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So, I've always been interested in Orks. I used to have a codex and Warboss above my fridge until I got sick and tired of being broke and sold them. Well, I just found 60 boys and 40 gretchin for CHEAP and I don't know where to move from here (besides getting the codex and warboss, of course).

I kind of like the idea of footslogging them, but I also want to try some Trukks out as they seem fun to build, scavenge bits for, etc. This would be my "goof around" army for the time being since I've tied up 30 Orks for 3 rounds with a Talos (not Nobz, obviously, but I know where assaulting stands currently...).

So what would be some models I should pay attention to for a horde/boyz & nobz army? Are boyz/nobz hordes even viable to run yet or should I just have fun painting, collecting and making fun salvaged tanks for the time being? I don't want to dive in head-first, but they seem like a nice change of pace from my army of glass and the righteous brothers of low model count.

Thoughts?

Nobs are possibly the best unit in the book, certainly for cc, and on bikes they're super nasty bordering on OP. Looted tanks is excellent, looted wagons basically throw a battle cannon around for 105pts. If you're going to horde it, the HORDE IT. MSU in orks is a disaster unless you can cover them. KFF on a big Mek is invaluable.
So in short;
Nobs are super kick-ass equipped well
Large squads of boys, one grot squad for sneaking never looked bad
KFF is excellent near essential for hordes
Looted Wagons are good

So the deal I got was for 60 boyz (CCW & bolt pistol looking thing...shoota? Slugga? Is there a modeling difference on these?) and 40 Gretchin (all modeled with large guns, none look like the models for ammo runts or any of the other grots/gretchin look like, not sure what these are even for, really).

I thought that would make a fun core for a horde army, and got an EXTREMELY good deal, so it couldn't be passed up. I'm looking through the codex, and think a few things could be fun (looking at Nobz, weirdboys, painboys, and different bosses currently).

So other than the Nobz to rush in behind my mass of green, are there any other horde must-haves? Which boss goes best with the horde?

Edit: Thanks for the help

sluggas are pistols, shootas are "rifles" (they are modeled with 2 hands on them in the codex) and the debate over which is best to use is common.

good units that complement ork hoards are:

a unit of gretchin out front to offer up a cover save/soak up an assault

a KFF mek, as an alternative way to get a cover save

lootaz or big guns (kannons) stationary in the back to help open any vehicles at range (orks struggle to do this so an effective list needs to consider this)

an interesting unit might be stormboyz. they'll most likely die, but if you run them in as flankers, distraction units, or use them to tie up dev squads/snipers/pathfinders etc you could find use for them. models are brilliant as well.

more boyz; 60 is nice and all, but if you're serious about running a hoard, you'll need 160 since armies like IG and Tau will be able to remove 30 boyz or more per turn, even with non-competitive lists.

If youre footslogging, unfortunately (if you like warbosses) you are going to likely have to have Big Meks as your HQs with KFFs. Without KFF cover, boyz die super easily is theyre out in the open.

Battlewagons are great transports. AV14 (but watch out for side armor shots) and holds 20 boyz. Shoota boyz are much much better than slugga boyz (2x CC weps) and work well in Transports or in Wagons. Make sure every mob of boyz has a nob with pk/bp.

Here's a more detailed list of my purchase:

61 Ork boyz:
(21 look like fantasy dwarves or something with an Ork head and Bolt Pistol being the obvious difference, all on round bases)
4 Big Shootas (whatever the one with the side feed-in bullet system and backpack full of ammo is)
4 Rokkitz
1 Boy holding some kind of grenade (stikk bomb?) with knife on his backpack and pistol in the other hand.
26 w/choppa & slugga
5 look like they have big choppas/bigger sluggas (ridiculously big axes and very large barrels on their bolt pistols), but I imagine I could just count them as normal orks with cooler looking weapons?

40 Gretchins:
All are in the same pose and roughly 1/2 height of a normal boy with a gun roughly as tall as they are and a spike on the top of their helmet. These do not look like GW models in the slightest, they look like they were pieced out of a board game of some kind, but they fit perfectly into a slotted 20-whatever mm round base.

The 21 boyz and 40 gretchin were all in a big plastic bag and $15, but I figured they look WAY more interesting/unique than having every model come off of a GW sprue. Plus, I don't play tourneys (if I did, I would probably use my Dark Angels) so as far as friendly games go, I would much rather have a different looking army on the table than a perfect-looking army (hence my jumping into Orks). The rest were all around 10 for $15, which is almost half off and were pre-assembled.

EDIT: So, I have Sluggas then?

If you're planning to take a large hoard on foot, shootaz are probably more useful to you. it's not too hard to convert up some shootaz from various bitz. orks are scavengers after all.

having some gretchin means you don't have to use 2 KFF meks which leaves you a spare HQ slot. i don't think a warboss works real well with a hoard on foot (doesn't add much really) but there are worse choices.

even in "friendly" games, you'll need to worry about cover for the boys (thus the KFF/gretchin wall) and opening vehicles at range (so lootaz/kannons)

if you're thinking of getting some transports:

trukks are great fun but you'll need lots (6+) to provide a reasonable amount of target saturation. they're very fragile and since you're limited to 12 orks per trukk you have to be careful not to spread yourself too thin.

battlewagons are of course fantastic.

looted wagons are an after-thought since they occupy the same slot as battle wagons. however if you're looking for light armour saturation, 6+ trukks, 3 looted wagons and some buggies give your opponent a lot of vehicles to worry about (and you can use the buggies/looted wagons to provide fire support)

I'm not sure if I want to start investing in tanks just yet...

Obviously with buying a ton of random models in plastic bags, I'm just having a bit of fun here. Yes, I would like to not lose every single game (as that frustrated me out of my Vanilla Marines in 5th when I would just field things with max upgrades so I could get to a higher point tier with random sets of models) but I'm not ready to drop hundreds on an army yet as I'm still in the works with 2 of them (though, I'm taking a small hiatus from buying on my Angels as they're at a pretty decent stopping point for a while).

So as far as my army goes, what is the feasibility of running what I have with only a couple more small purchases? Can I slog with sluggas and have my gretchin cover my boyz who are covering some nobz? I did the math, and I have about 500 points at present with my green tide.

So, considering I need an HQ and some Nobz, if I were to slog, which choices for each would prove effective in doing so? I may also be inadvertently proving a point to my son, who hates TAC squads and only takes troops because of the obligations of 2 troops slots. It would be nice to stomp him with some boyz and gretchin just to say "and what did we learn here?"

 chelsea_hollywood wrote:
the debate over which is best to use is common.

Is there still much of a shoota/slugga debate in 6E? I've been out of touch with the ork meta for a while but it seems to me like 6E in general comes down hard on the shoota side of the argument.

Of course, if hat you've got model-wise is sluggas, it's kind of a moot point - not trying to derail your thread here, OP.

 EmbracetheChaos wrote:
Here's a more detailed list of my purchase:

61 Ork boyz:
(21 look like fantasy dwarves or something with an Ork head and Bolt Pistol being the obvious difference, all on round bases)
4 Big Shootas (whatever the one with the side feed-in bullet system and backpack full of ammo is)
4 Rokkitz
1 Boy holding some kind of grenade (stikk bomb?) with knife on his backpack and pistol in the other hand.
26 w/choppa & slugga
5 look like they have big choppas/bigger sluggas (ridiculously big axes and very large barrels on their bolt pistols), but I imagine I could just count them as normal orks with cooler looking weapons?

40 Gretchins:
All are in the same pose and roughly 1/2 height of a normal boy with a gun roughly as tall as they are and a spike on the top of their helmet. These do not look like GW models in the slightest, they look like they were pieced out of a board game of some kind, but they fit perfectly into a slotted 20-whatever mm round base.

The 21 boyz and 40 gretchin were all in a big plastic bag and $15, but I figured they look WAY more interesting/unique than having every model come off of a GW sprue. Plus, I don't play tourneys (if I did, I would probably use my Dark Angels) so as far as friendly games go, I would much rather have a different looking army on the table than a perfect-looking army (hence my jumping into Orks). The rest were all around 10 for $15, which is almost half off and were pre-assembled.

EDIT: So, I have Sluggas then?

The dwarf-orks may be old models from back when. The older models weren't as bulky as the current ones. Pictures would help.

The Grots are from the 2nd ed? (possibly third) box set.

I have about 90 of them. They are a bit static, and ancient, but they work well enough.

The orks from the same kit had horned hats and big axes.

Pistols are sluggas. SMGs/Assault rifles are Shootas.

If the five with really big axes are larger than the usual Orks they are Nobz with Big Choppas.

Pics would really help

Sluggas can easily be converted into shootas. Just add on longer barrels. Cuz 'onestly, wot proppa ork wouldn't want Dakka AND Choppa?

File down the end of the barrel flush with the body.

Attach a tube (the round eraser sticks for extendable erasers work well trimmed to size)

Either drill a hole or add a smaller tube to be the gunsnout,

Paint.

Ridiculous easy and cheap too.

If you're only after 2-3 unit purchases, obviously your HQ (I'd start with the KFF but warboss would add some extra punch), a Nobz kit because they are dead 'ard and very customisable. After that either expand the Nobz, get more Boyz or invest in some dakka (Lootas are one of the best in the book according to dakka)

Honestly man, I get these sorts of prices on Orks all the time.

The Grots you have are probably the same hideous 2nd ed ones I get for 50c each (edit: as Ascalam has apparently already said...). You can find them on Ebay in bulk buys where they come out at like, 10c per model. From the sounds of it, maybe your Orks are 2nd ed as well ~ which means they'll be ugly as sin but you certain get style points for running rare models like that. I got a few Madboyz and Freebootas for dirt cheap today and I'm thrilled with them.

Before you run a horde, I want you to run a little... training exercise. Take your entire army and deploy it on a board with a bunch of obstacles. Make sure theres some uneven area terrain on there as well that causes some serious wobbly model syndrome. Move every model 6" across the board. Do this five times and you'll see what it's like to run just one turn of Green Tide. I want you to then do that another five times, which will give you an idea of what its like to run a Green Tide list ~ I'll give you a hint man, it's not very much fun. You need to know what your in for before you commit to this sort of strategy or you could be disappointed later on.

IMO the best horde list to do is a Speed Freeks list. Heaps of Orks, all concentrated onto half a dozen vehicles for easy movement, it's hordy as hell (because those vehicles *will* die and then you'll have a ton of boys on the board), you move like six models per turn instead of 180 (at least at the start) and its a lot more tactical than "charge 'em boyz!"

I'm not sure if I want to start investing in tanks just yet...

Build them then. Do a good job and no player worth your time will care.

Is there still much of a shoota/slugga debate in 6E?

Honestly, Sluggas still pull their weight. IMO, for a trukk list Sluggas are considerably better, and for a foot list Shootas. Overall, probably shootas are a better general purpose choice though because foot sluggas are garbage.

invest in some dakka (Lootas are one of the best in the book according to dakka)

You should never, ever, buy Lootas when you can kitbash or convert them for pennies on the dollar. You'll have unique models that cost 10% of the price of the proper deal, and even GW stores won't be able to complain if your desperate enough to play there.

Also, he's totally right about the Lootas. I'd say they're the strongest thing in our codex.

I'm going to agree mostly with Dakkamite here. Hordes of boyz sounds intimidating and may or may not be the most competitve style of Orks at present but it is boring and repetitive.

I have managed to make 3 battlewagons out of regular WW1 or WW2 tank kits in 1:35 scale i got off ebay for a few dollars each. Add in a hefty amount of plasticard and bits and you have a stylish and effective way of getting your boyz to the action that is soooo much quicker. You can also use some slightly smaller models to make trukks instead. German half-tracks work great as do beefy offroad 4WD utes and things. Just look up the real size of a vehicle and divide that by 35 and you will have the model size. It's not always 100% but its pretty close. I have a Russian KV-2 tank that's about 1" longer than a battlewagon and a WW1 Whippet that's about right.

Once I have a couple wagons you can put 20 boyz in each. Sure some of them sizzle when your wagon gets punctured by a dark lance turn 1 but who cares. Your playing Orks. It's as funny for you as it is for your opponent.

Partly because i have the old Black Reach set but also because I like variety I usually run a wagon of shoota boyz with 2 Big Shootas and a wagon of choppa/slugga boyz with 2 rokkits. Now before you poo poo rokkits it costs a whopping 10 pts and reduces the mobs attacks by 2 in CC BUT has about a 50% chance of hitting a transport that you can then assault if your lucky enough to pop it or splatting a space marine that gets no armour save. It's just another option and you seem to have enough models for it. The wagon of shoota boyz usually trundles around spraying a zillion shots at what ever gets close enough and the 2 big shootas offer a tad extra range, punch and shots.

As for your grotz I have personally had little success with the meat shield tactic for them. Sometimes it works but usually its a cheap kill point. My favourite option is a minimum squad of 10 + Runtherd. They sit back with my Big Mek with a Shokk Attack Gun (..i know, i know but its just funny) and then either soak up bullets to keep the SAG firing or sneak off late game to pinch the backfield objective. You would not believe the amount of games that finish and my 10 grotz are holding an objective. If all goes well up field you opponent cant spend the shots on dislodging them. Go to ground and your all good. For 40pts it is the best use I have found for them by far.

Another use I have for grotz is get some plasticard and straws or whatever and make some kannons or lobbas and use them as crew. Lobbas especially in this edition are pretty awesome and super cheap. Mod a couple to be ammo runts and away you go. Good BS3 ork shooting.

Now you can use your SAG mek I mentioned earlier as your only HQ especially at 500pts or grab a Black Reach warboss off ebay for about $2 and sub out a boy in a battlewagon. He packs plenty of whack for his points.

With a cheap HQ, transport, few boyz squads and some artillery you are well on your way to making a 500 or 750 point list that won't get steamrolled every time. Look next at some Lootas. Like Dakkamite said you can make them fairly simply. Start with your spare Big Shootas. Add a few gubbins to differentiate them and hey presto! Dakkaguns!

The Main Ork Lists tend to be:
Trukk boyz:
Lots of slugga boyz and PK Nobz in Trukks for Troops, Rushing up the field early to get into CC asap, slightly less effective than it used to be due to the introduction of overwatch, but not terribly so, random charge length tends to be a non - issue as Trukks get you close enough to most of the time not worry.

BW rush:
Fun as hell, involves cramming as many Battlewagons into a FOC as possible, normally involves 2x Warbosses to enable 2xNobz as troops for BW dedicated Transport and then either Elite Nobz to take more dedicated BW or other Ork units to take BWs in the Heavy Support slot and mounting up on the first turn.

Foot Horde:
Exactly what it says on the tin, cramming as many shoota boyz on the table as you can fit, normally with a screen of Gretchin and a KFF or two (not as common now due to the ubiquity of 5+ cover saves).

It should be noted that all Ork lists tend to be supported by Big Gunz and Lootas for long range firepower as well as units such as Dakkajets to taste.

I roll shootas all round now, the amount of fire power available makes it prime for most scenarios.

I would say that trukks and battle wagons are a must for ork players, cover the ground very quickly, start doing what orks do best! Hacking stuff up! If your going to go battle wagons, deff rollers are a good choice, nice and krumpy

Boys are good and all, but font get too heavily bogged down with them, I tend to only use 1 set in about 1500pts, I use a mek, warboss and nobz, then fill out the rest of the army with things like Tbustas in a wagon or looters.

As for tanks, I know you've said you don't really want to use tanks just yet, but honestly looted wagons with boom guns, really nothing to turn your nose up at. Iv had a defiler away on the first turn with one.... BOOM!!!

Essentially, Orks are an extremely versatile army so can achieve a lot with them. Tactics are a lil more tricky in 6th edition, than previous, especially since they've changed furious charge!

Sorry getting off topic, I don't think there is anything that is guaranteed to work every time, so a variation is
Key.

Not much help really was it........

I reckon the SAG Mek is some of the best shooting we have. The doubles mishap rolls are just icing on the cake, a way to stop it being just another OP unit choice and make it "fun". You ever seen that thing eat a squad of Terminators? Hilarious!

Kannons and Lobbas are amazing. Kannons are the best anti AV 14 we get outside of forgeworld or the SAG Mek (which takes up a HQ and despite being very fun and strong, is unreliable). Lobbas will mercilessly grind light troops and many artillery (such as the dreaded Manticore) into dust. Whenever I make a list, if I have heavy support slots unaccounted for I usually pack them with big guns.

The only issue with an SAG particularly if you're also running a KFF big mek is that you don't have the fightiest of Warlords or the toughest (Warbosses have +1T and can take mega armour, which you can't with an SAG or KFF). That said an SAG is deadly and the look on your opponents face when you roll a double 6 AND a hit on the scatter dice has to be seen to be believed as their prize squad is sucked into the warp!! Oh, and they free up HS slots by allowing Dreads as troops (more big gunz or BWs)

 Dakkamite wrote:

invest in some dakka (Lootas are one of the best in the book according to dakka)

You should never, ever, buy Lootas when you can kitbash or convert them for pennies on the dollar. You'll have unique models that cost 10% of the price of the proper deal, and even GW stores won't be able to complain if your desperate enough to play there.

Also, he's totally right about the Lootas. I'd say they're the strongest thing in our codex.

How do you convert lootas? Im in need of more but im not sure what to use for the guns?

You could use 2 big shootas stuck together, or you could 'liberate' wargear from other armies eg HB and orkify it with sights, ammo belts, glyphs and what have you.

Also one thing to remember about playing orks is to maintain a good sense of humor. The best ork players are a little unhinged (in a good way) and are quick to break out into laughter. Really get into the character of your army. And the Orks, more than any other army, are all about fun.

The old Lootas were just Orks with Imperial weapons. They could actually buy Plasma Cannons and stuff as wargear.

So just follow that example. I personally prefer to stick a missile launcher on them, because then it can double as a tankbusta. But just lots of dakka from the bits box.

 Kain wrote:
Also one thing to remember about playing orks is to maintain a good sense of humor. The best ork players are a little unhinged (in a good way) and are quick to break out into laughter. Really get into the character of your army. And the Orks, more than any other army, are all about fun.

Exactly, WAAC people look elsewhere because ork players need to be at least half as mad as the orks themselves otherwise you can't, as Kain says, get into the spirit of things. To the OP, whatever you end up doing with your orks the main thing is ENJOY IT, otherwise you're taking it too seriously for an ork player, and from experience it's no fun


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Dakkamite wrote:
The old Lootas were just Orks with Imperial weapons. They could actually buy Plasma Cannons and stuff as wargear.

Please bring these back! It makes loads of sense fluff-wise and would look awesome

judging on what you have i'd say you have the old fashion trukk rush list w/o the trukks. 61 boyz, 5 with big choppas which would be the Nobz for 5 groups. Thats about right for 5 trukk full of boyz with 1-2 missing for da Bosses.

Issue is Trukk spams are only good now days if you have terrain to hide behind for a turn, you had first turn, and you know how to prioritize targets very, very well. I detest ork wheelz in general, i dont even like battlewagons because of my horrible luck with them. But the alternative is a bit more expensive, and youre on a budget, so you might have to just make it work.
Its not a worthless tactic, some people swear by it. its just not foolproof anymore.

Also the general stipulation is shootas > slugga choppa JUST because of overwatch. You tend to lose a few in the charge, and being charged with shootas in your hands is a LOT of overwatch dakka. In a trukk list, you can make do w/o shootas. i wouldnt footslog them unless youre straight up green tide and shouldnt have more than 2 30man blobs of shootas anyway since the rest wouldnt ever get to shoot before assaulting.

As stated before me, KFF Big Meks are what you want. With 5 trukks, or 4 trukks and a battlewagon, you ideally want 2 kffs so you can spread out and avoid pi plate attacks. If you really want a warboss you can cut it to 1 KFF but you will be at a disadvantage.

Exactly, WAAC people look elsewhere because ork players need to be at least half as mad as the orks themselves otherwise you can't, as Kain says, get into the spirit of things. To the OP, whatever you end up doing with your orks the main thing is ENJOY IT, otherwise you're taking it too seriously for an ork player, and from experience it's no fun

Whenever I arrange a game with someone who isn't Orks, I have to ask them "fun or competitive" beforehand.

The single best thing about Orks IMO, is that I never have to ask this question when the other guy is a fellow Warboss

I ran a proper trukk list for the first time yesterday, and it was by far the best (in terms of power and fun) Ork list I've ever used. I've tried gunline Orks, Wagon Orks, footslog Orks, and all sorts of other builds and this one blew them all away.

Footslog is a pain due to buying, building, painting, bringing, and moving so many models. Battlewagon Demo Derby is crap because even AV 14 battlewagons are paper against all that ridiculous S10 AP1 shooting out there and after counting the inevitable explosion, they put the same number of boyz in combat at the end of the day. And finally Gunline is boring as gak. feth Gunline, and feth GW for making it so bloody powerful now.

Trukks give you hordes without the huge model count (same number of boyz will get into CC, just try it and see), you can get deffrollas with forgeworld and lack that infuriating 'lucky shot' that blows up your battlewagon every single game, and being the most mobile list, it's also the polar opposite of the dreadfully boring gunline.

Given that you might want to try a Trukk Rush army, and that you have awesome old goofy models, check around for some Gorkamorka trukks. They are way smaller than the new ones, but you can pick up painted ones for almost nothing. You could probably get 6 trukks for one new trukk model, given some patience on ebay.

Then, you just get some nobs, stick one in each squad, and ZOOM-ZOOM-DAKKA-DAKKA.

Use your goofy little grots to hold objectives in the backfield. People hate having to go over there and sweep a crappy unit of grots off an objective.

Dakkamite wrote:The old Lootas were just Orks with Imperial weapons. They could actually buy Plasma Cannons and stuff as wargear.

So just follow that example. I personally prefer to stick a missile launcher on them, because then it can double as a tankbusta. But just lots of dakka from the bits box.

Talk to your friendly neighborhood IG player, he'll have a truckload of heavy weapons that are useless for him that make awesome heavy weapons. Mortar tubes in particular make awesome looking Deffguns.

Or hit up an Eldar player...

You get a crate of heavy weapons with every vehicle..

Yup, thats where about half of my lootas came from. Random guns glued/wired together to be an obviously oversized (thus, not a bigshoota) weapon. Bam, instant loota!