mech:

HQ: Boss, Klaw, Squig: 100
T1: 30 Shootas (Nob w/Klaw and Pole): 220
T2: 30 Shootas (Nob w/klaw and pole): 220
T3: 30 Shootas (Nob w/klaw and pole): 220
T4: 28 grots (2 runtherders): 104
FA1: Kopta w/ Rokkits: 45
FA2: Kopta w/ Rokkits: 45
FA3: Kopta w/ Rokkits: 45

What I am looking for is advice regarding how I should deploy a footslogging army and advance troops so that they can support each other. My opponent is likely bringing an all bike army led by a captain. Assuming I go first, my plan is to deploy in the center with the grots out front to screen fire and help trap the bikes so they cant keep driving around me. How should I arrange my boys squads? I was thinking of placing one squad in the middle with the other two behind it and on the sides in a phalanx. Does this make sense?

Make a giant curtain of green across the field, then advance. When you reach his side of the field, smash him.

Advice: Keep 2 squads together to act as one. 60 orks do Better than 30

Are you guys advocating running the boyz squads side by side with the grots in front so the whole board is covered? This worried because a fast army (SM bikers) could easily overwhelm a squad and only one other squad would be able to support it.

The Deffkoptas are too fast. They will get too far ahead of the rest of the army and just die, which isn't bad for some suicide units but launching a suicide attack to shoot a few BS2 rokkits just doesn't make sense to me.

Lootas would be a good add on since your army is already shooty, and you'll have so many boys in front of them they should always get a 4+ cover save. Enemy infantry will also get the cover save, but that doesn't matter for MEQ units, and MC/Vehicles won't get cover.
A big mek to give all your troops a 5+ cover save in the open may also be good.

DooDoo wrote:Are you guys advocating running the boyz squads side by side with the grots in front so the whole board is covered? This worried because a fast army (SM bikers) could easily overwhelm a squad and only one other squad would be able to support it.

No, it can't. It really can't. A squad of SM Bikers does NOT want to get into assault with even a single mob of Ork Boyz. 5 SM Bikers vs. 30 Boyz = 5 dead SM Bikers, maybe 3-4 dead boyz. Even 10 Bikers have literally no chance against a big mob of Slugga Boyz. Agaisnt Shootas, it's a bit more iffy.

The only unit in an all-biker army that would have any chance of beating you in assault might be the HQ, but if he's got a tooled-up HQ in a 1000 point game, he has fewer troops to work with, which means each model will be soaking up more attacks and the army will die faster.

My recommendation would actually be to drop the Koptas and grots, and play with 4 full-size mobs of Sluggas instead of Shootas. Use the extra points to give your Warboss 'eavy armor or a cybork body to up his survivability. Then deploy your 120 assault specialists in a great big line across the board, and sweep forward. That's a list win; the bike army will have no chance in assault, and as long as you cover the board they'll have nowhere to go. You'll table him.

Here are some general thoughts.

Know thy enemy
He will be fielding 2-3 squads of bikes, with a HQ and maybe some attack bike support. You can expect him to have about 25 models on the board total. His army will not be that great at assault, and he will probably want to try and shoot you down. If he does close, he will be closing with all his forces onto one of your squads. If he does that, you can expect to have high (or complete) losses.

Bike armies usually try and come in on reserve. This limits the number of turns he will be on the board, which you can use to your advantage.
Make him go first. He will try and contest/snag objectives on the final turns if he is smart. If you go last, you have an extra turn to destroy his models.
Bikes hate AP1 weapons. A nob with a PK will be eating 2+ bikes a round, and the marine does not have that many models to spare.


General Strategy
Your game will be about VPs or objectives.
VPs
If your doing VPs, then your deffkoptas will be a big hinderance. Keep them turbo-boosting the entire game and pray for good luck. If you put them into just 1 squad, they give up a lot less VPs.

Layer your orks like the flakes in a pie crust. The goal is you want to have your grots in the front, with one squad behind them getting cover from the grots, then another squad getting cover from the orks that are being covered by the grots, etc... This prevents any of your units from not getting cover. If he has flamers on bikes, keep your boys as far apart as possible, otherwise crunch up as he has no templates.

You need to have some good AP, high strength weapons to do this. Normally I would not suggest it, but if you put 3 rokkits in each slugga squad, you will rip him to shreads. You will be killing 3+ bikes a turn on average, and he can't take those losses. Drop your grots if you need to in order to accomplish this.

Your best best is to keep him from getting turns to kill you. Crowd your army into one corner of the board. Hide in cover to the best of your ability. He will be trying to pluck off 1-2 of your squads (or deffkoptas!) and running from you for the rest of the game. You will never catch him. If you have rokkits, you will make him afraid to get near you.

Objectives
If your working on objectives, then your job is much easier. Luckly for you 2/3 of the games are objective based, so this will make your job easier.

In this case, blob your army to the center of the board. Cover as many objectives as you can. Your goal is to have 1 squad on some objectives near you, 1 squad on objectives near him, and 1 squad in the middle to provide support if he starts to overwhelm you. Get in cover and go to ground if you start taking heavy fire. Blob your army around the objective so its impossible for him to get within 6" of it.

Use your deffkoptas to contest objectives starting turn 5. Just turbo boost them next to his objectives and pray the 3+ cover save keeps you alive. He can't blob over the objectives like you can, therefore you will have an advantage in that regard.


Tactics
Keep your army in cover whenever possible. Its better to run and get in cover than shoot and not have cover. 20+ TL bolters will rip a ork squad apart up close.
If he does close on your squad and wipe it out, try and get the assault with another squad. Even one of your PK nobs will do huge amounts of damage to his squads. If he falls back, he falls back 3d6", which can easily push him off the board.

Save your Waaaaaaagh for when he is just close enough. Once you engage his forces, unless he fails his leadership he will be bogged in assault with you. Bikes suck in assault as they have 1 attack each. Once you remove his speed, then he falls prey to your horde.

Labmouse42 gives good advice, listen to it

Thanks for the advice guys. The other idea I was toying with is dropping the Koptas and Grots to add Grotsnik and a squad of ard boyz as follows:

HQ: Mad Doc 160
T1: 30 Ard Boyz w/ Nob + Klaw 215 (the Doc will lead these guys)
T2: 30 Slugga Boyz w/ nob = 220
T3: 30 Slugga Boyz w/nob = 220
FA1: Kopta w/ Klaw = 60

Do you think that this would fare better against the bikes?

It might work fine, but it will eliminate some of your options since you'll have to move forward with that squad, and the rest to support them.
Numbers will probably do the job better than the ard boyz, additionally because the bikes will have less room to run away.

Also 30 ard boyz with PK nob is 335 points rather than 215 listed. Though it looks like you just wrote it wrong since your total is still 995 for a 1000 point list. Could take a random big shoota or 'eavy armor to fill the last 5 points for kicks.