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Before I explain the purpose of this thread, I will tell you about m y thoughts in orks.
When I first starting wargaming, I played LOTR SBG. When I was deciding what army to collect, I decided that orcs (in lotr it's spelt with a c) and goblins are ugly and dismissed the idea of collecting them. Since I started 40k, I have been a loyal player of the imperial guard. My friend has orks and there is a constant rivalry between the two of us. But earlier I was reading about Mu's orks. This inspired me. I haven'tr got a copy of the ork codex and I don't know what sort of thing to collect. I read about burna boys. Can anyone tell me anything about them. I am looking for answers to these questions and any other info on whether/what to collect from this race of greenskins.

Why should I collect orks?
What sort of army could I collect?
What would you reccomend I buy to get started?
How could I change my signature to suit ig and orks?

I would generally choose a compact, elite list rather than a large one (don't mention it)
I prefer a consistent colour scheme throughout the army or each regiment or a different colour scheme for each squad or type of squad.
I prefer not to dish out loads on metal models and large vehicles.

I don't want answers like you should collect orks 'cos they're amazin'/orky/green

For a compact list then you'll probably want to look at a bunch of battlewagons loaded with nobz, slugga boyz and burna boyz. Mix in some lootas and some fast movers, 'koptas or rokit buggies.

That's one of the really solid lists in the ork codex, the other one being horde guys and killa kanz.

Scott-S6 wrote:For a compact list then you'll probably want to look at a bunch of battlewagons loaded with nobz, slugga boyz and burna boyz. Mix in some lootas and some fast movers, 'koptas or rokit buggies.

That's one of the really solid lists in the ork codex, the other one being horde guys and killa kanz.

Well they're considered competitive anyway. Not exactly solid - a few lyncphins removed and the list crashes.

OP, to understand Orks you really need a copy of the codex to read. And you need a humourous outlook on them too - being all serious just aint orky enough
For a list, well, the Ork codex caters for many lists. Trukker spam, Battlewagon rush, Green Tide, Kan Wall, Gun Line, heck the list is almost endless depending on your creation. Pick a theme for your boyz and roll with it, and you should be fine
As a starter... well the Codex and some boyz always help. The Battleforce is an okay purchase depending on how much of it you wish to use - only using the boyz isn't the best investment.

Juvieus Kaine wrote:And you need a humourous outlook on them too - being all serious just aint orky enough

The opposite is true.

You need to love random effects in game and unit expendabillity, or most Ork builds are gonna be painful to play.
However, for compact elite lists, nothing scares an opponent quite like a Nob/Battlewagon blitz. It's terrifying.
Klans also offer uniform colour schemes, so generally speaking, that's the best route to go for someone who doesn't like too much variation.

There aren't that many random effects for orks. If you don't use SAGs, Zzap guns or Weirdboyz then they're pretty reliable.

Scott-S6 wrote:There aren't that many random effects for orks. If you don't use SAGs, Zzap guns or Weirdboyz then they're pretty reliable.

Can't forget our hilarious 35 point transports! Also 'Don't Press Dat'. But yeah, there is a fair amount of unpredictability in any army. Orks just have the most humorous.

Collect orks because they are fun and really amazing to model.
For a compact army you will probably want a mechanized list, a deffwing list, or a biker list.

Shying away from metal models is fairly easy as there are only a few of the chars that are metal. Pretty much anything can be made 'orky' by adding more guns, more metal plates, and more spiky bits.

The battleforce is a great place to start.

The battleforce is actually one of the worst places to start.

Unless you're looking to get into speed freaks, and you really love the waaagh bike models, I would suggest staying away and spending money on models you know that you want. The savings you receive with the ork battleforce is about 3% as compared to buying the things separately. And in that same breath you could simply buy the units you wanted fro roughly the same price.

Say you don't want the trukk or the bikes. Thats seventy plus dollars you are now free to spend on whatever models you wish. Maybe you want a unit of killa kans? Costs as much as the bikers. You want a unit of lootas or burnas? Costs just a little less than the trukk.

So to be honest, just buy things separately. But always start with two units of boyz. Then fill in the rest as you see fit.

gpfunk wrote:The battleforce is actually one of the worst places to start.

Unless you're looking to get into speed freaks, and you really love the waaagh bike models, I would suggest staying away and spending money on models you know that you want. The savings you receive with the ork battleforce is about 3% as compared to buying the things separately. And in that same breath you could simply buy the units you wanted fro roughly the same price.

Say you don't want the trukk or the bikes. Thats seventy plus dollars you are now free to spend on whatever models you wish. Maybe you want a unit of killa kans? Costs as much as the bikers. You want a unit of lootas or burnas? Costs just a little less than the trukk.

So to be honest, just buy things separately. But always start with two units of boyz. Then fill in the rest as you see fit.

Good god thats truth in its purest form


Burna boyz are fantastic little fellas. Ive thought many times about filling out my elites slots with just burna boyz and see what I can accomplish with it. But mainly if you play Orks, you need to have a sense of humor when things go from good to horribly wrong at the drop of a hat. I actually laugh when my trukks kareen and do bad things. Once I fired a boomgun at point blank range to some gaunts....only to have it scatter terribly back onto the boomgun and blew itself up. That made me cry I was laughing so hard, just the thought of how the hell that could of happened (charred, smoking Ork left blinking in confusion)

Dont get me wrong though, the Orks are funny and all that, but they will curb stomp other armies, and are good at it. So you can have a laugh at yourself, AND bitch slap opponents too.


OH, Add flashGitz to the randomness argument. Ap6 on terminators and AP1 on rippers. Thats the way they work

Some really useful answers here, thanks a lot. I like the idea of trukks of nobs and squadrons of deffcopters. I also like the idea of a humorous theme, Juvieus Kaine, please can you please expand on that suggestion. My friend is always boasting about how his deffcopters will ds and hit my prospective basilisk from the rear. Just to check, are nobz a troops choice?

gman1401 wrote:

Scott-S6 wrote:There aren't that many random effects for orks. If you don't use SAGs, Zzap guns or Weirdboyz then they're pretty reliable.

Can't forget our hilarious 35 point transports! Also 'Don't Press Dat'. But yeah, there is a fair amount of unpredictability in any army. Orks just have the most humorous.

The only randomness in Trukks is when they blow up - not so important, especially since it makes it more likely that the orks on board will be okay.

And who uses looted wagons?

I do

Also add Lootas to the random list

Yeah +1000 on playing with a sense of humor. People tend to underestimate things that seem funny..

Orks are funny, and dangerous too

Plus it's funt o plunk an ork army at 2000 pts ont he table and watch most other-army players eyes bug out at how much 2000 pts can buy you..

goblet270 wrote:Some really useful answers here, thanks a lot. I like the idea of trukks of nobs and squadrons of deffcopters. I also like the idea of a humorous theme, Juvieus Kaine, please can you please expand on that suggestion. My friend is always boasting about how his deffcopters will ds and hit my prospective basilisk from the rear. Just to check, are nobz a troops choice?

I take Orks as the humour of 40k. You can't help but chuckle at the antics they get up to The boyz talk tuff. The equipment is noisy first, killy second. And half their wargear is unreliable Besides if you can't laugh at some of the antics of an Ork you may miss part of what playing an Ork army is in a nutshell - it's a riot

Now, as I said there's quite a few mixes of armies you can cobble together. You can take a mass of trukks and bikers and koptas and go at breakneck speed towards the enemy. You can armour up and take the biggest vehicles to boot. You can wash the enemy in boyz. You can deploy a mekanik army with curde walkers and buzzing shields. You can go completely bonkers and use every piece of random kit available. The choice is limitless

Warbosses allow for a unit of Nobz or Meganobz to be taken as troops. 2 Bosses = 2 Nobz/Meganobz as troops if you wanted. If you focus on a speedy list you'd want trukker boyz, nobz in trukks potentially, warbikers, deffkoptas, biker bosses. Basically pick the really fast stuff and mash it together to get something you're happy with. At the end of the day, if you aren't grinning about the shenanigans your Orks could pull off, Orks won't suit you so much.

A fast army like that sounds brilliant, but I don't like bikers that much. Would you say that stormboyz are worthwhile? I'll probably start with the assault on black reach. This has a good number of boys to get started with, some nobz, a warboss and some plastic warboss. I could then convert the dreadnought to a ddeffdread, this coupled with a second deffdread from an ig sentinel will make a perfect second shock wave unit.


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What about wartrakks and war buggys

Trick with a Speed Freakz army is not to be slow. Sadly this makes Kanz, Dreadz and to a degree battlewagons very slow and a hinder to your army. If you want fast you go for the fastest thing available - for the boyz and nobz its the trukk, and for the fast attack... well bikers and koptas are about equal.

Stormboyz is not bad but I feel they're more for for Horde lists. You get a fast element that pushes ahead in numbers to soak up fire or manage to put a dent in things before the main horde follows suit. However if you wanted to use them it's doable. 12"+D6" movement a turn gives a max of 18" so they'd be almost as fast as a trukk. Warbuggies & wartrakks are your shooty gun platforms with speed - typically you want rokkits with them and possibly red paint all round, unless you're up against hordes, which would beg for Skorchas instead. But indeed warbuggies work nice with trukks. Personally, I'd recommend bikers because as small units they rock house. Koptas don't do justice for their points IMHO but people around here like recommending the twin-rokkit-buzzsaw suicide unit, which I hate

reason to playorks... they are really fun

if you pick a theme they are very effective

kan wall is boring but proven to work well

green tide... 6 groups of 29boys w/ 1 nob pk bp costs only 1320, for 1500 points mark throw down 2 big mek w/ kff and kombi scorchas for 1500 points on the button. that's 182 models on the board

speed freaks which you seem to like alot can be really fun, less models btu you get there quicker.

just whatever you do, pick a theme and go with it

So the deffdreads aren't a good idea. I'm looking at an army of deffcopters and boyz and nobz in trukks, along with red wartrakks and buggies. Though I don't like the biker models, I guess I could convert some. My friend says that the deffcopters in the aobr set are good against armour and the normal ones are anti-infantry. Is this true? Would you suggest that I take a mix of both?

Has anyone got any ideas on how top convert bikers and wartrakks and buggies?