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So I decided that in one of my friendly 1000 point games I would try using a Weirdboy to see how it went.

This would replace my warboss but i got some nobz on bikes so it's not a total loss of CC damage.

I was wondering though, what more experienced players thought of the Weirdboy and his usefulness.

Right off the bat i can think of a few reasons he's good:

with a reroll you'll hardly ever get the eadbanger result
he can potentially obliterate a tank (automatic hit, melta)
Frazzle can light up a unit of space marines or the like
If he's with slugga boyz he could give em 5 attacks a piece on the assault
you could get an additional Waaagh.

those are pretty solid things, however the cons are apparent too.

I would just like to mention that I want the pros and cons to be addressed in terms of taking a weirdboy over some other HQ choice. No need to mention how he has only a 6+ save or 2 wounds etc.

Biggest issue in the cons is both other HQ slots have really nice pros that you lose. Warboss is a monster in CC, plus you can take that Nob unit as a troop (and therefore) scoring unit.
Depending on your list, a Mek is a must for a mechanized list with the KFF and if you like dreads, you can field one as a troop and open up that heavy slot for more kans.

I use the weirdboy sometimes and he is either great or awful. That is the biggest x-factor. You know exactly what you are getting with a mek or a warboss, but with a weirdboy, you don't.

Like you said, the powers are awesome, but only if you need them that turn. Shooting attacks only work well if in range, stinks to get the waaagh roll on the turn you were already going to use it. Getting extra attacks on the first turn is not helpful. But if you roll the right number in the right situation, it can be amazing. Deep striking 20+ shoota boys with your weirdboy on turn 2 right next to something juicy. Getting the melta shot with a tank in range. +1 attack the turn you charge. All huge, if you get lucky.

Going back to my initial issue, the biggest thing is not what you get with him, it is what you give up in the HQ slot.

I really like my Warphead. I throw him in into a 30 man squad of boyz with shootas and rockitz. I find he works best with them. He can be a bit wonky at times but for me he is beneficial. He has won me many games simply because he got a lucky deep strike to put him in position to contest objectives. Really the only downside is rolling the +1A when your shooting at things outside of assault range. Totally worth it though.

For 85 points, it seems pretty nice...

Nice:A S6 Ap3 small blast template that always hits
Nice:A S10 Ap 2 Melta that always hits
Nice:Yet another WAAAGH!

depends: +1 A
depends: Deepstrike

Bad: Blowing yourself up...

Every turn you have a 50/50 chance of initially rolling something good, 75/25 chance of re-rolling something good.

The only problem is what do you run him with to raise his LD to 10?

You have to keep in mind that it could end up deep striking...

You have to keep in mind that it could end up getting +1 A...

You have to keep in mind that whatever unit he is in, could break if it suffers enough casualties and then he will be stuck falling back (although you can deepstrike away from your board edge )

Alternatively you can have him just be in a unit of 9 shootas, a Rokkit and a Nob and a bosspole... (12 models total with the warphead) in a trukk with a boarding plank. This creates a cheap unit (231 points) that can give you an extra waaagh, throw a template at a unit, or melt a vehicle or MC... rolling Deepstrike does not hurt the unit that much but it is still quite lame...

There is another option, have him be in a unit of 30 'ardboyz, so you can deepstrike near your opponent and he will have to deal with 29 boyz with 4+ saves and a hidden PK...

The big problem with a weirdboy in smaller point games is that there's a chance of something going horribly wrong. The particular incident in my head is the 'ere we go result, and scattering to where you end up rolling on the mishap table.

In a larger game, not much of a problem.

In a smaller game, the unit could be a nice chunk of your army, and simply go poof.

Yeah I was worried about the deepstrike one too, especially if he is in a large unit. it would be hard to find a safe place to teleport. Hopefully the terrain will be such that i can find a clear spot and just have to deal with being out of range or something, rather than losing the unit.

Deepstriking is not terrible, and with Warphead, it gives you two chances not to mess up. Plus it's a cheap HQ option that has some viability and benefits from big unit sizes when passing psyker tests.

As a matter of fact, I just got done using the warphead in a 830 point game less than an hour ago. It was mostly an experiment by me to see if he was any good, and based on how we played him, he was.

By that I mean, we (friend and I) counted his frazzle and zzap powers as being assault weapons as it was not stated that they weren't directly. I threw him in a trukk with 11 shoota boyz and had it tail after and stay within 6 inches of my KFF from the other trukk, and he did fairly well. Popped Waaagh! on the first turn which was humorous, and gave my footsluggin' group in the back a hand.

On the next turn, he rolled a zzap and fired at the smaller IG tank that has a front AV of 14, and scored a glancing, preventing them from moving. On the following turn though, I rolled an 'ere we go and landed in a pretty big space, giving my boyz plenty to shoot at. I would like to add that I brought the trukk along with the unit, and the book does say that the whole unit is allowed to deep strike, so I included the trukk.

The next turn I rolled a zzap again, and that blew off a weapon from the small IG tank, and set up my PK'd nob to come along and tear it open.

The trukk was destroyed on the next turn by a sentinel, but with the way the objectives were set up, I needed a warpath roll, and I got it. Destroyed his last two troop choices as they were too close with my shootas, then charged the other and with the bonus 1A was able to krump 'em.

So was he useful? You better believe it. But could I have easily gotten an extra deep strike roll, or a waaugh when I already popped mine, or something similar? I love the idea (and I love the model I created, two night goblins glued back to back) but it's far too unpredictable for my tastes. I might use it for larger point games, but it's too hard to pass up on a warboss.

I'm thinking 10-15 Burnas would be a good choice for him(if he's a warphead)

Ead Banger gets re-rolled

The Blasts help vs everything

+1 attack if you Waagh that turn and charge with 10-15 Power weapons

Deep Strike gets rerolled or you DS nearish a unit and Bar-b-que it.

Free waagh is free Waagh

Cons:

The biggest con is the random nature of the powers. You can get 'ere we go when you're two inches away from a vital unit you need to assault, and you can get warpath when you're still 36" away from the army.

And while it's true that the re-roll pretty much mitigates 'eadbanger on the initial roll, it does nothing to prevent it if you get it on the second roll, which happens fairly often since you're trying to get useful powers.

Provides no Psychic Defense to the army. Given that Warbosses and Big Meks do so much more for the army, not providing a defense against psykers limits the weirdboyz overall usefulness.

Like a lot of the random things in the Ork army, it's generally not competitive because it can screw you out of a win (IE Deepstriking it's squad off of an objective in turn 5).

Pro's:

Only Melta in the Ork Army, even if it is AP 2.

Frazzle is great against MEQs.

extra Waaagh!'s can be handy.

Like most of the Random things in the Ork Army, it's a lot of fun to play.

The question of what unit to stick him in is also dicey. I think a squad of Flash Gits would be ideal. They're shooty and have a small enough footprint to be able to deepstrike fairly easily. 30 Shoota boyz is nice too, but trying to deepstrike 31 models without a mishap is tricky.

The FAQ in GW's site deals with what happens to weirdboyz powers when the unit is in a vehicle, check it out if you're going to be running them. 'ere we go sends the squad to deepstrike, but the vehicle remains where it was.

I'm not a weirdboy fan, and have only fielded him when teaching new players the game as a handicap. It really comes down to how you feel about deepstriking him. For me, deepstriking a mob of boyz is just asking to get murdered by blast weaponry, and that's only if you can find a safe place to deepstrike your mob which since I play horde the board tends to be fairly full and useful places to deepstrike safely are rare. The fact is he could just kill his whole unit with a bad deepstrike and often has to go somewhere useless to prevent his deepstrike from screwing you.

His 'eadbanger really doesn't bother me, as if you're spacing your mob out appropriately he'll only only kill a boy or two.

Those are the cons. The things you get in return are 2 decent ranged abilities, a movement ability that's often not useful (since you can run in the shooting phase anyway and can call a WAAAGH! yourself once per game) , and a very nice assault ability that's almost certainly not going to come up on a turn that you're actually in assault.

Then there's there's the weirdboy himself. 6+ armor save, low initiative, 2 wounds, 3 attacks with a 50% chance to have them be power weapons if he's already locked in assault, but if he's not dead after 2 rounds of being struck with T4 and a 6+ save, then you're probably assaulting fluffy teddy bears or something and don't need the power attacks anyway. So mediocre ranged support abilities and exceptionally poor survivability and ability in assault. For the 5 points more you could have a warboss who is an absolute beast in assault and much tougher with his 4+ armor and T5. The choice between them has always been clear for me.

the wierd boy is so incredibly random its rediculous!

Does anybody know what happens if a weirdboy and his unit inside of a battlewagon for example roll the deepstrike power? Do they teleport out of it? Does the battlewagon go with them? does nothing happen? Does anyone even know lol

They teleport out of the transport...