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I've read that when a ork gets bigger enough (warboss) it becomes a prophet of Gork an Mork who speak to him and give him orky know how in battle,
is it possible that these voices may be thoughts which have come around due to the orks brain growing with the body so that a its IQ is not Warrrrgh!

not really....Ghazghkull believes he's the prophet of Gork and Mork because he lost a good chunk of his head to a bolter round in his youth. Whether he actually speaks with the gods or is just delusional, no one can really say.

his size doesn't really have anything to do with it

Orks are intrinsicly linked to a gastalt 'orky' field, every ork produces a part of it and can to some degree feel it (this is how a Warrrgh builds up). With increased power an ork may become a focal point for this field and beable to get more out of it, but size does not relate to being smart in orks.

It kinda does actually. Bosses tend to be smarter than the average boy, and big meks tend to be smarter than the average mek.

Dont quote me on this but I thought I had read that worlds with a low ork population typically have weedier but smarter orks due to lack of intense combat. Worlds with high populations have much bigger, tougher but dumber orks due to constant battling, essentially making orks dumber en-masse (mob mentality anyway).

That said the last ork codex I picked up was about 8 years ago so this could be completely wrong, or fallen out of the wrong part of my imagination

Orks who are on peaceful worlds tend to be weaker and smaller than orks on wartorn worlds. as well as the Orks on the wartorn worlds being more competent and dangerous.

So why do ork warbosses have a measure of tactical know-how.

Experience most likely.

Not that Orks have tactics.

Good point.

Vendetta 476 wrote:Experience most likely.

Not that Orks have tactics.

Actually Orks do have tactics, they just don't take in to consideration casualties, because of cultural diferences.

So orks get orky know-tactics from experience, does everyone agree on that.

Agamenmon wrote:So orks get orky know-tactics from experience, does everyone agree on that.

not necessarily. Orky culture is ingrained in their genes, and that strongly influences their tactics.

As Melissia said, Nobs and Warbosses will be more kunnin' than the average ork not just from experience, but from genetics. The best Meks will become Big Meks, the cleverest Boss will eventually become the Big Boss, etc. It's not just a size thing. In fact, I would say age and experience leads to size on the way to the top, but predisposition to leadership or know-wots often makes the difference in getting to the top.

I forget what source that comes from, but leadership is definitely one of the traits that's programmed into some orks, along with all the other various specialized skills like meks and doks.

So some orks (like humans) just have a knack for know-how and leadership.

Yes, standard genetic variation really.