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Made in us
Krazed Killa Kan






I have a kind of odd lore question, but one that comes up as a recurring theme when an orc WAAAGH shows up.

The best example is of course a dang book named The Beheading in The Beast Arises series, but another good example was the literal beheading of Ghazghkull Thrakka by SuperWolf. Similarly in the original Ullanor campaign where Horus beheaded the bigboi warboss.

There are numerous other examples in the fiction where taking out the warboss is pretty much described as instantly defeating a WAAAGH, so much so that I get the impression that killing a warboss is supposed to cause such a demoralizing effect that the whole dang WAAAGH falls to bits as soon as da big'un hits the deck.

The question is, why?

Apart from this showing up in the fiction as a recurring plot device, there's nothing in the background that suggests exactly why this happens.

Instead, the cultural background seems pretty obvious. Whoever beats the biggest boss is the new boss. So by ork logic, when the big guy goes down, it should be pretty easy to figure out the pecking order - the next biggest guy is the new boss.

I can understand why this would cause short-term instability as da orks try to figure out who's da toughest now, but after that period of instability and infighting is resolved, it should be a pretty easy process to pick up the pieces with a new boss crackin' 'eads until he's da new boss.

I feel like this is just being used as a plot device to justify the galactic nature of the threat of a unified orkish WAAAGH while giving the humies a convenient way to get out of an otherwise implacable jam (e.g. The Beast Arises).

Otherwise, why wouldn't it also be depicted in the background and the rules? They could just as easily make an Ork army fall to bits as soon as da boss gets pasted, but this ain't the case. It strikes me as kinda lazy and incongruent writing so that the Good Guys can always win in the end. Even if the alluded to megaWAAAGH ever does materialize (say, with Ghaz), he's just gonna have a hundred drop pods launched at his head and get "beheaded" for realsies, when it counts. And if so, what's the threat? Vindicares exist. It should be easy for the Imperium to go on a warboss hunt periodically and pop a few warbands before they get going.

It really makes orks seem kinda like pushovers with an easy win condition in the fiction. Just kinda bugs me.

Fang, son of Great Fang, the traitor we seek, The laws of the brethren say this: That only the king sees the crown of the gods, And he, the usurper, must die.
Mother earth is pregnant for the third time, for y'all have knocked her up. I have tasted the maggots in the mind of the universe, but I was not offended. For I knew I had to rise above it all, or drown in my own gak. 
   
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Preparing the Invasion of Terra






The background has been the same for decades. Orks live to fight and that fight starts with other Orks. A Waaaagghh!! is made up of many Ork warbands under many different Bosses, Meks, Weirdboyz, Speedbosses, and so on. Each Warband wants to fight the other Warbands and only under the command of a Big Boss do they actually fight anyone else. The Big Boss acts as a focus for the fighting and it's they that choose where the Waaaagghh!! goes and who it crumps.
When the Big Boss gets crumped in turn, the other Bosses fight amongst themselves to see who gets to take over. It's like feudal Lords under a King when the King dies.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2022/08/09 12:59:29


 
   
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Junior Officer with Laspistol





The Shire(s)

My understanding for why this is the case is that Orks are naturally fractious. So any Ork Waaaagh! is actually a coalition of competing warbands with their own warbosses, who will all be of fairly similar power to each other. This grouping of different tribes is only kept together by the overlord warboss controlling the lot, knocking any dissidents into line. In particularly large Waaaaghs, there may be several layers of warboss between the overall leader and an individual warband.

Also, it isn't a super strict thing re. size- a big ork doesn't just suddenly bow down to another cos they are 1mm taller- they need to fight for it. Size is a reasonable proxy for combat ability, but ultimately Orks frequently challenge larger Orks when they reckon they can win and pinch the top job. A good example of this is how Orks can recognise small-but-tough enemies as being strong and worthy opponents, even if they are not physically bigger.

Orks naturally fight, but they don't naturally coordinate against a common foe. When the bigboss is killed, all those disparate warbands that were previously one Waaaagh! are now all individual combat formations, and they will fight each other for dominance as much as their original foes. Eventually, a new overlord will arise, but this provides a window of opportunity whilst the Orks are conducting a civil war to isolate and destroy warbands when they are unsupported.

The Orks in the actual battle where the boss was decapitated may continue fighting anyway- they are already engaged and like a good scrap. However, there are examples in the background of retreats following the defeat of the warboss- such as Yarrick's triumph over Ugulhard in the Second War for Armageddon. Orks love to fight, but they don't fight mindlessly and don't press attacks continuously until they win or die- there are still lulls to regroup and rearm and Orks do fall back when things are not working. When they see that their strongest fighter has just been carved up by an even stronger enemy, they may see this as a good time to save their hide, retreat, and try again later with a new boss.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2022/08/09 12:59:46


 ChargerIIC wrote:
If algae farm paste with a little bit of your grandfather in it isn't Grimdark I don't know what is.
 
   
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The important thing to remember.

An Ork will continue to grow in muscle and stature until they’re slapped down. And so a Warboss is usually the biggest around by a decent margin.

Once they’ve fallen, it falls to squabbling over who’s the next biggest. Which results in fisticuffs. And Orks being Orks, when the Bosses are scrapping, everyone is scrapping.

That Skarboy over there? Maybe he’s had enough of being bossed around, so the ongoing anarchy is the ideal time to try to supplant the Nob. One way or another, some of the biggest and meanest Orks in the warband are gonna get perished.

Then add in the Warboss is all too often accompanied by his Best Ladz. The biggest and meanest Nobs, Mekz and assorted other hangers on.

Pretty much any such assault that takes out the Warboss is going to, de facto, gut the rest of the Waaagh!’s best and, erm, brightest.

Then you need to understand a Waaaagh! by definition is not a single clan, but a conglomeration, all strong armed by the now fallen Warboss. Each will have their own command structure, no longer beholden to a clear Boss. And so those Bosses will have to sort it out, usually right there and then. Which is pretty bad news for overall army cohesion in the middle of a battle.

It basically turns into one giant punch up. Absolute anarchy whilst the new pecking order is worked out with typical Orky brutality. And that’s by no means quick. Because all the time the Orks are scrapping it out, the enemy not only has breathing space to regroup, but to strike at any knot of Greenskins starting to look organised. Because somewhere in that knot will be a potential Overall Successor. Rinse and repeat, and you can keep the Waaagh! fracturing down into ever smaller bite sized chunks.

Even if the core of the command structure isn’t removed? There’s still a new Boss trying to give orders….and more than a few underlings, having not personally seen the fight for succession, may simply refuse to follow the new Boss, until they’ve properly justified it in the Orky fashion.

   
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Lots of great points, everyone.

TedNugent wrote:
I can understand why this would cause short-term instability as da orks try to figure out who's da toughest now, but after that period of instability and infighting is resolved, it should be a pretty easy process to pick up the pieces with a new boss crackin' 'eads until he's da new boss.

I think it's this short-term instability that the non-orks are going for. If you're dealing with the orks on a planetary level, killing the warboss might mean that orks lose a lot of their coordination in important theatres of battle. Suddenly, groups of orks aren't being shoved into useful positions by an overarching leader; they're just following their whims (or those of the nearest mini-boss). Those deff dreadz a mek has been cooking up don't know where the best fights are, so they just go towards the nearest decent fight instead. Or worse, that mek realizes he's got a bunch of deff dreadz, and there's a job opening available for the toughest lad around. So Those deff dreadz start scrapping with other orks instead of with the humies.

Imagine you're playing Risk or some other war board game, and your opponenthas to skip 3 turns and some of his pieces randomly kill each other during those turns.

It's not so much that killing a boss results in an instant win; it's more that it results in the enemy forces becoming disorganized and self-destructive for a while. Possibly depending on how spread out the orks are. Sure, you'll still lose guardsmen if you advance on a position, but now that position might be less well-guarded with fewer reinforcements inbound and some enemies even being engaged by their own reinforcements. Killing a warboss creates a sudden, brief civil war.

I feel like this is just being used as a plot device to justify the galactic nature of the threat of a unified orkish WAAAGH while giving the humies a convenient way to get out of an otherwise implacable jam (e.g. The Beast Arises).

I mean, yes. The setting is designed such that everyone can keep fighting each other indefinitely. If one faction had the means and motive to steamroll everyone else, the grim dark future would look very different.

Otherwise, why wouldn't it also be depicted in the background and the rules?

Haighus wrote:The Orks in the actual battle where the boss was decapitated may continue fighting anyway- they are already engaged and like a good scrap.

As Haighus says, the orks on the battlefield might not be all that impacted by the boss's death. They came for a fight, and they have one. The effects of losing a boss are on more of a macro level whereas games of 40k are more "zoomed in." Sure, the orks on the table will finish the current fight, but afterwards, who gets to decide where the ladz go? Over the course of days or weeks, the imperials will see assaults that had been building up suddenly dissolve or fall into infighting. Instead of facing one big enemy force, they're facing dozens of smaller ones that are also fighting one another.

It really makes orks seem kinda like pushovers with an easy win condition in the fiction. Just kinda bugs me.

Eh. Kind of. But it's not a unique thing. Chaos warbands tend to fall apart when the "hero" stabs the daemon prince. Drukhari raiding forces seem to break and run once you scare/kill their "main" leader enough. Tau used to literally have a rule that make their whole army prone to running away if you killed an ethereal. 'Crons have (had) Phase Out. Eldar just... kind of lose. Even when they win. Because woe are they. Meanwhile, killing an imperial leader tends to just make their replacement extra determined and thus extra badass.


ATTENTION
. Psychic tests are unfluffy. Your longing for AV is understandable but misguided. Your chapter doesn't need a separate codex. Doctrines should go away. Being a "troop" means nothing. This has been a cranky service announcement. You may now resume your regularly scheduled arguing.
 
   
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U.k

On top of what everyone else says, a Waaargh isn’t the normal state for ORKS, it onl6 occurs in specific circumstances and requires momentum to continue. If it falters it will lose momentum and the ORKS will start getting fractious and fighting one and other. Killing the boss will cause it turn on itself and lose that momentum and cohesion.

Knocking out the warlord doesn’t always work, Sometimes there’s a natural successor and the transition isn’t troublesome. But it often works. It works best if you do it before a waargh really gathers momentum, nip it in the bud early doors. That way you don’t end up with ORKS all over your sector Even if you do stop it.
   
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Decrepit Dakkanaut




UK

Another thing to consider is that even though Orks are somewhat haphazard, a huge Waaagh still has more than just the big boss at the top. He's got his top leaders and smart gitz and wireboys and all with him. Those who help both run the Waargh and coordinate it so that it functions as a single (as much as possible) entity.

There's a chain of command beyond the big boss. Often as not when the big boss falls he will go down either after or alongside some of the rest of the top orks alongside him. Either because the enemy has been building up to killing the big boss by taking out lesser leaders or because the attack to take out the big boss also hit the others as well as they were nearby.


So its not just that they lose one boss, they are losing part of a chain of command at the very top. Slicing off the head of the Hydra and spawning a dozen or more smaller ones who all start squabbling.





The other thing to consider is that Orks are very much shown as impulsive and in the moment at large. Those who think ahead, who do long term planning are often fewer and rarer. So when the big boss falls the results are very quick to spread through the waaagh because of that impulsive nature. For some to run away because there's an enemy bigger than even the big boss who they all feared; for others its the sudden chance to advance up the ranks. Even if they aren't gunning for the boss's position, there are lesser positions to grab if they are cunning, tough and smart during the resulting confusion.









Also lets not forget if you kill the big boss you've still got a LOT of orks to deal with. You can still lose or lose the planet at least because your own forces are so depleted that you can't maximise on the victory; or the world is so smashed up its not worth holding onto. So sometimes you might stop the waagh in its tracks, but the orks will remain where they reached in terms of conquered territory

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There’s also the heartfelt adage Orks Never Lose.

If the Warboss falls, Orks see nothing wrong in withdrawing to sort it out. The enemy will still be there. And even better, the internal conflict is gonna be fun. Even betterer? Only the very strongest are going to survive, and you yourself might get a chance to climb the pecking order.

And hey, your Boss becomes Warboss? Then you get perks and privileges of being his uvver hand. So you’ll get involved in the scrap too, to show its not just the Boss wots in charge.

It’s all perfectly natural, perfectly orderly and completely right to the Orky psyche.

Also also, just because a New Boss emerges, doesn’t mean the new pecking order is then set. There’s still time to mercilessly bludgeon your way up the ranks. And until the Waaagh! itself is back underway? There’s still rivals to duff over and nick the teef from. Even more so if its dat Git wot thought ‘e wuz all high and mighty but got duffed up and ain’t in Da Bosses favour anymore….he has it comin’ too.

   
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U.k

And on it being an easy get out for the imperium, killing the head of a waargh is no easy task. He won’t necessarily be at the head of the fighting, he will be surrounded by the nastiest ORKS around and he will be bloody nails. It also won’t be sign posted who the head is, they don’t have a set command structure, it will take a ton of intelligence gathering and luck to find him, and be in any position to kill him.
   
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Which also varies Warboss to Warboss.

Ghaz is notoriously unpredictable by Orky Standards, as he has an actual understanding of tactics and strategy well beyond the rest of his species.

Finding a Warboss at the centre of the fighting isn’t unusual, but as you say not a given. But even taking out whomever is in charge in a given scrap or theatre still has some of the same result - but with the Warboss or Warlord still being kicking, your window of disorganisation is going to be smaller, as the central command can still parachute in a crony to take over.

   
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UK

Plus it could even back-fire. A cunning Warboss might only commit such forces to the fight as they need to win and hold back other segments in reserve. Even more so if they are after a good scrap so they are balancing the need of the waagh to fight with the need to win.

Lose the war boss and suddenly all the orks might want to pile on in at once. You go from engagements where you can hold out to a sudden massive tide of uncontrolled orks. Where the lack of an overarching plan of attack might make them highly unpredictable; actually harder to counter and where, whilst it might burn out on its own, it might sweep over multiple defensive lines.


Even if you calculate that in as part of the losses its further proof that killing the warboss doesn't nullify the threat.



Heck Tyranids are the same, knock out the synapse and whilst you've knocked out the head, you've still got the vast bulk of a writhing body to contend with.

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U.k

Also, with a big waargh, say you do “behead” it, you now have millions of ORKS no longer going in one direction being a massive threat, you have them dispersing across the entire region being a menace for generations to come. So, did you really win at all???
   
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Andykp wrote:
Also, with a big waargh, say you do “behead” it, you now have millions of ORKS no longer going in one direction being a massive threat, you have them dispersing across the entire region being a menace for generations to come. So, did you really win at all???


Well, given the inevitable in-fighting and lack of focus post-Waaagh, it may not be as instantly bad as we think. As I mentioned earlier, it’s not just sorting out who’s the new Warboss, it’s a free-for-all in terms of the pecking order. Pretty much anyone who’s anyone and thinks they’re ‘ard enuff is going to stick the boot in. Which in turns leads to more powerful leaders getting perished at the hands of other Orks. If a given Nob is killed during the politics? Their Mob/Household will be in need of a New Nob. Which will involve them either scrapping it out to find out who’s the Biggest, or being preyed upon by the Mobs/Households of surviving Nobs.

However, there is the constant risk that striking against their now disparate forces and warbands may prove the very thing to galvanise them back into another Waaagh!

   
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UK

I guess it depends if the Waaagh implodes into infighting or explodes into every clan grabbing as much of the fighting and looting that they can against their non-ork opponents.

There's also the risk that infighting doesn't actually take down the ork numbers very quickly, but does result in them getting stronger. Akin to when the Imperium threw a hive fleet toward a bunch of orks and now both hive and orks are actually stronger for the fighting

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The collapse remains inevitable, because of how it’s sorted out. You might win the title, but get seven shades of not-Green kicked out of you, opening you up to further challenge.

   
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United Kingdom

I'd say it's less of a "the army falls apart" and more "the army slams on the brakes while they find a new boss".

The orks immediately in the right will likely carry on, but as the others realise the boss is dead there's going to be infighting while they sort out who the new boss is. Then they come back and pick up the fight where they left off.
   
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Inside Yvraine

It's not like the ork's enemies just fall back and pick their noses while the orks figure out a new leader. During that "brief period of instability" the Ork's enemies press their advantage and mop them up. One bad engagement can cost an army the entire war, so imagine what losing all cohesion for like 48 hours would look like against something like Space Marines.
   
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Dorset, England

I dont think it is just a convienient plot device as it is consistent with how Ork society is organised and is a well established weakness of the species.
It also doesnt end the threat of a great pile of orks on your planet, but is certainly a good start. We have some examples like the Red Waaagh of serious organised fighting continuing after the death of the Warboss
.
However, I can understand you feel it is an overused trope in Ork stories, it does come up a lot!
   
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U.k

It is used, especially in short snippet stories, as an easy end to the story. But all those planets will have ORKS on for generations to come.
   
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Also, to add to the above, warbosses tend to eliminate any obvious #2 to both not get backstabbed and to entertain the tribe (while reminding them why boss is the boss). So, you usually have a mob of strong nobz under him but no obvious contenders to the title making power transfer issue even worse. Then there is the fact the winner is best at fighting, not leading, and even if said ork is kunnin' enough to lead they have zero experience at the job, compounding the negative issues and making the impact even worse.
 Overread wrote:
There's a chain of command beyond the big boss. Often as not when the big boss falls he will go down either after or alongside some of the rest of the top orks alongside him. Either because the enemy has been building up to killing the big boss by taking out lesser leaders or because the attack to take out the big boss also hit the others as well as they were nearby.

Or they eliminate each other. There is a funny scene in Ciaphas Cain books where Cain challenges warboss by a mistake, and while they duel, 'boss entourage gathers around to watch the fight (with no one helping the boss because as Amberley notes, help would suggest the offender thinks boss is too weak to win on his own which is the biggest possible insult to a warboss an underling can make). When Cain eliminates the warboss with a lucky strike and runs the nobz want to go after him but once one of them shouts command to pursue it dawns on the others they had just been ordered by someone of equal status and the whole thing instantly disintegrates into a melee with everyone trying to become new boss at once. It doesn't end well
   
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It’s that part where Marines and other shock troops really come into their own.

Not only taking out the Warboss, but removing any likely contenders at the same time. The more carnage you can weak taking out the Warboss, the greater the impact on the Waaagh! as a whole.

And I’ve said in posts above? That’s an even which shakes up the entire established social order of the Waaagh! Even if the transition of power is relatively smooth, the other warbands won’t have been personally beaten up by the new Warboss, so don’t owe any inherent loyalty to the new one.

All the Nobz that got perished in the same battle? Their Mobs and/or Warbands will need a new leader to emerge. And there’s only one way that happens, FIIIIIGGGHHHHTTTTT!

I’d need to double check, but whilst most Orky settlements will have a fighting pit for exactly that reason, the fighting pit method also serves as entertainment, and the best way to get the new Warboss accepted en masse. Which is great, if they get the chance for that level of organisation. Because without it, the new Warboss has a lot of proving himself to do. And depending on how close run their ascension was? They might’ve been weakened enough to be beaten. Which means there’s another new Warboss. And so on and so forth.

Because whilst killing the Warboss whilst he’s sleeping or in The Drops is neither Brutal nor Kunnin’? Taking advantage of his weakened state with a well timed challenge is acceptably Kunnin’

   
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Very informative thread.

I wonder if Orks in 40K do indeed have "free will" to act beyond their bioweapon nature (or at least act with some level of oportunistic flexibility).

Even humans in the setting really lack much free will (due to chaos corruption). But I suppose Orks stand somewhere betwern humies and tiranids.

If warboss know their role is so vital for the waagh success, do they take countermeasures to minimize the risk of dying... Or this "unorkish"???

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2022/08/12 10:01:00


 
   
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Orks mainly act on instinct.

A Warboss not getting stuck in with the lads isn’t exactly unheard of, but they’re still hardwired to seek out a fight.

What you may find is they’ll only really take the field when there’s a “proper fight” to be had, such as duffing up the enemy commander to prove He’s The Best. To let another Ork get that kill can lead to a challenge, and potentially being supplanted, which inevitably means death over simply demotion.

In a way, this keeps the Ork race focussed. Each and every member absolutely accepts and endorses that Might Makes Right, so only the biggest and strongest can be Boss. And provided the current Boss leads everyone to Good Fights, they Boyz are equal parts entertained and distracted enough to Not Get Any Ideas.

Now, the gathering of a given Waaagh! starts off fairly small. A Boss rises to Warboss be beating up/killing rival Bosses, absorbing their forces into his own.

Initially, that title can change hands fairly rapidly. This is because the more an Ork fights and survives, the bigger and stronger they become (to the points there theoretically no limit on that gain). But, if you’re stuck on a given planet, the other rival Bosses are likely much of a muchness. But, the domination stage ensures the resultant Warboss has had the best fights, and so will be the Biggest And Strongest on that planet.

From there, the growing Waaagh! will encounter other warbands similarly united. This of course means another fight to decide which of those Bosses is going to be in charge. And so the winner gets even bigger and stronger (as will his immediate entourage and cronies, who absolutely set about rivals with a Choppa, because fighting is fun).

So by the time a Waaagh! is of significant size? The Warboss is pretty bloody big and mean, to the point forces being absorbed into his leadership may simply do so willingly, because He’s Clearly Bigger And Stronger than me, and he knows where the best fights are.

And so when a Warboss falls the Waaagh! will fall apart quite rapidly, because the underling Bosses are back to being Much of a Muchness. And the race for succession isn’t an orderly queue - it’s an absolute free-for-all of jostling and killing for position. And again, because everyone enjoys a good fight, the Orks will inflict horrendous casualties on themselves in the process. Boyz slaughtering each other en-masse, and some pretty strong Nobz and Bosses getting perished along the way. This can tear the heart out of their military strength, especially if their space fleet includes Freebooterz, who may simply realise they’re less likely/not going to get paid, and just….leave (but before nicking everything that isn’t nailed down, everything that was nailed down, and then the nails too)

So whilst it doesn’t exactly lead to Total Collapse, it’s still an even of quite significant disruption, and one the enemy can absolutely exploit to ensure the disruption does turn to total collapse.

   
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Vatsetis wrote:
If warboss know their role is so vital for the waagh success, do they take countermeasures to minimize the risk of dying... Or this "unorkish"???

Well, it's kinda seen as cowardly and a lot of warbosses are too dumb to do this, but at the end of the day, boss is the boss and he does what he wants.

Famously, Gorgutz from DoW series always had escape rocket or some other means of evacuation in the last ork mission in any game he was in which led to several funny scenes of him abandoning ship (unlike other faction leaders who just tend to die) once things went poorly:


   
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UK

Warboss's by their nature, are normally not just bigger but also generally smart. They've got to have cunning as well as muscle.

Being sneaky is also generally considered a top skill with orks. So having escape paths and such is very sensible. Orks want a good fight, but they also want to win. If they are going to lose then retreating to get stronger and come back another day is a perfectly valid orky strategy.

Orks basically want a close fight that they win. Anything else isn't orky. Fights that they win to easily are nice for loot, but they will get bored; fights that are too hard that they keep losing aren't any fun and make the waaagh weaker so it can't take on even bigger enemies.



So a Warboss has to not just know where there's a good powerful thing to fight, but one that they can likely win at.



This includes a warboss protecting themselves from other orks. Perhaps sending some of their strongest rivals to a harder fight that they might lose (which has the risk that they win and come back stronger); or challenging them in open combat before they get too powerful


I think the key with orks is to realise that, as a race, they are smart and resourceful. They are just very brutish and blunt in attitude and habits. It's almost like a smokescreen and any commander that just assumes orks are stupid is likely to wind up losing

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U.k

One problem is that since second edition ended ORKS have been often written as the brutish NPC faction with little character. This is changing with recent ORK based books but the stereotype still persists. Orks are as complex and individualistic as humans, they just have very different priorities.
   
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UK

I'd honestly say most 40K races have the same issue because of the way lore was almost all dominated by Imperial stories, Imperial viewpoints and Imperial characters. Considering how old Orks, Eldar and such are, the amount of actual printed lore they have is much more reduced (esp from Black Library). It is changing and with that change comes a greater depth and understanding.


I'd say 40K orks are in a good position though. AoS and Old World orks were much much more under-developed. Heck right now AoS orks (orruks) are basically copy-catting 40K ork elements perfectly.
Which is neither bad nor good but does show that they kind of floundered there as the npc big bad faction for far too long.

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Ridin' on a Snotling Pump Wagon






There’s also the fact that our perspective as the audience tends to be focussed toward Notorious Waaagh!s, their leaders and established Orky Empires.

When you’ve a Waaagh! akin to Ghaz, there are relatively few situations where Throw Enough Boyz At It isn’t a valid, if not necessarily efficient, solution. Indeed his cunning is having different ways to get his Boyz places (Rokks, Tellyporta) etc, and to smash face enough that his plans are followed to the letter.

As to their psychology? Orks are, for all intents and purposes, a utopian society. Nobody is purposefully left behind or, by their standards, unfairly kept down. Even the victims (Grots) find their own ways to climb the social ladder.

In a sense, it’s a true Meritrocracy, that only works because every single member of said Meritocracy fully accepts that Might is Merit.

You might be a Lowly Boy right now. But there absolutely is path to greater standing. And that’s fightin’ and win in’. The more you fight and win, the bigger and stronger you get. If you get big enough, there’s precisely nothing stopping you from clobbering your immediate superior and taking their position from them. Even if you fail in that attempt, provided you survive, you still gain and can give it another try later.

And as the original Waaaargh! The Orks so ably explains, they’ve even got a pretty egalitarian economic system, because they use Teef. Every Ork has Teef, and they grow new ones throughout their life, so even abject poverty is never permanent. Should you not have enough Teef at a given point? It’s perfectly acceptable in Ork society to just go and beat someone up and steal their Teef right out their gob. Indeed, you can nick pretty much anything, if you’re ‘ard enough.

   
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Decrepit Dakkanaut




UK

Indeed. Orks are perhaps the only race in the entire setting who are truly happy.

Tyranids might not understand the concept of happy, but they have to fight for every meal which isn't ideal.

Necrons are grumpy that there are upstarts all over the lawn

Eldar are highly depressed after they birthed a chaos god

Chaos is a huge mix. You could argue Demons are rather happy since they've got perpetual war right now. Mortals might not be so happy as they are never allowed any freedom

Tau are slowly discovering that the Galaxy is rather scary!

Imperium is a total mess. Some worlds pure paradise others hellish. Though in general their society is highly restrictive. If you've got money and influence you can live for generations and be on top and awesome; but the vast majority are little more than treated like machines. Used to breed and manufacture and process paperwork.

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Preparing the Invasion of Terra






Everyone in the embrace of Papa Nurgle is pretty happy most of the time. They might get a bit angry or sad at some points but in the end, they always go back to happiness.
Except for Ku'gath. He's a miserable one he is.
   
 
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