Dakka Orks

Surprisingly Stelek comes across civil in this post about Orks...

So, here's my take on the Orks. I've tried lots and lots of different builds for them, from horde orks to kan spam to battlewagon spam to biker spam.

I think all these builds are effective in their own way, but I really like my gunline as it tends to do more damage consistently than these other lists do. That said, the gunline even when built efficiently, needs units to protect it and it's always been a issue actually getting them into the list.

While Nob Bikers are great for absorbing fire, they also eat points like candy....effectively leaving the army without enough troops. In short, they defeat the efficiency of the list by being so inefficient. Problem is, there's nothing in the army that's a serious CC threat nor do I have any anvil type units. Just lots of glass hammers.

So my solution isn't what most players use, but that's par for the course for me. ;)

2000 Pts - Orks Roster - Orks click the link for Army List

As with many of my armies, the emphasis is on the troops not being the damage dealers (the 68 Gretchin kill....nothing lol) but because the game emphasizes troops you need to dedicate fire at them. The shooting units 30 Lootas, 9 Buggies, and 3 Kannon Batteries are intentionally frail, primarily to make opponents feel like they can shoot them away. Which is also fine.

Is the army vulnerable to KP's? Well, yes and no. Everything is so cheap, when shot at en masse...you go to ground for a 3+ cover save. Makes the gretchin particularly annoying, 3 point marine saves are quite funny.

While flamers will kill the Gretchin in large numbers, it'll have virtually no effect on the 14 meganobz. Unlike Nob Bikers, who are going to get their face handed to them by Russ squadrons with pie plates... Meganobz can walk through what the guard have to offer and still come out swinging. 

Also, it's not like you can reliably kill tanks with Ork shooting, so you need to be able to get across the table. If there's only a couple of them, the Biker boss can run out and give them the attention they need. The Meganobz take a while to get across the field, but with gretchin being pushed forward to grab objectives (or sit back and give cover to the shooting units) unlike regular nobs with bad saves, or biker nobs who need to zoom to have a shot at surviving pie plates, or horde orks who are vulnerable to lots of things...Meganobz are sturdy in 5th, and really only vulnerable to super CC units like...nob bikers, thunder shield termies, and Space marine command bikers. However while they tend to die when facing such units, other armies with said units tend to be unbalanced forces and not able to get across the table intact against this lists shooting.

While there's a plethora of meltagun fire at my local shop, most other people haven't learned that lesson yet (come on, meltaguns are essential...bring 10 already!) but in the end...the gretchin are there to give the Meganobz a 4+ cover save against such shooting. There are two small issues to be aware of in relation to this:

1) You move slow, so you need to save your Waaagh! for when the enemy is nearby and has gutted your gretchin screen.

2) When you are prepping for an assault, get the gretchin the hell away from your Meganobz. You do NOT want them assaulted at the same time as they do. lol

So it's a tricky army to play, but it does quite well as nobody likes having to shoot up stupid gretchin with 3+ saves nor Nobs that walk through most template and pie plate weapons and still have mass power klaws.

There you have it. My take on making the ork gunline stable. Not sure how it would manage against a decent 5th Edition list. It has no mobility outside of the Warbosses on Warbikes and the Warbuggies. I get the impression it plays in a similar fashion to Hybrid Tau... delay the enemy with bubble wraps, cover screens and cock blocking. 

- Stelek in Orks

And from the discussion...

I've had a few people ask why I have warbosses on bikes and meganobz. Two reasons.

The 2 Warbosses give your Meganobz a longer reach than they normally would have because they are slow.

When you fight in CC, Meganobz win combats but can't run anyone down. The warboss lets you run people down by splitting off from the Meganobz before an assault.

- Stelek