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Hey guys, just a couple questions I'm hoping I could get some help answering I'm looking into starting an Ork army, and was wondering..... When upgrading a boy in a unit to a nob, how does one differentiate that particular model visually? Would I just keep it in my head/written down, or is there some particular way that most people go about making the nobz stand out? Also, I love orks but am not a fan of boy-heavy lists. Is it possible to create an ork list that concentrates more on the heavier/specialized units and still be competitive? Any suggestions for these kinds of lists?

Thanks a lot guys!

Nobz tend to be physically bigger than Boyz. If you compare the AoBR Nob to that of an AoBR boy, you'll see that there's a considerable size increase. Also, Nobs tend to have trophy racks and banner poles, as well as Power Klaws (which are a good option for them), which normal Boyz cant take. They might also have more "bling" to them.

As said above, they have a big pole on there backs and a PK.

In terms of the smaller, more elite lists, they're doable for sure.

Taking Wazdakka Gutsmek lets you take bikes as troops, so that's definitely one way to shrink your model count down.

Taking a Warboss or a Big Mek lets you take Nobz/Meganobz or Deff Dreads as troops respectively. Again, pretty easy to use more elite units that way. Builds like Deffwing, Battlewagon Brigade and Da Dread Mob are all some examples of this kind of list.

You can also just do Boyz in Trukks and go heavy on the rest of your FOC choices. At that point though, keeping your Boyz safe in their AV10 transports becomes pretty important.

In terms of being competitive, it depends on your area. Most Ork lists work pretty well, which is nice. You'll find that in many areas an "All Comers" list means geared toward Space Marines. In these spots, if you're off norm and just put bodies on the board, you can do pretty well on that alone. In areas where the army selection is broader, you'll find more broadly geared lists. In these cases, your outright list usually won't be as much of a magically superior thing as in the first example, but you can still do well. Realistically, the second example makes things quite a bit more interesting.

you can take 2 Warbosses as your HQ and use their ability to take 2 squads of Nobs as troops.

you could then take one squad of Boyz and make them 'Ard boyz which will make them alot tougher and make them more expensive.


2 full squads of Nobs with diversified equipment, 2 Warbosses to lead them and a songle squad of 'Ard boyz will be the better part of a 1500 point list. add in a Battlewagon or a few Trukks and you will have a fairly small, but powerfull Ork force.

Thanks for the tips guys! I love the look of the nobz models, so I'm thinking I might try the 2 warbosses + nobz route. Then I might toss in a couple units of lootas or burnas, plus some stormboyz (maybe tankbustas?) .....again, I just love the models! To top it off probably throw in one big ard boy unit, couple of trukks, and maybe a battlewagon with something 'eavy on it. This sound like something viable? I'm pumped to start this army! Going with a blue with yellow details scheme, and all gold and silver weapons/bling for an elitist ork horde kind of look.

Wish me luck, and any more tips are MUCH appreciated! Thanks guys

if you do go this route i reccomend you go completely Mech.

make the squad of 'Ard boyz 20 strong and put them in a Battlewagon. nothing says "You lose" like 20 Slugga boyz assaulting out of a big shiny Battlewagon.

put each Nob squad in a Battlewagon too for epic assaulty goodness.

The Ork list, much like the orks themselves, is very diverse while remaining competitive. Green Tide, Kan Wall, Nob Biker and mechorks all do respectably well.

tremulant wrote:Thanks for the tips guys! I love the look of the nobz models, so I'm thinking I might try the 2 warbosses + nobz route. Then I might toss in a couple units of lootas or burnas, plus some stormboyz (maybe tankbustas?) .....again, I just love the models! To top it off probably throw in one big ard boy unit, couple of trukks, and maybe a battlewagon with something 'eavy on it. This sound like something viable? I'm pumped to start this army! Going with a blue with yellow details scheme, and all gold and silver weapons/bling for an elitist ork horde kind of look.

Wish me luck, and any more tips are MUCH appreciated! Thanks guys

Never ever take Ard Boys. Don't be misguided. Math tells you they are NEVER worth the upgrade.
In close combat, taking normal boys over Ard Boys gives you more bodies to strike back after taking into account armor saves on the boys. Compare a squad of 30 boys and 18 Ard Boys (both 180 pts + 40 pts for klaw nob), do the math yourself on 4+ and 6+ saves and you ll enlighten yourself.

Against Power Weapons, Power Fists, 4+ and 6+ are both negated.

And there are almost no other situations (except for maybe when you are against s4 AP5 flamers) when 6+ boys are not more efficient than the Ard ones. There is actually a thread not long ago on this. Search for it if you need to.

So be careful about what you hear. They are sometimes, VERY wrong.

Thanks for the tip Davicus What would be a good alternative to ard boys for filling up my points? Warbikers?

Thanks!

Warbikers are even worse.


Good point fillers would be Deffcoptas or Lootas. you can get alot of them and they are good.


Tank-bustas wouldn't be a bad choice either, especially if they have their own ride. Tank hammers are good against everything.

tremulant wrote:Thanks for the tip Davicus What would be a good alternative to ard boys for filling up my points? Warbikers?

Thanks!

I don't know what you have in your list now, plus I shouldnt be giving you something that is too specific. Alot of things are personal style and preferences. That being said, I can give general advice.

The general rule of thumb is that you don't want your ork boys (with their 6+ saves) to be knocking tanks, fail that, and be exposed to fire, flamers, or counter charging by enemy. As a result, you want to spend some points on lootas, deffkoptas, to pop transports as much as possible before your boys go in for the charge. Deff Rollas also do a good job in doing that - D6 S10 hits on transports, hopefully wrecking them, and then your boys go in for the charge.

Use whatever units you like that will fulfill these roles, but majority have realized that lootas and deffkoptas are 2 of the most efficient for doing that.

For your case, you like hard hitting elites, as opposed to horde orks. You can probably consider Nob bikers supported by lootas/koptas, or Mech orks (wagons transporting nob squads, boys squads). These 2 lists (or a combination of nob bikers and battlewagons) generally have less model count.

These are some great tips. I completely aqgree with the lootas and deffkoptas (the koptas should have a buzzsaw) and lootas are clutch. 2 units of 5 is minimum usually for lootas and buzzcoptas work best in single units of 2 or 3 for this point level.
If you are looking to avoid lots of boys you may need a 4 battlewagon force. Filled with nobs, burnas, big mek, warbosses and even mega nobs. Should range from 1500-2000 pt army.

Thanks for all the help so far guys! So here's what I have available to me so far:

All the AOBR orks (20 boys, 5 bare bones nobz, warboss, 3 koptas)

I also just purchased 2 boxes of nobz and 2 boxes of lootas/burnas.

Coming up on christmas, my girlfriend has bought me I believe a battlewagon, and I think a friend of mine got me a battleforce.



Any tips on how to assemble the lootas/burnas and nobs? If I do indeed have a battlewagon/battleforce on the way, where should I go from here? Perhaps another battlewagon or two? Some tankbustas? I know I'll be grabbing myself another warboss - need that so I can be taking all these nobs as troops. Is there a good way to convert boys into nobz with all my extra pieces? Or should I keep my boys as filler? (I think I should have 40 of them)

If anybody has a mock 1500/2000 point list I can work towards, that'd be great! Otherwise I am sure I will probably just grab any random orks that I think look waagh-tastically fun to play around with!


Thanks a lot guys, you've been a GREAT source of information and help!

More Battlewagons would definitly fit your idea of an Elite themed ork force.

I wouldn't purchase the battleforce again if i were you. it is a terrible deal as far as battleforces go as you only save $3 over buying the contents seperatly.


for your loota/burnas i would make them all lootas to start with. they can provide covering fire while your battlewagons move forward.


your Nobs should be diversified. give each a different set of wargear so you can do wound allocation things. unfortunantly,i can't find my codex to give you specific setups right now.

Actually I'm fairly lucky where I live. My local gaming store sells all GW products all the time at 15% - 20% off, which friggin rocks. Battleforces here I get for $85 canadian. After tax it's around an even $100. But ya, I don't really need it because I'm not too interested in the boys, unless anyone has some good tips on converting boys into nobz, which would rock Is it just me or do the nob box sets not come with a Waagh banner? All I see are a bunch of boss poles - am I just supposed to dedicate one of them as a waagh?

I was debating getting some kans to hold the line until my elite footers get in place, and of course to beef things up a bit. Is that a good idea? Thanks!

Just make it an extra fancy Boss pole.

if you have a friend who plays Space Marines you might bum a few Marine heads off him to stick on it.

I just may have a good one or twenty of those sitting around

tremulant wrote:Thanks for all the help so far guys! So here's what I have available to me so far:

All the AOBR orks (20 boys, 5 bare bones nobz, warboss, 3 koptas)

I also just purchased 2 boxes of nobz and 2 boxes of lootas/burnas.

Coming up on christmas, my girlfriend has bought me I believe a battlewagon, and I think a friend of mine got me a battleforce.

Any tips on how to assemble the lootas/burnas and nobs? If I do indeed have a battlewagon/battleforce on the way, where should I go from here? Perhaps another battlewagon or two? Some tankbustas? I know I'll be grabbing myself another warboss - need that so I can be taking all these nobs as troops. Is there a good way to convert boys into nobz with all my extra pieces? Or should I keep my boys as filler? (I think I should have 40 of them)

The loota/burna box comes with 4 Loota arms, 4 burna arms, 1 big shoota (i think), and 1 KMB, but only 5 bodies. Buy off 5 more bodies (or 10 since you bought 2 boxes) to make use of ALL the arms. You will now only have 8 lootas. Custom make 2 more on your own.
You have now enough lootas, nobs, koptas, boys (JUST BARELY ENOUGH), a Warboss, a trukk. You ll only need to buy wagons until you have 3, big mek with Kustom force field, and Ghaz. That's all.

tremulant wrote:Actually I'm fairly lucky where I live. My local gaming store sells all GW products all the time at 15% - 20% off, which friggin rocks. Battleforces here I get for $85 canadian. After tax it's around an even $100.

Maelstrom Games from UK offers better discount, especially so when they offer (on a on and off basis) a 17% discount off retail. And the fact that they base their price in GBP makes it beat all other shops that uses USD as the base price, because you will realize the GW price in USD is more expensive than its price in GBP, after taking into account exchange rate. Many people don't realize this. Thus, 15% discount off USD retail normally don't impress me. MS Games offer free international shipping too.

Dont know about other countries but Canadian customs can be a balls cracker, most of the time compensating for whatever discount you got, and then some. I also personally dont trust the mail system since I've lost over 200 dollars worth of stuff in total due to uninsured mail.

As an aside, Looted Wagons tend to fare well in the elite lists you're looking at, I find. I take one myself, and it's a real help when I'm facing another horde army.

Dont underestimate kannons. 3 str 8 shots for 60 points? Yes please.
Rokkit warbuggies are also good, I prefer them over koptas. They are cheaper and a bit harder to crack. If an unit assaults them there is a good chance they will explode and take a couple guys with them.

Actually Davicus, where I shop the discount is based off the canadian pricing, not US. But ya, customs in canada tends to kill any discounts we get from outside the country. And being able to walk into the store and get what I want on the spot with the discount rocks

Davicus wrote:

tremulant wrote:Thanks for all the help so far guys! So here's what I have available to me so far:

All the AOBR orks (20 boys, 5 bare bones nobz, warboss, 3 koptas)

I also just purchased 2 boxes of nobz and 2 boxes of lootas/burnas.

Coming up on christmas, my girlfriend has bought me I believe a battlewagon, and I think a friend of mine got me a battleforce.

Any tips on how to assemble the lootas/burnas and nobs? If I do indeed have a battlewagon/battleforce on the way, where should I go from here? Perhaps another battlewagon or two? Some tankbustas? I know I'll be grabbing myself another warboss - need that so I can be taking all these nobs as troops. Is there a good way to convert boys into nobz with all my extra pieces? Or should I keep my boys as filler? (I think I should have 40 of them)

The loota/burna box comes with 4 Loota arms, 4 burna arms, 1 big shoota (i think), and 1 KMB, but only 5 bodies. Buy off 5 more bodies (or 10 since you bought 2 boxes) to make use of ALL the arms. You will now only have 8 lootas. Custom make 2 more on your own.
You have now enough lootas, nobs, koptas, boys (JUST BARELY ENOUGH), a Warboss, a trukk. You ll only need to buy wagons until you have 3, big mek with Kustom force field, and Ghaz. That's all.

tremulant wrote:Actually I'm fairly lucky where I live. My local gaming store sells all GW products all the time at 15% - 20% off, which friggin rocks. Battleforces here I get for $85 canadian. After tax it's around an even $100.

Maelstrom Games from UK offers better discount, especially so when they offer (on a on and off basis) a 17% discount off retail. And the fact that they base their price in GBP makes it beat all other shops that uses USD as the base price, because you will realize the GW price in USD is more expensive than its price in GBP, after taking into account exchange rate. Many people don't realize this. Thus, 15% discount off USD retail normally don't impress me. MS Games offer free international shipping too.

15-20 discount? would you happen to live in the toronto area?

Haha actually I do! I live in Kitchener. I buy my stuff at JJ cards & collectibles. When I get around to gaming (rarely because I don't know many people that play and I'm a noob) I go to phoenix games, and buy something while I'm there to support them

Lol. I live in Oakville and frequent a place called Heavy Support. The guy gives me a flat 20% discount and sometimes 30% discount on open boxed stuff, mostly things that lost it's packaging due to age, cut up starter set stuff (Starter set stuff goes for 50% less than it's retail equivallent. A Tact Squad costs 20 bucks compared to the 42 you pay for NIB ones), and open Battleforces. Battle Forces are quite a deal there too, as you save a total of 48% off the retail price of everything in it if bought separately from GW.

Very nice! Thanks for the heads up If you're ever in the area pm me and maybe we could play a game

Noir wrote:As said above, they have a big pole on there backs and a PK.

...presuming you paid for those pieces of wargear.

The only thing that physically differentiates a Nob from a Boy is size. A Nob is bigger.

That said, you SHOULD alway buy a Power Klaw & Bosspole for your Nob. That alone will make him more easily picked out in the crowd.


Eric

Don't listen to these haters. 'Ard Boyz can be very useful and worthwhile if you are in a situation where you are limited in the number of boyz you can take. For instance, 'Ard Boyz on a Truck is very useful. 'Ard Boyz in a battlewagon are less of an issue, since you have 8 bodies to lose before you start becoming ineffective. Plus, they are a very fun modeling project- and if you lose interest with them, they're a great start for some custom Meganobz!

tremulant wrote: When upgrading a boy in a unit to a nob, how does one differentiate that particular model visually?

The accessory sprue in the boyz box contains a big torso to use for the nob as well as a power klaw.

However, he looks much more like a proper nob if you use one of the large heads from the nobz box (it has loads of spares). If I was doing my ork army over again, I would use nobz from the nobz box for all the nobz in my boyz squads - they look much better.