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I wanted to start a shooty ork army for 1500pt but i don't know what makes a good shooty ork army.
Can someone help? (personal experiences or example lists would also help!)

Well If you're footslogging I'd suggest some big gunz. I've had some good experiences with them (up until the outflanking, but that's a different story). If you are going to take big gunz, ammo runts are recommended.

All Orks list needs a basic core of Ork boyz, no matter what you do. A foot-slogging list is probably best, since you can load up on Shoota boys, which pour out alot of a dakka as they march across the field. A Nob with PK/Bosspole is obvious
Obviously, you want them supported by maxed out Loota squads, go for a full two or three squads and have them hang back pouring dakka into stuff. If you choose to take only two squads, a squad of Kommandos with Snikrot wouldnt go amiss, to give your footsloggers a chance.
Big Gunz are good, they're cheap and pour out a surprising amount of dakka too. Most will tell you that the cheap Kannon is the best way to go, but Lobbas arent bad either. You can also have a cheap wall of kans with rokkit launchers to provide some anti-tank firepower.
You can also try deffkoptas/warbuggies to provide anti-tank support as well, zooming up the flanks and taking out some armour.

Thats about all I can think off the top of my head

Flashgitz or bikes are helpful to combat assaults to a gunline list, although most will tell you bikes. A SAG or two will be your HQ choice/s. Other choices include warbiking a warboss to make your roving defense more effective or a KFF if you fear returning fire.

With my firm loathing of KFFs I've tried most of the things I've suggested plus what Ronin tried. (Minus the kommandos - personally I just think it doesn't mesh with shooty orks as kommandos IMO are stabby)

Good shooty Orks still often end the game by murdering things in combat mind you. 2 attacks per boy with furious charge and a hidden PK means that assault is still where you shine, but shoota mobs can also shoot stuff up on the way in.

IMO, a maximized shooting Ork list would look something like:
HQ: Warboss for counterassault or SAG mek (SAG meks aren't as good in 5th where shooting over your own mbos grants 4+ cover to your enemy, denying the AP 2 that makes the SAG worthwhile)
Elites: 3 mobs of 15 lootas. Possibly 2 and snikrot kommandos.
Troops: Gretchin mobs to act as cover and assault screens, and 3 maxed out shoota boyz mobs
Fast: none
Heavy: Some big gunz. Best choice is probably some lobba batteries for splattering troops. Kannon is less useful since AV 13 is uncommon and you've got lots of lootas to open up transports, but not bad.

Everything above will actually run up a little past 1500, so fat would need to be trimmed somewhere. Probably the big gunz and drop a loota from each squad. I left them in there for an idea of things you might expand to.

Weaknesses: land raiders will run roughshod over it, and it doesn't have a really strong assault force like a nob squad or somesuch, but boyz mobs aren't bad in a scrap so it's not a huge factor.

SAG is a nice shooty HQ, and a mob of shoota boys to hide him in isnt a bad idea (unless you roll horribly), but I prefer KFF's for that added protection. Instead of adding that one (or two) big gun to your list, the KFF is a force multiplier, extending protection to your shooty horde, and any vehicles you may have. This way you dont always have to worry about finding cover, and can just blast away with near impunity.

Kommandos might not mesh with the theme of shooty orks, but it provides a nice trump card against anyone who thinks your orks are just gonna run at ya shooting walls of dakka. It might also put the enemy's gunlines into an unfavourable position, giving your boys a better opportunity to charge them in close combat (because shoota boys will dish out alot of hurt in CC).

I'm a big fan of throwing a Zagstruk led Vulcha Boyz at enemies. He pairs up nicely with Snikrot, making opponents pay for leaving units exposed out where I can get 'em.

Alternately, those points could go into 2 walls of kans plus upgrades.

An interesting variant unit for the shooty Ork army are the Rokkit wagon, Killkannon wagon, or looted boomgun wagon.

The main advantage of the BW with 5 rokkits is that it is sturdy. If you take the BW with its cannon (and I can't recall if its the boomgun or the killkannon) give it an ard case, a big shoota and the best 40 point upgrade in the game- a unit of 10 grots as passengers. This turns it into a scoring BW. Shokk Attakk Meks are probably the best templates the Orks can bring.

When I build a shooting ork list, it goes with this progression:

1. Start with three units of 15 Lootas: 675 points

2. Add 1 HQ: Big Mek with Shokk Attack Gun: 95 points

3. Add Gretchin screen (29 gretchin + 2 runtherders): 107 points

4: Add required 2nd troop choice (30 shoota boys, 3 big shootas, nob/pk/bosspole): 235 points

That leaves you 388 points to play with in a 1500 point list. A couple things worth noting:

A.) 2/3 of all games are objective based.

B.) Lootas can't shoot and fire.

C.) The list elaborated on above only has 1 moving unit, and two scoring units.


With that in mind, those 388 spare points have to be spent wisely. If you want more shooting, you add kannon batteries. If you want a chance for winning non-annihilation games, you add more scoring units.

I like to make my shooty army a mini dread-bash by putting 3 Kans (with Grotzookas) in fron of the SAG/loota/shoota block. Gives them a nice coversave, and if you give the Kans a KFF Mek, it makes them hard to deal with. I would say that 6 Grotzooka templates count as shooty! You can also combine your SAG Mek (don't forget his ammo grot) with a Cannon Battery - he can target a different unit than the gunz and he can use them as ablative wounds.

Dashofpepper wrote:
B.) Lootas can't shoot and fire.

Er, this is an oxymoron...now if you meant they can't MOVE and fire, then that would be right

I agree with what dash said, mostly. At 1500 points, 45 lootas would be half your army, and you only really need two mobs of them (one for each half of the board)

You want lots of shoota boyz. A shooty ork army needs to throw as many bullets down-range as possible, because the ork army dosn't have anyone who can aim too well, so you will need to inflict damage via torrent of fire. Also keep in mind that all the lootas in the world won't dent a Land Raider, the only thing you have that can really open one of those is a Power Klaw, so keep some of them as well. An SAG is a good choice for an ork gunline, but another option might be Wazzdakka Gutsmek. His gun is an anti-tank gun, unlike the SAG which should mostly be shooting at infantry.

YEs, I meant move and fire.

And I think the three squads of Lootas is important. Shoota boys can be outranged and ignored - Lootas cannot.

Get 2 Sags, they're very killy and only screw up some of the time.
Personally, I wouldn't waste my time with shoota Boyz. They're alright, but I find the slugga/choppa combo to me much more devastating.

Dashofpepper wrote:YEs, I meant move and fire.

And I think the three squads of Lootas is important. Shoota boys can be outranged and ignored - Lootas cannot.

Obviously I'm a big fan of lootas. I think they are the best unit in the codex.

That said running 45 of them is pretty difficult for logistical reasons. It's hard to actually deploy that many and still have decent LOS to everything, especially in DOW or Spearhead games.

I find there is kinda a diminishing returns of sorts on lootas past the initial 20-25 or so. You can put more on the table, but chances are they aren't going to have the best shot options. That won't stop me from running 30-45 if I have the points to do it mind you, but I think I'd diversify a bit on my models after the first 25-30 and then maybe come back to them if I have points left over.

Shoota boys in a battlewagon are a house btw. I like running them with a full loadout of rockitts and a kannon. If you move 7 you can shoot with everyone 18" (39 + shots/13 Hits/7 Wounds) plus a rockitt shot and a kannon shot. If you are stationary you get the 39 shots plus 5 more str 8 shots or 4 str 8 shots and a small blast. Dump shoota dakka into infantry and the rockitts into a vehicle.