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Guys

I've just got a new ork army, fully painted & converted, got approx 5k!

what works? what doesn't? what are popular list builds? what's to avoid? anything I should take advantage of in the codex/suppliments?

What did you get?

Orks have 3 game mechanics going for them - they have assault vehicles, assault weapons and can take a lot of low cost units. Orks can press forward.

As for which units are strong, massed warbikes works competitively, and mek gunz shoot ok and are very sturdy.

A lot of foes have stronger units and/or stronger shooting and that is a big issue for orks. On top of that orks really dont like transports. Often we want to assault them, and then can't get to the men inside in the same assault phase. So you have to think of that with your listbuilding.

It all depends on what you want to focus on in your games: Is it competitive games, is it narrative games, is it with focus on miniatures and visuals?

We can't outshoot the shooty stuff, can't outchop the choppy stuff and can't really deal with psycher deathstars (90% of competitive lists). Got to play around it and use tactix on top of list-building.

I believe I did

Waaargh wrote:
A lot of foes have stronger units and/or stronger shooting and that is a big issue for orks.

and direct weakness, which has caused me endless grief:

On top of that orks really dont like transports. Often we want to assault them, and then can't get to the men inside in the same assault phase.

Ork rule #1, if you ever find yourself asking "Should I take a power klaw? the answer is yes. Power klaws are your answer to most things on the board.

It really all depends on what kind of missions you'll be playing. Maelstrom missions? You want to go fast. Guys in trukks, guys on bikes, guys with rocket packs. Eternal war? You want to go strudy. Giant blobs of boys with a painboy thrown in are able to tank some wounds. Timed games (like tournaments)? More transports. You won't get past turn 2 if you've got nothing but blobs. More random games with people for fun? Go with what works best against your group, blob or small units.

Do you know what kind of missions/games you will be playing? Also, do you know what kind of lists are the main ones people bring? Both of those can make drastic changes to your list building.

 Palleus wrote:
Ork rule #1, if you ever find yourself asking "Should I take a power klaw? the answer is yes. Power klaws are your answer to most things on the board..

Seemz Legit

Maelstrom missions?

POWER KLAW!

Eternal war?

POWER KLAW!!

Timed games (like tournaments)?

POWER KLAW!!!

More random games with people for fun?

POWER KLAW!!!!

Do you know what kind of missions/games you will be playing?

POWER KLAW!!!!!

I find two things work well. Biker spam led by biker boss zhadsnark and Meganobz. I prefer to rub the nobz on the hill boyz formation for the hugely helpful formation bonuses. I also like putting them in the FW gun wagon transport for it's 13/13/10 armor all for 60 points.

For me Orks need to figure out how to do these three things
1. Survive getting into their operational range (be it shooting or melee).
2. Getting into their operational range in a time efficient manner
3. What kind of targets will they be able to take on once they do get in range.
Generally Orks are not going to out punch dedicated melee units and they aren't going to out shoot dedicated shooting units. So the mantra of "shoot the choppy and chop the shooty" is core to the Orks. Also things like deathstars are a giant trap for the Orks so its about how to mitigate them and contain them with road blocks while the rest of your army destroys the rest of their army and claim objectives. Orks have weak defense and poor leadership so trying to tank the enemy shooting is generally considered impractical. Orks generally can't rely on a single unit to get the job done so they need redundancy in their army so losing a squad of Tankbustas doesn't eliminate all your anti vehicle firepower for example.

The go to units in the Ork codex can vary on what your trying to achive and how you use them but in general its hard to go wrong with Tankbustas, Meganobz, Warbikes, Warboss on bike or in Mega Armor, Lootas, and Mek Guns (Kannon, Lobba, Kustom Mega Kannon). Other units can be good if used correctly but most tend to have more limited niches or tend to underperform against some of the more powerful units out there. Honestly very few units are down right horrible but most tend to struggle to earn a place on a line up when compared to some of the more versatile units in the codex like Meganobz and Warbikes. For example I had a game recently where I was up against a decently competitive Eldar list and one of my top performers was a unit of 6 Killa Kans with grotzookas which by most Ork player standards are considered hot garbage (the kans are garbage, not the grotzookas) but they waddled and rained scrap metal death along a flank while my unit of bikes, tankbustas, and grots acted as road blocks for the enemy Wraithknight. Orks force you to play smart and tactically instead of relying on brute strength to power through the enemy which is funny considering Orks are basically dumb brutes

 Vankraken wrote:
For me Orks need to figure out how to do these three things
1. Survive getting into their operational range (be it shooting or melee).
2. Getting into their operational range in a time efficient manner
3. What kind of targets will they be able to take on once they do get in range.
Generally Orks are not going to out punch dedicated melee units and they aren't going to out shoot dedicated shooting units. So the mantra of "shoot the choppy and chop the shooty" is core to the Orks. Also things like deathstars are a giant trap for the Orks so its about how to mitigate them and contain them with road blocks while the rest of your army destroys the rest of their army and claim objectives. Orks have weak defense and poor leadership so trying to tank the enemy shooting is generally considered impractical. Orks generally can't rely on a single unit to get the job done so they need redundancy in their army so losing a squad of Tankbustas doesn't eliminate all your anti vehicle firepower for example.

The go to units in the Ork codex can vary on what your trying to achive and how you use them but in general its hard to go wrong with Tankbustas, Meganobz, Warbikes, Warboss on bike or in Mega Armor, Lootas, and Mek Guns (Kannon, Lobba, Kustom Mega Kannon). Other units can be good if used correctly but most tend to have more limited niches or tend to underperform against some of the more powerful units out there. Honestly very few units are down right horrible but most tend to struggle to earn a place on a line up when compared to some of the more versatile units in the codex like Meganobz and Warbikes. For example I had a game recently where I was up against a decently competitive Eldar list and one of my top performers was a unit of 6 Killa Kans with grotzookas which by most Ork player standards are considered hot garbage (the kans are garbage, not the grotzookas) but they waddled and rained scrap metal death along a flank while my unit of bikes, tankbustas, and grots acted as road blocks for the enemy Wraithknight. Orks force you to play smart and tactically instead of relying on brute strength to power through the enemy which is funny considering Orks are basically dumb brutes

Agreed with everything Vankraken said. Orks are a close combat army in a shooty edition. We have to play smart to have any chance to win. Due to recent army power creep, many other armies have a significant advantage points-wise, not to mention formation bonuses. For their points, Tankbustas, Meganobz (MANZ), Warbikers, Lootas, and Mek Gunz are all solid choices. You want a Warboss to call the Waaagh! After a Warboss, a Painboy is your next best choice for a support HQ. A Big Mek with a SAG is fun, but unreliable. Likewise the KFF is situational.

Here's a huge thread that talks about Ork tactics, formations, strategies, etc. Lots of good advice in here:
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/0/643980.page

So yeah, what'd you get? What'd you get? 5,000 points is a lot. Stompa? Battlewagons? 100's of Boyz?