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Hey Dakka,

I am pretty interested in starting an ork army however I'm only really trying to buy around a 1000 point army. So what would be something fun but still be fairly successful?

Welcome to the WAAAGH! Do you have any particular playstyles that you'd like to try in particular? Although Orks are nominally a "horde" army they are surprisingly versatile in the number of lists you can generate for them that can still kick your foe in the teef.

First thing you need are boyz, you really can't go wrong with a good mob or two and you kind of need them to fill in those troop choices. If you want shootas their optimal number tends to be in groups of twenty, especially if you want to load them up in battlewagons. Sluggas are typically best from 20-30 depending on whether or not you want to load them up in vehicles. Make sure you throw in power klaws for the obligatory nob so they can take on most things in the game.

Other than that it really depends on what play style you want to emphasize, do you want speedy and shooty? Warbikers and trukks might be your place to go. Do you want to overwhelm your opponent with mass numbers? Green Tide is up your alley. You can even go artillery heavy if you want to make your own more offensive version of a Green Gunline.

Long time ork player here. And tau but thats beside the point lol.

Orks in the new codex can do several, several different tactics. If i were you i'd get the codex first and do some theory crafting. With the exception of Burnaboyz i can find a practical and viable use for every single unit in the codex (not joking) but it usually involves a totally different army makeup to do it.

Boyz are the obvious pick. Even at 1000pts youre probably going to have around 40-60 of them. A Warboss either in Mega Armor or on a Bike is very important as well, which one you get will depend on your army makeup (speedy, wagon, or footslog).

Do you want to play the speedfreak list with bikes and/or vehicles? Or would you rather footslog it with the green tide? Of course orks can play the shooty game too so theres also that option.

Seriously orks can be used in almost every fashion. My friend wanted to start orks but decided against it purely because he couldnt make up his mind on what theme to go with lol. And he didnt want to end up like me (think i got around 8000pts of orks....rofl...mind you a large chunk of it is still on sprues thats why my siggy shows 4k)

Short time ork player here. Welcome us green skin git. Can never have enough. Currently boasting 15,000 points of built orks play what you like man. Like a wall of armor? Kans dreads nauts and stompas. Like vehicles? Trukks, battlewagons, and looted wagons as well as three count em three aircraft! Want dude manz? We have more dude manz than you can ever dream of! Have a ton of bits after buying so many models? Kustom make something with them broseph! Boys before toys man.

Cool! I'll definitely have to go get the codex and theory craft some lists. I'm glad to see that they aren't shoe horned into running slight variations of one list to make them good. Thanks for the advice.

Welcome! And picking up the codex is definitely the best start to figure out what you like.

Boyz, warboss, painboss, trukkz, wagonz, koptas and bikerz...oh heck! they are all good in their own way. I guess gotta figure out what play type your leaning too.

I'm still feeling out 7th ed (been away since 5th) so I don't have much advice to offer you.

But I wanted to welcome you to the WAAAGH!

The most important thing is to remember that you got to stick to the theme.

If you go speed freaks than the bulk of your army must be fast - battlewagons and trucks (+ fw transports if you're up for FW) filled with mean green guyz, bikers, etc.

If you go footsloggy, concentrate on massed infantry - large blobs of boyz. Not that you can't use a truck or some stormboyz/bikers but they mustn't take too many pts away from the mass of bodies on the front.

If you want a walker wall - go for dreadmob with all it's deff dread goodness. Be warned, however, that walkers are a bit underwhelming in current meta and work better when combined...with even more walkers!

If you want to create a gunline army - sure, you can do it! We've got plenty of shooty stuff too! But remember that our shooty stuff can also crush heads up close quite effectively.

You can also create a cunning but brutal list with massed infiltrating kommandoes! It's situational but a hell lot of fun!

A stompa could be used in any list but plays better with footsloggas imo. Mek guns are really good and will find a place in any list.

You can do lots of stuff - orks are not one-dimensional - that's for sure.

But always stick to the theme! We're an army of bullies and rely on target saturation and board contrle to do our thing. And every list would strongly benefit from at least some long-ranged shooting. Good that we've got no bad units. Everything can be used effectively in one way or another. Probably only burnaboys are out of place - not that you can't use them for a change.

Another question you should ask yourself is if you plan on playing competitive or just for fun. I think you can get both fun and competitive out of a Green Tide list as it isn't too over powered but is still good. In addition to the Codex you should get the Ork Supplement book too as there is a lot of flavor in there that can give you greater ideas.

 koooaei wrote:
The most important thing is to remember that you got to stick to the theme.

If you go speed freaks than the bulk of your army must be fast - battlewagons and trucks (+ fw transports if you're up for FW) filled with mean green guyz, bikers, etc.

If you go footsloggy, concentrate on massed infantry - large blobs of boyz. Not that you can't use a truck or some stormboyz/bikers but they mustn't take too many pts away from the mass of bodies on the front.

If you want a walker wall - go for dreadmob with all it's deff dread goodness. Be warned, however, that walkers are a bit underwhelming in current meta and work better when combined...with even more walkers!

If you want to create a gunline army - sure, you can do it! We've got plenty of shooty stuff too! But remember that our shooty stuff can also crush heads up close quite effectively.

You can also create a cunning but brutal list with massed infiltrating kommandoes! It's situational but a hell lot of fun!

A stompa could be used in any list but plays better with footsloggas imo. Mek guns are really good and will find a place in any list.

You can do lots of stuff - orks are not one-dimensional - that's for sure.

But always stick to the theme! We're an army of bullies and rely on target saturation and board contrle to do our thing. And every list would strongly benefit from at least some long-ranged shooting. Good that we've got no bad units. Everything can be used effectively in one way or another. Probably only burnaboys are out of place - not that you can't use them for a change.

this is exactly where i was getting at with fewer words and not explained as well lol.

It is so easy to shift the theme of your army because you decided you want to add a warbiker unit to your green tide for some reason. Other armies can add a random unit and usually make it work, orks really cant. Stick to the theme and you'll go places.