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I just don't get it. Is it because of their hilarious naming for stuff? The accents? The psychic resonance that makes their ludicrous stuff work? All of the above?

Why do you find Orks so cool?

Why do you like your favorite color or favorite food?

Because they're Orks.

/thread.

 CrownAxe wrote:
Why do you like your favorite color or favorite food?

Don't dodge the question! Orks are awesome. But why?

And there are numerous psychological reasons why people like certain colors.

It's the last consistent bit of humor left in 40k. There used to be army lists that told you in the codex that they were weak, they weren't going to win and they shouldn't be expected to perform well because of the sheer stupidity contained inside. Orks keep that tradition without the words. There's guns that fall off, vehicles that randomly zoom ahead instead of shoot and a few other crazy and stupid things left over.

The accent is funny, but as an American, it's not far from 90% of what the just natural British accents sound like to me. A little exaggerated, but not much.

The only thing I find cool about Orks is that I can take a broken old Vindicator, lost in the used bin and forgotten, then refurbish it with Plasticard and the upper sections of a Nobz sprue to make a Looted Wagon that can actually be scary again. It's a great way to bring life back into models that are 'beyond hope' and enjoy that side of the hobby more than just my Ultramarines could.

They are pretty random.

More importantly, they die in droves and likewise can dish out a lot of pain through virtue of quantity of attacks. It makes for a fun and bloody battle where both people enjoy a game.

orks are simple, their fluff is simple, their ambitions are simple, their rules are simple (ironically that doesn't make them simple to play since they need to be played smartly for competitive play), the ork is the perfect choice for a beginner gamer just learning the game (while maybe not the best choice for continued play in the meta), it appeals to a certain aspect of our lives...that you can be a lazy git and still have fun.

i guess what i mean is that orks are naturally lazy when they are not naturally violent, it makes them easy to understand and relate to...you dont have to look and talk like a human to have players relate to you.

orks "i believe" relate to the human characteristics of a gamer. they are lazy when it come to all of societies pressures and responsibilities, but when it comes to gaming they are wriled up into an energetic state; almost unstoppable in their pursuit of their hobby, they will unite with like minded individuals but at the same time easily burst into in-fighting.

this is my opinion on the matter, my tendencies to game are personified in the 40k race i play. i relate to my orks i adore, and i can easily create characters and stories for my own waaagh, since it is all that more easy to relate to these greenskin "gamers."

and also they are green.....green iz dah best!!!

Orks are just so crazy and full of character. Personally I love all their quirky technology because it ranges from "crude yet effective" weapons cobbled together to ingenius inventions like shokk attack gunz. There's so much variety in an ork army, there's something for everyone, so they're bound to appeal to a lot of players.

Orks are the only race with fun fluff since...4-th i guess. The 7-th codex was a letdown in terms of fluff though. GW routinely took out hilarious bits and replaced them with cold boring stuff like in codes: space marines. From the top of my head there's only one new fun part and like 5-6 old fun parts missing. Luckilly for us, there's still plenty of stuff left from the olden dayz where orks were made explictly out of hilariousness.

I think its partly to do with their child like nature. Theyre simple beasts who pretty much act like kids in many ways and most of us find childrens activities and sillyness very entertaining.
Unless we're old and grumpy.

In the fluff Orks are the crazy fun loving brutes who are usually as sharp as a spoon and live to fight (because its fun). Their technology is wacky and use backwards troll logic but it works because of Orks. Their vehicles are rolling/walking junk heaps, their guns are barely functional, and their tactics simplistic or outright insane but it works because they are Orks and the believe it works. They rival storm troopers in accuracy but compensate by liberal use of full auto and multiple gun barrels. If they see something that looks like fun to loot then they will go loot it, be it a Rhino, Hammerhead Tank, Monolith, Carnefex, etc.

On top of all that they take the fantasy trope of the "evil barbaric orcs" and turn it sideways with being a race that is motivated by their love of fighting and looting. They aren't the good guys or the bad. They just do whats fun and fighting anything (including other Orks) makes them happy. Add to that their funky spelling (like Kommando, Rokkit, Boyz, etc), cockney accents, crazy weapon design, and freedom to be extra creative (something that is often sorely lacking in the latest editions of 40k). They take being a brutish warrior race that fights all in their path and become the comic relief in this grim dark universe but aren't the butt of the joke (most of the time).

If you need further example of why Orks are awesome then go play Dawn of War 2: Retribution's Ork Campaign. If you don't find yourself at least smiling at some of their crazy antics then you need to go to the nearest Dok for a brain/squig transplant.

Kaptin Bluddflagg was absolutely brilliant.

Because they're fun, the pressure is off when you play with or against them, and you can enjoy the game.
Plus they have a few surprises which can catch people on the back foot. They can also be very effective, in the right hands, and it's nice to shake things up a bit in the sea of power armour.

Ratius wrote:I think its partly to do with their child like nature. Theyre simple beasts who pretty much act like kids in many ways and most of us find childrens activities and sillyness very entertaining.
Unless we're old and grumpy.

geargutz wrote:orks "i believe" relate to the human characteristics of a gamer. they are lazy when it come to all of societies pressures and responsibilities, but when it comes to gaming they are wriled up into an energetic state; almost unstoppable in their pursuit of their hobby, they will unite with like minded individuals but at the same time easily burst into in-fighting.

These two points sum it up perfectly in my opinion.

Dey aint az kool az dey uzda b.
Now its just waagh waagh, hammer dat bit, Waagh, waagh, get shot by everyone. Waaagh, waaagh, get beaten up by humies in hth, and Tau.......
Waagh, waagh, sniff.

the ancient wrote:
Dey aint az kool az dey uzda b.
Now its just waagh waagh, hammer dat bit, Waagh, waagh, get shot by everyone. Waaagh, waaagh, get beaten up by humies in hth, and Tau.......
Waagh, waagh, sniff.

Found da Grot .

Orks do not fight to win, they fight to fight. They wage war for war's own sake.

I don't have to win a game to have fun with my orks, the only time I get depressed while playing them is when my melee units never make it into combat....more specifically my walkers that I love, but if they made it into combat and I still lose the game I would be content.

Its like we took space pirates and made them green.

The Orks believe they are awesome. So they are awesome.

This question is like "why does red ones go faster?"

Orks are awesome because they have a very rare quality to them that's seemes to have gone missing in a lot of modern rules from GW: They are fun to play as AND play against.

They're an army that you're not going to fret over every lost model but you don't feel like they're there just for being there . They're cheap so you can like you can take a lot and not feel like you'r army will get obliterated in one shot, but they can actually get the job done on their own rather than just vehicles for other things. They have fun random elements that are optional and not shackled to it. They have lot of options for themed lists rather than slight variations on each other and don't need "totally unique" rules to do it ). You feel like you have momentum rather than just being zippy and annoying or slugush and unweildly, and while you have synergy options in the codex you're not chained to a keystone that'll detonate your entire army.

You have real options, and they feel good to use.

And when you're on the otherside of Orks, you feel like you can do something about it. There is exploitable weaknesses, rather than an army that hinges extremely on if you brought the one thing that counters them. You feel like you're doing something as you're killing orks, but they offer enough of a challenge that you don't feel like the other guy isn't having any fun. The wacky weapons are hilarious to see backfire, but you can also enjoy seeing them be pulled off right since the other player isn't stressed that one bad roll will ruin them.

Their mad max aesthetic is fun and gives those scrap builders a place to take anything and make something awesome with it. You're not forced to adhere to heraldry or squad markings you can play with painting, and the models evern bog standard have a lot of character (and it's easy to add more with some choice bits.

Their fluff is funny, sure, and there's no need for massive backstory crawl or get stuck in the quagmire of grimderp (grimdark done wrong), but there's something one might be able to enjoy about the orks as characters and that's there enthusiasm for what they do. Every other army is doing it for duty or daddy issues or lulz evil, but orks do what they do because they want to do it.

It's something they enjoy. And they never lose. If they win, they win, if they all die it don't count, and if they run away then they're just come back for another go.

And that's why Orks are awesome

1)
It's the best army if you like converting, because you can build about anything and use it.

2)
It's one of the few races that are not evil.
Orks just are.
Not that they are good, but they are honest.
No hypocrisy, no mindgames.

3)
It's arguably the only army that includes humor and fun.
Less now as in the old days of 1st edition, but hey, better then nothing...

Orks were my 1st army in 1990.
And i have Orks and Orc armies for all GW game systems and some non-GW game systems.

Nowadays i have many armies of most if not all races, but if i had to choose one, it would be orks. But i am also glad i don't have to choose... ;-)

I actually think Orks are at their worst right now game-wise, but the rest of them are so good that they pull everything along with them. Orks and Space Marines are the best parts of 40k because everything about them works so well together.


#1 - Orks are the Bad Guys you Love

Every story needs a protagonist and an antagonist. If Space Marines are 40k's protagonists, then the Orks are the antagonists. In games we often like to play as one or the other, because they both feel like they're part of something. But Orks are easy to love, despite being the bad guys. Even though Orks are a "faceless" villain (we tend to mentally group them as all being the same), they are really anything but! Some Orks look like they just want to shoot, others charge, others be tuff, and others dead 'ard. Some are putting fingers in their ears, while some want to make the loudest boom they can! Orks can inhabit almost any emotional state to a comical extreme. This makes them a villain that almost anyone can love. Yes they want to go to war with everyone and everything, and yes that's a bad thing, but you can't really blame them... these schlubs were literally born this way.

#2 - Orks are right at home in the game's randomness

40k is a game with a lot of randomness. So much randomness that you can start to rely on patterns within them. A 3+ rerollable shooting attack hits almost 90% of the time, meaning you know that most of your shots are going to land. You start to rely on this pattern to get you through things and to perform as expected, so you chastise their failures far more than you celebrate their successes. Orks are the polar opposite. You can't rely on them for anything! As such, when they are successful, you whoop and holler! No one remembers the time all three Heavy Bolter shots hit, but everyone remembers the time that this one Ork with a Big Shoota landed all three shots! This means that someone playing Orks is often less peeved and turned-off when things go wrong, and people are more likely to laugh when things go hilariously right.

#3 - Orks interact with their opponents

There's a Necron thread right now talking about how people still hate Resurrection Protocols. Many people are dancing around the OP-ness of it, but only few are discussing what actually makes it unfun. 40k is a game about player-interaction, yet the more successful lists are the ones that try to be the least interactive possible. The goal of a list is often to kill an opponent as quickly as possible, while being immune to being killed. If two units of rerollable 2+ Inv save forces meet, players roll dice at each other, but rarely does either actually get ahead. If no one can do anything in a game, then was a game even actually played? This is what makes non-interaction anti-fun. People want to see their actions rewarded, or see them punished. They want to see that both outcomes are possible. They do not want to see an outcome where either all of their actions are punished, or one where an opponent's actions are impossible to punish. The reward-system that the game has taught them to enjoy is dismantled, and frustration is the result.

Orks don't do this. Orks embrace the risk-reward system of 40k. All of an opponent's action against Orks are rewarded in some way. Sometimes you kill a bunch of Orks, sometimes just a few, but you always did SOMETHING to them. This feels great. You may lose your game against the Orks, but you'll feel like you did something, and that maybe if you do better you could win.

 Yarium wrote:

#3 - Orks interact with their opponents
Orks don't do this. Orks embrace the risk-reward system of 40k. All of an opponent's action against Orks are rewarded in some way. Sometimes you kill a bunch of Orks, sometimes just a few, but you always did SOMETHING to them. This feels great. You may lose your game against the Orks, but you'll feel like you did something, and that maybe if you do better you could win.

I think your whole post actually hits the nail on the head, in particular #3. And the section I quoted is especially important, but you didn't finish it. 40k in general has a huge problem where the only way to interact with a unit is to kill it (it really needs a better morale system including some suppression and/or command and control elements) and you're right that Orks allow interaction by offering up cheap kills in droves.

But they also offer up the antidote to unkillable, unfun opposing armies in two ways. First their usual modus operandi, weight of low quality attacks, means an Ork player is used to ineffectiveness and is less bothered by an opponent's unkillable deathstar. But it also means a swing of luck can drown that deathstar in weight of attacks, which is unexpected and definitely fun to see. You did address this a bit in point #2 but it applies to #3 as well.

Second though, the in-universe Ork philosophy innoculates the player against losses. If you play Orks, and you know your fluff, you know even the Orks themselves don't care if they win or lose. The fun is in the fight itself. It's a Zen philosophy that isn't represented by any other army in the game.

Everyone identifies with their army to some extent. Usually this falls short of actual roleplaying during games, but most players get into the mindset of their army when they play. All of the other races have real reasons to want or even worse, expect to win, and this competitive motivation often is picked up subconsciously by the player of said race (Space Marine players are often the worst examples of this in my experience). Orks alone are totally OK with getting face-rolled by an unbalanced opponent, and Ork players (I find) embody this Zen spirit more often than other players. So long as your Orks have had a good scrap, you're likely to be fine with the outcome of the game.

Thus, in an age where 40k is straining under the weight of excessive supplements and OP formations, and actually trying to win is often un-fun, Ork armies are both fun for the opponent to kill, AND more fun to command against an overwhelming enemy like a Necron Decurion.

I like da orks cuz dey is 'ard an' green, not soft an' pink like da 'ummies.

1- Conversions. I have two truks, one battlewagon, and three go carts. Of them, the truks are the closest to the box, though both have have conversions done to them. The battle wagon and traks are entirely converted to the point of being vaguely recognizable for what they originally were.

2- Fun to play and have a couple of devastating units. And sometimes the devastating units are absolutely unexpected - i.e. the shootboyz. Roll that many dice, watch terminators and battlesuits die.

While most players love Orks for the silliness, I feel the need to speak up on behalf of their unvarnished savagery.

If you want to play Orks as brutal barbarians, a remorseless green tide that annihilates anything slow or stupid enough to get in it's path, you can play them that way too.

Orks are as much a force of nature as a species. They go where the tides of the warp take them and crush whatever they find there. They are drawn to a scrap like sharks are drawn to blood. If what they find fights them to a standstill, so much the better... the word goes out, and more Orks pile onto Da Big Skrum.

Orks are unrelentingly pragmatic and optimistic. If Ork tek is haphazard and unreliable, it's just One Uv Dem Tings. Next time will be better. An Ork uses whatever he can lay his klaws on, whether it's Orky or some weedy 'Umie, Panzee, Tin'ead or Fish'ead fiddly bit. But give 'em time and the Meks will improve that alien bit, Orkifying it and probably copying ideas from it for the next generation gun/vehicle/whatever.

On the table there's a psychological effect when you plop down 150+ models and your opponent gasps in disbelief. Then there's further disbelief when you shrug nonchalantly as you sweep twenty Boyz off to the dead pile. After all that shooting you still have him outnumbered five to one, and half your Ladz haven't got stuck in yet.

Yet as other have noted, win or lose, your opponent can look at that dead pile when it's all over and feel like he accomplished something. That's why Orks are fun to play against.

My two cents.

Stuff like this




Orks are still just as fun, random, silly, ferocious and utterly ruthless no matter how you look at them, and its always a blast, my next army I think will be to krump me some 'ummies using those fancy new specials

Orks appeal to a lot of different people for a lot of different reasons. To some they are the universe's underdog. They have one of the weakest codices every edition. They don't get the cool stuff other dex's get. They don't have a single unit that is a must take in every battle like a lot of other dexs.

They are universally hilarious. Random acts of violence, savagery and randomness. I had a SAG create a vortex and kill a Wraith Knight on turn 1 and on turn 2 that same Big Mek with a SAG teleported himself into base to base contact with a Eldar Warlord who killed him in 1 turn of combat

I personally have 6 Killa Kanz, 2 Deff Dreadz and a Morkanaut that I know for a fact are all garbage. They will never win me a game in this edition because of how weak those units are, but I can't wait to field them every time I can because they just look fething amazing.

 CrownAxe wrote:
Why do you like your favorite color or favorite food?

-Jaden Smith 2.0

 sing your life wrote:
Because they're Orks.

/thread.

We've done it again, fellow dakkanauts. We saved the world.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Seriously though, to me, Orks are about feel, and especially gamefeel. You know what Orks are, what they want and why they care, and their armies reflect that fact - Have you ever fought a fully kitted out Warboss? It's not something you think about a lot, but that S 5/T 5 makes a hell of a difference, and makes them feel truly huge and blocky.

It's with that in the entire army. A mob of Boyz is an eratic, kinda weird unit that doesn't seem like it can stand up to Marines and such. But then you get them where they want to be (hint: it's a place where they can break bones in a vicious fashion), and suddenly they are neigh unstoppable. The army is all like that, even with its shooting. My Lootas have succesfully killed all kinds of Imperials, and you even have to roll for just how effective they are. It's just fun and satisfying.

It helps that the Ork faction is almost free of bs. All other armies have oh so precious models who lil' Timmy Ultramarine will cry over if they die to a stray shot. Orks, though? Arh, that's just jolly. It's war, it's what happens, and it's fun for all. Other races have all kinds of unique and fantastic stuff to make them cooler, but Orks don't. Eldar has the Striking Scorpions, who has an oh so special Chainsword, with a bulky-but-still-stealthy-for-some-reason 3+ armour save, the oh so cool shooty-on-the-sides-of-their-facey pewpew stuff, and of course, who can forget, that they have ALL the cover before they actually do attack. The Ork equivelant? Has Stealth. And that's it. Even their Nobz are bare bones. It get's better: Skriking Scorpions are so sneaky, they kill everything, and they are so super cool and has to train for centuries and they are all oooooh so cool. Ork Kommandoes? Eh, it's just an Ork who decided to hide before they charge their opponnent. What's even more fun is that there are loads of stories of Ork Kommandoes completely outsmarting their opponnents, stealing Vortex Missiles, taking imprenetable forts and just generally having a laugh about it.

Orks don't need babysitting, basically. We don't need some über fluff to back us up or over-the-top crunch to keep our title as the coolest kids in the class. We just are. We're like those kids who don't get no respect from nobody growing up, but in the end, as it turns out, they are the ones who has the most drive to actually go do stuff instead of waiting for someone to pamper them up. That's what makes Orks awesome. Orks are the only self-made fungi of the 40k setting.

 The Wise Dane wrote:

 sing your life wrote:
Because they're Orks.

/thread.

We've done it again, fellow dakkanauts. We saved the world.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Seriously though, to me, Orks are about feel, and especially gamefeel. You know what Orks are, what they want and why they care, and their armies reflect that fact - Have you ever fought a fully kitted out Warboss? It's not something you think about a lot, but that S 5/T 5 makes a hell of a difference, and makes them feel truly huge and blocky.

It's with that in the entire army. A mob of Boyz is an eratic, kinda weird unit that doesn't seem like it can stand up to Marines and such. But then you get them where they want to be (hint: it's a place where they can break bones in a vicious fashion), and suddenly they are neigh unstoppable. The army is all like that, even with its shooting. My Lootas have succesfully killed all kinds of Imperials, and you even have to roll for just how effective they are. It's just fun and satisfying.

It helps that the Ork faction is almost free of bs. All other armies have oh so precious models who lil' Timmy Ultramarine will cry over if they die to a stray shot. Orks, though? Arh, that's just jolly. It's war, it's what happens, and it's fun for all. Other races have all kinds of unique and fantastic stuff to make them cooler, but Orks don't. Eldar has the Striking Scorpions, who has an oh so special Chainsword, with a bulky-but-still-stealthy-for-some-reason 3+ armour save, the oh so cool shooty-on-the-sides-of-their-facey pewpew stuff, and of course, who can forget, that they have ALL the cover before they actually do attack. The Ork equivelant? Has Stealth. And that's it. Even their Nobz are bare bones. It get's better: Skriking Scorpions are so sneaky, they kill everything, and they are so super cool and has to train for centuries and they are all oooooh so cool. Ork Kommandoes? Eh, it's just an Ork who decided to hide before they charge their opponnent. What's even more fun is that there are loads of stories of Ork Kommandoes completely outsmarting their opponnents, stealing Vortex Missiles, taking imprenetable forts and just generally having a laugh about it.

Orks don't need babysitting, basically. We don't need some über fluff to back us up or over-the-top crunch to keep our title as the coolest kids in the class. We just are. We're like those kids who don't get no respect from nobody growing up, but in the end, as it turns out, they are the ones who has the most drive to actually go do stuff instead of waiting for someone to pamper them up. That's what makes Orks awesome. Orks are the only self-made fungi of the 40k setting.

This is perfect.