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So a bunch of grognards are getting together for some 3rd edition in a week or so, and I figured I'd dust off my Orks and give it a go. 3rd was when I first got into the game as a kid, but aside from drooling over the old school art and fluff, I never actually played back then.

I'm wondering what the differences are, for anyone who remembers, between 3rd edition and the current game?

Also, what was effective, particularly from the Orks point of view.

Then again, I'm not sure if anyone from back in those days still posts on this forum, so maybe nobody knows

From what I recall (3rd edition is when I first started playing, but I didn't play a whole lot), 3rd ed was much more CC-tailored. My Flesh Tearers were an absolute joy to play with.

You can assault from a moving vehicle but if you are using CC rules from the rulebook (not the experimental rules in chapter approved) model within 2" have only one attack. You can make a sweeping advance and charge another unit but the defending unit can shoot you before the new charge.

Oh boy, a lot changed.

It is probably the fastest to forget everything you know about the rules and unit performance and start anew.
One thing could be good to know is that the ork codex is currently in really bad shape. Don't invest too much in what seems to work for orks right now since gw might (and lets hope so) update orks within a year to make them effective again. .

I think that you misread the OP, oldzoggy. This is a current player wanting to go back in time.

The 3e Orks codex was a funky one, from what I hear. Like the Space Marines book (which was about 32 pages or something daft, since they were experimenting with short and fluff-free 'books of rules') it was pretty vanilla by our current standards: I think that this means no SAG, no KFF, no Mek Guns, etc; just Goff-themed boots on the ground. The big thing was the Choppa rule, which meant that no save taken against Orks in melee was better than a 4+. I hear on the Ork forum that people regarded that rule as the cornerstone of the army style.

[edit]
Lol. Getting back well that is easy and fun.
Take assaulty things



Automatically Appended Next Post:
It might also be worth looking at the old Snake bite chapter approved list. They have a lot of fun and really good rules.

http://documents.mx/documents/warhammer-40k-codex-errata-chapter-approved-feral-orks-army-list.html

The latest version of the 3rd edition Ork Codex has every error corrected: is the one with the black cover.

I don't have the main rulebook available until the day, so I have no idea about if vehicles, bikes, guns or melee is any good. Except that apparantly melee was better than it is in 7th.

I wanna avoid basic boyz because wow, they're 8-9 points. I'm thinking of running a bunch in trukks, or alternatively, an all biker army (I have a lot of bikes and it allows Nob Bikers). After seeing the snakebites it could also be good to use my 30 boarboyz for something too...

The latest version of the 3rd edition Ork Codex has every error corrected: is the one with the black cover.

I've borrowed the one with the green cover. It seems to be in a bad state as I can't even find the Ork basic weapons (shoota for example) in it.

 oldzoggy wrote:
Oh boy, a lot changed.

It is probably the fastest to forget everything you know about the rules and unit performance and start anew.
One thing could be good to know is that the ork codex is currently in really bad shape. Don't invest too much in what seems to work for orks right now since gw might (and lets hope so) update orks within a year to make them effective again. .

Don't worry man, I well and truly understand how bad this codex is, both in terms of mechanics, fluff and art. All 0/10.

Cheers for the link to the snakebites though. I was looking at Armageddon's Speed Freeks list but will consider this one too. Someone else is taking standard Orks so figured something different is good.

Playing third edition rules with 6th edition or greater codexs really wont work too well.

The points scale for one thing. The game was not meant to have the shooting output it has now. I just can't imagine what it would look like to have an entire unit of scatbikes behind a unit or two of guardians. You wouldn't stand a chance as models in front screened for models in the back. And I don't mean cover saves either, I mean you flat out couldn't target them.

I very powerfull build back then was 6 units of 5 space marines with las and plas playing rank and file with two - three units of devastators. That power castle was just potent.

I'd strongly recomend finding correct codexs from those editions and using them. Actually orks were in pretty good shape. You could have units of 30 boys with three special weapons with nobs. Just like now. However, you could put burnas in those mobs and that made orks in trucks really powerful. One of my favorite builds was an ork trukk with a boy with a burna and a nob with a shoota/scorcha combi weapon.

Tank bustas and burna boys still existed but they only had 4 special weapons in units of 10 with 6 bullet catchers. But it was all good. My favorite unit was a Mad Dok with a unit of cyborks. Very powerful melee unit back then.

Ork special rules were much better too. On the charge Orks doubled their initiative value, thus hitting on I4. This was super critical since boys now hit at the same time as space marines. When you failed a LD or moral check you got to make a mob size check. Roll 2D6 if the number came up equal to or less than the number of boys in the unit you passed the check instead. When falling back if the unit ran into another mob of boys make an LD check, if you pass those boys joined up with the back mob and you continued forward along your merry way.

Orks back then were fun. Heck, if you can get your hands on the old Armeggeddon codex, the Orks speed freek army was very brutal and a hell of a lot of fun to play.

 Dakkamite wrote:
I don't have the main rulebook available until the day, so I have no idea about if vehicles, bikes, guns or melee is any good. Except that apparantly melee was better than it is in 7th.

I wanna avoid basic boyz because wow, they're 8-9 points. I'm thinking of running a bunch in trukks, or alternatively, an all biker army (I have a lot of bikes and it allows Nob Bikers). After seeing the snakebites it could also be good to use my 30 boarboyz for something too...

The latest version of the 3rd edition Ork Codex has every error corrected: is the one with the black cover.

I've borrowed the one with the green cover. It seems to be in a bad state as I can't even find the Ork basic weapons (shoota for example) in it.
Cheers for the link to the snakebites though. I was looking at Armageddon's Speed Freeks list but will consider this one too. Someone else is taking standard Orks so figured something different is good.

Here in Italy there were three revisions of the Ork Codex: Green cover, green cover with a black label "revised" and a black cover like late 3rd edition codexes. The last 2 revisions are correct.

 Jayden63 wrote:
Playing third edition rules with 6th edition or greater codexs really wont work too well.

The points scale for one thing. The game was not meant to have the shooting output it has now. I just can't imagine what it would look like to have an entire unit of scatbikes behind a unit or two of guardians. You wouldn't stand a chance as models in front screened for models in the back. And I don't mean cover saves either, I mean you flat out couldn't target them.

I very powerfull build back then was 6 units of 5 space marines with las and plas playing rank and file with two - three units of devastators. That power castle was just potent.

I'd strongly recomend finding correct codexs from those editions and using them. Actually orks were in pretty good shape. You could have units of 30 boys with three special weapons with nobs. Just like now. However, you could put burnas in those mobs and that made orks in trucks really powerful. One of my favorite builds was an ork trukk with a boy with a burna and a nob with a shoota/scorcha combi weapon.

Tank bustas and burna boys still existed but they only had 4 special weapons in units of 10 with 6 bullet catchers. But it was all good. My favorite unit was a Mad Dok with a unit of cyborks. Very powerful melee unit back then.

Ork special rules were much better too. On the charge Orks doubled their initiative value, thus hitting on I4. This was super critical since boys now hit at the same time as space marines. When you failed a LD or moral check you got to make a mob size check. Roll 2D6 if the number came up equal to or less than the number of boys in the unit you passed the check instead. When falling back if the unit ran into another mob of boys make an LD check, if you pass those boys joined up with the back mob and you continued forward along your merry way.

Orks back then were fun. Heck, if you can get your hands on the old Armeggeddon codex, the Orks speed freek army was very brutal and a hell of a lot of fun to play.

We're not playing 6th ed codexes, we're playing 3rd ed, dunno where that idea came from!

Armageddon is online, unlike the Ork codex itself, so I've been thinking of running speed freeks which is my usual go-to style for Orks (its depressing trudging forward getting shot up, then swinging last and getting chopped up). You reckon mass bikes was any good? Or was it boyz in vehicles?

With the unit screening thing, could bikes screen vehicles, or are vehicles just too big for that? I remember those rules and I really wish modern 40k worked like that still

I cant remember exactly if bikes could screen vehicles, but the Ork bike, smoke cloud did do something to anything behind it and it was pretty good as best i can remember.

It says if you shoot through the unit at a unit behind it they get a cover save. Seems to imply you can shoot through them with anything against anything else though.

 Dakkamite wrote:
It says if you shoot through the unit at a unit behind it they get a cover save. Seems to imply you can shoot through them with anything against anything else though.

No that rule was from 4th. In 3rd ed. every model block the LOS up twice his heigh to the models (not vehicles) behind him. In this way a Wraithguad unit can cover a Wraithlord (the old one)