Goatboy’s 40k Poppycock – Horde Orks and You.
Goatboy’s here again starting with a nice Monday discussion about Horde Orks. It is one of those armies that everyone thinks is decent but not a whole lot of people play.
I think it is one of the stronger armies out there and I want to chit chat about it a bit instead of going on about CSM for a bit.
First to get an idea Orks was my original second army. In fact you can say I have probably painted more Orks then I have painted CSM figures. I’ve done a few client builds as well as my own personal evolving Ork army so I can justly say I love those damn dirty fungi-like apes. I have always had an Ork army on the burner and have been known to jump pack to the old green book when I want to move away from making a majority of my armor saves.
So with that out of the way let’s discuss some of the Pros and Cons of Orks right now and then look at a current list that should give a lot of armies some trouble as they move towards winning the game instead of just removing all your opponents models from the table top.
Pros
Orks are a great Horde army. They are able to cover the table and control the real estate that is important in games – the 3 inches around an objective. With the lack of tanks on the table top you can easily protect that objective as you don’t have to worry about that winning Tank Shock pulling you away. You mix this in with being very difficult to remove in one volley units and you have an army that is very resilient. Their basic troop unit is very large and being fearless for most of its life means that you won’t see First Blood taken from an Ork army very easily.
A basic unit of 30 shoota boyz (Slugga/Choppa’s are out) is 180 points. You could add a Nob but as I play with Orks more I see there is no need for the extra 10-40 points from adding in the easily challenged out character. If the Nob had access to Cybork Armor I would say they would be a lot better (2-3 rerolls would be great in challenges) but right now just leave them out. This leaves you with a very annoying unit of 30 bodies that can shoot twice and could care less about snapfire. I also add in 3 rokkits as it helps me deal with flyers as well as have some action versus the small number of vehicles we see. Plus rokkits on sticks look hilarious to me.
The troop choice is so strong that I have added Ork allies to a lot of armies that could benefit from 30 fearless scoring units. If you compare the Ork Shoota boy to say a Zombie and you have one of the ultimate horde units in the game. You could say the IG guardsmen is pretty strong as well but I think the orks ability to be fearless for a good portion of the game to be extremely powerful. Also with the lack of any real character needed to make the unit run you can ignore challenges and bog down units a bit easier.
The current trend away from deathstars is also helpful as most of the time those units could gut a boy unit and hopefully finish them off in the next turn to allow for more movement. This has helped push the Ork army into an interesting phase of the game as they really are some of the best at controlling sections of the board. Think of the Necron Flyer army and how you can easily herd those delicious bits of fluffy pastry around and force them into bad situations as they have to fly off the board or never get a chance to drop off their robots in disguise.
Another interesting thing with Orks right now is the KFF field helps out your friends. It also helps out your enemies as well but the effect doesn’t move very far. If you look at the FAQ – any unit within 6 inches of the Big Mek gets a 5+ cover save. I know it isn’t the best but when you mix Zombies and Orks you get a big mass of BS stinking up the tabletop. It doesn’t work on enemy vehicles but units themselves get it. It also means if you are charging into the unit close you get a 5+ save from the Overwatch as well – something to remember if you see lots of Orks running around.
I talked about this a little bit – but having a horde across the table top means that your opponent will have less chances to try and run over there to get Line Breaker as well. Also ensuring First Blood is a difficult endeavor is another great Pro for this style of army as well. If you have to work really hard to get it then most likely you have over extended and will get swallowed by the horde.
Con
The biggest problem with the horde is time management. You will need to spend most of your time setting up. Your game plan should usually be the same so practice getting all your guys on the table top quickly. Moving will also be a problem as you try to get to turn 5. I usually have a plan before the game begins and try to stick to it to ensure both me and my opponent have enough time to get the game done.
A lot of games come down to the extra bonus points and getting Line Breaker can be an issue. Killing the Warlord can also be an issue as you are not really relying on anything super killy to go and engage the Warlord. First Blood is where you will look to earn your bonus points and holding objectives. A decent assault unit could easily eat through your army as well. The crazy CSM list I posted last week would have a field day getting in and squishing those Orks.
Another big thing is having to paint all those guys. I paint a metric crap ton of models per week. In fact I have my next new 30 Ork Shoota boyz getting done on Saturday (10 more left to do). Getting all these guys on the table top in a decent looking way is hard for a lot of players to do. Also I would advise painting up your units in different styles or accent colors to help make splitting the squads easier. Mine are different skin color mixes in order to spice things up and remove the whole sea of green you normally see with Orks. I would also say you should set up ways on your display board or carrying case that helps break each unit down easier. This way you don’t have to count as much and can easily figure out how many shots and guys you have.
This leads to another Con – you will have to be very quick with figuring out your dice pools for shooting/attack/etc. I usually buy set up dice in batches of 9 to help facilitate faster dice rolling. When you turn a squad of 30 boyz onto an enemy unit – having the proper number of dice ready will help allow you that turn 5 you might need to win. I always hated when you felt you got slow played out of a game and ensuring that you are not playing for turn 3 is a great way to ensure you have fun and your opponents are not groaning when you lumber over with 150 green/red/gray skinned jerks you plan on putting on the table top.
Alan Pajama Pants did very well with Orks at Wargames con last year and has been a terror in the local Chicago area for awhile. I thought his list was perfect for 5th and think its style easily makes it one of the best options in 6th edition right now. It does a lot of things right and takes very specific style counters to really get hurt in a way to not allow it a win. And those counters do not do so well versus a lot of the field. Let’s look at a theory list I plan on slowly building to test things out and then my Combo Ork/Cron list I feel is pretty mean on the table top.
Ork – 2000 point Pure Horde/Land on this you Butter Munchers!
HQ: Big Mek, KFF
HQ: Weirdboy, Warphead
Elites: Lootas X 10
Troops: Shoota Boyz X 30, Rokkits x 3
Troops: Shoota Boyz X 30, Rokkits x 3
Troops: Shoota Boyz X 30, Rokkits x 3
Troops: Shoota Boyz X 30, Big Shoota X 3
Troops: Shoota Boyz X 30, Big Shoota X 3
FA: Dakkajet, Supa Shoota, Fighta Ace
FA: Dakkajet, Supa Shoota, Fighta Ace
FA: Dakkajet, Supa Shoota, Fighta Ace
Heavy: Big Guns X 3, Runtherd
Heavy: Big Guns X 3, Runtherd
Heavy: Big Guns X 3, Runtherd
Fortification: Aegis Defense Line
As you can see it has 150 scoring bodies on the table top and lots of shooting. The Weirdboy is there to help push the Dakkajets into an insane amount of damage potential. It is a bit copy and paste but the Ork book is so old right now that things are just not nearly as good as they should. Trust me I miss my Nobz. How much do you want to bet the next Ork book will have the Nob automatically included in the Boyz initial purchase.
The Defense line is there to give your Big Guns something to hide behind. Your Lootas are down there as well as you can go to ground (you are 10 models so you are not fearless just Ld 10) for a 2+ Save especially versus massed flyers. You are hurt by Land Raiders (especially GK ones) but you can hope to get the Melta mind bullet from the Weird Boy to pop one with a reroll.
The Dakkajets are basically Lootas 2 – 4 and give the ability to “over extend” on a unit. If you get lucky and get two turns of Waagh’s with them you will see a frowny face on your opponent as that unit is covered in orky bullets.
Here is my current Combo list I am messing around with. It isn’t a “Thursday” casual-game night list but it is something to look at for any future tournament. I am slowly building that Assault list as a better “Thursday Throwdown” as I look for my weekly games to be a more about fun then trying to win for my ego. But here it is – making fun of your hat.
Orks/Crons – Will Brofist for food – 2000pts
HQ: Big Mek, KFF
HQ: Necron lord
Troops: Shoota Boyz X 30, Rokkit X 3
Troops: Shoota Boyz X 30, Rokkit X 3
Troops: Shoota Boyz X 30, Big Shoota X 3
Troops: Immortals X 10, Tesla, Night Scythe
Troops: Warriors X 5, Night Scythe
FA: Dakkajet, Supa Shoota, Fighta Ace
FA: Dakkajet, Supa Shoota, Fighta Ace
FA: Dakkajet, Supa Shoota, Fighta Ace
Heavy: Big Guns X 3, Runtherd
Heavy: Big Guns X 3, Runtherd
Heavy: Big Guns X 3, Runtherd
Heavy: Doom Scythe
Fortification: Aegis Defense Line
So yes this list is all about a mini horde and flyer combo. It shoots a lot and has some movement options to get across the table for Line Breaker. Your Warlords are designed to not engage so hopefully you won’t lose them. You could dump the Big Mek for a Weird boy if you want but I think the 5+ save will help out your boyz a lot more. You want to join the Big Mek to a Big Gun to help give him T7 as well as allow for a central point for some of the boy squads as you create tentacles of doom as they stretch out on the board.
The Doom Scythe could be dropped too but you need that ability to remove a LR from the board. I could see a lot of games going into the – did I roll enough 6’s with my rokkits to get a win? I don’t think that game is a good one to play heh.
But yeah dust off those Ork Boyz and become a threat on the table top as you cover the table in your painting hand pain.
