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Am I missing something here?

Ork players tend to be the most happy. Their codex is pretty old, yet I don't see many people complaining about them.

I never see posts where it says Orks are underpowered, rubbish, dated or anything like that.

They also have huge scope for modelling, painting and conversions.

What makes an Ork army tick and how comes Ork players tend to be the happiest players in 40k?

Puscifer wrote:Am I missing something here?

Ork players tend to be the most happy. Their codex is pretty old, yet I don't see many people complaining about them.

I never see posts where it says Orks are underpowered, rubbish, dated or anything like that.

They also have huge scope for modelling, painting and conversions.

What makes an Ork army tick and how comes Ork players tend to be the happiest players in 40k?

My theory? Orks are the only guys in the 41st millennium that, whole sale, know how to have a good time, in any circumstance. The same goes for their players. ^_^

Orks are amazingly fun to play and model, you can charge headlong into a gunline shouting Waaaagh fully aware that you're about to eat bolter and get reduced to rubble. Its an army best approached is humour and played that way even the most horrific loses can be funny.

They are an alright army, they aren't bad, they aren't that old (they used to be updated every codex edition, now it's just C:SM and Nids), they are either right before 5th, or just before Chaos Daemons.
(can't remember)

Their army works well, they only have a few bad units (Flashgitz, looted tanks) Kinda hoping they get looted tanks like old, loota's got a good place, but looted tanks suck, hoping they can take any tank as looted again. Though a few things took a hit as well, the rest of the stuff makes up slightly for it.

They are a 4th edition army not confined to one or two "very specific" lists for competitive gaming. They have the Kan Wall, the Green Tide, the Bikers list, and the Deff-Rolla Madness (Battlewagon rusher)

They've got a dex that's hit the sweet spot between okay and good, meaning nobody can say they are overpowered, but nobody can really say they are awful.

They've truly got it good right now.

ZebioLizard2 wrote:They are an alright army, they aren't bad, they aren't that old (they used to be updated every codex edition, now it's just C:SM and Nids), they are either right before 5th, or just before Chaos Daemons.
(can't remember)

Their army works well, they only have a few bad units (Flashgitz, looted tanks) Kinda hoping they get looted tanks like old, loota's got a good place, but looted tanks suck, hoping they can take any tank as looted again. Though a few things took a hit as well, the rest of the stuff makes up slightly for it.

They are a 4th edition army not confined to one or two "very specific" lists for competitive gaming. They have the Kan Wall, the Green Tide, the Bikers list, and the Deff-Rolla Madness (Battlewagon rusher)

They've got a dex that's hit the sweet spot between okay and good, meaning nobody can say they are overpowered, but nobody can really say they are awful.

They've truly got it good right now.

The fact they have so many builds appeals to me and that you can make the look of your Waaagh!!! look completely different from everyone else's. You look at the tourney scene or gaming clubs ATM... It's oh look GK or SM. Hey, it's a Guard army. No one ever goes oh look it's an Ork army, people usually say "Wow Orks, this will be fun".

I think I'm looking for 40k to be fun again and Orks look like a good way to do it.

Because not everyone is a whinging little bitch?

Joey wrote:Because not everyone is a whinging little bitch?

That's the thing, I know people who complain about their armies all the time, including the GK and IG players, but not Orks. Their players know they don't have the best stuff in the game, but they can make do with what they have and they tend to beat face with what little they have and laugh when they win or lose. It seems the average Ork player has the same mentality when heading into a game...

If they are going to go down, they are going to go down swinging.

I think its more that, those who make the plunge into an ork army.. and those who get good at it are the ones who can 'can be an ork' for a few hours...

That old "if we win, we win. If we die dats it. If we lose...well we cant lose cuz if we run away, we can come back for another go!" Thing they have going for them.

I honestly don't understand why people complain at all. If I lose it's because of bad tactics not because I'm underpowered or my opponents army is OP.

Death Skulls don't lose, when loads of boys are beat it just means there is more loot for da boyz who survive/pop out of the ground next.

Orks are my happy army and it's true that I have very little to complain about.

here's the thing:

Orks are easy to play

Don't need much strategy or finesse to do a good job

good selection

great competative streak (though it's showing signs of aging it's doing it gracefully)

Very Forgiving

good looking models

Written by Phil Kelly

add all that and the popularity of orkz, you're really gonna have to nitpick if you want to complain about it (that or note their lack of deep striking units)

Orks are the necessary comic relief in the grimdark future, and Ork players are the necessary comic relief in the grimdark present.

When the codex is good, it's really good. When its not so good, it's still possible to get good metagame matchups because we're not MEQ. Six point boys have a quantity all their own.

People claim orks aren't good anymore, or their codex is too old, and yet they're still hitting the top-tens of GTs regularly. So they can't be that bad...

What's more, we ork players have the best modelling options, hands down. The Imperium is saddled with STCs; there is only so much you can do with a rhino chasis. Orks, we can chop up any kit in the game and make it orky. I've seen looted falcons, monoliths, dreadknights... you name it, orks can steal it and make it fit.

We also have the most personalizable models in the game. Marines - what do they get, the choice between Mark IV or Mark V helmets? Or maybe a bald head. Between the different ork kits, we have over 20 unique head options for our boyz, and at least 15 for nobs. Adding in Fantasy kits, you get even more. You can make a unit of 30 boyz and have nearly every guy be different. I'm not sure you can do that in a ten-man marine squad.

Then there are the vehicle details too. Looking at the new ork bikes and trukks, you can actually see brake lines, disc breaks, carburetors, fuel tanks, drive belts, and so on. Our walkers, like everything else we get, are more poseable and customizable than anyone elses. We can make stompy kans and dreads with giant saws. What do marines get, a choice of gun arm on a box on legs?

It's easy to be happy when you get the best model range out there, with the most conversion opportunities to boot.

Only downside is Ork armies are very expensive.

I think it simply boils down to the varied builds one can have with Orks.

You can make them Mech, Foot, shooty, CC, Bikes etc..


They are the SM of the xenos world. but without the OP Stat line of T4 3+ SV....

I also believe that Ork Players do not EXPECT to win every game and are therefore are happier if things go well during the game.

Puscifer wrote:Am I missing something here?

Ork players tend to be the most happy. Their codex is pretty old, yet I don't see many people complaining about them.

I never see posts where it says Orks are underpowered, rubbish, dated or anything like that.

They also have huge scope for modelling, painting and conversions.

What makes an Ork army tick and how comes Ork players tend to be the happiest players in 40k?

Simple Answer

Orks are fun.

They have a gun that shots grots through the warp at people.

they have a psyker who turn opposing SCs into squigs

they can do what they want.

Plus Ork players seem to be very loyal to their fun and they are not OP. So the people that play them are generally fun.

My friends do orks as a sideline. Especially our IG player, converts his old tanks to make looted ones. There's just so many things you can do to a thing to make it orky...

I think part of it comes from the fact that the orks are and have always been the generic bad guys in the universe. When 40K started the orks were the generic enemy for the imperial armies to take down. In many of the stories they are these sides that invade and exist for the actual heroes to kill and mop up. I think it lends a sense of fatalism to the army. Players who play orks know they are not the heroes in some epic saga, they are the generic bad guys who are there to make someone else's story interesting.

It makes the wins or losses for an ork player meaningless. If you charged and got into a good scrap and bashed some space marine heads in regardless of winning or loosing, you did the orky thing. In every game someone has to loose, and orks make loosing particularly fun.

When I play orks, I pretty much accept that I am going to loose, and instead have fun trying to go down swinging. This is all just my opinion though.

They're a good army that plays perfectly to its fluff while also having very few absurdities.

Having played Orcs in Fantasy, I know for a fact that nobody plays with Orks because they care about winning, or being the best army.

Heck, Orks are more or less written to be the galaxy's most affable losers.

We Ork players knew what we were getting into when we picked up the army. Unlike Nids who thought they were getting good stuff but got Crudfaced instead.

Phil Kelly wrote one hell of a Codex and if Crudface or if Wardmissles touches the Ork codex I will be shelving them until they get a new codex after that.

Ork are funny to play with and against or as allies, and playing with orks is never a win or a defeat, just good times.
I remember playing with tau against a good friend with orks. I lost, but still one of the best matches and time i had in the hobby.

The only time you will hear ork players complain is if you talk about grey knights, specifically purifiers and force weapons. A unit of purifiers with halberds is an ork players worst nightmare.

juraigamer wrote:The only time you will hear ork players complain is if you talk about grey knights, specifically purifiers and force weapons. A unit of purifiers with halberds is an ork players worst nightmare.

i think thats actually almost every armies nightmare.

Orks are my main army, and have been for 25 years

The punker do's and Beercan HPG's in the RT set sold me on them, and i've not been able to drop them since, nor wanted to.

There are WAAC-hole ork players, and TFG ork players, but they are far rarer than the MEQ ones i've met.

The Ork playstyle is laid back acceptance of massive losses and random events that may even end up with a win, for me, and that's one of it's big appeals I don't want an ulcer while i'm trying to have fun

A few of the models could use an update, but other than that i'm a happy green camper

The best thing about GK players is that they actually believe there little band of elite knights DESERVE to be the best.

Why shouldn't my guys be I6 with force weapons?!!!

Ork players tend to believe they have a 50/50 in most games, which is where the difference lies.

And they refuse to believe that the statement 'they're just Marines and die like Marines' isn't a huge joke..

Marines that are as strong as MC's, Higher Initiative than DE and all toting force weapons is just totally blah, after all

Hell, the codex was released on April Fools, wasn't it (IIRC) ?

I couldn't care less if my orks die in droves (and they do) as long as they get to be loud, smelly and obnoxiously random doing it My favourite units are the SAG and Zogwort, although they don't make it into every list

There's something deeply satisfying in my orky soul to put down 200 + troops opposite a dinky little army (and they are all dinky against that except swarm-nids and bodycount Guard) and see them just totally FILLING my deployment zone (even though i know most won't even make it across the board against a competent player) and not caring that they won't because it's that awesome

Orks don't need to win to Win, they just want to roll the dice and have some Larfs.

Orks are the most fun to customize, because if your conversion looks like jaggedy bits of sprue and plasticard slapped together haphazardly, you've got a creation any mekboy would be proud of. And if you can make it look seriously good (in an orky way of course) you will get MAD props.

Scratch building is even better. Most of the time, scratch builds for other factions look anywhere from terrible to mediocre, because you need to worry about things like symmetry, conformity to the standard of the official kit, and surface details that are irreproducible within the skill of the average modeler. Making ork vehicles that look nothing like the GW version is the whole point...I do not intend to buy a second official kit of any ork vehicle, because that uniformity is antithetical to the ork aesthetic.

Finally, ANYTHING that is roughly tabletop size is fair game. I have way too many half-finished conversions, but they include such diverse originals as a Tamiya military kit, a 60s Batmobile (destined to become a hoopty for my Big Mek), and a mammoth that I intend to build trunkless, cover in green stuff to smooth the skin, and run as a Gargantuan Squiggoth.

juraigamer wrote:The only time you will hear ork players complain is if you talk about grey knights, specifically purifiers and force weapons. A unit of purifiers with halberds is an ork players worst nightmare.

This

But I'll throw my hat in with others, orks are just awesome, simple as that. Every time I branch out into another 40k army, I end up just trading/selling it away to buy more orks. Hell, I 'm about to repeat that cycle again. I picked up 4 chimeras and two LRBTs on the super cheap with the intent of doing IG this summer, I'm tempted just to trade em away in favor of the 18 vehicle list I've been wanting to try for orks.

EDIT: I'll add another point, they're much easier to paint. To put it simply, I'm pretty bad at painting. With my orks though, after they're all painted up they still look particularly sweet, as any screw ups can just be mistaken for character. Like the last battlewagon I painted, I did an ink wash that ended pretty badly, till I noticed it reflects oil stains and leaks really well, so I "got away with one"