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Hello everyone,

I've been looking at the Ork codex contemplating starting a new force, but as a Guard player who is tired of painting long assembly lines of units I am not looking to build a horde.

So my question is: If I were to invest heavily into upgrades, wargear and elite units instead of hordes and hordes of boys, do you think a viable list can be made? If so, what units would you advise I get, stay away from?

I know the always popular "boys before toys" is the go-to strategy for Ork players, but as I said, I simply don't have the time and energy to pain another horde.

Ork players, please let me know your thoughts! Thanks




PS I have a ton of unpainted ork models so it's not a question of money/availability.

The problem with that is that Orks generally have horrible survivability and shooting ability and balance it out with higher numbers. Without numbers you still have pretty bad survivability (for example 'Ard Boys will only hold for so long) and bad shooting but nothing to balance it out.

I tried it and the lowest I ran was two units of 20 boys, two units of 10 Grots (each in Trukk stolen from the boys), two units of 10 Tankbustas in Wagons, 2x3 Deffkoptas and 10 Warbikers with Painboy, Warboss and KFF Mek.
That still nets over 100 models.

My advice is to look at the Dred Mob. You get Kans as Troops. I do not think that you can get any lower with Orks

I think that you're a codex late, I ran a toys befor boys army with the 4th edition codex and that worked quite well with nobz as troops but you can't do that anymore unless you go unbound. but if you want to try it, I think that battlewagons are the way to go. stuff them with loota's and nobz and for a battleforged army get 2 units of 'ard boyz in a truck. Also the Waagh ghazkkull suplement may give you some ideas

I figured its not too viable... I just can't imagine painting another ork army. (This was my first ever 40K force and it took a full year to complete 2000 points of boys)

I was hoping some new shenanigans could be utilized, MANZ, flash gitz, Mek guns etc. so I can put what I've learned in terms of painting skills to use on a small force.

I truly hope that Orks get something in the future like the tyranid drop pods so that we can drop nobs and MANZ on top of our opponent instead of having to rely on crossing the board in vehicles.

Thanks for your input guys!

If you want to run an elite ork army it almost always ends up a battlewagon spam list.

Bully Boyz Formation is a good start. Is forgeworld accepted in your area?

If you do not want to run the FW dred mob list, I have two low model count alternatives from Ghaz supplement for you.
1. Blitz Brigade. Five scouting BW. Fill three with big stuff like MANz and Flash Gitz and have two with min units of ard boys and killkannons as your gun platforms.
2. Dred Mob (the Ghaz formation). Orkanauts, Khan and Dreds. Perfect for a dedicated walker army. Support with some ard boy trukks and you have a very solid low model count army.

Hope this helps

The best you can do for DS is the Detachment in the Ghazghkull supplement. FOC requires 2x troops, 1x elite, and each unit has a (small) chance to tellyport in from reserves. Not very reliable, but fun and you can fill up with a lot of elites.

But really, MANz are almost better off rushing forward in trukks anyway. No chance for mishaps and the vehicle soaks up a LC shot or 3 that would have otherwise ID'd your heavy-duty boyz.

Honestly ive been doing better without the boys before toys motto. And every ork player i know that has issues with the new dex still tries to keep that motto going.

Warbikers, Wagon rushes, MANz missiles, and Deffkoptas/Buggies are seriously underrated (by that i mean people will take an extra unit of 30 boyz instead of a warbiker unit because they only have 3 units of boyz in a larger game, not because they feel they need more boyz but because of the damn motto).

The new mob rule really hurt large mobs imo. I'll still bring 20man but i refuse to bring larger, even if im footslogging it. 30man blobs tend to congo-line quickly and they can still flee or be pinned.

I dont play super competitive, but that doesnt mean i dont try to win. I usually bring ~60 boyz in a 2k point game.....and i win a lot lol. I love my MANz missiles because either my opponent underestimates them and they wreck havoc or they waste more points than i spent on them to deal with them while the rest of my army moves up unharmed.

Bully boyz are one of your best bets for low-count.
And 'ard boyz for troops.
Big gunz/Lootas/FW vehicles for ranged support.
Koptas, Buggies, Planes, Bikes.

Or a walker wall.

The thing with ork low-model count is that it's low model count compared to other hordes but it's a horde compared to other low-model counts.

My 2k list for a tournament looked something like this:

bullyboyz
3x squads of 5 meganobz, 2x killsaws in each group
3x battlewagons, ram, rokkits
3x 10 slugga choppa boyz, nob, p. klaw, trukk ram, rokkit
12 or 13 bikers, warboss on bike with big bosspole, painboy on bike, nob, p klaw.
3x mek gun lobbas (for big blobs o stuff)

Did pretty well, you have 4 hard as nails deathstars, and each meganob unit being fearless and WS 5 can take a knight each, so if you run into ad lance, you can usually win.

Ork base cost is just too damn cheap

You can always play another army and ork it out. Here is an amazing example of what I mean: http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/0/544180.page#7619270

That it's one way to have a low model count with orky goodness

 Hive City Dweller wrote:
Hello everyone,

I've been looking at the Ork codex contemplating starting a new force, but as a Guard player who is tired of painting long assembly lines of units I am not looking to build a horde.

So my question is: If I were to invest heavily into upgrades, wargear and elite units instead of hordes and hordes of boys, do you think a viable list can be made? If so, what units would you advise I get, stay away from?

I know the always popular "boys before toys" is the go-to strategy for Ork players, but as I said, I simply don't have the time and energy to pain another horde.

Ork players, please let me know your thoughts! Thanks




PS I have a ton of unpainted ork models so it's not a question of money/availability.

The #1 easiest way to make an Ork army cheap, easy to transport, and quick to paint and play? Include a Stompa if that's not an issue with your gaming group. With some it is, particularly if ham'd-out with tons of repair abilities, but if people don't mind that stuff, a Stompa can certainly decrease your overall model count quite effectively. Particularly in conjunction with some of the formations from the recent campaign books that allow you to field a detachment of Gorkanauhts or a grip of Meganobz.

Yeah I'd say an easy way of cutting down on models is the Stompa, if not that then the naughts are good option to go to.

I would think things like meganobz would also give the effect your going for. With wagonz, maybe throw some aircraft in.

I've wanted to try this as well...

You've given me some great ideas guys thanks!

I had never thought about using another codex and counting ork models as their counterparts.

Is such a thing tournament legal as long as you use all GW kits? My fiends/group would not care but if I were to ever do a tournament I would hate for someone to point to my proxied orks and say "no way, that's not happening"

would personally go for a load of manz in trucks, min squads of boyz in squads with nob, pk boss pole, tank bustas and bikes for low model count

Here's a suggestion - Ork force constituted of three formations. Just threw this together on battlescribe whilst waiting to get through to HMRC (zzz...) and came up with the following:

Blitz brigade - give each one a big shoota to protect against "immobilised" results and chuck in a couple of killkannons (they are viable in this formation because of the extra scout move putting you in range).
Ghazgkhull's bully boyz - give each boss nob a pair of killsaws and throw in a couple of kombi-skorchas for dealing with tar pits
Badrukk's flash gitz - stick them in the killkannon wagons

I haven't tried this, but it sounds pretty lethal to me! Comes in at 1850 exactly!

I dare say I am about to be told that one can't take an army composed entirely of formations...

 Krusha wrote:
I dare say I am about to be told that one can't take an army composed entirely of formations...

Perfectly legal
Formations are just a special type of Detachment. So this would be Battleforged.
Only if a Tournament had a specific restriction on Formations would there be a problem.

 Krusha wrote:
Here's a suggestion - Ork force constituted of three formations. Just threw this together on battlescribe whilst waiting to get through to HMRC (zzz...) and came up with the following:

Blitz brigade - give each one a big shoota to protect against "immobilised" results and chuck in a couple of killkannons (they are viable in this formation because of the extra scout move putting you in range).
Ghazgkhull's bully boyz - give each boss nob a pair of killsaws and throw in a couple of kombi-skorchas for dealing with tar pits
Badrukk's flash gitz - stick them in the killkannon wagons

I haven't tried this, but it sounds pretty lethal to me! Comes in at 1850 exactly!

I dare say I am about to be told that one can't take an army composed entirely of formations...

that sounds awesome!

im assuming you have taken rams on the wagons? you have to as part of the formation.
Would personally consider taking a cad instead of the flash gitz, take pain boy *for meganob squad) and 2 min grot squads to hold the back field (as it looks like youll be in your opponents face pretty quick) and have 2 squads of tank bustas in the 2 battlewagons with kannons instead of flash gitz. this way your nobz dont have to charge transports, and can charge whats inside instead of letting your opponent shoot with whats inside. (many of my Manz have fallen to dire avengers and fire dragons shooting them up after i pop their transport, so now i just take more tank bsutas)


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