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Time and time again I hear that Stormboyz are one of the big "winner" in the new ork codex. That 9 points for a model w/ a potential 36" threat range is incredible.

but i never see them in any lists!!

I'm an avid reader of dakka for orks, 1500 points and under.

I'd love incorporate them, but since they're never in any lists are they good or just "mathammer good"?

What are some tactics you use with them
and
Post your lists (<1500 points) here

They're actually not 'mathhammer' good - bikes beat them here hands down. Stormboyz are somewhat situationally good to have depending on the map. They NEED blos. Otherwise, they simply don't work. And even so, they depend on dice rolls like entirely.

I often use a squad of ~10 with a pk, bp nob. They tend to either be effective or useless. No middle ground. Sometimes, they perform incredible 25+ inch charges or scare the opponent away the whole game. Sometimes they run 2-5" and get shot to death or kill themselves with their speshul run move. Last game i've lost 3 to a dangerous terrain test on the 2d6 run, failed ld and they've proceeded fleeing off the board for 2 more turns.

All in all, a fun, rare squad to use. Very unstable. Large squads are bad. Really bad. They're to squishy for the points. If you wana go big - go for bikes. They're infinitely tougher, shootier and more reliable for rather cheap. Zaggy formation is garbage - it forces stormboyz into a role they can't handle. Deepstriking large blobs of t-shirt 9 ppm boyz with ld8 at best, that have nerfed mob rule, no shooting and can't charge after deepstrike is not for the last 2-3 editions.

If you really want to run stormboyz, a small-mid squad is about right.

I think you're just running into people who still had (were having) first impression hype from the codex's release

They are cheap fast and punch stuff in the face, they aren't a powerful core unit by any stretch but make a good disposable rocket to throw at someone and mess with their target priority

I don't think anything with a 6+ armor save and no transport options or cover save options can be considered good.

Especially not when they cost that much PPM.

An Ork playing friend of mine loves Stormboyz, but says they are utter rubbish and not worth deploying.

Stormboyz were good before scat bikes. If Scat Bikes are in the Meta Stormboyz, and most other Ork units are pretty pointless.

ETA. Broadsides were a hard counter before, but there weren't a fraction of the Broadsides that there are Scat Bikes.

An acquaintance of mine has, in a couple of tournaments where I faced him, run two very large blobs of Stormboyz (25 models apiece), in addition to four similar blobs of regular Boyz. I don't recall how well he did against everyone else, but he destroyed me both times (of course, that may simply be a commentary on my skill level rather than the strength of Stormboyz).

Just as fragile as boyz, but lots more expensive, and unreliable. A shame, coz the models are great, and they're a very fluffy unit.

Wouldn't be difficult to improve them rules-wise either, with something like: "Stormboyz' jetpacks create clouds of oily smoke, making flying stormboyz difficult to shoot at, thus giving them a 5+ cover save except when in close combat."

Perhaps next codex...

 Clang wrote:
Just as fragile as boyz, but lots more expensive, and unreliable. A shame, coz the models are great, and they're a very fluffy unit.

Wouldn't be difficult to improve them rules-wise either, with something like: "Stormboyz' jetpacks create clouds of oily smoke, making flying stormboyz difficult to shoot at, thus giving them a 5+ cover save except when in close combat."

Perhaps next codex...

I think its a general issue for most jump infantry in the game, they're severely outclassed by competition like bikers who can typically outdakka them and have far greater survivability. I think they should let jump pack infantry have the ability to jink if they used their jump pack previously to move that turn and bikes (including jetbikes) instead get a 4+ cover only if they turbo-boosted. This way the guys who have twin-linked built in weapons can't have their cake and eat it too.

Stormboyz other issue is their lack of options as a unit. If they were allowed to take stuff like burnas, killsaws or hell even big choppas it could help a lot for variety rather than just a faster version of boyz.

It doesn't help that they nerfed Zagstruk to kingdom come and gave his schtick to the beakies instead with their Skyhammer formation.

Theyre good? Since when?

I loved them last edition but they were just way too pricy to bother. When i saw their price dropped substantially i was all a glow until i saw their pack rules changed.
I tried them anyway. Every...single....damn...time... i used their thrusters to get that assault (during the WAAAGH obviously) i lost on average 1/3 my squad. If they had 'Eavy Armor it wouldnt be as bad but cmon an entire squad of ~20 boys with 6+ armor rolling danger tests? thats just stupid. Remove that rule alone and i'd probably field them every time, even with the 6+ armor (even though i dont get why they dont have a coversave either by oily dust clouds or sheer speed, since theyre pretty damn fast when you utilize their special run rule)

I'd probably still bring a minimal squad if Zagstruk was still an upgrade. I love his rule but i just cannot bring him because our HQ slots are way way too important for Painboys and Warbosses. I cant even bring Weirdboys without expecting to lose purely because the lack of Painboys hurts that badly - and god forbid no warboss lol.

That being said, i dont view Stormboys as complete trash - just fun fodder really, which sadly is most of the codex right now. If im intending to play competitively, i probably have ~30 bikes on the table between Warbikers and Deffkoptas lol.

Storm boys are not good. Bikes outperform them pretty much 100%.

OK you guys convinced me, I'm sold

I'm a big fan of stormboyz, but like everyone else has pointed out their more of a fun to play, hit-or-miss unit. I'll often run them in 5 or 10 man squads, and lately I've been leaning towards 5. If your opponent even looks at them they might fail a leadership test and run away, but often they're just annoying enough that your opponent needs to deal with them. A 5-man squad with a power klaw makes an excellent light-medium vehicle hunter that earns its points back with a single kill. They also make decent back-door objective-takers with deep strike and good mobility. They can also soak up valuable shooting from the enemy if you use their mobility to move from cover to cover. They can also pull off incredible charges on a Waaagh. Like others have pointed out bikes are more consistent, but stormboyz are cheap and have similar utility, if less survivability. One of my favorite tactics is to deploy them on one side of the board, then turn 1 swing them back to the middle or other side of the board behind your front lines. If they're behind other troops they're less likely to get shot, and they can still charge with the rest of the team on a turn 2 Waaagh. Your opponent may have also moved or deployed forces to the wing to counter them, only to find them way out of position (I've done the same thing with bikes as well, for what it's worth). Overall I would think of them as cheap, expendable alternatives to bikes that will surprisingly often give you a funny story after the game is over. I've had them rip through back lines of vehicles, score half my points in maelstrom of war games, and run off the board when a single bolter fired at them.

The best success I have had with stormboys is using them as a way to add more bodies to a fight. Usually as a 5-10 man unit with no nob, moving near transports/bikes. They get ignored, the other tougher unit charges, then they charge in to add bodies. In some cases this can backfire if your opponent is actually good in assault and opts to massacre them out instead of your assault unit.

That said I would rather have bikes, or kommandos most of the time :(

Actually i could see squads of 5 with a klaw nob be viable if you arent spamming bikes (wagon list perhaps). They suffer from the same problem as Boyz where the non-nob is kinda pathetic unless they get a swarm attack, but the nob alone can be a problem.

Kinda makes me think of an alternate, more mobile MANZ Missile....but one that utilizes LOS rather than 2+ armor to get a charge.

They're ok, but certainly not 'so good'.

It's notable that they're the only ork unit capable of deep striking, which is kind of helpful, situationally.

But.....boyz with jump packs isn't anything to write home about. And though they got cheaper, they also got slower. Last codex, you could move and extra D6 and still charge, and you only lost a boy if you rolled a one.

Now, you move that extra D6 in the running phase, but EVERYONE takes a dangerous terrain test. For large groups of 6+ save infantry, that's not a good tradeoff. AND you can't charge unless you waaagh.

The only time I ever run 2D6 with them now is in concert with a waaaagh, and while theoretically useful, I think my two attempts have resulted in 2D6 run distances of 5 and 2 (and I lost ~3 storm boyz each time).

In the end, I'd agree that warbikers are a far better points value, and though stormboyz aren't awful, there's a reason you don't seem them often.