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I was introduced to the concept of the HQ tax. It's the points you have to spend on HQ choices when the units aren't really the most efficient compared to others you would rather take or even that great at all. I haven't had a chance to mull over all of Ork's choices, but I have thought a lot about one in particular and the one I'm concerned with is the plain old Warboss.

This guy is a pretty bad choice. But if you're like me you have one (or two) footslogging Warbosses and you have to use him in your games. I want to know how best to use him, how I should change my tactics in games. The theoryhammer is forming my conclusion but I don't have enough games in to really have a solid conclusion on him yet but I want to start getting some feedback on this now.

Warboss not Warlord
Even if he's the coolest model in your army (which for me he is) you don't want your front line killer delivering a free point to your opponent. If your army is a spear this guy is the razor sharp tip. And like any razor sharp blade it dulls quickly. Your S12 PK Warboss is meant to be swinging at the heaviest armor out there, but with only 4 attacks AND most likely not fully penetrating their armor, AND the swing in damage dice, AND that venerable dreadnought's FNP, your target will swing back and your target will destroy you. I’ve done this in a lot of games where he’s the heaviest S value weapon I’ve got so I put him in combat with a dreadnaught or a wraithlord and then it’s over.

So what do you do? Do you hold him back and waste 25 points? Do you group it up with a bunch of other heavy hitters like Nobz? Meanwhile your boyz are going to take an extra turn to charge because they can’t advance and charge while your Warboss is off on a party wagon with the ork upper class.

Or do you keep him at the front of the boyz attacking frail troops and snapping little fleshy twigs, easily wounding on 2+ and still could without 4 to 5 of his strength? That’s points well spent. I know boyz can hit anything on the ground and 30 of ‘em are amazing against even heavy armor. But I would assume our boyz will have to chop through some meat first.

I think the answer is he’s not your warlord so you can fearlessly throw him into the fray. But that’s not so simple (for me) either because a weirdboy with Waaagh! Energy getting perils on a 8+ isn’t a very good choice for warlord either. Answer: Big Mek, if you have one.

Take the Big Choppa
It’s time to make some mods to your models, friends. Get your warboss holding a shoota and a big choppa and you just saved yourself 20 pts to get 1 more nob with power stabba, or a kombi-skorcha, or 3 more boyz, any one of which yields more wounds per point spent than if you had taken those 2 items. Okay maybe that’s not true of the boyz really, but if it means keeping your mobs green tide for 3 more wounds then it is.

Many may disagree with this based on the fact that additional AP outweighs the -1 to hit in this case, but I just want to mention the prevalence of inv. saves on the foes you’ll face. Average the damage against all possible targets: the difference from BC to PK is not that large. Then reduce that by all the inv. saves you’re going to put that PK up against and you just lost all of the extra wounds you just paid for. Shield of Sanguinius? Iron Halo? Pretty much every Astartes hero in the game?
This graph shows different weapons and the number of wounds per 100 pts spent (on the entire model). I didn't apply any inv. saves to the T3 targets because who gives a gak.

Can't see warboss with BC? thats because it's exactly the same as the line of the BC against a 4+inv save.

Dominate the late game
Maybe everything I just said doesn’t make that big a difference because maybe your PK Warboss is meant to be in combat around turn 4 anyway. Late game, where you’ll be trying to finish off those dreads, and back line tanks (lets not get into semantics, 4 is late game for orks no matter what you think late game is). Maybe the extra 16 points you spent is your investment in the late game? But only IF you get there.

But again, we may be going up against a hero with an inv. save and a relic blade that can kill the Warboss just as easily.

Help me think about this because I think this may actually make a difference and may justify bringing a PK but I just don’t know enough of what I’ll be going up against.


I spoke this whole time about saving points and I may just end up giving my warboss a kombi-skorcha to go with his shiny new BC. which ends up being 3 pts more expensive than if he has a PK and a shoota. But the PK isn’t going to chop thru through the hordes of conscripts, cultists, and gaunts that are coming. But in terms of playstyle no matter what the loadout, I'm going to try to leave him near the front of the boyz so he can get in combat at the same time, and I will be using another HQ as the warlord.

So I ask you, fellow nobz, how do you use your Warboss?

The warboss is actually a solid choice. He mitigates morale, he allows boyz to run and assault and he's a good fighter. With a pk a footslogging warboss is only 80 points. He can be equipped with a big choppa as well, it's still a fair option, and with that is only 64 points.

I use ghaz and a biker boss basically, since +1T +1W the 6 S5 shots and the better movement worth the extra cost.

If there's an army in which HQs are not a tax that army is definitely orks, since HQs are among our best choices. Warboss, big meks with KFF and weirdboyz are all very solid units, named characters like ghaz, zagstruck and zhadsnark are excellent as well.

Warbosses are a good choice unlike a lot of other stuff in the ork index. Even regular footslogging warbosses. Your army needs his ld buffs anywayz. And he has a respectable mellee profile to boot.

Personally, i prefer a biker warboss with a pk. Especially in smaller games where a single biker boss can easilly operate as a separate force without fear of being one-shotted with anything other than anti-tank weaponry. Speed is key. guaranteed 14 movement and a large base coupled with re-rollable charges, t6, 7 wounds and 4+ can be enough to turn the tide of the game when you zip forward and tie up a couple shooty squads so that your boyz can get a turn of movement unharmed.

But plain old footslogging bosses with pk or BC can work too. Have tried both. Both are ok.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Blackie wrote:
...named characters like ghaz, zagstruck and zhadsnark are excellent as well.

Anything with Z in the name, basically

Moral and Advance/Assault is why I take a Warboss.

His combat ability is entirely secondary.

I've also found the warboss on bike to be very viable.

I usually give him the attack squig for extra attacks and the kombi-skorcha to soften up strong targets before charging them -
firing dakka gun, skorcha and shoota at once can take a bunch of wounds of an enemy unit/model before charging into it and finishing it off.

The warboss pretty much instantly dies when anti-tank gets to shoot it, but it's not to hard too play around that. Kommandoz or koptaz showing up next to some artillery is a good way of forcing those guns to shoot something besides the warboss.