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I've been at it for several months now trying to find the right play style for me and my orks. I've learned the Codex from front to back, read the tactical guides and gone to local gaming stores to gain a perspective on the matter as well as learn what I could from my own play group as to what I should do. I've also read up on Dash's stellar success as an Ork player and was attempting to finalize what I want my orks to do (I'm also trying to learn vassal, but one step at a time folks ).

So I was wondering what others thought of when they made their lists or believe what an Ork player should go for. Now I will list what I have tried below and give you a feel for what I have done to make several kinds of lists in order to show what I've been attempting, and maybe correcting or guiding me on the proppa path.

Assume army point costs were around 1000 at first then gradually climbed to 1850 (my target goal as to what the local gaming stores generally attempt)

First army: Bought a buncha AOBR orks from the set and threw them together Green Tide style. What didn't impress me was their speed in getting to enemy ranks, and was a bit perturbed at how many I have to lose to get to the enemy. Also, modeling 100 some odd orks was not my idea of fun.

Second attempt: Threw in Zagstruk led Vulchaboyz and started experimenting with Kommando style boyz led by Snikrot. It meant fewer boyz, but it gave me reach and the ability to place models where I wanted. Also threw in Deffkoptas at this point and a KFF Big Mek to give boyz cover. Lastly, started adding Lootas and Big Gunz with a SAG Big Mek, giving me ranged firepower. This development gave me a sizeable army, but started to lose regular boyz unit as I had to lower model counts for several of the units. Also managed to get more than enuff shoota boyz to fill out that part of the army.

What I liked about this was again, Zaggy and Snikky as they had the ability to hem in opponents. I still had to slog however across a killing field, and against a Tau player, not a fun thing to do. With the ranged support however it makes my army a bit more flexible in what it could do. I have a feeling however I was stretching my resources too thin in order to do too much, especially since a third of the army went to the Stormboyz, Kommandos, and only a handful of points went to big gun heavy slots.

Where I am at now: Bought a bunch of the new Killa Kans and started finetuning a list for a Kan Wall, but still find that the list suffers from slogging woes. I posted a potential list of 9 Kans with 9 Rokkit Buggies supporting essentially a list with the rest boyz, lootas, and other things. Only problem is getting rokkit buggies as been difficult to say the least. So the list isn't active atm.

I've also become interested in a mech list akin to DashofPepper's, as his Battlewagon/Prophet/Burna/Mech oriented army has proven to be a fairly solid army. But I've not tried it nor attempted collecting models to begin it.

Which leads me back to my question. What would you consider the best overall list for an Ork player to use, and maybe one suited to me.

Only problem is getting rokkit buggies as been difficult to say the least.

Are you having a hard time finding the models? Just make your own =) I didn't want to buck up $25 per model, so I bought one for sizing and then made 8 more, see attached.

I've had a lot of success with this list at 2000pts:


HQ - 170 pts

Big Mek - KFF
Big Mek - KFF

Elite - 450 pts

15 Lootas
15 Lootas

Troops - 660 pts

30 Ork Boyz, nob pk bosspole
30 Ork Boyz, nob pk bosspole
30 Ork Boyz, nob pk bosspole

Fast - 315 pts

3 Warbuggies with TL Rokkits
3 Warbuggies with TL Rokkits
3 Warbuggies with TL Rokkits

Heavy
3 Killa Kans with grotzooka
3 Killa Kans with grotzooka
3 Killa Kans with grotzooka

What is that material that you made the buggies from?

The Wheels and Rocket pod structure is just using Dowells from the Hardware store. They sell both circular and square.

The fenders, body, ram and base are just layers of plasticard from my hobby store.

It is surprisingly fast if you work in assembly line fashion: IE cutting out 6 bumpers, then 6 sets of fenders, etc. I made 2 to begin with, and then assembly lined the next 6 in a pretty short amount of time.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Forgot to mention, the whole project probably cost me like $25 to make 8 of the buggies.

Cost was my sole reason for doing these.

Very crafty, they look good. That kan wall list is a good start, customize to your own preferences. I *highly* recommend magnetizing at least the gun arms of the kans so that you can rotate between grotzookas, rokkits, KMBs, etc. depending on the needs of your current list. I can vouch for dread bash being a decent list, especially when supported by swarms of shoota boyz, though it doesn't scale well. At low points (1500 or less) all those kans are really hard to deal with. Toss in a deffdread or two as a troop choice (not scoring, but hard to kill when you have 9 kans out there as well) and you create nightmares for lower point games.

WarOne wrote:

Which leads me back to my question. What would you consider the best overall list for an Ork player to use, and maybe one suited to me.

This is the appropriate time to tell you to go get Vassal. You can playtest your various army builds before going out and buying the models for them. I've written volumes in tactic articles and such and am not going to spew it all out here again, but here's something to think about:


I think that the key to building a good list is to put in units that serve a specific purpose, preferably a dual-purpose. Example: Lootas are good for infantry, MCs or light transports.

The units you choose and their numbers are of secondary importance to their ability to work with each other, compliment each other, reinforce each others' weaknesses, and serve a distinct purpose in the game. Every unit in every list is chosen for a specific purpose, so that when I play a game I can assess my opponent's list, create some general assumptions about their tactics, and respond. I'd like to think that my lists have the tools to deal with anything I see on a table (repeating myself in different ways now).

Example: If you're leaning towards a kan-wall list, you need to be able to answer everything you see - light transports, heavy transports, spammed transports, deep striking demons, massed units, monstrous creatures, gunlines, assault armies....

ONce you've picked the units that you want to react to each of those, preferably with a dual-purpose build, you need to figure out how to build them into each other so you know what to use and when.

I don't know the point level you're after, but here's the Kan-wall I'd expect to see for maximum effectiveness:


1-2 Big meks with KFFs.
2-3 units of 30 boyz.
Maybe one unit of 10 gretchin.
2-3 full units of Lootas
1-3 deffkoptas
9 Killa-kans with rokkit launchas.

Grotzookas are nice, but impractical for competitive lists given today's preponderance of mechanized lists.

It sounds like a personal issue with what type of army you really want to play.
Good things Orkses are so flexible!


You mention that you dislike slow plodding footsloggers and you dislike losing boys before they hit your enemy's lines.
You also said painting hundreds of models is not your preference.

So the question is, do you want to go really really fast or be an unstoppable armored killing machine?

Kult of Speed for your inner speed daemon or KanWall for your inner giant killing machine.


I love speed freekz personally. I get to put orky boot to face, right after leaping off of a speeding trukk.
I'm usually stuck in by Turn2 (if not Turn1 occasionally) and my entire line has either an AV or a turboboost option.
I might lose 2-3 trukks before I hit your lines, but the other 3-6 vehicles are gonna be in your face.

I like the idea of KanWall too, but it's not my style.
The idea of a big line of mechanized walkers marching onwards shrugging off incoming fire is pretty epic and Orks are one of the only armies able to do it.
The catch of this for you is that you're still relying on a mass of boyz on foot that run behind your wall of kans... more models to paint this, though a fair bit fewer than a regular green tide...



Kan Wall is a fairly competitive list though, while KoS takes a fair bit of finesse to compete.
For friendly games, I find KoS a ton of fun though.

GW's FAQ release really brought back what Nash calls the "ork meltagun". I still love the kan wall, and pure ork gunline works for me too, but a new (old) type of ork list has (re)surfaced...

Big Mek KFF

5x lootas
5x lootas
5x lootas

19x shoota boys nob klaw pole
19x shoota boys nob klaw pole
19x shoota boys nob klaw pole
10x grots

3x rokkit buggies
3x rokkit buggies
3x rokkit buggies

battlewagon red paint deffrolla big shoota grot rigger
battlewagon red paint deffrolla big shoota grot rigger
battlewagon red paint deffrolla big shoota grot rigger

I don't even know what that points out at... Something like 1500ish points? This list could accommodate a nob unit and a warboss in a battlewagon (or a trukk) depending on points size. This type of list will cure you of your 'slogging' woes. It can hold its own against tau and IG gunlines, if played carefully.

i have found my self doing very very well with a mech ork build at my local store. they only real problem i have is with this one DE witch cult spam build. i have done lots of play testing and now starting to fill in the holes in my list and find the mech build to be fun and easy to setup (lol and you dont have to move 100+ models each turn).

the Kan wall was my first choice but just never dropped the money on 9 metal kan kits. lol now the new kits are out i am trying to put the finishing touches on my mech build so i can go back to my first choice.

now both lists sound like they can do very well in the right hands so its all really up to you and your style.

Old trukks make great buggies. That is what i have done with mine. I have 6 old trukks that i fill the bed with TL rokkits and use gretchin as the crew since they look alot better in the front seat then the old gorilla orks. You should be able to get them cheap also.

Thank you all for the responses. Now I have to see what I want to do with creating a new list.

The absolute no joke best list i have seen played by orks is always, always fast. I started an ork army last October, and every fortnight or so, after a few games with the list, i would modify it, changing what needs changing and making it better. Turns out, it has evolved into a Kult of Speed. Best, Best way to do it With my Current list, everything (bar Snikrots Kommando unit and my two units of Gretchin for holding objectives) is in combat second if not first turn, And on top of that, Is still the horrible unstoppable list Orks love to use, as it incorporates 80 models, Wazdakka, 440 Point unit of Nobz AND 10 Kommandos+Snikrot all in 1500 points, not to mention the BW, Deffkoptas, Warboss, Looted Wagon, Boyz and more...

I think that stems with the following line of thought...

Orks are great when they charge, but not when they are charged.

Orks move slow, despite the 6" move and ~3.5 inch run...

So by making them fast, and always gain the charge... they are just amazing...