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For a while I've been thinking Tyranids, but I saw the Ork Battleforce on Warhammer Community. I've always liked orks but I avoided them in 7th because they were trash tier. I've heard they aren't great right now, but would it be possible to build a competent TAC list? Would the Start Collecting! box be a good idea? Should I get the Battleforce? What else should I buy?

Fingers are crossed with the coming codex. Currently builds based on full mobz of Boyz, Stormboyz and Kommandos supported by Ghazzy and 2 or more weirdboyz is strong enough to be competitive but otherwise our Boyz lack support until the rest of units are fixed.

Actually you can have a competitive list even with the index. Just spam boyz/stormboyz/kommandos/weirdboyz/kannons. Use a single warboss on foot or bike, zagstruk if you use stormboyz, and eventually a big mek with kff and a painboy. Ghaz is also quite effective but it's a points sink and I think bringing more bodies is better.

With 6x15 kommandos and 3x30 boyz you can have 120 orks 9'' from the enemy in turn 1.

The Ork Battleforce and Start collecting boxes are mostly filled with units that aren't part of competitive Ork builds. They each have a single unit of Boyz, which are our best unit, and then a bunch of units that range from meh to bad.

That said, Chapter Approved is coming soon and the Ork Codex probably will be out early next year and they will probably change a lot of things. The Start Collecting box is a good deal and worth getting, and if the rumored pricing* on the Battleforce box is true it will also be a good deal. Buying both would give you a good core to your army that can be improved by adding a few units after the Codex comes out. The Trukk Boyz box is also a pretty good deal
*I'm probably going to try to buy at least one Battleforce box and maybe try for two depending on how good the pricing is.

If you have the money and want to get started on a sizeable Ork army right away it might be a good idea to get one of each of the Battleforce, Start Collecting and Trukk Boyz boxes. You would end up with the following:
1 Big Mek w/ Shokk Attack Gun
1 Painboy
5 Burnas*
8 Nobz**
25 Boyz*
2 Trukks
3 Warbikes
5 Lootas*
1 Deff Dread
1 Battlewagon
*This is assuming you'd use 5 Boyz so that you can use the bits from the Lootas/Burnas box to have both Lootas and Burnas
**These are both an Elites choice and sergeants for your Boyz mobs

After that I would scour eBay, Facebook groups and forums for people selling off AOBR Ork stuff for cheap. It's a good way to add a Warboss and a bunch of Boyz, and maybe some Nobz and Deffkoptas to your army.
ETA: And try to find a Weirdboy, but you might end up having to convert it from something else.

The above wouldn't be a complete army, but it would get you a head start on assembling and painting and then when the Codex drops you can add whatever units you need to finish your army.

Struggling to chose between greentide and lots of walkers. I like the idea of a bunch of killa kans and a gorkanaut supported by big meks with KFFs.

On the other hand the Green Tide also sounds enticing.

And on a third hand I like the idea of Blitza Bommas included somewhere.

 MrVulcanator wrote:
Struggling to chose between greentide and lots of walkers. I like the idea of a bunch of killa kans and a gorkanaut supported by big meks with KFFs.

On the other hand the Green Tide also sounds enticing.

And on a third hand I like the idea of Blitza Bommas included somewhere.

Many units you have mentioned are unfortunately currently overcosted. However, with Chapter Approved, there is the chance that these units will see point drops, or new rules to make them worth taking a lot more. As has been mentioned, the current way of playing Orks involves spamming ork boyz and stormboyz with some weirdboyz and a Warboss.

unless Chapter Approved drastically alters the price of most Ork units, your only competitive options are Boyz, Kommandos and Stormboyz, liberally sprinkled with Weirdboyz and the occasional back field Kannon to hold an objective.

SemperMortis wrote:
unless Chapter Approved drastically alters the price of most Ork units, your only competitive options are Boyz, Kommandos and Stormboyz, liberally sprinkled with Weirdboyz and the occasional back field Kannon to hold an objective.

I wasn't particularly fond of kannonz but I've tried them and they match perfectly in a green tide, especially in a fast one. For 270 points you'll get 50 wounds spread into 20 different units, which makes them quite durable. Their shooting is a joke but they let the army advance towards enemy. In any other built kannonz are not worthy though, IMHO their only purpose is to avoid getting tabled with making the list more durable and scoring a few points sitting on objectives in the orks deployed zone.