Hey everybody, I got my hands on the Ork Codex and just wanted to throw in my two cents. The codex is sort of a mixed-bag. Some things got vastly better, some things didn’t change much, and some things just make me go “WTF?”. The Ork codex follows the format of the other recent releases, with the unit descriptions in the front, points costs in the back, and rules scattered all over the place. I personally hate this new format because it makes it extremely time consuming to ever look anything up, and doesn’t really make sense with most 40K armies. Overall they also tried to emphasize the unpredictable nature of Orks, and included in many interesting new weapons and upgrades, which is very cool.
As for the general army rules, Orks have lost Choppas, Mobbing Up, The Power Of The Waaagh, and pretty much all the Gretchin abilities (besides mine clearance, but who cares). Now the entire army has furious charge, checking Mob Size works by allowing you to substitute in your unit size for your LD instead of taking a sequential “check size” test, and the new Waaagh power allow your entire army to FOF for one turn (besides the first), and on a 1 a model takes a wound. I have to say I’m sad to see choppas go, because it made the Orks a really unique army, but having furious charge instead is definitely an improvement. I’m kind of disappointed in the way the Mob Size rule works now, because some units are extremely vulnerable to fleeing the first time they get shot at (Deffkoptas, Bikes, Elites, etc).
Now, as for the codex itself:
HQ Characters
As with the other new codexes characters are now either regular HQ choices or are taken as upgrades for some specific units.
First up is Ghazghkhull. Most of his stats are pretty much the same, except that he now has a big shoota instead and lower LD. He lost most of his special abilities for his admantium skull, but instead now has +2A on a charge and is immune to instant death. A fair trade off in my opinion. His real power lies in the fact that he has a unique WAAAGH power that is really nasty. It replaces the armies usual WAAAGH, but give everyone an automatic 6” FOF, makes them fearless, and tons Ghaz’s save to invulnerable. He’s an expensive character, but I can definitely see him being useful in larger games.
Nazdreg is gone, but has been replaced by a Flash Git upgrade character. Personally I don’t really see the point of this guy. He’s pretty expensive, has a decent save, and a nasty gun, but with BS2 he won’t be hitting anything with it. He seems more “fun” than useful.
Boss Zagstruk on the other hand is frickin’ awesome! He only costs a few more points than before, but now makes his Storm Boy unit deep strike and allows them to assault when they do. Not only this, but Zagstruk counts as having a power fist that strikes at I order on the charge! Zagstruk has also gained the IG “summary execution” rule, which is strange but cool. Really nasty stuff.
Mad Doc Grotsnik is now a ton more points and isn’t much different from the previous codex, except for the fact that Doc’s Tools now give the entire unit FNP. He’s a pretty decent character for the cost and will definitely help orks stay alive in future games.
Boss Snikrot is OK. He does have an awesome ability which allows for his unit of Commandoes to come in from reserves off of any table edge, but unfortunately Commandoes aren’t that great so it’s kind of a waste. Other than that he now rerolls his to hit attacks and gives -1 LD in CC to the enemy. I personally don’t think I’ll ever take him since there are far better options.
Wazzdakka Gutzmek lost almost all of his special abilities, and instead is allowed to shoot after turbo boosting. He now has a S8 gun, which is cool, but give that he’s only BS2 it probably won’t make much of a difference. He’s also a ton more points, which is a shame.
Now, the new character, Old Zogwort is a really fun addition. He’s the warphead character, the new Ork psycher, and has all their abilities. In addition gets D6 attacks in CC that wound on 2+, but you don’t really want him in CC in the first place (6+ save). His real fun comes from the fact that he can now turn enemy characters into squigs! All you have to do is take a psychic test and roll higher than the opponent, and a character in 18” is now a squig controlled by the enemy. Really funny stuff.
HQ
I have to say I’m impressed with the new HQ selection.
You no longer have to take a Warboss in your army, but if you do a squad of Noz or Meganobz can be taken as troops. The Warboss stats are also much better (T5) and he has plenty of nice upgrades. It should be noted that no one in the army besides mega armored guys and the flash git character can have an armor save better than 4+, which is kind of weak for an HQ. Expect to see this guy in Mega Armor most of the time. He can also take a warbike, which is nice for recreating the Kult Of Speed armies, but unfortunately it doesn’t make bikes troops if you do. I guess you can always take trukk boyz though.
Next is the Big Mek. This guy also has a ton of ways of kitting him out and making a pretty effective model. Overall though I’d have to say the Shokk Attack Gun really stands out as an awesome choice. It’s a really nasty Ordinance weapon, that has all kinds of funny abilities if you roll doubles for the strength. Some are really awesome (2 6’s and everyone under the template is REMOVED FROM PLAY) and some are pretty horrible (he disappears, or he shoots himself into CC instead, LOL). The Shokk gun is a really fun addition to the orks and is pretty useful in most games, especially since he can't be picked out with shooting.
The last HQ choice is a Weirdboy/Warphead. This guy is pretty dirt cheap for his abilities, but isn’t really made to survive in CC. He gets a random psychic power each turn (warphead upgrades let you reroll this), but pretty much all of them are useful. The only one that is bad is a 1, in which case he gets hit with a pretty nasty blast marker. Other than that the psychic powers are two pretty nasty auto-hit shooting attacks, giving his unit +A, making the unit be removed and deep striked on the same turn, and the awesome one, which gives your army another WAAAGH. I should mention that his psychic tests ARE affected by Mob Size, so if you put him in a big unit expect your tests to pretty much always pass. All in all a really fun addition to the army.
It should also be noted that Painboyz are now upgrades for a few specific units in the army, and now give their unit FNP and the option for cybork bodies, which is much better in my opinion.
Elites
I’d have to say I was pretty disappointed by the selection for the Elite choices. Most of them are either overpriced or underpowered.
First off, Nobz and Mega Nobz are now their own squads. They have some pretty impressive stats, and Nobz have a wide array of good upgrades, but in the end both of these units will cost too much and probably never see CC. One of the main problems is that Nobz are now all LD7, and these units are fairly small, so if you shoot at them and kill anyone, they’ll probably run. Nobz can be given a bosspole (as can unit champion Nobz), which allow you to reroll the LD test and put a wound on a model in the unit, but for guys that cost upwards of 40 points each this is pretty crappy. You do have the option of taking a Painboy and giving the unit FNP and cybork bodies, but once again this would cost a ton and probably won’t be worth it in the end. I would have just like to have seen them make Nobz fearless or something, but oh well.
Next are two of the worst units in the entire Ork Codex, Burna Boyz and Tank Busta Boyz. Both units all come equipped standard with their respective weapons (burnas and rokkit launchers), but cost almost 3 times what a regular Ork Boy does. Not only this, but many of their rules are pretty crappy. Burnas are now flamers and power weapons in CC as before, but lost their 2D6 AP against vehicles, which really reduces their effectiveness. Burna boyz can also be given a Mek upgrade, but there isn’t much point to this. Tank Busta Boyz now can be given Squigbombs, which are OK, and 2 models can replace their rokkit launchers with Tank Hammers, making them S10 in CC. What really makes Tank Busta Boyz pure garbage is one of the worst written rules in the history of 40K, Glory Hogs. It states that if a vehicle is in LOS of the Tank Busta Boyz, they must attempt to shoot and assault the vehicle, regardless of range! This means that if there was a single lone sentinel 60” away, the tank busta boys must try to shoot it, be out of range, and then just repeat this over and over. What a truly stupid rule.
On the other hand Lootas are actually an interesting Elite choice. They come with D3 shot autocannons, which is pretty nice and can be given several Meks which can be upgraded with rokkit launchers, big shootas, and kustom mega blastas. I really like the feel and look of these guys, carrying cobbled together pieces of garbage from other armies and shooting the crap out of stuff, and they add an nice long range firepower option to the Ork army. Unfortunately they only have BS2, so they may not hit much, but what can you do. I’m kind of surprised these guys weren’t just given 4+ armor saves and put in heavy section instead of Falsh Gitz (see the heavy section).
The final Elite choice is commandoes, which haven’t really changed at all. I didn’t ever see anyone take them before, and I doubt I’ll see anyone take them now, especially given the other options you have for mobility (namely Storm Boyz).
Troops
Now, the troop section is extremely sparse, and really has one clear and distinct choice, Ork Boyz.
Ork Boyz are now SO much better it’s not even funny. They're much cheaper and with their WAAAGH FOF and furious charge are going to be pretty nasty to go up against. They no longer have the option for burnas, which is a shame, but now have several other useful upgrades. They can be given Stikk Bombz for only a point, can trade out their CC weapons for shootas, which are now shorter range assault weapons, and can be given a trukk upgrade if the unit is 12 models or under. Expect to see MASSIVE AMOUNTS of Boyz on the table in the future!
The Trukks have also gotten much better than the previous “entanglement-wagons”. They carry more guys, have more useful upgrades, and best of all if you get a vehicle destroyed result the worst thing that can happen is the trukk careens off and you take S3 hits and a pinning test, but are otherwise fine. I kind of wish they would have gotten rid of the whole emergency disembarking thing all together, but it’s nice to see they did something to prevent your trukk boyz from being sitting ducks all the time. Trukks also have a ton of new interesting upgrades which are more expensive than before, but are definitely more useful.
The final (second) troop choice are Gretchin mobz. I can’t express how disappointed I am with these guys. They used to be one of the best units in the Ork codex, not only in gameplay, but in adding to the feel of the army. Now, they’ve lost all their Grot abilities besides mine clearance (who cares) and must take a Herder for every 10 Gretchin, which can only be upgraded with a squighound that eats gretchin to get them back in line and an upgraded grot prodder that is pretty useless. Losing the ability to buy rokkit launchers is a huge blow, and I can’t imagine why you’d EVER take Gretchin now, especially since Ork Boyz are only double the cost and vastly better in every way. Even stranger is that Gretchin are BS3, which doesn’t make much sense and would have bee much more useful with Lootas or something. Very sad.
Fast Attack
Really, the Fast Attack section is extremely uneven. Storm Boyz are such a clear and vastly better choice than everything, I don’t know why you’d take anything else.
Storm Boyz are now so awesome it’s amazing. They’re much cheaper than before, didn’t really lose anything, and best of all get to FOF without actually having to do it in the shooting phase. Instead they now simply add D6” to their jump pack movement, and if you get a 1 a guy dies. These guys are now so fast, and with furious charge, so deadly it’s not even funny. Expect to see tons of these as well in future games!
Warbuggies/Wartrakks haven’t really changed much from the last codex, which is a shame. They can’t take Mega Blasters any more, but can be upgraded to Wartrakks to reroll dangerous terrain tests. Overall these weren’t worth it before and aren’t worth it now.
Warbikes are now cheaper, have their armor save and dust cloud save improved to 4+ and have 2 CCW, but lost their psycho blastas (now just have 18” TL big shootas) and the dust cloud no longer applies to models behind them, which doesn’t really make sense. They are one of the better fast attack choices, but given their small squad size, low LD, and high cost aren’t really much competition compared to Storm Boyz.
The final fast attack choice is Deffkoptaz. I’m happy to see these models added to the Ork army from the Kult Of Speed list, because they also really add to the ramshackle feel of the Orks, but they’re not very useful units. Basically they’re 2 wound, hit and run, scouting jetbikes with TL big shootas that can only come max units of 5, which mean they’ll run like hell all the time. They can be upgraded to have power fists and one-shot bombs, but given how expensive they already are they should probably just be avoided unless you take them as a “fun unit”.
Heavy Support
I was prettysurprised by the heavy support section as well. Some things are pretty good, and other things really should have been improved upon.
First, Battlewagons are now MUCH more useful than before. They’re front armor 14, can be turned into closed-topped vehicles, and have a huge variety of upgrades. They can be given a ordinance gun, but it reduces the transport capacity to 12, a big gun, and up to 4 heavy weapons. This thing has all sorts of possibilities for customizing models. The Death Roller option is also really nice (D6 S10 hits when you tank shock, and double that if they death or glory you'). Battlewagons are definitely a viable option now, they would have been better if they had side armor 13 instead of 12, but they’re pretty cheap for what they do.
Dreadnoughts aren’t really much better than before. Some weapons are cheaper, others are more expensive, and they now have the option to have 2 extra CC weapons (giving them 6 attacks on a charge!). Unfortunately, just as they were before, they’re foot slogging dreadnoughts with armor 12, so they probably won’t see CC against most armies.
Killa Kans are also cheaper as a base cost, but most of their weapons are now more expensive. They have the option for a Grotzooka, which isn’t that great. Really they’re not a whole lot better than before, so if you liked them in the old codex you'll like them now.
Big Gunz on the other hand have gotten MUCH worse. Kannons are pretty much the same except the blast is now S4, Lobbas are exactly the same, and Zzap guns have much nastier stats (longer ranger), and if you roll over 10 on the 2D6 a grot is killed but the shot still is used at S10, and they inflict automatic shaken results. The problem, however is, that Zzap guns now have to roll to hit! I was totally shocked when I saw this, especially since they’re already random S guns manned by Gretchin. Most of the Big Gunz have also gotten cheaper (besides Zzap guns), and you now have the option to buy ammo runts for them, but the Mek option is gone. Even stranger is that the Herder in charge of the Gretchin can’t buy a squighound. Although Big Gunz are cheap, they’re either so random or have such bad stats they’re probably not worth taking.
Flash Gitz have been added to the heavy section as well, but I can’t really understand why. They come with 24” S5 APD6 Assault 1 guns (AP rolled before picking a target), which can be made Assault 2, S6, or -1AP for 5 points. They also come with Gitfinders, which are the same as targeters, and have the option for ammo runts and Painboyz. Unfortunately Flash Gitz are extremely expensive for what they do, even more expensive with upgrades, only come in squads of 10 max, only have BS2, and guns that are unpredictable and really pretty useless. I can’t imagine what they were thinking putting these guys as heavy choices, they clearly should be about 10-15 points cheaper and swap places with Lootas (which should also have better armor saves). Definitely a unit I’ll avoid in the future.
The final heavy support choice is a Looted Wagon, which is sort of a lame-ass replacement for looted tanks. Standard it is dirt cheap and is a pretty much an open-topped looted rhino and still has the “don’t press that” rule, but you now have to drive forward as much as possible, which kind of sucks. It can be given a battle cannon, but keep in mind it only has the armor of a rhino, so won’t be around very long if you do. There are also a slew of other upgrades it can take, but to be honest you’ll probably just want to keep it cheap and hope to get a turn or two of shooting with the battle cannon. It is a pretty cheap option, and probably will be taken in most games, but given its bad armor really is a huge step down from a looted tank.
All in all I’m happy to see that Orks have been redone and are now a viable army, but as with the other new codexes, it strikes me that there are those units that are just obvious choices to take, and then there are those units that don’t really have much of a point. I do have to say that the Ork codex is a HUGE improvement over the pile of crap Chaos Marines book, but if you want to play them competitively you’ll really be limited in your options. Also, they won't really give much of a challenge to the current overpowered armies Tyranids, Eldar, and Tau. Expect to see MASSIVE amounts of Ork Boyz, Storm Boyz, Shokk Attack Guns, and cheap-o looted wagons with battle cannons in the near future ;-)
Your #1 Fan 
Stormboys can't waagh...
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