ORKS: Doing simple things in painful ways since the 21st MillenniumOK, Let's jump straight into it, you know the drill by now. Just don't jump into the drill, that could hurt a bit.
ORK BOYZ
The proverbial bread-and-butter of the Ork army. Or as the Ork would describe it, the beer-and-flagon. There are a few ways of running them, but there is no excuse for not having them in your army. At all. Whatsoever. They have a decent statline (apart from BS, duh), and for 6 points each they're so worth it.
They have a few options, such as changing from 'Slugga Boyz' (Pistol / CCW) to 'Shoota Boyz' (Assault 2 weapon). There are a few uses to each, but since the change is absolutely free it's really down to preference.
For every 10 boys you can take a big shoota or a rokkit launcha. I'll cover usefulness later, but as a general Orky rule: Go for number of shots over quality of the shot unless you need the utility of something with a stronger punch. In that case, take lots of the bigger punches.
One mob per army can be made into 'Ard Boyz (a 4+ armour save) for +4 a model. I've heard good things and bad things about this. I personally think it's a bit expensive for what you get, but then again, you get a save you might actually pass half the time (literally...).
You can get stikkbombs for +1 a model. Now, I have never seen any player take these. You're more often than not gonna go last anyway even with Furious Charge, and you shouldn't be assaulting into cover anyway.
One model may be a Nob. He can swap his choppa for a big choppa or a power klaw and take a bosspole and/or 'eavy armour. You always want to take a Nob with power klaw and bosspole. Hidden power klaws (i.e ones that can't be picked out) have a much better chance of surviving than IC's do.
Zagblitz Rating 10/10 - "Wiv'out da boyz, dere'd be no Waaagh!s. And dat wood be a bad fing indeed..."
Dakkazag Rating 10/10 - "Wot 'ee said... *sobs*" -We apologize for this un-Orky show of emotion. We think Dakkazag has been at the fungus beer for slightly longer than the two weeks he claimed.
Dedicated transport: Trukk
Ah, our good old friend the Trukk. It's AV10 all round and Open Topped. So, could potentially be wrecked by bolter fire, not great. However, it is also Fast, so it gets to places quickly, therefore less of a chance to get wrecked by said bolter fire.
It also has a special rule, Ramshackle. Essentially, it means that when it's destroyed, it either falls apart and wrecks normally, explodes normally, or zips off in a random direction, THEN explodes normally. Note that this is random, so it could suffer an Explodes result, and only fall apart, or get wrecked and then explode, but the more you shoot it, the more likely it will just explode.
Anyway, it comes with a big shoota (remember that, I played for eighteen months and completely forgot about them!) which can be upgraded to rokkit launcha. (Read the general rule above).
They can take a few upgrades, so we'll go through them...
Red Paint Job: One more inch? Yes please!
Grot Riggers: Essentialy gives it a version of the Rhino Repair rule. Not really worth it on such a cheap vehicle.
Stikkbomb Chukka: Same as Frag Assault Launchers on Crusader/Redeemers. Read stikkbomb entry above.
Armour plates: If they were cheaper, they'd be good. But they're not, so they aren't.
Boarding plank: Now, these are interesting. Essentially, they let the guys inside assault a nearby vehicle as if they had got out and charged. Very useful for those power klaws...
Wreckin' Ball: A Str 9 hit on someone within 2". I can see the use, but it's still a bit 'meh' to me.
Reinforced Ram: TANK SHOCK! Plus it treats its front armour as +2AV for Death or Glory attacks. This upgrade is a stand-out favourite for me.
Zagblitz Rating 8/10 - "Yeah, Trukks ar a bit fraj'le. But they do da job."
Dakkazag Rating 7/10 - "Troo, da gun on it ain't as big as it coulda been. But den da Boyz inside can shoot as well, so it ain't dat bigga deal."
OK, now that's done, let's talk about how to run Boyz. In my view, there are three main ways of running boyz...
Trukk Rush
12 Sluggas Boys
Nob w/ Power Klaw, Bosspole
Trukk with Red Paint Job, Reinforced Ram
or...
12 Shoota Boys, 1 Big Shoota
Nob w/ Shoota, Bosspole
Trukk w/ Red Paint Job, Reinforced Ram, Rokkit Launcha
My preferred method. This style list revolves around hitting first, and hitting where you'll win, to get the fight on your terms. Suggested units: Big Mek w/ KFF, Warbikes, Stormboyz, Dethkoptas, Nob Bikers.
Battlewagon Brigade
20 Boys, (Shoota boys - take 2 Big shootas)
Nob w/ Power Klaw, Bosspole
Battlewagon (Will cover in the Heavy Support section)
A slightly slower version of the above, this one will just casually trundle up and shoot the expletive out of everything in the vicinity. Suggested Units: Big Meks w/ KFF, Kommandos, Burna Boys, Looted Wagons, Tankbustas
Green Tide
30 Boyz
Nob w/ Power klaw, Bosspole
ORK BOYZ
The proverbial bread-and-butter of the Ork army. Or as the Ork would describe it, the beer-and-flagon. There are a few ways of running them, but there is no excuse for not having them in your army. At all. Whatsoever. They have a decent statline (apart from BS, duh), and for 6 points each they're so worth it.
They have a few options, such as changing from 'Slugga Boyz' (Pistol / CCW) to 'Shoota Boyz' (Assault 2 weapon). There are a few uses to each, but since the change is absolutely free it's really down to preference.
For every 10 boys you can take a big shoota or a rokkit launcha. I'll cover usefulness later, but as a general Orky rule: Go for number of shots over quality of the shot unless you need the utility of something with a stronger punch. In that case, take lots of the bigger punches.
One mob per army can be made into 'Ard Boyz (a 4+ armour save) for +4 a model. I've heard good things and bad things about this. I personally think it's a bit expensive for what you get, but then again, you get a save you might actually pass half the time (literally...).
You can get stikkbombs for +1 a model. Now, I have never seen any player take these. You're more often than not gonna go last anyway even with Furious Charge, and you shouldn't be assaulting into cover anyway.
One model may be a Nob. He can swap his choppa for a big choppa or a power klaw and take a bosspole and/or 'eavy armour. You always want to take a Nob with power klaw and bosspole. Hidden power klaws (i.e ones that can't be picked out) have a much better chance of surviving than IC's do.
Zagblitz Rating 10/10 - "Wiv'out da boyz, dere'd be no Waaagh!s. And dat wood be a bad fing indeed..."
Dakkazag Rating 10/10 - "Wot 'ee said... *sobs*" -We apologize for this un-Orky show of emotion. We think Dakkazag has been at the fungus beer for slightly longer than the two weeks he claimed.
Dedicated transport: Trukk
Ah, our good old friend the Trukk. It's AV10 all round and Open Topped. So, could potentially be wrecked by bolter fire, not great. However, it is also Fast, so it gets to places quickly, therefore less of a chance to get wrecked by said bolter fire.
It also has a special rule, Ramshackle. Essentially, it means that when it's destroyed, it either falls apart and wrecks normally, explodes normally, or zips off in a random direction, THEN explodes normally. Note that this is random, so it could suffer an Explodes result, and only fall apart, or get wrecked and then explode, but the more you shoot it, the more likely it will just explode.
Anyway, it comes with a big shoota (remember that, I played for eighteen months and completely forgot about them!) which can be upgraded to rokkit launcha. (Read the general rule above).
They can take a few upgrades, so we'll go through them...
Red Paint Job: One more inch? Yes please!
Grot Riggers: Essentialy gives it a version of the Rhino Repair rule. Not really worth it on such a cheap vehicle.
Stikkbomb Chukka: Same as Frag Assault Launchers on Crusader/Redeemers. Read stikkbomb entry above.
Armour plates: If they were cheaper, they'd be good. But they're not, so they aren't.
Boarding plank: Now, these are interesting. Essentially, they let the guys inside assault a nearby vehicle as if they had got out and charged. Very useful for those power klaws...
Wreckin' Ball: A Str 9 hit on someone within 2". I can see the use, but it's still a bit 'meh' to me.
Reinforced Ram: TANK SHOCK! Plus it treats its front armour as +2AV for Death or Glory attacks. This upgrade is a stand-out favourite for me.
Zagblitz Rating 8/10 - "Yeah, Trukks ar a bit fraj'le. But they do da job."
Dakkazag Rating 7/10 - "Troo, da gun on it ain't as big as it coulda been. But den da Boyz inside can shoot as well, so it ain't dat bigga deal."
OK, now that's done, let's talk about how to run Boyz. In my view, there are three main ways of running boyz...
Trukk Rush
12 Sluggas Boys
Nob w/ Power Klaw, Bosspole
Trukk with Red Paint Job, Reinforced Ram
or...
12 Shoota Boys, 1 Big Shoota
Nob w/ Shoota, Bosspole
Trukk w/ Red Paint Job, Reinforced Ram, Rokkit Launcha
My preferred method. This style list revolves around hitting first, and hitting where you'll win, to get the fight on your terms. Suggested units: Big Mek w/ KFF, Warbikes, Stormboyz, Dethkoptas, Nob Bikers.
Battlewagon Brigade
20 Boys, (Shoota boys - take 2 Big shootas)
Nob w/ Power Klaw, Bosspole
Battlewagon (Will cover in the Heavy Support section)
A slightly slower version of the above, this one will just casually trundle up and shoot the expletive out of everything in the vicinity. Suggested Units: Big Meks w/ KFF, Kommandos, Burna Boys, Looted Wagons, Tankbustas
Green Tide
30 Boyz
Nob w/ Power klaw, Bosspole
OK, I think you get the idea. Basically, for any army, there is a Boyz mob to match. Now, we continue...
GROTS
Half the points of a boy, for half the profile, and less than half the utility. It has no save, a lower toughness than Eldar, and Leadership 5, so this thing will not stick around. It comes with a Grot Blasta, and while it's more accurate than an Ork (BS3!), it's also S3, AP-, Assault 1 at 12".
For every 10 grots, you MUST take a Runtherd for 10. These are basically standard Boyz, with a Slugga, a Grabba Stick (causes a single model in Base-to-Base contact to lose an Attack to a minimum of 1), and a Squig Hound (Removes D3 gretchin to re-roll a Morale check). Both the special pieces of gear are a bit 'meh'. Even if you upgrade the Grabba Stikk to a Grot Prod (4+ poisoned) It's still not that good.
The Grots do come with a special rule, 'It's A Grot's Life', which removes 3D6 Grots and a minefield if the squad moves into it. But seriously, who plays games with a minefield?
The best use I can find is to take 19 Grots (Maximum you can take with 1 Runtherd) and string them in front of a Green Tide, or a Loota squad, for a 4+ cover save. Or attaching then to a SAG, then stringing the grots out of sight and the SAG in the open, for exactly the same effect without obscuring the SAG's LoS.
Zagblitz Rating 5/10 - "Dey'z too small an' weedy ta do da proppa fightin', but still, dey have dere uses..."
Dakkazag Rating 4/10 - "You'z got me 'ungry now."
OK then! Dakkazag, stop drooling. Right, I'll wrap it up here, next post will be about the Fast choices...
OI! *thwack!*
Damn, it looks like he's eating Zagblitz's personal grot-servants. I gotta go an... actually, I'll watch this one. I need a laugh after all the exams and revision I've been doing. OK, I'm gonna get some popcorn. Talk to you guys later!
After reading rules for Kareen (Orks codex p. 41) I'm not sure if I understand it right. It says that it stops 1" from enemy models or terrain - so it's not stopped by friendly models?
ReplyDeleteI ask because some ork players "herd" their trukks with friendly models to stop them from kareening backwards
@lehcyfer: Reading the rule myself, it appears that that would be the case. I know that squads of models can move through each other as long as they stay in coherency.
ReplyDeleteHowever, another way of reading is that the Trukk is stopped by them, but goes right up to the squad rather than 1" away.
Ultimately, I doubt it would go through the squad, but it depends how you interpret it.
Well, rules for tank shock say that when vehicle passes through a unit, the models stay in their places unless the tank stops over the spot in which case they are moved out of the way in the shortest route possible. Orks can be so used to it that they just let the kareening truck pass by :P
ReplyDeleteThe trouble is with friendly vehicles - they won't step aside - I'd treat them as part of scenery and stop the truck for kaboom.
@lehcyfer Yeah, I'd stop the Trukk too. It just seems how the rules were meant, IMO
ReplyDeleteI overlooked the FAQ for orks - it says the kareening trukk stops as soon as it touches any friendly models.
ReplyDeleteAlso - did you see the last army list proposed by stelek?
ReplyDeletehttp://yesthetruthhurts.com/2011/05/orks-a-quandry/
Basically he treats the boyz as better version of grotz, good only for shooting and claiming objectives - he takes 4 minimal units of ten orks with big shoota (without nob) in an army which has many dangerous support units - any enemy who will shot the boyz will have his ass handed to him by the rest of the ork army.