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i just started playing orks. i am planning to start this ork army of 500 points. Please give me some advice.
HQ: big mek, KFF, cybork body 95 points
troops:10 ork slugga boyz lead by a nob with a powerclaw and bosspole, all have stinkbombs,all in a trukk 117
trukk, big shoots, reinforced ram, wreaking ball, grot riggers and armor plates 65

troops:10 ork slugga boyz lead by a nob with a powerclaw and bosspole, all have stinkbombs,all in a trukk 117
trukk, big shoots, reinforced ram, wreaking ball, grot riggers and armor plates 65
total 459 points

A common mantra among Ork players is "Boyz Before Toys". That is to say, we Orks may not have the toughest vehicles, the strongest armor, or the best weapons, but we almost always have the most units.

In the army you've posted, the wrecking ball, ram, riggers, and armor plates are all toys. Those trukks are going to die- in fact, the Trukk special rule, ramshackle, is all about making them explode better! Nothing you can do would keep those Trukks alive past turn 2. But by then, you're in your opponents face, they've done their job, and it doesn't matter.

Removing those from each trukk gets you another 60 points.

Stikkbombs, as well, are toys. We Orks attack last against almost everyone anyway, get rid of them for another 24 points.

That (plus the 40 you still have) gives you another 125 points to work with. That could be 20 shoota Boyz to cap a point. It could be 2 units of kannons, or 3 deffkoptas, or 8 Lootas, or a warboss on a bike. Any of these things will be more valuable than the toys.

It's tempting to throw toys on your models to bring them up to the point limit, especially when you're starting out and don't have too many models to work with. And for your first few games, that might be good to give you a taste, before you buy more units. But ultimately, remember, Boyz before toys.

Thks for the advice. I will probably remove all the stinkbombs and all the options on the trukk.

The rams are useful in my opinion as they grant you tank shock. Red paint job is also a great upgrade I usually take either or and usually pick the ram just because. Trukks will not last long enough to warrant the use of any other upgrade but throwing 5 points on it to gain one of those two big upgrades is worth an extra boy.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Every upgrade you decide to take or not take should be weighed against the number of boys you could take in its place.

The grots riggers are useful are they not.

lootas wrote:
The grots riggers are useful are they not.

No, not really. Just about the only thing riggers are (potentially) worth the points cost on is going to be battlewagons, primarily because they're pretty tough vehicles.

Trukks are generally going to be blown to bits whenever something decides to shoot at them. Even a normal squad of rapid-fire grunts unloading at a trukk is enough to bring it down most of the time.

Welcome to the disposable/expendable army!

Lots of good advice above I just wanted to elaborate;

-Trukks, They die very easily you most certainly do not want many points invested in them. In smaller games (like yours at 500 points) the ram is certainly a must take. It's primary advantage is minimizing the 1 in 6 (17%) chance to get immobilized when moving through terrain. Now at a points value as small as this game it could be argue'd that there may not be enough to make the trukk a guaranteed easy kill. A grot rigger might be ok to get a trukk moving (instead of a ram) should terrain immobilize it, and maybe to repair a hull point if someone couldn't finish the trukk off due to the limited firepower available in a -small- (small) game. However, you already have a big mek who is more than capable of fixing one of these trukks already. To that I would say maybe take a ram but definately not a rigger and never both at any points value and this goes double in a small game were you have a big mek. In fact, with a big mek, you may be able to forgo the Ram's, perhaps deploy/move around terrain, especially if there is anything you can do with the 10 points you'll get.

-Boyz. You have One HQ but have saved space in both trukks for an HQ to fit. Go ahead and find another boy you want these trukks full.

-Stikkbombs, it's been said, we go last in soo many fights at initiative two there really is no reason to just generally include them. Your best bet is just having more boyz in the fight somehow.

- 'eavy armor, when the trukk blows up, your nob needs an Armor save to help prevent a wound. 'Eavy armor gives him a 50% chance to shrug off the wound from the trukk should it happen to wound him. This is important because having two wounds gives you a good chance to survive getting hit by some 'umie serg in a challenge and may mean you win that fight. Even if the 'umie serge is weilding the AP3 weapon he needs to laugh off your armor save you still want it to keep the trukk from wounding you when it blows up.

With some ideal adjustments you can get a list that starts looking like this;

- Big Mek w/KFF and a cybork body.
Riding with 10 Slugga Choppa boyz led by a nob w/PK BP and 'Eavy Armor in a trukk with Ram.
246 pts

- 11 Slugga Choppa Boyz led by a nob w/PK BP and 'Eavy Armor in a Trukk with a Ram
157 pts

Note that I didn't include Big Shootas, this is because this list currently is 403 points soo far. If you wanted to forgo the Rams on the trukks and deploy/move away from terrain you could save 10 points to make this 107pts to spare. 107pts could get you some interesting options for another unit in this 500 point game.

With 100 points you could get a trukk of 11 more boyz to just throw into a scrum. Or you could have a small Stormboy unit with a nob equipped with a pk. Stormboyz walk behind trukks nicely.

At 110 points you could have 3 Warbikers with a Nob equipped with a Klaw, these also advance behind a trukk nicely to.

If you wanted some fire support you could have a handful of Lootas for 105 points or a couple Kannon for a very doable number of points.

You could also have some configuration of one or two coptas inside 110 to 100 points.

Saving this 100 to 110 points is a very interesting number for the ork codex, in such a small game you want to get that 3rd option in there.

EDIT; In such a small game I would look to some more advice in regards to the KFF on the big mek being valueable enough for such a small game. When the points go up it's very easy for him to be a great force multiplier, in a smaller game he's offering that save to just two trukks and whatever else you might have following behind them. This doesn't seem like such a great use of the points for that upgrade. I have a SAG mek and the next 500 point game I play he's going to see play standing next to some lootas in something identical to what I posted above. In fact if the KFF doesn't seem worth the points then it's possible a barebones warboss toting an extra PK could be a nice addition.

I've always agreed with the above posters, make the vehicles as cheap as possible. Trukks are always bare boned apart from a shoota (think that's already included?).

Even when I field my BW these days it's vanilla and open topped with 4x big shoota's. Just to transport the Nobs around and allow an assault out of it

I like the Big Mek, and always use him in big games, however I think I honestly perfer a Warboss only at low points levels. They hit like a sledge hammer and are overall very resiliant. Fully kitted out they are only 110 pts (Extra Armour, PK, Cybork Body, and I add a Kombi Skorcha).

I got to run two trukk boy units, a sag mek, and 7 lootas in a 500 pt list today! It did well my friend brought two groups of black templar, one shooty group in a rhino and one very choppy group on foot.

I started the game by moving my trukks in close to some los blocking buildings to force his rhino somewhere that my lootas or big mek could make shots on it at. My lootas left my mek to get angles on the assumed turn one move the rhino would make. Big mek scored a few neophytes in the choppy marine group with a str 7 blast. His turn one I accidentaly offered first blood by leaving my trukk just close enough for his rhino to move pivot and drop his melta and combi melta wielding marines into the bonus pen range. His choppy marines moved fast as possible for the scrum that was certain to ensue at the rhino.

My turn two I move my other trukk closer and disembark my boyz into shoota range. We announce a waaagh! And the big mek drops a vicious double 4's mishap on five marines killing the serg with combi melta, initiate with melta, and some neophytes I think. The boyz get all screaming mad and start firing off their sluggas. One of them gitz might have actually killed another neophyte. The lootas roll big dakka, aim in the general direction of the nearby rhino and blow it up landing a hail of debris on the nearby marines. My trukk took some fail shots in the direction of the marines and failed. We make a nine and an eight inch assault move with few losses. The assault was plenty vicious but them umie gitz and there armor kept us from krumpin them all. One sneaky mahreen and one neophyte got away.

His turn he spent bringing his boyz back around, maybe he knew my lootas was probably just shoot them in the back or maybe they thought they would get the upper hand. The choppy marines moved kinda slow and just weren't in the scrum yet. The two marines died in there next assault killing another ork boy.

My next shooting phase we unleashed lots of dakka on the footsloggin marines, killin a few. The big mek charged up a blinding shot followed by a chaotic and deafening shriek of electric. It was certainly glorious, the big mek made a building with no marines in it vanish, a proud display of his power. The marines should only be lucky he decided not to hit them with it :(
Bloodaxe boyz serg had a kunnin plan to use the distraction to move back to git anuver go see? So we backed up and waited for the marines.

Them bloodaxe boyz was right. The marines was runnin right for us! We took some bolter fire but we wuz hidin in the crater from that rhino the lootas shot up. The marines charged the bloodaxe boyz and mopped them up. What those gitz get for turnin down a right proppa challenge.

Next turn the lootas shoot up some marines right good and the big mek moves up to get a shot. My boyz assault him and get destroyed, the only moral victory was picking up slay the warlord in a nob challenge.

Bottom of four he consolidates into cover near his objective. His marine and sergeant being what was left to face lootas and the big shooota from a trukk.

Top of my turn the lootas shot only just good enuff to get two marines and take the day.

Was fun, still takes me too long to play even a short game.

Agree with all the above posts. If you are using trukks and such a low point cost I'd say do a Warboss. Klaw, armor, cybork, kombi-skorcha, bosspole and an attack squig is 125 pts I think and he should be able to annihilate almost anything at such low points.

I'd then just do two trukks loaded with as many boyz as you can (of the shoota or slugga variety. I prefer shoota) and then just charge em forward. Put in a Nob in each squad to take the challenges and the warboss should be able to kill 4 guys a turn at least . If you have extra points, I'd say Red Paint Job, a big shoota, and maybe a ram (for the dangerous terrain check insurance) and that should be good to go. It's fast, simple, and krumpy.

From here you have a good base to build off of in a few directions as well. Do you want to go speed freaks? Add in more trukks of boyz and some bikerz (which are great). Or add in a wagon or two full of boyz/nobz for some hard hitting action.

If you want all mechanized, get some battlewagons as above and maybe some deffkoptaz or dakkajets (I use this list at 1500):

HQ
Big Mek (x2)
- KFF, Burna, Cybork Body, Bosspole

TROOPS
20 Shoota Boyz (19+1)
- 2x Big Shoota
- Nob w/ Klaw, 'eavy armor, bosspole

19 Shoota Boyz (x2)
- 1x Big Shoota
- Nob w/ Klaw, 'eavy armor, bosspole
(Meks go here)

FAST ATTACK
Dakka Jet (x2)
- some upgrades I can't remember

HEAVY SUPPORT
Battlewagon (x3)
- 4x Big Shoota
- Deff Rolla (amazing upgrade. always take on Wagons)
- Grot Riggers
- Red Paint Job

Total: ~1500 (I think I have a few points to fiddle with, but this is the general idea)

Boyz + Meks ride in wagons and they all get cover save from KFF. You can easily switch out those Big Meks for a boss if you want more aggressiveness and a little less survivability.

And if you want a more static list, you have a squad of boyz to build off of, and having trukks never really hurts for options later.

Lootaz are a great option in pretty much any Ork army.

Sorry for the length of my post but I hope it is helpful.

- VardenV2