Orks: The Good, The Bad, And The Downright Fun To Play

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**Kalzruk**

So as I was reading through my Ork Codex, and working out my army (Still a WIP) I realized that since I have not played in years, I have no idea what is good, when its good, and whats just terrible. So im looking for thoughts on the good, the bad, and the just downright fun things to play. Post your ideas of Ork gear, characters, powers, abilities, ect... when they are good, if they are terribly, and what things just create interesting things (fun/funny is always a plus).

**Penguinmasterofdoom**

Well I'm kind of new to the Warhammer, but from my limited experience I can tell you that Big Mek with Shokk Attack Gun is very fun to play.

You can end up firing at your own units or send yourself across the battle field, or even open up a gate into the warp, destroying any unit it hits. Vehicles take an auto pen.

**DAaddict**

All depends on what style you enjoy.

Hoards, mech, trukks, shooty, kan wall. They all work but you need to define what you like to do.

**labmouse42**

There are tons of online resources to check out.

Go look at youtube for ork tactics.
There are some stickies on this site for ork tactics too.

I'm sure you will find a ton of info!

**shealyr**

I have a firm opinion on Orks that they need several things to be competitive in 5th edition: Mech, Meks, Klaws, and anti-tank.

Mech is king in 5th ed. Everywhere, players are loading up into their metal coffins... err... I mean boxes. With added vehicle survivability and lower points costs, transports are a must. What this means for Orks: to get to the squishy bitz inside, you gotta rip open their wagons! Orks will find their anti-tank in 3 primary areas: Klaws, Rokkits, and Lootas. Of these, Klaws are the least desired, as it exposes your Boyz to enemy fire. Rokkits are extremely powerful, but are often mounted on BS2 platforms. Lootas, while long-ranged with a high volume of fire, can be extremely inaccurate and unreliable due to BS2 and D3 shots.

Most Ork players will include a variety of anti-armor options in their lists. One of Dakka's star Ork players, Dashofpepper, runs Lootas, Rokkit Buggies, Deffkoptas, Boarding Planks, and Deffrollas. A mix such as this will likely meet with the best results.

Next, a Big Mek with a Kustom Force Field is your best friend. Due to the wording of the rule, all vehicles within it's radius are "obscured," which, in 5th edition, means they recieve a 4+ cover save. Gone are the days of Ork wagons being paper thin. Also, if your KFF is mounted in a transport, the effect radius is measured from the transport's hull, which can greatly increase your coverage if it's in a battlewagon.

Power Klaws go on everything. It might seem elementary, but I have seen boyz mobs without a Klaw wielding Nob leader.

Along with this, bosspoles are a must to compensate for low leadership once you start taking casualties.
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Lastly, a few notes on army construction.

Don't try to do too much. Either go foot-slogging, with hordes of Boyz and 9 Kans, or go solid Mech. Compromising gets you killed.

The humble Ork boy is, at lower point levels, the single most cost-efficient troop choice out there. Once you start getting above the 1500 point level, your opponents will begin bringing way more toys to kill your poor lads off en masse. At higher point levels, units like Nobz, Burnas, and Battlewagons really begin to shine.

Ghazkhull Thraka is a fantastic high-point HQ choice, with his Waaagh having a greater affect the more models you have on the table. He is also needed (I think so, at least) to bring down some of the real baddies in 40k, like the Tyranid Swarmlord or Blood Angels Mephiston.

Good luck, and remember, have fun with them!

**AbaddonFidelis**

Kalzruk wrote:So as I was reading through my Ork Codex, and working out my army (Still a WIP) I realized that since I have not played in years, I have no idea what is good, when its good, and whats just terrible. So im looking for thoughts on the good, the bad, and the just downright fun things to play. Post your ideas of Ork gear, characters, powers, abilities, ect... when they are good, if they are terribly, and what things just create interesting things (fun/funny is always a plus).

well, I'm not an ork player, but I can tell you what I fear when I play against them.
1. The endless mob of boyz. at 6 points a piece these guys are crazy good. I like the slugga boyz better than the shoota boyz bc ork shooting is pretty much nonsense one way or the other, but either way they're really strong.
2. Trukks. cheap, open topped, good transport capacity..... these things are so much better than rhinos. Bring em!
3. Burna Trukks. I cant remember exactly what these things are called. they're av 10 and have a flame thrower on them. Anyway they're cheap and can be used to really spam flame throwers. alot of beginning players underestimate just how good the lowly flame thrower is. Because its only 5 points and its so short ranged. Truth is the 5 points is a good thing, the short range is more than made up for by the auto-hit (especially nice for orks) and the no-cover effect, which is the bane of many weapons that are alot more destructive and more expensive too.
4. gazkull. hate this guy. 2++ on the charge is sssssooooooo annoying.
5. nobz with feel no pain. really tough to get rid of without insta-killing them.
6. gazkull and nobz in a war truk. one turn of mobility is about all you need out of this thing. after that gazkull and his bully boyz are right in the center of things wrecking face.
7. kustom forcefields. 4++ on everything nearby is really good, especially for guys who dont have much armor in the 1st place.
8. deff dreads and killa kans. cheap, shooty, killy, it doesnt hurt that the models are really cool too. Anyway the ability to spam these things is pretty strong when combined with the kustom forcefield.

My advice to you getting back into orks would be to run a ton of boyz. like a hundred, and then spend what you have left over on the stuff above.
AF

**Kalzruk**

i was wondering if killkannons are any good? the ap3 seems nice against Chaos, SM, and Eldar. Any thoughts on this? are they good, or worthless?

**labmouse42**

AbaddonFidelis wrote:My advice to you getting back into orks would be to run a ton of boyz. like a hundred, and then spend what you have left over on the stuff above.

AF is right on the money here.
Throwing 100+ boys on the board is cheap, be it in vehicles or on foot. The sheer numbers will demoralize people into thinking they cannot compete, even if they can.

**MekanobSamael**

Kalzruk wrote:i was wondering if killkannons are any good? the ap3 seems nice against Chaos, SM, and Eldar. Any thoughts on this? are they good, or worthless?

Most people use their BW's for transporting boyz of various kinds these days. The dakka battlewagon's usefulness is somewhat hampered by Orks' poor BS. I hate to say it, but the volume of melee attacks Orks put out means they can kick Meq in melee far better than by shooting them. On the other hand, if you want to really armor up and use a BW as a gunboat, the option is there, but you have to sacrifice firing all your other guns (usually not a big loss).

Automatically Appended Next Post:
Incidentally, I favor big gangs of killa kanz supported by big meks with KFF's two Deff Dreads, Deffkoptas, and a few gangs of boyz to cover objectives and swampt the enemy with attacks.

**QuietOrkmi**

Saved this from awhile back, here is some great tips...

Dash wrote:I'm going to work off of a couple of assumptions.
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1. Playing Warhammer 40k is fun.
2. Playing Warhammer 40k and winning is more fun.
3. Playing Warhammer 40k and losing is less fun.
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Human nature and natural selection demand that we continually seek to improve ourselves. Having an A type personality probably doesn't hurt this effort, but if you lose a game of 40k and don't reflect on the game with, "What did I do wrong? What could I have done better? How can I prevent this from happening again?" then I can't really talk to you.

If this thought process and those three assumptions *do* apply to you, then read on.

******
Orks are a unique codex. An ork boy is significantly cheaper than just about any other model in 40k, and is basically a platform from which many things spring (other kinds of ork variants - stormboyz, lootas, nobs...). If you read the fluff, every ork starts in the same place, and as they develop, they lean towards on klan/society, which is how they figure out what kind of ork they're going to be.

In other codexes (space marines and their variants being the most prolific), basic troops are well-rounded models. You ever play Final Fight? How about ANY kind of game with character selections? You've got the big, strong guy that's slow...the average Joe....and the weaker but very speedy character. This applies in 40k as well. Space marines are like your average, well-rounded Joe. Orks are NOT. You can't mix and match orks in any order you like to make a generalized list.

This is *not* called power building, its called understanding your codex, how your codex is designed, and using it as such. Every time someone calls "playing a theme" to be "powerbuilding" I want to stab them in the F***** eye. If you look in the Ork codex, do you see the codex writers putting in pictures for the sample armies of some Lootas backing up a squad of meganobs in a trukk, who are advancing next to some buggies and a deffkopta or two?

NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

They even TELL you how to make your army. They tell you what the Ork klans are - Bad Moons, Kult of Speed, Deffskullz, etc.

That kind of thematic army construction is the intent of the Ork codex. That is what makes orks powerful. The ork codex is written so that you can design an army list that is absolutely ridiculously powerful, but it is NOT made up of average Joe units; everything is specialized towards a specific goal. When you build an army list, you should follow the thematic advice given to you in the Codex. PICK a theme. There's a lot of them:

Green Tide. Mechanized Assault. Mechanized Shooting. Ork Gunline (Moar Dakka), Kan-Wall. Dreadz of Fury. Kult of Speed. Outflanking Goodness. Rebel Grotz. Nob Bikers. Super Units. Orky Burnas.

All of those things have something in common - the lists were designed with a theme in mind, and have the synergy to work together towards that goal. When you start combining those themes to make a list, you're being counterintuitive to the very style that the orks were created for.

Remember this: Orks can do anything that any other army can do, and they can do it better than that army. However, orks can only do it one at a time. You can outshoot a Tau Gunline. You can out-assault a khorne army or an army of genestealers. You can put down more templates than IG....whatever your goal in mind is....orks can do it better, but it has to stick to that theme. Orks are not meant to be universal, middle-of-the-line armies.

To give another analogy...if you've ever played an MMO, there are different classes. Fighter, Tank, barbarian, mage, cleric, wizard, hunter, ranger, red mage, death knight, rogue, whatever.....its all based on the game you play. The class you pick sets you on a path for the kind of game you play, the skills you get - they are pre-defined roles.

40k armies fit into that kind of typification. Except for Orks. Orks would be the generic class. You start with a neutral character, with skillpoints to assign, and you can make orks any kind of army you want them to be. People fail with orks because they want some of everything. Instead of making them a fighter, or an archer, or a guardian...and they would be better fighters, archers and guardians than every other type...they split points between all three to make a Figardian. F.A.G for short.

Do you want to excel in something, or be a F.A.G? That's what it boils down to.

Are you a F.A.G?

*EDIT* I'm adding information for the tactics article I'm working on.

If you're running a foot-slogging list, shoota boys are your friend. Slugga boys belong inside vehicles. In fact, I think you should convert your slugga boy mobs into shoota boys. In 5th edition, the shoota boy is the most efficient point purchase across all 40k.

Think on that - for 6 points...SIX POINTS....you get an infantry model with an assault 2 STR4 gun, who is WS4, STR4, T4 on the charge. In terms of math hammer between shoota and slugga boys, it's pretty simple. Slugga boys have +1 attack in close combat, and shoota boys have +1 attack outside of close combat. Since your Orks on the assault are only I3, you're going to strike last meaning that 30 boyz are going to take some casualties before getting their attacks back.

On the flip side, shoota boys get 2 shots before assaulting, and the enemy doesn't get to shoot back first and cause casualties - putting in any kind of hurt before you assault is incredibly valuable. And since it has an 18" range, you can shoot into a unit even when you don't have range to assault this turn. My advice for green tide:

Take all your troops choices as shoota boys. Consider taking a squad of gretchin - you can spread them across your front lines to provide 4+ cover saves for your whole army. Alternatively, you can take a squad of ork boyz to do the same. If you make them 'Ard Boyz they gain considerably in staying power.

Want to get real freaky? Take a squad of 'Ard Boyz, stick Mad Dok Grotsnik with them for a 4+/4+. Spread that unit out 2+ coherence to minimize the damage that blast templates can do, and have the whole thing move+run in front of your army. Your screening unit has 4+ armor saves, 4+ feel no pain, and the rest of your army has 4+ cover saves now. If your points allow it, what really tops off the list is adding some fast attack Stormboyz. You can put them into close combat, or have them multi-assault to shake/stun some tanks/artillery, have them get in fast and tie up enemy units (hello Tau!), or if the situation doesn't call for it, you can leave them behind your screening unit and keep them in reserve to get in where you need supporting assault units at.

**svendrex**

The Ork Codex has very little in the way of bad units, That said however there are quite a few things that are worse than other options.

1) Tankbustas. To be honest they are just not as good as lootas. S8 kills the same tanks as S7 for the most part. Neither one of these weapons will reliably hurt the AV 13-14 on the hardest tanks out there. Against AV 12 and less the lootas are better because you get more shots at longer range for the same price. Also you have the option to shoot at infantry with lootas as well as the volume of fire and AP 4 will do good damage to Light and Medium Infantry and even hurt MEQ and MC a bit as well. The tank bustas have to shoot at tanks if they see them because of the glory hogs rule. This can be avoided with careful placement, but even then you get less shots and the AP 3 is wasted on anything in cover. The only tankbustas do better than lootas is they ID T4. Honestly Tankbustas are best against Tyranids as there are no tanks to limit your shooting, you AP the MC, and you ID the warriors.

2) Flash Gits. No other unit gets as much hate as these guys do. At first glance it is hard to see why. For the same points as a Nob with hard armor you get a nob with hard armor and a special gun. You can still get the painboy and the 5++ saves if you pay for them. They are like shoota boys but they are Shooty Nobs instead. The drawbacks are subtle. Competitively Nobs rely on wound abuse to be durable and this is something the Flash Gits lack. Second, they loose the majority of their CC power by the lack of PK's. Their shooting is very, very temperamental. If you can shoot at a 2+ save unit that is not in cover and you roll well for the AP and you get a good to hit roll then they can do some damage. How often does it happen? The upgrades are good, but it makes the unit expensive. And lastly they are a HEAVY choice. This is where other Ork armies define their theme by either spamming the Battlewagon (one of the best transports in the game) or the Killa Kans (good fire support walker with a DCCW). Vehicles are king and these are the best that the orks have. Losing either of those for mediocre shooting followed by mediocre assault is just not the best.

3) Looted Wagon. The biggest thing against this tank is the special movement rules. It makes the tank unreliable. As a transport you are better of getting a trukk. It can be useful as a gun wagon, the large pie plate not being found many other places in the Ork book and it has S8 AP3. It is a budget Russ with less range, AV, and it is unreliable. It is not the worst thing ever and it can be useful if it lives long enough. If it was not a HEAVY choice (see above) maybe people would take them. As it is there are simply better choices.

4) Warbikers. Again this is a unit that has a lot going for them. T5, 4+ and a 4+ cover, 3+ cover from a turbo boost, a good gun and 2 CCW, all for 25 pts. If you want fast boys, storm boys are cheaper and have a longer charge distance and people still think they are a bit too expensive. You can get hard boys with a 4+ save for 10 pts each and they are not a favorite either. Again not the worst thing, but it adds nothing to the Orks anti-tank game. You should have enough infantry killing power with your 60+ boys. Buggies and Coptas both help with the tank game with TL fast moving rokkits and scouting PK's.

That is not to say that these units are useless, but just that there are others that work better in more situations. The great park of the Ork Codex is that almost everything can be used if you want too, especially at the friendly game level.

**mercer**

A post on my blog about top Ork units: http://www.imperiusdominatus.com/2010/05/orks-top-units.html hope that helps.

Units I like are Big Meks w/ KFF, Warboss, Lootas, Nobz, Burnas, Boyz, Deffkopters, Buggies & Battlewagons. They're all pretty solid TBH those units. Unless I've missed anything, the rest is pretty much junk.