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So apart from the obvious problem that it would be ludicrously expensive to buy this many boxes
What is the downside of replacing all your ork boyz with nobz

I'm obviously not planning to do this, but my friend who doesn't play asked my why you would even bother with boyz and I could only really say it's expensive

...because boyz are much better?

nobz have a lower unit cap, lower damage per point, don't get the bonus attack for having more of them, vulnerable to multi damage weaponry, expensive upgrades, aren't troop choices so don't give you more CPs and Obsec, and you can only teleport one unit per turn so it might as well be a max sized boyz mob.

Ok so all stuff that's not in the simplified 40k starter set I have
I expected that

Boyz are better in game and a straight proxy could be confusing, and expensive as then you would need to convert all your characters and Nobz to be bigger.

Warboss Grimdakka wrote:
So apart from the obvious problem that it would be ludicrously expensive to buy this many boxes
What is the downside of replacing all your ork boyz with nobz

I'm obviously not planning to do this, but my friend who doesn't play asked my why you would even bother with boyz and I could only really say it's expensive

Do you have the Xenos Index 2 yet? Nobs have their place (arguably), but they don't really fulfill the exact same roll as boyz.

Apart from boyz being the most viable choice you absolutely could run a nob army. You dont have to run the “best“ choices. I for example run my guard army exclusively with veterans and command squads because it fits my fluff and style of play to run a small elite army.
Its not the best but very playable.

An all nob army is definitely viable. The only downside is that it plays much like a boy horde army which is straight up better against anything not T8.

The key to running nobz efficiently is to buy litte to no wargear. Run them cheap, plentiful and with runts for ablative wounds. With nobz the painboy becomes better end the Kustom Forcefield becomes worse.

Currently nobz are like 10% behind boyz, pretty much taking the role that 'ard boyz had in previous codices.

A unit of 30 boyz with a nob is 31 6+ wounds for 180 points.
A unit of 9 nobz with ammo runts is 27 wounds for 179 - the nobz have 4+ armor and the gretchin have 6+. Once the ammo runt are gone nobz are going to die fast to anti-tank, but the first nine lascannons are killing 4 point gretchin, so the vulnerability to multi-damage weapons does exists, but isn't as bad as most people say. In general they are just as likely to reach combat as a boyz mob.

Most upgrades for nobz are currently traps, including almost all shooting options besides the free shoota and maybe the kombi-skorcha if you keep them to one or two.

However, the big choppa, powa stabba and ammo runt upgrades are very much worth it. Keep in mind that you will most likely lose a nob or two before reaching combat, so don't waste your point on them, the ammo runt and a free shoota is enough for the sacrificial nobz.

The downsides are pretty much what the_scotsman listed:
- Less models means less moral. If you mix boyz and and nobz this downside goes away.
- Even when buying kustom shootas and rerolling everything you can with ammo runts, shoota boyz will always outshoot nobz, as the simply get more shots.
- In combat boyz are better at killing hordes, nobz are better at killing elite units. Basically quantity vs quality.
- Nobz aren't troops, so you get less CP and no objective secured once that matters outside of tournaments

In my opinion, mixing boyz and nobz is the way to go, in my last game I had 2 units of nobz and three units of boyz. I still had my 3 CP (4 even due to the nobz, a weird boy and a banner nob forming a vanguard detachment), could jump huge squads and had enough shooting, while the nobz were taking care of stuff like daemon princes and tanks.