Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I understand no ork list has enough dakka for this day and age.

HOWEVER! I was looking at my options and I really like ork vehicles and walkers. Is there a way to make such a tactic viable at all?
I understand FW has something for it I think.

Walkers are not viable, no matter how much you try. Vehicles can be though. Theres the formation in the Ghazz supp for 5 battlewagons I believe. That's a pretty big wall moving down the field.

 Hawkeye888 wrote:
Walkers are not viable, no matter how much you try. Vehicles can be though. Theres the formation in the Ghazz supp for 5 battlewagons I believe. That's a pretty big wall moving down the field.

Even if the Deff Dreads are troops and are supported by heavier walkers?

I run a Mek list from IA 8 allied with a Ghazkull list for the 4+ invulnerable save force field. My army is currently 5-0 against Tyranids, Space Wolves, Dark Angels, Ultramarines, and Skitarii. Walkers are beautiful in the list. Dreads are troop choices, so objective secured! Killer Kans are fast attack, so they leave room for the heavy support. Grot tanks are deceptively tough and put out an incredible amount of dakka. My standard list is as follows:

Big mek (no upgrades, Warlord placed in the Morkanaut), 10 spanna boyz with mek, Deff Dread (grot riggers), Deff Dread (grot riggers), 6 Grot Tanks (3 grotzookas, 4 big shootas for ranged firepower), 5 kans with grotzookas and big shootas, Big Trakk w/ suppa kannon (60" S 9 Ap 3 primary weapon large blast fun) and usually another big trakk with the big lobba

Allies: Big Mek on a bike with 4+ force field, grots for minimum troops, outflanking rokkit buggies, Morkanaut with force field and grot riggers, Mek guns if points are left. Add in a aegis defense line with quadgun for the grots to man if you need the air defense.

The list is incredibly durable. Always keep the dreads together, advance them up the board either by themselves or with the kans - either way, big mek follows with force field. Morkanaught either hangs bank with the Big Trakks or advances with kans providing a invuln to them. Grot tanks have their own 5+ inv, so they operate independently. My opponents almost always underestimate the survivability of the units. Small arms fire bounces off the kans and grot tanks, while they focus heavy weapons on the dreads, big trakk with suppa kannon, or the morkanaut - most often the latter two. Perhaps it is the blessings of Gork or possibly Mork, but all the clanking walkers combined with long range fire support is just nasty. In Maelstrom, the grots, boyz, and grot tanks secure objectives at will, since the opponent is almost always too focused on killing the walkers or big guns. The army also has a big footprint, which helps insulate it against alpha strike drop pods. If you really want the dakka, add in some gun trukks with big lobbas at around 50-60 points a piece for large blast s 6 ap 4 barrage. Lots of blasts are the key to make a very effective heavy Dakka ork list.

"Viable" can mean different things - are you looking for a competitive army, or a casual one?

The competitive scene is tough on walkers. Casual on the other hand, you could absolutely make a rad walker-heavy list and win games with it.

A Kustom Stompa backed up by a few gangs of kans, deff dreads, and a mega dread or two? Yikes.

 CShaffer wrote:

 Hawkeye888 wrote:
Walkers are not viable, no matter how much you try. Vehicles can be though. Theres the formation in the Ghazz supp for 5 battlewagons I believe. That's a pretty big wall moving down the field.

Even if the Deff Dreads are troops and are supported by heavier walkers?

They are absolutely viable. Long range heavy fire support is needed to help them advance, though.

I'm not a tournament player, just want to bring something different to the field and nobody is ever mad at orks, just there to have a good time.
I really like the look of the ork walkers so I was wanting to rely on them.
I hear terrible things about the gorkanaughts/morkanaughts, why do you use one Grumblewartz? Could a custom stompa be better?

personally i like the morkanaut, the abilioty to take a kff on one is great for protecting large groups of boyz/ kanz. he also has the kmk, which partialy allows him to be viable at ranged support.

mek gunz are great for "mek' themed armies and are a luagh when yuor opponent realizes that your orks have fairly good long range (lobbas, traktors, kmk are all good in my exprerience).

when you run walkers always know there limits, and never send them into impossible situations. if the foe has melta bombs, then shoot them from a distance, if they have melta gunz then keep your walkers under cover of kff. kanz will fall to decked out characters, but can hold there own against sm and even termies sometimes (best to use kanz as objesctive campers or protection for your gunline).

the dreddmob from the ghaz supliment is good in my opnion. giveing all those walkers ere we go is great for getting them into combat (especialy when you call waaagh).

other units to try....(that havent yet been discussed)
warbuggies- though the model is outdated try finding toys and other conversions. these fast tl dakka platfiorms are great for objecting camping and harassing the enemy (i bought a bunch of similar sized ww2 tank models and plan on makeing the conversions). if grot tanks are a little too expensive points wise then look into warbuggies (skorcha bugs are also amazing as an anti infanty).

mega dreads- this fw walker is what ork walkers need to be patterned after, base invul save, realy big dakka, and a a high strength hammer of wrath. the kustom mega dredd is something i hvaent realy tried yet, but the fw dredd mob can make it into an hq and it can repair itself and other vehichles.

mega armourd hq- take one of these and attach it to a squad of lootas or mek gunz and enjoy the sight of a gunline with snp (you might not think much of it, but being able to move and shoot with heavy weapons realy does have its role on the battle field).

if you work at it, yuo can make a mek centered list viable and even competetive.

I run the dread mob in almost every game. Its a nasty piece of work and makes some armies useless against my dreads. Its all in how you play. I'll admit the walker right now is hard to play because they can be killed hull pointing them, but if you field the army right. You can really give your opponent a run for their money. KFF and MFF are big options and the more you can take the better. Giving your walkers a means of getting across the table. Personally, I use a mega-mek dread with 1 KFF.

So far I want to run (have not bought lol, this is just symmetry j think looks good, by all means correct it lol.)

1 Mega Mek
1 Mega

2-3 squads of deff dreads.

Pretty much anything else is open. I like the idea of the long range artillery stuff.
I'm really just trying to shy away from boys, I want people to be like "wtf is that ork army?"

CShaffer wrote:
So far I want to run (have not bought lol, this is just symmetry j think looks good, by all means correct it lol.)

1 Mega Mek
2 Mega

2-3 squads of deff dreads.

Pretty much anything else is open. I like the idea of the long range artillery stuff.
I'm really just trying to shy away from boys, I want people to be like "wtf is that ork army?"

just to be sure, what do you mean by "2 mega", is it a reference to mega dredds?
i plan on takeing ghaz dredd mob to a tournament, supported by a lot of mek gunz. the bonus for haveing such a force is that your opponent gets to play against something he probably has never fought b4, and also your games will be faster due to fewer models than an average ork force.

Once you realize that the Codex as it is now serves as nothing more as a punching bag for other armies, and the real joy of Orks is making your own conversions etc.. then you'll never think "compettitve" again.

Armies just all around terribad.

geargutz wrote:

CShaffer wrote:
So far I want to run (have not bought lol, this is just symmetry j think looks good, by all means correct it lol.)

1 Mega Mek
2 Mega

2-3 squads of deff dreads.

Pretty much anything else is open. I like the idea of the long range artillery stuff.
I'm really just trying to shy away from boys, I want people to be like "wtf is that ork army?"

just to be sure, what do you mean by "2 mega", is it a reference to mega dredds?
i plan on takeing ghaz dredd mob to a tournament, supported by a lot of mek gunz. the bonus for haveing such a force is that your opponent gets to play against something he probably has never fought b4, and also your games will be faster due to fewer models than an average ork force.

Hey yah was a typo lol. Meant to type 1.

Hollismason wrote:
Once you realize that the Codex as it is now serves as nothing more as a punching bag for other armies, and the real joy of Orks is making your own conversions etc.. then you'll never think "compettitve" again.

Armies just all around terribad.

+1

All its really good for is removing models to make the Eldar, Marines etc look more heroic. I call it "Codex: Mooks" myself

 Dakkamite wrote:

Hollismason wrote:
Once you realize that the Codex as it is now serves as nothing more as a punching bag for other armies, and the real joy of Orks is making your own conversions etc.. then you'll never think "compettitve" again.

Armies just all around terribad.

+1

All its really good for is removing models to make the Eldar, Marines etc look more heroic. I call it "Codex: Mooks" myself

My philosophy is more that Orks are spoilers than punching bags in tournaments. People don't build lists to fight some of the more odd lists and can be befuddled by them.

Mods kick the people living under bridges out of you get the chance.

OP, I want them to be viable so bad. I just got killakans 6-12 last week. I'm painting them when finals ends tomorrow. I know about 11 isn't great... But, on the other hand, with a mff on a bike, or a kff from a Morkanaut... It might not be too bad. Well see next week. I love grotzookas. Ran 6 against a guard blob... He focused on Tankbustas and meganobs letting the kans get in range... It went poorly for him soon after. I know that was a great match up for me, but guard blob it's the same as demon blob is the same as orc blob or even tau first spam.

Oh if you do play mech, watch out for fire warriors. They can take haywire grenades on their fire warriors

Thanks for the heads up Frat.
Has anybody really experienced success as a more mek based ork army?

CShaffer wrote:
I'm not a tournament player, just want to bring something different to the field and nobody is ever mad at orks, just there to have a good time.
I really like the look of the ork walkers so I was wanting to rely on them.
I hear terrible things about the gorkanaughts/morkanaughts, why do you use one Grumblewartz? Could a custom stompa be better?

I go with the Morkanaught every time. The force field is the main attraction, since the model is large you can project it to the entire mob if need be. Also, his weaponry contains ap 2, which is just so hard to come by. I find that he attracts an absurd amount of fire from my opponents, who irrationally fear his massive but inaccurate arsenal. This gives the rest of the army to advance.

A few points that haven't been covered that are really important to state (or reiterate if I missed something). It is imperative that you have two force fields to escort two separate groups. Why? The Morkanaut works best as a support for dedicated shooting units, since he has his own significant firepower. Usually my killa kans support him, because they can put out a surprising amount dakka with bs 3. The other force should be centered on assault dreads - I use all close combat arms because it just seems the most orky to me but a skorcha/two big shootas [for cheapness] also works. This group should run in the shooting phase to put pressure on your opponent and advance more quickly. The 2nd KFF on the Mek riding a bike accompanies this group.

Then, outflanking buggies with twinlinked rokkits add to the pressure and help catch enemy units pushed to the flanks by the main force's advance up the center of the table.

i have won a few battle with my ghaz dreddmob.
granted, i believe these successes are partialy due to my opponent not suspecting my dredd mob. the bonus of a dredd mob is that its unique in that most poeple wouldnt expect an ork to run one (seeing as the most common ork things are manz missle, ork green tides and warbikes). if your opponent thinks youll be bringing a mob he will most likely upgrade to melta, at that point work out a strategy based around avoiding that type of damage (like shooting down melta bombs and chopping up melta gunz), the mega force field is indispensable with my force and has always served well on a bike.
so if your opponen3et is decked out for anit infantry, hit em hard with lobbas, grotzookas and flamers.
if he is decked out with anti tank then expect a challenge and keep your walkers well protected. any game is a gamble, but learn to roll with the punches.

one of my strategies is to have my 2 gmorkanauts shielded by the mff on bike and becomes a dmg tank. any opponent that sees two ginat walkers running down the field will almost always concetrate fire on them, thats when my deffdredds and killakanz move around to grab objectives. i also have a large contingent of mek gunz in the backfield raining down killy death so that im still doing damage while my walkers move up field.

I've been modeling my dreads with rokkits, did I screw up and should have done all melee?

It depends on your goal, OP, do you mean viable for pick up games or for tournaments?

For tournaments, understand that your list has to be competitive with all but one of the following,

Flying Tyranids, White Scar Bikes with Grav, Centurianstar, Necron durability (they have many viable builds) Eldar bike spam, Tau Riptides + whatever, and any of those plus Imperial knights.

Maybe a few more I'm forgetting.

How I see it, Ork mek no matter how many KFF's is not going to be competitive against those lists, except possibly the necron one, maybe.

good news is that most people don't bring those lists to pick up games. You can confidently bring a stompy mek build to a pick up game and know that as long as you keep your army in your case until the opponent has written his list, you should be alright. If the opponent knows you're running all mek, you won't stand a chance.

It's why I've stayed away from mek and run green tide. Just my two cents.

rokets on deff dredds work, in my opnion its cheeper and better to go with two bigshootas or rokets. this way if he happen to be imobilized he can at least shoot something.

upgrades imho that are worth purchaseing for killa kanz and deff dredds...
-rokkets (u can never have too many s8 ap3 shots in your army)
-big shootas (more shots the better chance to hit something, better to put bigshootas on deffs than killakanz since killa kanz can use the better bs for shooting rokets, while deffs can use the extra shots)
-grotzooka (killa kan only) (this is one of the cheepest and best upgrades for the kan and its absolutely wrecks infantry)
-skorcha (better on deff dredds than killa kanz) (its just good for anti infantry and overwatch)

upgrades not worth purchaseing imho....
-kmb (i never take these due to the fact that i simply dont want to cause damage to myself. ork walkers dont have the right type of invul saves that can help mitigate the heat)
-grot riggers (i think this upgrade isnt worth it for its cost in points, it would be better to have a bigmek with the fixer upperz nearby on a bike for repairing walkers) (fw mega dredd can take one for 5pts, thats actualy worth it imho)
-extra armour (not worth it for the points, you shoudl be more worried about explodes and imobilized results than shaken or stunned)
-power klaw (well yes its nice to have the extra attack in melee, the cost is a little steep for that)

just remeber, cheeper the better, walkers realy suffered this edition, and until it gets better try not to invest so many points on them.

Hollismason wrote:
Once you realize that the Codex as it is now serves as nothing more as a punching bag for other armies, and the real joy of Orks is making your own conversions etc.. then you'll never think "compettitve" again.

Armies just all around terribad.

I find your lack of faith in da waagh, disturbing.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

geargutz wrote:
rokets on deff dredds work, in my opnion its cheeper and better to go with two bigshootas or rokets. this way if he happen to be imobilized he can at least shoot something.

upgrades imho that are worth purchaseing for killa kanz and deff dredds...
-rokkets (u can never have too many s8 ap3 shots in your army)
-big shootas (more shots the better chance to hit something, better to put bigshootas on deffs than killakanz since killa kanz can use the better bs for shooting rokets, while deffs can use the extra shots)
-grotzooka (killa kan only) (this is one of the cheepest and best upgrades for the kan and its absolutely wrecks infantry)
-skorcha (better on deff dredds than killa kanz) (its just good for anti infantry and overwatch)

upgrades not worth purchaseing imho....
-kmb (i never take these due to the fact that i simply dont want to cause damage to myself. ork walkers dont have the right type of invul saves that can help mitigate the heat)
-grot riggers (i think this upgrade isnt worth it for its cost in points, it would be better to have a bigmek with the fixer upperz nearby on a bike for repairing walkers) (fw mega dredd can take one for 5pts, thats actualy worth it imho)
-extra armour (not worth it for the points, you shoudl be more worried about explodes and imobilized results than shaken or stunned)
-power klaw (well yes its nice to have the extra attack in melee, the cost is a little steep for that)

just remeber, cheeper the better, walkers realy suffered this edition, and until it gets better try not to invest so many points on them.

I'd have to argue that Grot riggers and extra armor are always worth taking on deff dreads. Especially if you are doing a walker themed army. Spending the little extra points to help keep those dreads a live is worth it.

Also, even tho da fixer upperz is great for a big mek, you can only fix 1 dread at a time. With grot riggers you can regain the lost hull points on any dreads. You can still use the big mek to fix weapon destroyed and immobilization results.

I agree 100% with Glitcha. Grot riggers are an auto-upgrade on Dreads, as well as Gorky and Morky. Extra armor is a huge boon for combat oriented Dreads, which I still find to be the optimal build. Killa kans are for shooting and buggies, etc. are for shooting - or, again, Grot tanks more than made up their points every game that I have used them. Dreads should never waste time shooting with their bs 2 unless forced to. IMO either leave them stock with the big shootas or upgrade them to have skorcha/extra DCW to maximize their primary purpose.

I sort of disagree with the notion that a Mek list cannot be competitive in a tournament scene. If you can use two detachments (Imperial Armour Mek list and standard Ork Codex), then you can field a surprisingly powerful force. Mek Traktor Kannons are arguably one of the best anti-air units in the game. Str 8 Ap 3 Skyfire that automatically causes an immobilized result on a flyer when glancing or penetrating and causes a grounding test at -3 for a flying monstrous creature is just nasty. Coupled with the fact that most your units are either impervious to or at least highly resistant to small arms fire means more than a few opponents will have trouble. Are they top tier? Definitely not, but my point is that the army is not such a fluffy list that it is uncompetitive.

Quick question, it says the Mega Dread has a S10 base profile but he can be given a power fist.....does he ID T10 models? lol

its just in my experience that ive never had to really worry about my walkers getting glanced to death, im almost always worried that they will be exploded by melta, so i would be willing to use the points spent on riggers and armour instead on kff and mobile meks. just my expience with it. i would consider extra armour if it effected immobilized results, but it doesn't, same goes for riggers, they only repair hull points and nothing else. in this day and age were d weapons and melta are cheap and everywhere i have to pick carefully where my points go, and i always side with the invuls, for it is those that will keep your walker walkin, and not some armour plates.

My issue with the Rokkits on walkers is that generally they aren't that great of a firing platform. The rokkits in IA8 are still 10 points? I cant remember.

I prefer to put the firepower onto stuff like TL buggies and TL deffcoptas; where I can outflank or scout them. That or grot tanks which have BS3. But that's just my personal preference. I think with a Mek army you need to 'buff up' your units with KFF's and with grot riggers. Currently running 3 Gunwagons in a squadron with a KFF bike mek for support. The gunwagons are AV13,12,10. So not only immune to bolter fire but also immune to some of that Str5/6 out there that strip down walkers and trukks so fast. So for 210 points I have;
3x Gunwagon - Lobba - Grot riggers, Ram
Supported by a KFF mek its basically a convoy that has 9 HP IWND and a 5++, Inside those I run lootas in the back one, bustas with badrukk and a weirdboy, then shoota boyz in the front one. Meaning I have a chaff unit of shootas at the front as protection while the tankbustas and lootas fire away.

I might try supplementing this with some walkers, just need to finish up a few more Kanz and one day when I finish my morka he will replace the KFF bike Mek. I think some of the IA8 vehicles can be great for firing out of, so played at a slower pace than general trukk lists.

Anyone tried the apocalypse formation 'dread mob'?
The one with requirements 2+ dread, 2+kans units, all IWND plus various bonus.
I am probably going to test that.

XC18 wrote:
Anyone tried the apocalypse formation 'dread mob'?
The one with requirements 2+ dread, 2+kans units, all IWND plus various bonus.
I am probably going to test that.

Which formation is this? I suppose you have to be playing apoc games for it? don't see many apoc games in my local meta

XC18 wrote:
Anyone tried the apocalypse formation 'dread mob'?
The one with requirements 2+ dread, 2+kans units, all IWND plus various bonus.
I am probably going to test that.

Its not bad but most of the stuff on the table you actually already have. The best you can get is the +1 str to weapons and 5++. You already have it will not die from the formation. So no need to buy grot riggers for the walkers. Since 7th you now have hammer of wrath.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Grumblewartz wrote:
I agree 100% with Glitcha. Grot riggers are an auto-upgrade on Dreads, as well as Gorky and Morky. Extra armor is a huge boon for combat oriented Dreads, which I still find to be the optimal build. Killa kans are for shooting and buggies, etc. are for shooting - or, again, Grot tanks more than made up their points every game that I have used them. Dreads should never waste time shooting with their bs 2 unless forced to. IMO either leave them stock with the big shootas or upgrade them to have skorcha/extra DCW to maximize their primary purpose.

I sort of disagree with the notion that a Mek list cannot be competitive in a tournament scene. If you can use two detachments (Imperial Armour Mek list and standard Ork Codex), then you can field a surprisingly powerful force. Mek Traktor Kannons are arguably one of the best anti-air units in the game. Str 8 Ap 3 Skyfire that automatically causes an immobilized result on a flyer when glancing or penetrating and causes a grounding test at -3 for a flying monstrous creature is just nasty. Coupled with the fact that most your units are either impervious to or at least highly resistant to small arms fire means more than a few opponents will have trouble. Are they top tier? Definitely not, but my point is that the army is not such a fluffy list that it is uncompetitive.

Personally, I think the mek list has a competitive edge. The main issue is you are required to take a unit of shoota boys for the dread mob. Cheap unit, but still a requirement. To run the dread mob pretty effectively, you should not buy the dreads in squads. This can cause extra damage. This has to do with the vehicle squad rules. I have 3 deff dreads. I mainly use. 1 with big shoota and rokket launcha. 1 with 2 scorchas. Last 1 is 3 dread arms and a rokket launcha. The scorcha and extra armor one usually run forward and try to get stuck in as fast as possible. The big shoota and rokket 1 is used to escort a unit of kans around on the table.