Rebuilding the Junk

Another attempt by Stelek to unlock the Ork codex. The first attempt can be found here. This is what he came up with after two previous goes at it...

Howdy,

So I had some time to really 'think' about what I fear from Orks.

Well, there isn't a whole hell of a lot with the majority of builds, but I figured what the hell can't hurt to rework ze Orks one more time, see if I could really come up with something I'd be scared of.

Well, I did. I think run properly, this list is really the Best Orks can do.

Now I'll explain why Orks have such a problem.

Everyone uses several builds.

Kans.

Battlewagons.

Lots of guns.

Problem is, they don't really stick anything into anyone's face that's scary enough to distract enemy fire from turn 3 threats.

Having a huge assault range is cute, until there's nothing to kill but some cheap transports.

Orks tend to break then.

What's worse is, Orks have only one realistic answer to several of the nasty units in the game like Thunder Hammer Termies, Honor Guard, SM Command Squads on Bikes, Seer Councils--they all hurt Orks badly.

The usual Ork response has been to bring more and more concentrated units of Nobz, mass Kans, and/or super characters, usually Ghazzy, to deal with them (or to bring more Battlewagons, ugh).

Hey, all of those things cost points--and they don't stop enemies from smashing your face in anyway. Seriously, FNP is great. A 5+ invulnerable? Marines got a 3+ invulnerable because a 4+ or 5+ just isn't good enough.

So you have to assume you'll do limited damage to such units and must instead deal with them the way everyone else does. Not by sacrificing 500 points of Nobs to torrent them to death with Power Klaw attacks, hey anyone can do that. lol You still lose most, if not all, of your unit in return. Then get blown up. Really, it's not a good trade.

So instead, you should not worry about power fists and the like. They are going to insta-kill you anyway, even with a crummy 5+ invulnerable save. Give the Space Marine player a hug if he has wasted points on Power Fists. There are very few units that should be carry them. Unless you don't get Combat Tactics like Black Templars.

What you should focus on is a simple concept: How can Orks put enough threats down on the table to force people to deal with the wrong threat, whether they want to or not? Put enough targets on the board and your opponent will eventually make the wrong priority target choice.

No, being an unbalanced army isn't going to work.

You need to maximize what abilities you DO have.

Which means, beating down horde units (easily doable) and crushing face on small units (like combat squad Marines).

No, you don't really want to fight people in CC--and you don't want to be overpoweringly good in CC that regular non-CC units won't come anywhere near you. That's bad, because unlike say TWC Dogstars...you can't go very far once your Battlewagon dies.

So let's see if we can amalgamate my Ork ideas into a reworked 'Best Of' list.

Unlike many other armies, spamming one kind of unit (Battlewagons, Nobz, Kans, etc) results in weakness for Orks. You are too reliant on inherently unreliable units.

Sure, you *can* spam lots of units...but going second, or facing an army like my Space Wolves--well, you're in serious trouble and there's really no easy way out.

So here we go:

2000 Pts - Codex: Orks Roster

Notes: So, let's see what problems we've solved.

We have a scout unit.

We have a unit that can zoom up and immediately threaten the enemy if not killed immediately (the Bikers led by the Warboss).

There is decent fire support in the Lootas, Buggies, and Kans.

There are 4 craptastically bad troops units (the Grots) you usually have to kill, but who will spend the game in cover and hope you shoot don't shoot them them as Lord knows firing at guys with 3+ cover saves who cost 3 points is just stupid, and normally you roll up and assault/flamer/bolter them to death; but when you aren't able to roll up because the Orks are everywhere...well, that's bad news then as those units are suddenly going to be taking objectives. Shooting at them doesn't really help much as they have a re-rollable LD7. Not awesome by any means, but fairly reliable.

Instead of 2 Nobz units to scare Marines with, you have 2 Nobz and 2 Kans squads. If they don't have a serious CC unit around to beat your face in, they aren't going to be bravely running at you. Instead they should use delay tactics while shooting their priority targets.

You still have 2 Battlewagons with Rollas and a KFF mek aboard, and a 2nd Nob squad outfitted much like the first.

Just forget about your shitty invulnerable saves. Go with GOOD invulnerable saves. Since you don't have them, all you need to do is remember your Nob squads are not extremely powerful and are there to crunch enemy units down then hide in cover until another element of the army can bail them out. Or they die. ;)

While it's not a huge amount of shooting, it's what I call "just enough". Hell even the Nobz have a couple Rokkits, not because they reliably do anything...but because they MIGHT do something. Knowing your vehicle might get popped means you play the guys inside differently. Nobody wants small 5 man squads of Marines or 10 man squads of IG to get assaulted by freaking Nobz. lol Not even squads with minimal gear like these. They will still beat your face in. Sadly, one is a troop unit so you'll have to kill it even if you don't want to.

2 Lootas, 2 Buggy squads, 1 Deffkopta squad, and 2 Kan units isn't overwhelming firepower, but all of it is protected by 4+ cover saves. It's still 16 things that need to be shot at by heavy weapons, that's what Orks do well so might as well go with it. They are all BS of 2... so don't expect many things to die from shooting.

This is a list I fear, because frankly there are lots of targets to deal with--and they are the targets I don't want to see in an Ork army. Kans, Buggies, Lootas, Nobz, Rolla-Wagons, Deffkoptas, Biker Nobz, KFF, Biker Boss, and stupid freaking Grots everywhere.

Well, that's the list I worry about--it has the tools to deal with just about anything, and while I wager all the Ork players will come out of their Battle Fortresses to decry it, you'll just have to take my word for it: I'm scared of this, and not scared of everything else you bring.

- Stelek in Orks: Rebuilding the Junk Take 3 from 21st of August, 2010