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So please try to not get this thread locked(as happened to my other speed freaks one)
but here goes
So I have played 2 games(destroyed by nids and chaos) with my speed freaks and am still getting them down but what hints does dakka have to offer me, I really want to get better with them. . .
my list is 4 trukks with boyz/nob/pk/bosspole
biker boss
really expensive nob bikers

my trukks always get blown away fairly early on and pie plates finish off the mobs, the nobs eat a unit then die to massed fire. . . I was thinking about dropping the nobs good idea or bad?
(sorry about the disorganized state of this post)
just some general hints and advice about speed freaks would be nice
thanks a ton dakka

Try out some regular warbikes and add in more trukks. 4 trukks are very easy to stop. Also, you need some rokkits somewhere. I would suggest some deffkoptas, they fit your theme, and they also scout as well as other neat tricks.

Your trukks might live longer if you stick a Kustom Force Field in your list somewhere.

The problem is, nob bikers. The nob bikers mob, is an incredibly over inflated unit. When people first stumbled upon them, they seemed to be invincible and just the best. Now, people have played against them, and know all too well how to stop them. SM, for example, just missle launcher them to death with ease. Ive tried a couple times using them, and the SM player I play against, did just that. Insta killing nob bikers SUCK!

You need more trukks for your trukk idea to work. Period. 4 is just not going to cut it. Id say dump the nob bikers. You can take a biker boss, and a mob of biker boyz if you want. They are pretty good, and alot cheaper. Also taking a BigMek with a KFF is the way to go, in pretty much ANY Ork army build. Stick a KFF in one of the trukks, and then keep the rest close enough to gain the cover save. Getting a 4+ cover save from that is just bananas!

You can dig up some of DashofPepper threads about running mech Orks. He seems to of gotten a slap in the face from the more competitive players, BUT that doesnt mean his thoughts on how to run them in that style isnt worth reading. There ya go! Anything else you need help with? It also might help to know at least some what, of what your opponents played with, so we can better see why/how you got stomped

I second that. DashofPepper has some very good and valuable tips and advice on running Orks of any kind.

But generally, get more Trukks, as others have said, and a KFF Mek to go with them. Will improve their survivability a long way. Exchanging the nob bikers for regular warbikers as an entourage for your biker boss is also probably a better idea, if you still wish to run your biker boss.

Battlewagons are also a good idea, with their AV14 front they can protect your trukks who are revving behind them, and they still fit the Speed Freeks theme.

Battle wagons are an iffy in this build. The only reason I say that, is because they are alot slower then the rest of the build. So your either going to run those in front, and slow the army down, or they will lag behind. Granted, the lag COULD work in your favor, as kind of a second wave. But that doesnt always work the way you want. Normally its, oh cool the BW got here, but everything is dead, and now Im staring down the business end of the enemy army lol.

Deff koptas are nice for this though. They are REALLY fast, AND scout, AND can all have PK. This is one of those things where youd probably want to play test to see what fits best for your play style

The last ingredient to Speed Freaks armies that hasn't been mentioned yet is Warbuggies/Wartrakks. They're a little less of a popular choice, generally, but they can run interference by either racing ahead of the main group and harassing the enemy (with either skorchas to kill infantry blobs or rokkits to hopefully pop a tank), or they can drive in front or alongside your other, more expensive vehicles and provide cover to them, which would be useful if you want to try and pincer around your opponent and can't get all your vehicles under that one Kustom Force Field.

They're not stellar units, but Fast can make a difference, the extra firepower never hurts, and they're pretty cheap (much cheaper than those Nobz you're running, anyway).

I actually think the battlewagon is a solid choice. I would always put my big mek with the KFF in the battlewagon with some boyz. Yes the battlewagon will lage behinde the trucks but not enuff to matter. Have all your other trucks gather around the battlewagon and move forward. This way your KFF will always be up and running. Getthing threw 14 av and then the kff is pretty tough at times.

I always found this to be the best way to go. But if points are tight a big mek in a trukk works just as well.

and as everyone else has said. Drop the nob bikers they are mean but they cost and tone. Dropping those will free up alot of points.

Perhaps try Wazz... He let's you take bikers as troops, and that will free up your fast attack for Koptas, which can be very powerful with rokkits , scout movement, and buzzsaws.

Im with nightwatch on that one. Any way for me to fill the needed 2 troop choices in a FOC with something other then boyz is what I try for, when points/builds are getting tight.

I agree with the buggies too. Someone on here, has a build where they can fire like 20-30 rokkits a turn, or something along those lines. Thats alot of rokkits in the air if you ask me. I further agree simply on how cheap they are. I mean they are 30pts bone stock, 35 with TL rokkits (which is nice) and you can run 1-3 in a unit. And seeing as a standard nob biker mob hits the 600+ pts rather fast, you could take a bunch of buggies. And they have armor value, sure its paper thin, but sometimes armor, no matter how thin, becomes a pain in the ass to punch threw.

^^ Listen to the genius ^^

hmmm,.....yes

So in the game against nids, he was playing a tygron alpha, carnifex, hive tyrant, hormagaunts, termagaunts with devourers, tervigon, warriors, genestealers, and hive guard. . . the hive guard just ripped through my trukks, then the big boys ate what was inside. .


I am going to get buggies but was going to wait until they release a new model(which is happening soon right?), then the bikers as troops is a good idea, since they can gun 19-24" and give my trukks some cover as they follow the bikers/warboss
I'm not so sure about the battlewagon as it seems in my list it would just be a fire magnet for anti-vehicle stuff.

A battle wagon is almost always a smart move. Fire magnet = perfect. But the bigmek w/KFF inside and laugh as half the shots do nothing, and the rest struggle to punch through.


And since your playing against nids.... they have poor armor saves, stick a deff rolla on it while your at it. Just run those basterds over. And for the hell of it, do what EVERY smart Ork player does, and put 15 Burna Boyz inside said Battlewagon. That way if your in the thick of it, you can tank shock 6 inches or less, and then burn the piss out of all those bugs.
Or reinforce ram a trukk, and have it infront of the battlewagon to tank shock. That way they are all in a nice tight group, so the Burnas can kill 2 times as many bugs. Thatll put the fear in your Nids opponents. Seeing a big ass gaunts squad burnt to a crisp in one turn.

Ive always said one of the best tactics you can do, is scaring your opponent. If you can shake them, even once, they will start to screw things up just because that image stays in their heads.

I've heard of an ork strategy getting 7 Battlewagons into an army (3 Nobs elites with dedicated transport, 3 Heavy Support BWs, 1 Warboss so another Nob troop choice with DT BW comes in) with a Big Mek with KFF in a BW and simply driving over everything in sight, hoping that 7 14 AV vechikles runs over entire armies.

The only other thing about a battlewagon is the theme aspect, it doesn't seem to fit with the whole speed freaks image, but it sounds like a good idea. . . there goes $60

Huffy wrote:The only other thing about a battlewagon is the theme aspect, it doesn't seem to fit with the whole speed freaks image, but it sounds like a good idea. . . there goes $60

You'd better be spending that $60 on plasticard, foam core, random bits, and eBayed GI Joe vehicles to scratchbuild your Battlewagon with, because buying the official GW kit is heresy of the highest order.

Unless you're just buying it for all the bits to use on four different other projects, of course.

Hey now, I like the GW battlewagon lol.


They really dont seem to fit in the hardcoreness that can be speed freaks, as everything else moves faster. But youll find that even one battlewagon can make a difference from loosing to winning. But if you were going to do a 7 battlewagon list, Id highly recommend doing the scratch build. Because thats alot of money for those lol

Mind you, as a new ork player and from what I am learning by being just a plain 'ole ork player, I'm open to EVERY idea out there (especially the ones within my price range).

Well, how about maxing out as many deffkoptas as you can field? Give each a rokkit launcha and one in each squad a buzzsaw. For kicks, add some bigbomms as well.

As it is, 675 points means 3 full squads of deffkoptas. Throw in 3 buzzsaws for 75 more points and BAM, almost half an army worth of tank hunting powerklaw wielding jetbikers.

Of course, that might just be overkill.

EDIT: Might as well explain the benefits:
If I read the rules right, they can outflank opponents if they come in from reserve, and they act as great distractions with their scout ability. That may help your trukk boyz get into kombat fasta. In addition, they have great saves at +4 (for orks anyway) and great mobility. So when you expect alot of low AP high STR attacks, get those bogged down real quick with koptas or outflank when facing another type of army.

WarOne wrote:Mind you, as a new ork player and from what I am learning by being just a plain 'ole ork player, I'm open to EVERY idea out there (especially the ones within my price range).

Well, how about maxing out as many deffkoptas as you can field? Give each a rokkit launcha and one in each squad a buzzsaw. For kicks, add some bigbomms as well.

As it is, 675 points means 3 full squads of deffkoptas. Throw in 3 buzzsaws for 75 more points and BAM, almost half an army worth of tank hunting powerklaw wielding jetbikers.

Of course, that might just be overkill.

EDIT: Might as well explain the benefits:
If I read the rules right, they can outflank opponents if they come in from reserve, and they act as great distractions with their scout ability. That may help your trukk boyz get into kombat fasta. In addition, they have great saves at +4 (for orks anyway) and great mobility. So when you expect alot of low AP high STR attacks, get those bogged down real quick with koptas or outflank when facing another type of army.

I've actually fielded that formation in an apoc game (it comes with fun apoc rules, 15 shot apocalyptic barrage ) and it was pretty fun.
It's quite pricey for regular army play, however, and point for point koptas aren't that efficient in combat despite their mobility benefits.

WarOne wrote:Mind you, as a new ork player and from what I am learning by being just a plain 'ole ork player, I'm open to EVERY idea out there (especially the ones within my price range).

Well, how about maxing out as many deffkoptas as you can field? Give each a rokkit launcha and one in each squad a buzzsaw. For kicks, add some bigbomms as well.

As it is, 675 points means 3 full squads of deffkoptas. Throw in 3 buzzsaws for 75 more points and BAM, almost half an army worth of tank hunting powerklaw wielding jetbikers.

Of course, that might just be overkill.

EDIT: Might as well explain the benefits:
If I read the rules right, they can outflank opponents if they come in from reserve, and they act as great distractions with their scout ability. That may help your trukk boyz get into kombat fasta. In addition, they have great saves at +4 (for orks anyway) and great mobility. So when you expect alot of low AP high STR attacks, get those bogged down real quick with koptas or outflank when facing another type of army.

Problem with this is that they can't take bosspoles You lose 2 koptas to a couple of S8 shots and you risk them all running off the table. That, and that they are quite expensive.

Well you CAN solve the problem of them running off, if you give them a simple task, and then make them become suicide squad. That many kotas with all those buzzsaws, and rokkits, they are going to blow up something. Once you scout in and blow that said something to smithereens, then just bull charge them into something important and let the not only tie it up, but kill things in the process. And so its not a HUGE waste of points, dont give them big bomms.

I once took three deffkoptas as separate units. They managed to turbo boost in the scout move, and then blow up a Vindicator, a Dread, and immobilize a Rhino. After that, they charged into various units and stuck there for 2-3 turns. I certainly think they have the ability to earn their points back, but I think it really depends on the type of game you play.

Thanks for all the replies. . . and off topic(I'm not sure if I can do this on dakka) but what are the measurements for the battlewagon(If I'm gonna scratch build I want it to be the same measurements)
also wanted to throw this in but are shooty wagons effective?(scare up the opponent into directing fire at it, leaving the trukks alone)

Yea you can ask for measurements on vehicles and the like. Nothing wrong with that at all. The battle wagon with the ram on front, no hard case is as follows
The rear open section is just under 3 inches tall from ground to top
The front section is 2 3/4 tall
Rear is 3 1/2 inches wide (looking down on it)
Front is 2 1/2 wide that narrows to 1 1/2 (again looking down)
About 6 1/2 inches long from front of ram to very back of BW (looking at the under side)

There ya go. As far as shooting goes, they are about as good as anything else in the Ork army for shooting. Works better with alot of bullets, but it doesnt have alot of bullets. The best way to make it a fire magnet, is what youve got inside of it. Have a BigMek KFF with burna boyz inside it. Thatll scare someone. Tell them its got Thraka and a ton of nobz/boyz inside. Basically the guns ona BW are for soaking up weapon destroyed results. Other then that, kind of a hit and miss with them.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
OH YEA the ram is 3 inches wide from side to side. Forgot that one lol

Re: Battlewagon sizes, a lot of traditional Ork players consider the official wagon to be kinda shrimpy compared to what it's "supposed to be" in the collective imagination of the playing populace.

My general guideline for Battlewagons is never more than 8 inches long, and not much more than 3 inches wide, with height pretty much up to you. This leaves you with a vehicle a little bit bigger than a Land Raider, but still smaller than Superheavies like Baneblades, so it's fair game. It also looks plenty intimidating and fits the role of Battlewagons as basically big armored buses.

NidMaster40000 wrote:I once took three deffkoptas as separate units. They managed to turbo boost in the scout move, and then blow up a Vindicator, a Dread, and immobilize a Rhino. After that, they charged into various units and stuck there for 2-3 turns. I certainly think they have the ability to earn their points back, but I think it really depends on the type of game you play.

You can only charge what you shot at though (I'm assuming you mean they charged on turn 1, since most opponents will shoot them out of the sky after that) >.<

number9dream wrote:

NidMaster40000 wrote:I once took three deffkoptas as separate units. They managed to turbo boost in the scout move, and then blow up a Vindicator, a Dread, and immobilize a Rhino. After that, they charged into various units and stuck there for 2-3 turns. I certainly think they have the ability to earn their points back, but I think it really depends on the type of game you play.

You can only charge what you shot at though (I'm assuming you mean they charged on turn 1, since most opponents will shoot them out of the sky after that) >.<

I think he meant the turn after, but we get no idea of the time span of what these deffkopyas were doing to pop 3 vechikles.

Anyway, 3 deffkoptas in 3 seperate squadrons with buzzsaws work as well as 15 in 3. You can use the other 400+ points to field that Nob squad with Painboy and bike/trukk em up.

Id say trukk. Mainly because its cheaper then bikes, AND after you drop cargo, you can use the trukk to block LOS and the like. If it dosent explode before then of course