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i like stormboyz, but i never try deepstrikeing them (we dont get cool game breaking formations that favor 3up armour spazmareenz). so i often run them on the board at the beginning of the game. fast, maneuverable but still susceptible to enemy fire without many options for protection.

i have a campaign game coming up and i wanted to try some different things for my stormboyz.. so i have a six man bike squad in front of 20 stormboyz (nob, bosspole and pk for both units). the bikers will grant 5up cover due to intervening. the problem is speed. bikers are naturally faster with 12 move and 12 turboboost, while stormboyz get 12 move and a 2d6 run (if your willing to take dangerous terain tests). ill have a warbike painboy and im not sure which squad to attach him to (fnp for super cover save bikes, or fnp to negate the effects of dangerous terrain on stormboyz).

my opponent will either focus fire the stormboyz (who will almost always turboboost and jink) or attack the intervened stromboyz who are slightly lagging behind who will have a 5up or better cover save and a possible fnp if i add the painboy.

my hopes is to get many cheap melee units into combat for relative few loses.

now why am i taking stormboyz instead of more bikes...because i friken love stormboyz and their fluff, so this is just a way for me to run them safely.

any predictions on how this will do, any ideas on how to make it better?

As a blob stormboyz are expensive per point, don't have the saves available to other ork options, and raw I believe have conflicts with any biker painboy you would pit with them. Most are cool with you sort of running and turbo boosting with different models in the same unit. Ymmv.

I wouldn't use them as a mainstay. Keep them too few too waste time shooting, and numerous enough to comfortably glance AV10 to death with just choppa attacks. They are interceptors, advance in the best cover and hop on lightly armored enemy support that is depending on being dug into good cover. During a waaagh they can have a gigantic range and they can literally come from two plus feet or more to make an assault happen. Jump over screening units and vehicles and just drop right down on ideal targets. Bikes can't do that.

Until there is warboss or painboy with jump pack I think they will stay interceptors. With a basic choppa wielding nob they can also do good as challenge eaters for a pk wielding unit of boyz who could use an assist with a fugly IC or serg.

My suggestion is to use stormboyz in small squads as a harassing element. Give the nob a big choppa and let him break vehicles hitting the rear armor without a risk of explosion. They can also pick off artillery units, etc. If you put them in too large of a squad they attract attention and will be shot to pieces. Small squads have an easier time hugging cover and generally going unnoticed. As with most things in the Ork codex, they will only succeed if provide enough target saturation to force your opponent to focus on greater threats.

Stormboyz are only 9pts/model. If this is expensive then many armies are unfieldable. 'Ardboyz without even shootas are more expensive then stormboyz. Stomboyz, like basic boyz, has to make it through with redundancy. Sheer numbers that bring a bucket load of dice. Treat them like fast moving Choppa Boyz because that's what they are. Choppa Boyz who spent an extra 3pts/model to move as fast as a vehicle or in other words a tarpit that moves as fast as vehicle. Aside from early game charges to tarpit there is also another way to run em. Keep in the back out of LoS and they make a great late game unit when both sides have been thinned down and have less options. The Stormboyz can move fast to objectives to secure them with numbers and can be quite formidable against units that lost half their numbers.

Deepstriking them seems scary since as a whole they can make a big footprint but if you do so, take the formation that allows them to deepstrike using only one d6 to be safer.

Problem with Stormboyz is that the 3 points per boy to give them their jump packs cost more than putting a unit of 12 boyz in a trukk and vs small arms fire the trukk is more durable than the stormboyz. What stormboyz are good at is using LoS blocking terrain to hide and then jump over and try to make a charge during a WAAAGH!!!. A trukk does have the option of making a 24" blitz forward which can deliver anything within charge range for turn 2.

Deep striking stormboyz is risky but with the Formation they have the reduced scatter and you can have 3 Nobz with PKs in a unit instead of 1 which gives them a bit more punch.

I want to try Stormboys with a big choppa Nob. Can tank challenges as Rismonite suggested but also breaks tanks a lot better than choppa attacks - and a PK is often overkill on a vehicle.

As for using them against Infantry, I wouldn't bother unless your playgroup lets you field something like the apoc formation that has their old DS/Assault rule.

Vankraken has it right in hiding them behind terrain and charging on the WAAGH, but in order to fit behind terrain they need to be small, and small Ork mobs are terrible in melee. I would suggest you simply keep them as small BC/klaw delivery systems and attack vehicles only.

Has anyone ever tried DSing 30+ stormboyz? Seems way too risky and from my experience low save troops out of cover will just melt in one turn even in huge numbers like that (I found this out when I used the 60+ bloodletter formation - twice as many and 5+ invuln, but maybe 10 survived)

I often run ~10 strong stormboyz with a pk bp nob. They can be very fast on WAAAGH! Faster than even truckboyz in cases when they hide behind blos due to ability to jump over obstacles. I find them not nearly as straightforward as bikers. But they definitely have their uses.

But they tend to either do glorious things or nothing at all. Last game i've rolled a lot of ones during movement phase - had to jump into difterrain, failed morale and fell back. And while falling back rolled another dozen of ones and killed the rest. But the game before this one, they've obliterated 2 demolishers and finished off the named guy on a wolf.

In a horde army, you can run the stormboyz _behind_ the normal boyz (to keep them safe), until the charge turn, when you use their special movement to fly over the charging boyz and overwhelm the enemy with numbers from all sides.

But on a board with plenty of terrain, the simpler option is small harassment/distraction units keeping in cover as much as possible and making a nuisance of themselves on the flanks and hopefully in the enemy back lines.

I had two 5-man PK nob units assault a unit of tactical marines, along with a deffkopta (soaked overwatch) and a unit of boyz (failed charge by 1"). They died and killed 2-3 marines. Pretty sad day that was

It's a dice game.

Also, don't forget that stormboyz will have to test ld if too many of them die on their special move which is another problem. Happens from time to time - not too often though.

All in all, they're fine, have something unique you can't get elsewhere but are not stable.

29 Stormboyz, PK Nob, and Grotsnik. String em out and tarpit as much as you can. Let the rest of your army clean up.

I find 15-20 stormboyz with bc nob to be effective if you have a detachment that allows waaagh every turn thus allowing them to move, run and charge for a very nice range.

Or take the vulcha squad formation
D6 scatter into Los blocking terrain because ur not going to charge anyone the first turn or plan for a turn 2 beta strike and hit ur opponents with multiple targets. It also gains shred on thier HoW atks which is useful especially for zagstruk claw atk. But your going to need a few nobs w bc or pk to make the squad worth while.