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Hey there,
i have just got some orks and the boyz are mainly slugga and choppa boyz. i'm just trying to work out the best way to start a waaagh and have a unique army with a set backstory.

i also have 6 deff kopters some nobz and some heavy shootas. never used orks before and don't really want to go down the green tide route, but i will if i have too.

Any and all ideas and suggestions will be greatly recieved and considered.

Let duh waaaagh begin!!!

Well first things first, your going to want to come up with a central theme to your army, there are some mainstream ones that are shown in the codex or you can come up with your own.

In the codex there are a some clans that they show, such as:

Goffs. Infantry heavy army, your classic Green Tide look, Their colors are black, checkers, and hints of red. Often lead by Ghaz.

Evil Sunz: This army consists of loads of light vehicles, warbuggies, deff koptas, trukks full of boys, and warbikers. Usually lead by Wazzdakka, this clan is red and yellow.

Deathskulls: Their color is blue. This clan is full of lootas, tanks dreads, killa kans, big meks with force feilds, battle wagons and so forth. Anything and everything mechanized. Almost always lead by one or two Big Meks.

Bad Moons: Their clan color is yellow, they are known for being rich. So their army type is usually lots of meganobz, flash gitz, battlewagons bristling with weapons, and so on. Usually lead by a mega armored Warboss.

Snake Bites: Their color is red, but not very much, they wear alot of fur and camo. These orks are usually more feral, so that means no vehicles, or guns for the most part. Their are often even catapults in these armies. You will want to have Kommandos for this clan, lots of them. Usually lead my a standard warboss or weirdboy.

And then you can always come up with your own ideas. But before you really start your army, you need to come up with either a style of gameplay you want to do ( Kan wall, green tide, battle wagon rush, trukk spam ect. or just a more balanced force for friendly games) or what theme you want your army to have, such as a backstory.


Hope this helps, Waaagh on man!!

Still don't know what to do. i looked through the Alt rules for orks and found the sons of ankorky rules and i kinda liked that. thought it would allow some interesting conversions and models in unique poses and a new colour scheme.

but then again the green tide seems to be really effective. i just don't know.

i also want to give them a whole backstory and a different theme. any other ideas.

i was thinking of a vast mobile army with light weapons and good close combat skills and upgrades.

Well if you want your army to be unique then you could use the existing Ork rules just try and create a new yet reasonably effective list with it.


Me and my wargaming 'clan' so to speak all try to do this with our armies, and so far I have only seen one player that uses a remotely similar list, yet my Orks have never failed to finish in the top 50% in tournaments. This is because no-one has encountered it before and this makes my job easier.

The only problem with this is that it makes it difficult for us to help you with a list that you've centred around a story and yet trying to make it effective.

You really need to have a good look through the codex, see if you can find a unit or a piece of fluff that appeals to you, and then try to make a good list revolving around that.

Agreed! There is a ton of stuff you can do with an Orks army. They are all very effective in there own way, or at least can be.

There are kan wall list, green tide, speed freek, battle wagon rush, a mix of speed freek and Battle wagon rush, mix of gren tide and kan wall, nob bikers army. Just alot you can do with the Orks.

Figure out what catches your fancy and tell us.

thanks for all the help guys! once i have sorted out all of the details i will post on the army profile section. got loads to do though!!

Yes please! I always like to help.

OK i think i have sorted out a plan. i'm going to combine the green horde rules and the sons of anorky. using the bikers to drive the enemy to the horde or the other way round. or even use the green tide to surround the buggers and get the bikers to sweep in. any one have any other ideas or point out gaping holes in my tactics?

adeptus ludus wrote:OK i think i have sorted out a plan. i'm going to combine the green horde rules and the sons of anorky. using the bikers to drive the enemy to the horde or the other way round. or even use the green tide to surround the buggers and get the bikers to sweep in. any one have any other ideas or point out gaping holes in my tactics?

Actually yes. I run a mechanized/speed freek army.

First things first though. Zarruk missed the Blood Axes! Snakebites are the more "primitive" orks and wear a lot of leather....their lobbas are often catapults, etc. BLOOD AXES are known to offer their services as mercenaries, have been known to work FOR the Imperium(for guns and teef and uvver good loots) and have adopted the rather un-orky concept of camouflage. I started out with an Evil Sunz concept because of the mechanized force, and after my first game in which I had a unit flee to an objective and go to ground(un-orky!), I decided to go Blood Axes. This works well for me, as each unit uses a different camouflage pattern so I can tell them apart.

Now, on to tactics:

Read the Ork Tacticas. I've written one myself mainly around key points that I think have been missed by some of the others. The information and opinions contained within the tacticas(or takkitkas) can be very beneficial to beginning and veteran players alike.

When you say you're using the green horde rules and sons of anorky, I'm assuming that you're talking about using the Ork Codex and a combination of a Green Tide and warbiker list. If not, I'd urge you to stick with the Codex until you have a feel for orks. Personally, even when having the option of using another set of alternate or "house" codices, I usually opt out. If I'm playing Imperial Armor 8's Dreadmob list, I'd get used to it, but couldn't use it at a tournament. By sticking with the codex initially, you're developing skill and strength at a Codex that is accepted universally, not another Codex that may be proportionally unbalanced or unfair. This is just a strong suggestion to begin with.

The main problem I see with your concept is that your army lacks synergy. It is widely agreed that orks do one thing well and do it better than other lists, but you must do this exclusively. In this case, concerning synergy, your army must strike at the same time. If you run mechanized along with footslogging, your bikes(and any other fast vehicles) will strike on turn 2, while the rest on foot will be along turn 3 or 4. What happens is that you have personally balkanized your army for your opponent's advantage. His entire force will focus on the fast striking part, take it out, and then focus on the remainder of your army. You do not have enough target saturation, meaning that he can truly choose which units to focus on first.

Some notes on target saturation: If you field six units of 30 boyz led by a PK toting nob, he really has a mess of units to fire at. If you're fielding two trukk mobs, a battlewagon, and three footslogging groups of 30, his anti-tank will pop the battlewagon, small arms fire the trukks(AV10 so S4 weapons can glance it to death), and hit those 12 and 20 boy squads and make them fall back, then focus on the remaining horde.

Strike simultaneously. You can't really wave your opponent to death in this game, unless it's a tervigon spam list. Try to choose between shooty or choppy, though shoota boyz are still very choppy(orks). I typically run some battlewagons, sometimes trukks, with a sprinkling of lootas and at least one unit of warbikes. Lootas are shooting from turn 1, and work well with any army. The battlewagons and trukks are after threats as necessary(deffrollas pop vehicles rather well), while the bikes provide mobile anti-infantry dakka support with the possibility for assaults as well. I do very, very well with my armies, and am slowly phasing a unit here or there to experiment with things slowly.

So far, it looks like you have some slugga boyz(mainly AOBR), and the deffkoptas. What HQ units do you have? No other elites or fast attack or heavy support? Until you get some vehicles, you'll probably need to Green Tide it. If playing friendly games, build lists so that you can proxy some trukks and battlewagons. Try out some lootas too. It took me three games to like them, mainly due to rolling a lot of ones for how many shots they get. I like them now, and have for awhile, but I don't rely on them the way some do. Start naming a few HQ's and develop something. I often don't play AS competitive as I can(maybe adding a burna or PK to a Big Mek) but I'm having a blast and winning all the same.