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They sound like a really fun army, I had no idea there were so many Ork players around.

They have some huge advantages for me:

Unique - nothing plays like Orks.
Awesome model range - the best range in GW.
Seems like every unit is useful - except Flash Gits.
So much background where you can make your own Waagh! instead of fielding something that others play. Like Marine players have Blood Angels, Dark Angels, GK. I have an Ork army of Freebooterz arrgh!!!

Downsides:

Most expensive army that isn't Guard.
Each Ork takes ages to paint - I spent 60+ hours on a Warboss once.
Can't get rid of AV14.
Slightly dated Codex - but can hold up against non Ward Codex.

Tbh, I never really gave Orks a look before playing against them.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Now thinking of playing 40K with Orks while listening to flight of the valkyries.

Puscifer wrote:Only downside is Ork armies are very expensive.

You think so? AOBR boyz sell for about $1 each. Get 100 of them convert some shootas by adding to the barrels with plastic tubing with some holes drilled into them. Add KFF Big Mek, a warboss or a 2nd KFF and you are gold. Some AOB koptas are nice for some Green Barons, they appears to sell for about $5 each on ebay. You want to run a kan wall pick up some kanz at just over $100 for 9, you want battlewagons? Pick up 3 at around $150. Lootas, convert some up or buy 3 boxes and a box of boyz so you can get 12 lootas and 12 burnas. 2 Boxes of grots are good too. So it isn't that expensive, I've been pricing some Black Templar and Eldar armies lately and am looking north of $300 for a starter 1000-1250 list.

I really want to do a Flash Gitz mob, but I think you have to give them the More Dakka and Shootier options to make them worthwhile. May as well add in the painboy, since they're up to 35 points per model, and upgrade them all to cyborks. This mob really calls for a lot of conversions. Too bad they count as heavy support, and you have to blow one of your three HS slots on a transport for them.

1.) They haven't been fethed over by GW's new methods/Ward. This includes raping their fluff or making them mary stues.
2.) The Ork culture/personality attracts a more carfe free group.
3.) The codex can still be competitive, though you're at a natural handicap against any Space Marines (which is true for most non-Imperial armies)

Hargus56 wrote:

Puscifer wrote:Only downside is Ork armies are very expensive.

You think so? AOBR boyz sell for about $1 each. Get 100 of them convert some shootas by adding to the barrels with plastic tubing with some holes drilled into them. Add KFF Big Mek, a warboss or a 2nd KFF and you are gold. Some AOB koptas are nice for some Green Barons, they appears to sell for about $5 each on ebay. You want to run a kan wall pick up some kanz at just over $100 for 9, you want battlewagons? Pick up 3 at around $150. Lootas, convert some up or buy 3 boxes and a box of boyz so you can get 12 lootas and 12 burnas. 2 Boxes of grots are good too. So it isn't that expensive, I've been pricing some Black Templar and Eldar armies lately and am looking north of $300 for a starter 1000-1250 list.

I never thought of that, thanks.

One thing I have been looking at, is a long forgotten part of Rogue Trader/2nd Ed...

Khornate Orks.

They existed way back when the Grim Dark was young and I'm thinking that I might resurrect them.

The other main downside to Orks is just the sheer amount of STUFF you have to paint. You get to paint 10 marines... and we have to paint about 20 Orks to equal that. I think the amount of time it takes to PAINT Orks is their biggest liability, not how expensive the models are.

But yeah, Orks are fun, and our codex is awesome, and has great stuff in it.

Whenever I face JotWW I growl inwardly though. I freaking hate that power. It's just beardy.

Orks are just fun. Once you've owned and played an ork army, its so less stressful than any other force.

I really do not like losing, but with the orks, I don't mind so much, its all about fun with them any way.

I do love my Orks, and feel slightly guilty whenever I paint something that isn't an Ork. I don't do all that well with them, which I think is due to a number of things:
1) My model collection is weak, and doesn't include the best things in the codex (kans, etc)
2) I tend to include units because the models are painted, rather than because they are good
3) I'm crap
4) My dice hate me

The biggest problems are an inability to deal well with masses of vehicles, having to paint hundreds of models, and having people come up to you in the shop and quote the codex at you constantly ("An ork never loses..." especially). Saying that, the army is genuinely a lot of fun, the models are amazing, and the codex is well-written. And I love my army: I've painted names on all the nob and IC bases, to add even more character.

I just remembered another good reason to start playing Orks...

GORKAMORKA.

I can always play this game while collecting my Ork army.

I've never once felt bad about losing with my Orks.

It's just the mentality, I guess.

Orks (also Orcs and Goblins in Fantasy) are all about fun (and fightin' and krumpin' and stompin').

Even if you lose with your Mean Green War Machine, you're going to have fun with it. Not a coincidence that they are one of the most popular armies out there in both settings (more so in WHFB than the Space Marine-dominated 40k)

Also, its totally legit to cry Dakka-Dakka and WHAAAGH! when playing Greenskins.

I havent gotten to play any games with mine yet, but just the mentality the army has alone is radically different from any other in the game. The codex is a good read, there's a good variety of useful units and playstyles, and the codex actively encourages you to be creative and kitbash as well as convert (obviously, GW has pulled a 180 on this stance since then, but it's still cool to see) The army just feels like it was made with the purpose of being fun, a design choice that I wish was used more in this game. Plus, i think they're the only thing truly holding us back from having grimdark everywhere (although orks can pull it off just fine when they want to) I have only met one TFG who played orks, compared to countless more who played other armies.

One thing I never got though, how come power klaws are 25 pts instead of 15pts, when essentially they're just an orky powerfist? Is it just because orks need a handicap or else they'd be too awesome or something?

I am actually looking at starting back up with the Orks. I got so many unfinished vehicles from other armies that I can set up a huge amount of looted vehicles. I am already devising ideas for Count As battle wagons with Monoliths and Landraiders

I have a few orks and plan on making an army, had a good test run with a list I made, helluva lot of fun playing as them.

Other than the lighthearted factor everyone else has mentioned, I think it has to do with the design of their rules.

Orks work by massive numbers with no individual unit being that potent. You basically field swaths of low-medium strength units and the law of averages works it out.

This makes them less stressful to play than other armies. You never feel too bad when something whiffs it's rolls, you rarely depend on one or two super units. I have found that when I play my DE it is a much more stressful, tense game, because whiffing rolls, losing crucial units, etc makes such a big impact on my overall strategy.

The ork player ends up having more fun and not caring as much when things don't go his way. Orks often lose, but I've found they don't get tabled too often, so even if you are losing all game, it can still be fun because you usually aren't losing that bad, and may at least appear to still have a chance. Overall the army is laid back and just plain fun to play.

Orks are fun, crazy, whimsical, random... and GOOD to boot! What's not to like? Win, lose or draw... you're going to have a very orky time and you aren't going to go home feeling disappointed in your army's performance... it is, what it is. It does what it does.

They're just a joy... all-around.

MrMoustaffa wrote:One thing I never got though, how come power klaws are 25 pts instead of 15pts, when essentially they're just an orky powerfist? Is it just because orks need a handicap or else they'd be too awesome or something?

Only IG powerfists are 15 points. Everyone else pays 25.

IG goes from S3 to S6 (for the most part) with a powerfist. Everyone else goes from S4 to S8, which is bigger and more game changing, so the point difference makes sense.

Ah ok thank you. I've never used anything besides IG and orks, so I had no idea. I remember seeing that for the first time and going "what the heck, they screwed orks hard"

as stated many times thus far I think it has to do with the ork player mentality, I am there to have fun. when looking a tarmies i looked at models, looked at playstyles and read through codexes orks just seemed the most fun. I then asked around to make sure they weren't to powerful then to make sure they weren't to weak. I wanted an army i could play and win with but not play and win with getting comments of of coarse you won due to being overpowered.

I also have to agree with orks being pretty pricey... aobr boys are nice but if you guy origional gw products its abotu the most expensive army to play trading blows with guard. had i realised the cost of models origionally i probably would have gone eldar first., then orks.then again i am also playing battlewagon bash type lists and biker lists so while i have 180 boys (having bought 4 AoBR boxes then several AoBR boyz packs on ebay) I still needed to buy bikes and battlewagons with only the 20% flgs discount. I'd say i'm 8-900 bucks into orks at this point between all the box sets for lootas/nobz bikes, gretchin and battlewagons. when i get a stompa that'll go up even more

I went Ork because they represented how I like to play the game, Fast Furious and with more models then the other guy,

As for costs, I think they are a "Fair" army, they have a few money pits, Old Kans, Warbuggies (unless you Konvert from kopta) and Grot Kannons, but otherwise all is fairly priced.

The models look great, they paint easy and as for all these people commenting about losing, that is one aspect of this army I dont suffer from, I tend to win or tie every game. though i play more on the competitive side, then the casual.

One thing every Ork player has to get over is running into a fury of gun fire, because for some reason, once you get into CC, everything just starts dying and point cost trades become better for the Orkier

Before the current Codex there was a huge amount of whinning and bitching about Orks. They seem to have gotten right with the current version.

Well a good chunk of the models were atrocious before the 4th/5th Edition models they got with their codex. That was a big reason I wouldn't even look at them before this codex, same could have been said for the DE.

Some of the models were bad before, but personally, I preferred the old codex. I miss my looted russ. I miss my fearless warbikers, my choppas, and my auto-hit zzap guns.

I basically had to redo my entire ork army as a result of the codex switch, if I wanted to be competitive. My 3rd ed orks were a Kult of Speed, with bikes, buggies, and a couple of tanks. My 4th/5th ed orks are green tide. Kult of Speed just isn't playable with the newer dex.

(Does this invalidate the premise that ork players don't complain? )

I still remember the idiotic things people used to say about wound allocation "abuses" the codex could do and the endlessly asinine arguements on RaW-RaI that were vomitted forth from the same.

Redbeard wrote:Some of the models were bad before, but personally, I preferred the old codex. I miss my looted russ. I miss my fearless warbikers, my choppas, and my auto-hit zzap guns.

I basically had to redo my entire ork army as a result of the codex switch, if I wanted to be competitive. My 3rd ed orks were a Kult of Speed, with bikes, buggies, and a couple of tanks. My 4th/5th ed orks are green tide. Kult of Speed just isn't playable with the newer dex.

(Does this invalidate the premise that ork players don't complain? )

If the complaint is about something that changed last edition...... no.

Its annoying when they screw up your army list.