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I have searched the forums first "black reach", but I have some specific questions that were not answered.

Me and a friend bought the Black Reach Box Set. Four of us took turns playing, and we all came to the consensus that Orks requires much more thought to play properly (which seems a little ironic). We are all new at the game, and just wanted to play to see if we should invest in other armies (1000 points of models for 80$ (on sale)!!!!). We had a lot of fun still.

Questions -

1) First of all, What is a defkopta supposed to do? I don't understand this unit at all, it has heavy weapons, but it can barely hit anything. This is frustrating because I will pop out the Defkoptas from behind a LOS blocking terrain and attempt to pick off a few marines and nothing will hit, and even then I have to go through other roles before that. Then the just get picked off by krack grenade rockets or bolter fire. I can imagine if I had hit with all six shots I would have really messed up his tactical squad, but with a BS of two, I don't really get why I should have shooting orks at all. I want to replace it with more Nobz.

2) Should I attach my Warboss to my Nobs or my Boyz? The Warboss Nobs Combo is really awesome, but I am not sure if there may be some benefit to attaching him to my boyz.


Some things I learned though -

1) Orks don't shoot well, I imagine them just firing into the air with those pistols for the noise, and they actually hit the marines by accident. I need to get into assault.

2) Hugging cover helps, as it protects me from bolter fire which shreds orks, however I have made the mistake of getting funneled into tight areas where my orks can have AoE used against me. Another problem with funneling is it allows for space marines to fight fewer orks in assault at a time. So cover ends up being more a double edged sword than I thought it would be.

3) Don't get charged by Terminators or a Force Commander. Always be the one charging. Probably a rule of 40k in general.

This is all I have, does anyone else have some advice with playing with the Black Reach Ork army list?

I don't play orks, but I will get you started with a few insights:
1: Deffcoptas are best when run in a squad of 1. Give them a buzzsaw along with their twin rokkits (some will tell you rokkits are not worth it), hold them in reserve using them to outflank and go tank hunting in your opponents backfield. If the rokkits don't hit, the buzzsaw gives you a second chance.

2: The Warboss will help the boyz out a lot more than the Nobz. The Nobz can handle most things on their own, the boys need the support. Gat a few more nobz with power claws. Run the nobz mob at about 6-7 and let a nob with power claw lead the boyz mob along with the Warboss.

Well, my friend, it seems you've learned a lot from those games. Deffkoptas are usually used as suicide units. You use them as single model units, equip them with rockets and a buzz saw, and throw them at some armor. Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't.

The two things you'll want to do to expand your orks are a nobz box and some more boyz. Try to get your two boyz units up to 30 and put some power claws on your nobz, that'll help you against terminators. Making them roll a 5+ invul is a lot better than making them roll a 2+ armor save.

Personally, I avoid cover like the plague. I'd rather risk open ground than rolling ones for difficult terrain. Consider adding a Big Mek to your army and giving him a KFF, that'll give your boyz a constant 5+ cover save and you won't have to slog it out over rocks.

Orks have a hard time dealing with transports at long range. Coptas have twin-linked rockits so they actually hit at a better rate than something with ballistic skill 3. Also, they are T5 with 2 wounds with hit and run, and don't forget scouting with turboboost (since they are jetbikes). You can use them in squads of one with buzzsaws to go after transports... if you get firt turn go ahead and turbo-boost within 18" so that on your turn you can move, shoot, assault. If you want to take larger groups of them, turbo boost to within 18" of the enemy shooty squads (things like devastators only have 1 attack each at S4 and usually no powerfist) so that you can move, shoot, assault... your T5 orks should be able to hold those guys in place for a long time, and depending on the number of buzzsaws they may even be able to kill them off.

What you don't want to do is sit in the open and get shot with krak missiles which instakill you. Be more aggressive and get into combat with someone. You are orks after all.

I like the warboss with boyz. The nobs can generally take care of themselves, but the boys become a much bigger threat with a warboss. Are they all in transports? What are the nobs equipped with? You do have some powerclaws right?

Don't forget once you are in combat you can move in through the terrain. Unless it is impassible the enemy should react and get close enough for you to use all your attacks.

Don't give up on Ork shooting. The guys you are using now have 1 shot at 12".... but you can take guys that get 2 shots at 18" for the same price. Imagine a squad of 30 of them... that's 60+ shots for very similar cost of those 10 marines. Even hitting on 5+ means you should hit more times than the marines even get shots... and with a longer effective range as well (move 6" fire 18") and the ability to do mighty well in close combat, plus plenty of ablative wounds, fearless, etc...

-Myst

The black reach set is a great start don't get me wrong but you need more boyz. you can find more choppa boyz on ebay super cheap, just get some parted out from other black reach sets. Or for shootas either buy the actual boxes or prepare for heavy converting.

Kff mek also helps.

Honestly I think the rokkit koptas are great. One thing I think you might be missing is that they are twin-linked. So if they miss, you can reroll their to hit. Rokkits are actually great against marines because 1. they are str8 so they cause ID and 2. they are AP3 so they ignore the marines armor. So as long as you can hit with them, you will wound on 2+, and ignore their armor. I actually like those odds.
The other thing is that the reason they were put in AoBR was to kill the dread, because they are str8. So first and foremost they should be pumping rounds into him.

The warboss should go with the boyz. They don't have a nob in there, so he can add in his powerklaw attacks, and mess up some marines. Plus, when you start loosing boyz, you get to use his leadership for morale checks.

Have you bought any other orks? Like others have said, probably get two more boxes of boyz, and a box of nobz. After that, you want to sit down and see what kind of list you want to make.

The first thing yiou should know is that black reach is rigged in favour of the Marines.The have about 135 extra points,and the orks have 4 modles that can harm the Dreadnought.3 of those are the Koptas,The other is the boss,in Combat only.

Firstly,by a 2 Boys kit,and a 2 Trukk.Mount the Nobs in a Trukk,and speed around smashing into things.Secondly,use the 10 new boyz,and the 20 from Black Reach,and attach the Warboss.This will make sure he gets into combat,by allowing you to allocate wounds.Put the Ten other boys in the 2nd Trukk and follow the nobs.Follow the advice above for Koptas

First of all, we decided not to include the dreadnaught in the game because the army lists are even points wise without it.

Defkoptas appear to fill two roles, tank hunting and diversions. So I either find tanks to kill or throw them into assault with some unit I want tied down. I guess I should decide whether or not I want to group them in one of three or three ones based on which I want to do. Is this correct?

Thanks for the advice on building an ork list. It does seem Orks do better in large scale games, 450 points may not be enough to show their actual strengths.

Orks are actually very efficient at lower point costs, if you have the right stuff.

If you're going to expand the force, I strongly recommend a Nobz box. You get so many extra arms with actual good weapons like big choppas and power klaws and kombis that you can make the five in the box and rearm the Black Reach nobs. Literally.

Deffkoptas are a horrible tarpit unit, they don't have combat upgrades and their unit size is small. However, they can assault static units like Devastators reasonably well. The main value of rokkits is to be able to pick a tank and having an off chance of immobilizing it so you can autohit it when you charge with your buzzsaw. Units of 1 deffkopta are optimal, because if you have a larger group they will likely break as soon as they take a casualty. In general you see them equipped for tank hunting with buzzsaws, and since they're Scouts, they can come in off a board edge and charge something.

In 5e the strongest Ork units tend to be Lootas, Killa Kans, and Battlewagons, depending on varying list styles. Big Meks with Kustom force Fields, as has been noted, are made of win. Lootas are actually able to provide enough sheer volume of long range Str 7 shots that even ork shooting will hit, Kans are solid close-range fire platforms with that precious BS3, and wagons can get 20 strong mobs of boyz into combat reasonably well.

MediumYellow wrote: I have searched the forums first "black reach", but I have some specific questions that were not answered.

Me and a friend bought the Black Reach Box Set. Four of us took turns playing, and we all came to the consensus that Orks requires much more thought to play properly (which seems a little ironic). We are all new at the game, and just wanted to play to see if we should invest in other armies (1000 points of models for 80$ (on sale)!!!!). We had a lot of fun still.

Questions -

1) First of all, What is a defkopta supposed to do? I don't understand this unit at all, it has heavy weapons, but it can barely hit anything. This is frustrating because I will pop out the Defkoptas from behind a LOS blocking terrain and attempt to pick off a few marines and nothing will hit, and even then I have to go through other roles before that. Then the just get picked off by krack grenade rockets or bolter fire. I can imagine if I had hit with all six shots I would have really messed up his tactical squad, but with a BS of two, I don't really get why I should have shooting orks at all. I want to replace it with more Nobz.

Deffkoptas have many failings, their big one being leadership of 7. That's why you never field them in larger squads, as a single casualty make them run away. However, if you field those three koptaz in units of one, your opponent needs to shoot them at least three times before they die, and the can even go after different target. And don't mind BS2 too much, a twin-linked BS2 is better than BS3. If there are krak missles on the board, killing your koptaz, you should just turbo boost towards those missile launchers and charge them, they can't shoot out of combat. If you upgrade them with buzz-saws you will even find them chopping up tactical marines pretty good.
This is their main role for us orks - use scout and turbo boost to get behind enemy lines as fast as possible and take out long range shooting.

2) Should I attach my Warboss to my Nobs or my Boyz? The Warboss Nobs Combo is really awesome, but I am not sure if there may be some benefit to attaching him to my boyz.

If you're using the basic AOBR nobz, attach the boss to them. Unlike the boyz, they aren't fearless, so the boss pole and higher ld help them a lot. Once you get "real" nobz (with all the shiny upgrades the codex allows), they should do their job on their own.

Some things I learned though -

1) Orks don't shoot well, I imagine them just firing into the air with those pistols for the noise, and they actually hit the marines by accident. I need to get into assault.

Orks don't shoot well, but orks shoot a hell lot more often than anyone else. If you compare 20 sluggas to 10 marines shooting bolt pistols, you'll find we still get more hits than they do, for less points. It gets even better if you look at shoota boyz or lootaz, which will put out ridiculous amounts of shots compared to marines. More than once have my shoota boyz won a shoot-out with marines. If you get twice as many shots, missing half of them isn't that bad.

2) Hugging cover helps, as it protects me from bolter fire which shreds orks, however I have made the mistake of getting funneled into tight areas where my orks can have AoE used against me. Another problem with funneling is it allows for space marines to fight fewer orks in assault at a time. So cover ends up being more a double edged sword than I thought it would be.

This rather sounds like too much impassible terrain to me. Make sure to have a good mix of ruins, area terrain, impassible terrain, LoS blocking terrain and walls/barbed wire/tank traps on the table. The game gets better that way.

3) Don't get charged by Terminators or a Force Commander. Always be the one charging. Probably a rule of 40k in general.

Actually an ork rule in general - never get charged. Slugga boyz should stand a decent chance against terminators on the charge.

As an ork player I'll back up most if whats been said already.

Dont hate the koptas too much. people often take it personally when they have rocketing units on their side of the board killing their transports before they've even had a turn. The turn or two of shooting they will draw is totally worth it.
Their major downside is they aren't exactly easy to get outside of a black reach box (I've never even seen the over priced metal model irl before)

Have you got the codex? Because playing Orks only with the AoBR rules sucks. In my first game i didnt know about furious charge (+1S and IN on the charge, for all orks!!) and waagh!! so i lost. Waagh allows you to gain fleet for one turn, so you can run and assault.

And If deffkoptas turboboost, they get a 3+ cover save, wich makes them pretty hard to take down. Remember to turbo boost in your scout move so when your opponent gets the first turn he'll shot at the coversave.

MrMerlin wrote:Have you got the codex? Because playing Orks only with the AoBR rules sucks. In my first game i didnt know about furious charge (+1S and IN on the charge, for all orks!!) and waagh!! so i lost. Waagh allows you to gain fleet for one turn, so you can run and assault.

And If deffkoptas turboboost, they get a 3+ cover save, wich makes them pretty hard to take down. Remember to turbo boost in your scout move so when your opponent gets the first turn he'll shot at the coversave.

This is a +1 from me. The little AOBR book leaves out some key features. Get the codex and then try it again if that was the case. And yes, charge Terminators with your boyz mob, they will slaughter the terminators. Do not however, charge the terminators with your nobz, thats just a terrible waste of points on your end.

also note that in AoBR playing as it is you have a signifigant point disadvantage

585 space marines

450 orks

the marines have 23% less points.. and the ork nobz are terrible...

AoBR like all starters sets is designed to steer people towards space marines. done right you can win with orks in the box but it isn't easy...

one thing though your rokkits are twin linked so if it misses you get to re-roll which is nice against the dred. pop the dred then rokkits on the tac squad. nobz at the tac squad and boys at the termies. warboss with the boyz tends to win it

The Battle for Maccragge didn't steer you towards Marines.There is one Tac Squad,vs 6 stealers that come back,10 Termagants that come back,and eight spore mines.I went straight for nids.It came with a campaign book,and the campaign stopped if the nids win a single battle out of 6.

MrMerlin wrote:Have you got the codex? Because playing Orks only with the AoBR rules sucks. In my first game i didnt know about furious charge (+1S and IN on the charge, for all orks!!) and waagh!! so i lost. Waagh allows you to gain fleet for one turn, so you can run and assault.

And If deffkoptas turboboost, they get a 3+ cover save, wich makes them pretty hard to take down. Remember to turbo boost in your scout move so when your opponent gets the first turn he'll shot at the coversave.

This. Also, since all the boyz have close combat weapons, you get an additional attack at close range. So, when you charge in, all the boyz get +1S, +1I and +1A.

I didnt know about the extra attack for a long time.


Lastly, if any of you do decide to go ork, you should figure out what type of army you want before you start buying. Which, I guess is good advice for any race, but orks more so because you're buying most stuff in bulk.

KingCracker wrote:+1 attack for charging. So the AOBR boyz will have 4 attacks on the charge

Ninja'd before i could edit

+1 attack for charging. So the AOBR boyz will have 4 attacks on the charge

Yes.So on the charge,Orks should have the same Str(4),and 4 X the attacks.These 2 things should be enought to kill plenty of big Humies.