Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

So, Space Wolves are a sort of small elite close combat army, to perhaps over-generalize, and Orks are a sort of gigantic horde. How do you think these armies will fair against each other?

Orks would kick the piss out of them obviously. They are only Space Marines

I guess I'm interested in the gory details. The hows and whys and other un-orky questions that mere humans might contemplate because they don't have the Orkish work-ethic of drinking themselves into violent rash and abusing the feth out of their subordinates to entertain themelves.

well Space wolves drink alot too my friend!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
are you asking realistically as in a game? Or fluff wise?

Game-wise.

This would be a weird fight...to put simply, Orks hate getting charged, if someone charges orks they are upset because they have to fight at S3 and I3. And are generally happy when they charge

Space Wolves are happy to take a charge, because they have Counter-attack (or they did at least, and I'm fairly sure they still do) and their main CC unit, blood claws, are pretty good at dealing out hurt. So, 30 ork boyz with one Nob who has a power klaw charge 10 blood claws and the sarge has a power weapon...orks might lose this fight, as SM armor will save them from the boy attacks, and they will cause a lot of wounds back, probably winning combat by a bunch, even with the Nob (who needs 4s to hit) in there with is fist. Then the orks take fearless wounds. And next turn they get wiped out....but that bloodclaw unit will take some amount of losses from all those attacks (and the nob might hit them once or twice too) so even though they win, they won't want to assault another 30 boys mob any time soon.

Against Kult of Speed, the Wolves might just get outmaneuvered by all the trukks and battlewagons, but against a dreadbash sort of list they might be able to win, especially with Long Fangs able to shoot two Kan squads each turn and bog them down, or two boyz mobs/Nobz mobs each turn.

Ok now I can answer you a bit more seriously lol.


I think I agree with starbomber on this. The few times I have been charged by SM it gets messy. And thats regular SM. Im not saying I loose everytime from the charge, but it never is a good outcome.
Now seeing as SW are SPECIALISTS in CC. This raises a bit of a what if question. I think this really will come down to the players, the style of play and luck of the rolls. I can see it going either way for sure.

starbomber109:

That's what I'm talking about. Well, sort of. The thing about Blood Claws is that the Orks will have a 3+ to hit them, and they'll only get +1A from Counter-Charge (Counter-Attack, whatever). Ten Blood Claws will get 30 Attacks, hitting on a 4+ (15 hits on average), wounding on a 4+ (8 wounds on average), and saving on 6+ (7 unsaved wounds on average), and then the Orks would get 69 attacks (assuming Shoota Boyz), hitting on 3+ (26 on average), wounding on 4+ (13 on average), and saving on 3+ (4 dead Blood Claws).

That's ignoring less than all making it into combat, and any special weapons. After the combat it would be, on average, 7:4 in favour of the Blood Claws. Meaning three more Orks would die from No Retreat, on average.

What if the Orks shot their shootas before piling in? That's 60 shots hitting on 5+, so 20 on average. Half wound, on average at 4+, so 10 wounds. And then about seven Blood Claws would save, meaning three casualties.

That means only 7 Blood Claws from the unit of ten would fight in combat. That would mean 21 attacks at 4+ to hit at 11 hits, 6 wounds at 4+ to wound, and five casualties, on average. That means 25 Orks, with 75 attacks, 37 hitting, 18 wounding, and 12 saving, for six casualties. The surviving Blood Claw would then need to roll 7 or less to remain fighting the Orks, which would be good for the Orks because staying in combat would mean they can't be shot during the Space Wolf turn.

What you'd have is 25 Orks vs 1 Blood Claw by the end, on average. Advantage: Orks.

OH you wanted MATH hammer. Why didnt you just say so. Infact, it seems like youve already got your opinion on the matter. Why ask for anothers then?
In that case, I stick to my original nonsense..... Orks would kick the piss out of them. Seriously why would ANY ork player worth his salt, NOT shoot before assaulting? My boyz are REAL boyz. The non shoota variety, and I STILL blast away before every assault. It works to because I usually kill SOMETHING.

Of course I have an opinion on the matter, I can enjoy that opinion in the privacy of my own home. I'm asking other people's opinion.

Math-hammer ain't the half of it. I only brought that up because there seemed to be problems with the match-up of Ork Shootas charging Blood Claws. Given the possibility of Ork Waaagh! movement giving Orks the charge, it seems that the Space Wolves might be in danger of being overwhelmed unless they can either charge first (Land Raider borne assaults?) or they use Thunderwolf cavalry to charge first, or something.

A Land Raider is the smartest way to go. I have, not ONCE, since I started playing Orks been able to down a LR. It pisses me off lol. They are SUPER tough against Orks, you can shoot the hell out of the mobs first, and dumb and assault your SW into the mob. IF you loose, oh well just shoot them to death with the LR. Seriously people that have never faced a LR have no idea how hard it is to pop those things.