http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/31.page JForum - http://www.jforum.net
From what I understand, Ork Clans are more just philosophies or movements that orks can adhere to. Goffs are big and krump things, Bad Moons are rich and shoot things, Deathskulls take stuff, etc. How do the clans originate though? For example, if an ork is spored in a Goff heavy zone, does he automatically dawn the black regalia and develop a love for punching things? Or, if he were to decide he really liked riding bikes, could he go off and join an Evil Sunz force, assuming there wasn't one nearby (I'm not sure how exclusive clan dominance is either). Is clan-ness hardwired into the ork, akin to engineering in Meks and what could more or less be called surgery in Doks? Territorial dominance is another question, I assume its done more by Tribe/Warband (whatever you want to call the orks in a given area under the control of a Warboss) and not by clan, but I'm not sure how clans fit into the Warband. It is unlikely, at least to my knowledge, that any Warband would be clan specific (WAAAGHs definitely not being exclusionary), but is it just the case that the Warboss' clan is in charge in regards to general tactics or does everyone just kinda do their own thing as long as they're fighting something?

The reason I ask is that I almost always see people making mono-clan armies. I'm not against it or anything, it gives them a nice flavor and good visual coherency, but I was just wondering about the feasibility of a multi-clan army. I'm working on a Kult of Speed at the moment which seems to be an overarching movement above clan affiliation, so that an ork could be 'in' both without any problems, and the Kult seems to span clan lines. It'll probably be heavily Evil Sunz, what with them being the most likely candidates, but I thought to break it up a little bit that it would be interesting to put a few other Clan mobs in there, Goffs as a large BW mob, Bad Moons as shootas and the like. Would that be fluff-friendly as a small ork force of multiple clans all making up a kult, or are orks solely clan divided on a small scale (both in a Kult of Speed, and in general, as they might be different). Also, any ideas on how to give it more cohesiveness as an army would be appreciated, assuming its kosher. I'm hoping that general painting style and similar detail colors will tie them together, as orks are pretty ramshackle as is, along with a generous addition of red for obvious reasons.

TLDR/Orky version: Orks and Clans, 'ow dey wurk? ]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/244921/787022.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/244921/787022.page GMT
Where this gets weird is the old tradition (Rogue Trader and Epic Space Marine era, IIRC) that Bad Moons had the most weirdboyz. But as far as I can tell that's been retconned out of more recent editions.]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/244921/787034.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/244921/787034.page GMT
I think the mono-clan armies reason is the whole visual coherency thing you mentioned, or some people just might like the fluff of one particular clan.

Personally Im making a combined Goffs/Blood Axes force. A horde of Goffs boyz making a ruckus while all the elite Blood Axes will be sneakin around doin their choppin'. My reason for this is while I love to paint camo, I dont want to have to do it on 40+ slugga/shoota boyz, so leaving them black with the occasional checks and dash 'o red is more convenient for me. So to represent this my Warboss has both Blood Axe camo and Goffs checking ]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/244921/787047.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/244921/787047.page GMT http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/244921/787068.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/244921/787068.page GMT WD were mixed clan armies. It made them very (almost too) colourful. I think since 3rd ed when everything became more grimdark there were more single clan armies, they do look a little more coherent on the tabletop. I tend to play mixed clan armies, with each type of unit being from the most appropiate clan (you know ES buggies/bikes BA kommandos, DS lootaz/tankbustas/burna boyz etc.)
I'm trying to make a themed force (under 1000pts) for each klan.

My one word of warning about your combined Goff/Bloodaxe army - If you're outflanking with your kommandoz don't expect them to turn up when you want them to. In many a battle I've seen my goff and snakebite bigmobz have to do all the work while those treacherous blood axe sneaks wait until the game is all but won or lost before making an appearance. They would claim it was all part of their kunnin plan, but I know their just sneaky gitz, and were waiting to see how the battle would pan out before they decided to get involved. ]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/244921/788100.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/244921/788100.page GMT
If you say it's in their nature, then Feral orks pose a problem. Why don't they automatically grab a bunch of red gak and start building bikes if they came from Evil Sunz spores?
If you say its nurture, then why are their only a few "set" clanz instead of millions of orky variations unique to each warboss?

Personally, i can't see orks sticking to one colour. Even the models aren't uniform, they're so mix and match that the thought that they all dress in the same colours is a stretch.
My army is Deathskullz based, but since they're supposed to be LOOTAS and thieving gits i've been painting each one individually, spending time to make then unique in one way or another. The only thing i'm doing to tie the army together is giving them something blue, like warpaint or blue leathers, but no 2 are alike.

Safe to say i've been painting for at least 2 months now (i think) and i've only got 20 out of 74 done ]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/244921/788535.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/244921/788535.page GMT