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For my 1000th Post I decided to write a Summary of some of my favourite Ork Units, and the strategy a Synergy between them. In an attempt to give my most useful post I've done for this forum.

Before you read on I would like to recommend Dash of the Second best Condement or more commonly known as DashofPepper and his fabulous guides and Kingcracker being second to only Gork and Mork in the Orky universe.

Unless you've got all the Tactical Acumen of a Dried starfish or the attention capacity of a Gnat I would hope you read on.

Let the ramblings start!

The three main force compositions are:
Green tide
Kan Wall
Battlewagon Rush.

Now let's start first and foremost with the Green tide.
The Green tide makes use of Denial in many forms, the fact that AT weapons are now wasted and the amount of board space it can cover giving your opponent to many targets to shoot at, or target saturation, and making Drop podding a dangerous affair. The basic composition of a Green tide is as many boyz as possible, when you hit 1500p games, you should have no less than 180 Boyz. The flaw or weakness with this is Ranged AT. A favourite quote of mine is "Unless your shooting rokkits out of every Orifice you've not got enough Rokkits" or something along those lines. So that's what you should do. 3 Rokkits per squad should manage a Hit a turn. And with 6 Squads of them you could affectively take out 6 Tanks. Or a more realistic 2-3. Now thats not to shabby but at 180 Points for all those Rokkits it might not be the points affective AT method but IMHO It's worth the versatility. Now to accompany that you want your Lootas. Lootas are a staple diet for most Ork Players and you either want Maximum or Minimum. So 3 Squads of 5-7 or 15. You may mow ask why. The reasoning is simple. 5-7 with Decent rolls can take out a Tank with ease and they're a small enough squad to keep in cover. 15 have ridiculous firepower and can gain cover from the Boyz, which makes them far more Vulnerable in the later turns.
A squad in the middle is to big for cover and will have to be behind the Boyz with less firepower than the Mob of 15 and are far more vulnerable. With the Leaders of a Green tide, you've got a couple of options.

A Warboss with PK, pretty solid choice a Big hitter who's tough enough to survive their opening blows.

A Warboss with Warbike and PK, another good choice. The reasoning for the Bike is for when you see a Nasty steel Box where the Squishy Humies hide. You uncouple from your squad max out the throttle and slam into the Tank like a Comet. With lots of attacks and Str10 not much can survive and your Boyz can do the clean up job.

A Weirdboy, a must have IMO, the propensity for am extra Waaagh is a must have for your Foot sloggin Boyz. That and a Str 10 36" Melta weapon isn't to shabby. I wouldn't reccomend the Warphead upgrade If at low points It's a 30p sink. At higher point levels you can use it to try and force the result you want. Now you may think what about him blowing himself and a chunk of Boyz up? Well theirs a solution effectively a Tether. Make a line of Boyz stick out to one side at the rear. You don't want him to get into combat. Blow if he blows up one Boy could possibly die and he could lose a wound. Now you may be thinking but now he's out of the Unit he'll get niched by firepower. Well remember you've still got that run with the Ork Boyz, maintain the foward momentum and string a couple of Boyz out to nanny the Weirdboy and keep him in the unit.

Kannons and more Kannons, a 60p Investment that can decimate tanks and Infantry alike with uneering BS3. I would suggest chucking in an Ammo Runt or two just for when you really need that tank dead.

Suicide Koptas, I don't advocate them as they're an easy KP and unreliable, and for 70 Points they're not cheap.

The deployment tactics for Green Tide are simple. Boyz upfront covering the whole front line, Kannons back covering major lines of sight the Lootas in cover or behind the Boyz covering major lines of Sight. Most armies struggle because not many can take out 180 Boyz especially when deployed right giving all Boyz behind the screen squad a 4+ Cover save. A fun list and very competitive IMHO.

Now onto Battlewagon Rush/Trukk spam at least its not the Dreary Kan Wall yet. A personal pet hate.

The trick with the Battlewagon rush is speed, a Blitzkrieg of sorts, they go at max speed Deff Rolling tanks as they go.

The basic set up:
Rokkit Buggies, 3 Battle wagons minimum depending on the Squads inside. 2 KFF Meks, the 4+ SV on a AV14 Vehicle really irratates even the best of players. The effective Idea is to steam roller the enemy smashing Vehicles with the Rokkit buggies Deff Rollas and PK's.

Your Wagons set up should Include a Deff Rolla RPJ Big Shoota and Grot Riggers. The big shoota is their for multiple Weapon destroyed results so you don't lose foward momentum. The rest is pretty self explanatory.

The Boyz should be outfitted with Shootas, mabye a Mob with Sluggas for that extra CC punch. This is so you can Dakka Dakka those pesky CC units that even a Boyz mob can't hurt. If you want some extra punch to your army I suggest 15 Burnas in a Wagon. A lethal unit. Tank shock to bunch things up a flame them to death. Or hop out and hit them with power weapons, I would only use the latter when hitting MSU's. Remember most things will hit before us, Multi assaulting is key.

The 9 Rokkit Wagons act as a Screen, also benefitting from the KFF It's a hard one to budge, It's cheaper and more Mobile than Kanz, the reason why you take them for Foot Sloggin armies is for the AV11, even though you can still use buggies to great affect.

A wiseman once wrote "Boyz are but a means to Transport the PK" now this is true is some regards, the PK is the Heavy hitter but as a collective the Boyz hit harder.

Now if Its alright by you I'm going to Ignore the Kan Wall, I think everyone has the gist of it, and It's something we shouldn't encourage, It's slow boring and Un-orky.

Here I will sign off at since I'm writing this from a Mobile Telephone speaking device a long arduous way to write this I think you'll agree.

I will add more in the way of Tactics in General. Hope this helps, but It's a pale immitation.

Great post! I was actually logging on to start a thread similar to this - good thing I clicked here first. We could all benefit from a new, detailed Ork tactica. Too many aspects of the codex have been ignored because the same few netlists show up every time someone wants a competitive list. More, please.

Really like the part about the green tide, especially on how to use a weirdboy.

However, I wholeheartedly disagree with the battlewagon bash in multiple places:

- three BWs. To few imo, after much experimenting I found four to be the optimal number. The only time I would ever drop a wagon is for a unit of nob bikers. More on nobz later.
- two KFFs. Why? You can get get four battlewagons under one easily, in addition a warboss/thrakka are a great addition when hopping out with burnaz. Protecting a few additional buggies is hardly worth 85 points and a HQ slot
- Nobz. You don't even mention them. Ever since I started buying battlewagons I found nobz to be mandatory for the army, more mandatory than burnaz. Fielding battlewagons means you have much less models to spare, so you can't affort to lose a lot of models to units like scorpions, khorne berzerkers or genestealers other units that grind up boyz in cc, even if charged. Whether you use nobz in a wagon, in a trukk or on bikes doesn't really matter, but they should be somewhere.
- Wagon upgrades. RPJ is really nice to have, but not mandatory. Grot riggers a matter of taste I guess(I always buy them), but in any case armor plates are absolutely mandatory. Getting the wrong wagon stunned can ruin your entire game, 40 points is a small price to pay to prevent that. You even said yourself that you should not lose your forward monumentum

To continue with Jidmah:

Why Shoota Boyz in Wagons? You don't have the shooting phases in which to fire off the Shootas because you'll always be moving 13" a turn.

Fair points, except the second KFF.
It means, your opponent just targets the Vehicle with the KFF and secondly It means you can't split up, I said 3 Was the Minimum because anything lower than that is Ineffective, I would agree 4-6 Is optimum.

1 with Nobz, 1 with Burnas, 2 with Boyz.

Battlewagon rush Isn't my preffered list so you most likely have the edge In knowledge in that respect.

I find Green Tide the best, everyone suits up for the current meta of Tanks and when they see 180 Boyz they panic.

Thanks for your kind words Kowboy.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

AresX8 wrote:To continue with Jidmah:

Why Shoota Boyz in Wagons? You don't have the shooting phases in which to fire off the Shootas because you'll always be moving 13" a turn.

For the simple reason that they're almost better In every way. It's always down to personal preference in that regard. I usually take a squad of each. I like versatility.

Shootas also mesh well with everything else. In the current meta there are two types of squad. CC Monsters, which Shoota Boyz do better against and MSU's which Sluggas would be overkill for.

Why no KFF Mek in Green Tide? A 5+ cover for everyone is huge.

It covers barely anyone, that and using a squad of Orks as a screen unit you get a 4+ Save without wasting 85p.

InquisitorVaron wrote:Fair points, except the second KFF.
It means, your opponent just targets the Vehicle with the KFF and secondly It means you can't split up, I said 3 Was the Minimum because anything lower than that is Ineffective, I would agree 4-6 Is optimum.

Splitting up is something you don't want to do with battlewagons until much later. If the kff get's shot down, that probably took most of the shooting for the first turn, on your next turn you have two options. First, disembark the other boyz, embark your KFF and keep going. Second, your opponent is close enough, keep going, disembark, Waaagh! In either case, you don't need a second KFF.

AresX8 wrote:To continue with Jidmah:

Why Shoota Boyz in Wagons? You don't have the shooting phases in which to fire off the Shootas because you'll always be moving 13" a turn.

On this I agree with Varon. I run one unit of each, simply because they are better at killing different stuff, allowing for more options. With battlewagons you can chose your opponents, so your sluggas go murder something with high T or good saves or things like imperial guardsmen, to make sure they die, while your shootboyz take on things which are decent in close combat or bad armor saves. Also, doing drive-bys with shootaz forces your opponent to come towards you and break open that battle wagon in assault.

You once again make a Valid point. But everything is personal preference I just prefer it for extra comfort. That and the fact they're faced with to many choices.

Having the second KFF is good for end game. When your boyz disembark to Assault the KFF stay in the Wagon. Now with concentrated fire they can kill the Wagon and him leaving your Battlewagons exposed since It's easy to exploit the side and rear armour since you've got them right in the enemy line.

85p for peace of mind is Invaluable.

Actually, if you got your BW into the enemy line - who cares? There really is no point in spending extra points on protecting something that does not need protection anymore, and one KFF should still be around.

On average you have lost one or less battlewagons by the time you hit your enemy, that is three battlewagons now going on deff-rolla rampage or picking up units and bringing them to their next targets. Keep in mind that all those weapons good at taking down armor, are also good at taking down nobz. So if they are shooting your wagons, they are not shooting one of the deadliest units in the game.

I'm also pretty sure that a warboss or even ghazghkull baby-sitting your burnaz are much more helpful in the endgame, as it makes dealing with that unit much more difficult for your opponent. You said yourself, they are better at charging small units, which are much more common at the end of a game, and they are great for clearing objectives.

Personal preference. The Nobz shouldn't be in a position to be shot at. You'd block of the Shots with the Wagon. Now without the KFF it's only 1/2 as effective.

You said yourself you'd lose the KFF Meks Battlewagon which would mean he's some distance away from helping. And the only other unit they could take a Wagon from is the other Boyz mob. Unless you want to foot slog expensive fragile units. I can see your point though. Saving 85p is always helpful, but another KFF just allows the Battlewagons to keep Deff Rollaring.

And allows you to split up, not every army will sit in a block awaiting for you to Multi-Assault them. The people I play against split up. Now you'd have two Obtions decimate Half of their army to be shot into Oblivion or split up and take both out simultaneously.

As I said keep and will keep on saying It's personal preference. If you want a solid CC Monster go for the Warboss as a Second. If you want versatile squads and lasting Battlewagons have the KFF.

I think the biggest problem with battlewagon rush is that you need to buy 4 battlewagons

I like to run 2 battlewagons with 6-8 trukks of boys and nobs. They serve as a center of attention for enemy anti-armor. My old-school trukks just don't look scary and people ignore them for the most part. Though I found people started shooting at them more when I set up my 80+ models in transports on another table

I think battlewagon rush is definitely competitive but I dislike it for the importance that a handful of dice rolls make. It is quite possible for 4 lascannons shot to ruin your whole army if your opponent is on fire and you can't make cover saves. on the flip side, you're utterly unstoppably and makes for a boring game if you can't miss a cover save. I know it's a dice game and all but deciding the game over 5 or 6 dice!

The ork codex is really great in that it is so balanced that there are tons of preferences that you can have with out being more or less effective.

I find the Ork codex one of the most balanced also. There's plenty of good builds all allowing Individual thoughts and Ideas put into them.

I know someone who swears by 9 Grotzooka Kanz and 9 Rokkit buggies, It's a double layer wall and makes Piecemeal of Infantry and Mech. Anyway I think that often with these threads the true nuggets of good Information come out through debating with your fellow Dakkaites. Your bound to forget something.

InquisitorVaron wrote:Personal preference. The Nobz shouldn't be in a position to be shot at. You'd block of the Shots with the Wagon. Now without the KFF it's only 1/2 as effective.

You said yourself you'd lose the KFF Meks Battlewagon which would mean he's some distance away from helping. And the only other unit they could take a Wagon from is the other Boyz mob. Unless you want to foot slog expensive fragile units. I can see your point though. Saving 85p is always helpful, but another KFF just allows the Battlewagons to keep Deff Rollaring.

And allows you to split up, not every army will sit in a block awaiting for you to Multi-Assault them. The people I play against split up. Now you'd have two Obtions decimate Half of their army to be shot into Oblivion or split up and take both out simultaneously.

As I said keep and will keep on saying It's personal preference. If you want a solid CC Monster go for the Warboss as a Second. If you want versatile squads and lasting Battlewagons have the KFF.

Actually, the big mek should disembark somewhere near the front when he loses the wagon. He can now move 6" and run d6 (6" with thrakka). It's close to impossible that he didn't catch up with the other wagons then. If the boyz lose their wagon, have them move towards objectives or other enemies.

Spreading up is what I'm really hoping for when playing BW bash. I will then run my entire army along one edge of the table, forcing half his army to cope with my entire army. When I'm going second and an opponent spreads out across the table, I've already won half the game, because I can deny him using a good portion of his army. After my 2000 points crushed his 1000 or so points on that half of the table, I usually go on grinding my way through the opponents army from one side to the other. I always charge at the side with the most dangerous units to me, usually stuff that can take out nobz easily. Simple reasoning, nobz can kill stupid amounts of models if their is no counter present, so make sure the counter is a smoldering wreck/a skull trophy ASAP. Splitting up will only ever weaken a battlewagon bash, never strengthen it, as you expose more sides, and leave more room for your opponent countering individual battle wagon payloads.

Keep in mind that you are not only losing 85 points, but a HQ slot, which is much more valuable. I could hardly believe how awesome Ghazghkull's Waaagh! is until I tried it two or three times. Reliably reaching your opponent in turn 2, not only in pitched battle, but also for dawn of war and spearhead is just priceless. Even with a regular warboss, you have an additional powerklaw which can take down Monoliths, Skimmers and monsterous creatuers, in addition to a bosspole and ld9 for your burnaz, which will otherwise run away at the first sign of shooting. If anything you lose versatility by fielding two big meks, you don't gain it.