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Here are my thought about how ork fluff has evolved and where it's going. This may be kind of incomprehensible, but try to bear with me. I'll refine the post when I have time, so there may be some typos. Warning: big wall of text.

For orks, there are two archetypical "main" warlords, representing the two approaches that orks have to warfare: the Warboss, and the Big Mek. The Warboss embodies Gork, and has always supported running up to things and krumping them. The Big Mek embodies Mork, and supports shooting things, protecting your troops, and using vehicles. The Warboss and Big Mek are the two that have been the most defining over time, and have seen the most use as archetypes. Ork society is based around starting a waaagh! and these two are the ones that get waaagh!s off the ground, by providing a leader for the waaagh! and browbeating/actual beating the orks into the proper mood in the Warboss's case, and by providing weapons, armor, and vehicles in the orks in the case of the big Mek. The Warboss is the apex form of a normal ork boy, and the Big Mek is the apex form of one of the oddboys. And one or the other is almost always the waaagh!'s predominant figure.

But which is more essential to a proper waaagh? In the past, ork vehicles were mainly looted, not built out of scrap (with the exception of epic 40k stuff). The ork Gestalt field was also stronger, allowing orks to not need as much maintenance for their gear as long as they were in a fighting mood. In this era the Warboss could get his waaagh! on without much mek assistance. As the lore changed, the power of the Gestalt field was toned down, and the ork vehicle aesthetic changed from recognizably looted vehicles to the contemporary Mad Max jury-rigged scrapbuilt style. Big Meks can start a waaagh! without a Warboss, they just need to build a dread mob instead of beating up anyone who disagrees with them until they're on top (though that doesn't hurt). A good example of how things have changed is the Sanctus Reach campaign. In it, the Warboss leading the campaign is killed, but his Mek subordinate (who caused his death) takes over and fights much more effectively due to his use of gadgets and strategy.

What's my point about all of this? That it's a fairly important lore change that will reflect how orks are treated in the rules. When 7e dropped orks got several new units: the mek guns, the gorkanaut, the morkanaut, and the painboy. It also added the ork planes and stompa to the codex and made mekboys their own unit, besides tweaking point costs and rules of course. The looted wagon was removed from the codex entirely (only to show up in a WD issue). You'll notice that most of the new stuff is more mek/oddboy-centric as opposed to boyz/nobz-centric. And as far as I can remember the only new unit from outside a codex, from DFTS specifically, was the wazbom blastajet. No new melee units (the stompa and orkanauts don't really count), and no units designed to get units into melee more effectively than what they had already. Now, ork society will always have some degree of technology use. And a reimagining of orks as a mek-centric society isn't inherently a bad thing. But think for a moment, isn't it odd that the "brawn over brains" faction is starting to drop brawn from it's arsenal? And why do meks get so much attention compared to all the other oddboys?

So why is this a thing, and will it reverse? The transition from Warboss representation to mek representation may have been started by GorkaMorka, where the scrap pile aesthetic that GW loves so much became the norm and where most of the orks represented were normal boys and oddboys, with nobs and larger orks being a rarity. It was probably sped up by IA8's dread mob, which may have provided inspiration for GW's not always very inventive creative department. And one of the causes for this shift may be the need to expand their product line. The Warboss-centric types of units are already established, and it can be difficult to make such units interesting, whereas with mek stuff you can think up all sorts of stuff. One thing that could reverse the trend is the next ork appearance in Imperial Armor. Even though FW and GW don't always work in sync, a speed freeks, feral orks, or Blood Axes mercenary group, for example, could provide a precedent for a change away from vehicles and kustom mega-weapons. But in the near future prepare for more armor plates, gears, and crackling energy in the ork product line, and in particular in the special characters department. Ork independent characters are often just oddboys with better gear and stats, and while the Big Mek is an HQ there isn't a special Mek character outside of FW (Buzzgob).

TL;DR mekboys are the new black, expect the next Ghazkull to be a mek, but seriously read the whole rant.

Theyve always said that while the waaagh grows, the tek gets bigger and better. Until it almost always quite literally blows up....

An interesting point on the Gork/Warboss, Mork/Mek contrast. I almost always feel.the need to have a Mek on the field for background sake.

The origin of this lies with the fact orks used to keep slaves who managed their war materials production. The humans built what they knew how to build (which is to purely STC type gear). As a result, much of the ork inventory was very Imperial. Orks used bolters, carried plasma and used chain swords and of course, orkified vehicles. That's not to say orks had none of their own tech, but there was no 'it just works because' floating around. Orks were given a knack for forcefields, to justify how they could every be an interplanetary threat and that innate knowledge grew into a generic 'technological savant' idea.

Like any brain bug the idea has grown, creeped if you will, until what was a unique aspect is now an almost defining trait. The same has happened with the non codex chapters. Dante has spawned a whole unit of gold warriors. The minor decoration of the 2nd ed Wolves has blown into full on vikings in space. It's a sign of intellectual bankruptcy, to simply expand a small idea until it's the pervasive one.

 Kojiro wrote:


Like any brain bug the idea has grown, creeped if you will, until what was a unique aspect is now an almost defining trait. The same has happened with the non codex chapters. Dante has spawned a whole unit of gold warriors. The minor decoration of the 2nd ed Wolves has blown into full on vikings in space. It's a sign of intellectual bankruptcy, to simply expand a small idea until it's the pervasive one.

This. This I like, perfectly explains GW's product line in it's entirety over the past ten years or so

It might just be because many ork players like this aspect. I know only a few ork players who go all psy odd boy, runherd, lunatic etc but all most all of them have crazy vehicle conversions. There is obviously a market for it. I don't mind the change from green hippies in space to green scrap heap challenge in space.

It probably comes down to big kits can be sold for big dollars and vehicles/walkers are the biggest of the Orky units. Also it seems that nobody at GW in the writing department is very enthusiastic about the Orks so instead of embracing proper Orky values they incorrectly think that Meks are the thing that needs to be played up.

As to Meks being the boss of the Orks ill refer to the words of the great Kaptin Bluddflagg "Dem Orks got a Mek fer a boss. Dat's jus sad dat is". (The boyz working for Relic know how to write/design proppa Orks).

... started?

They've been this way since at least fifth edition, when almost every competitive Ork list had a big mek with KFF in it.

Gork and Mork are in every ork. Meks and Warbosses perhaps to different degrees, but you cannot have orks without some mek to make da toolz and some boss to lead the ladz.

 Exergy wrote:
Gork and Mork are in every ork. Meks and Warbosses perhaps to different degrees, but you cannot have orks without some mek to make da toolz and some boss to lead the ladz.

Savage orks disagree with you