# Starter Ork Taktiks



## War_Ape

Hello All,

After much thought I have decided to postpone the formation of my Imperial Guard army and go for an Ork Waaagh!!! I have the new codex and have read through it, but unfortunately I'm still rather unfamiliar with ork tactics and builds other than the Horde, Mek/Dakka, and Speed Freak archetypes.

I would really appreciate any advice some older vets could tell me about starting an ork army, be it either basic tactics or good unit choices and builds. Since I'm just starting out, I ask that the emphasis of the advice be geared toward lower point games.

Thanks for the help :biggrin:


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## Culler

Bigger is better. Getting the most models possible into a unit is generally the best plan so you can use mob rule. Elite or costly units are an exception. 
Shootas are fantastic. If you've got your boyz on foot, shootas are the way to go. If you've got them in trukks, slugga boyz are usually better. Nobs in boyz squads should generally have powerklaws and bosspoles. Some make arguments for the big choppa, but I think it's a waste of time generally. Even shoota boyz can throw enough normal attacks to make even MCs take some wounds, but the klaw lets you reliably kill characters, MCs, marines, tanks, and things like plague marines that the boyz have trouble dragging down on their own. Just make sure the nob is in assist with several boyz or stuck in nice and tight so that even after your opponent removes casualties from the boyz, your nob will get his attacks.

Big Meks should have either a KFF or a SAG. Any big mek not including one of those is a waste.
Warboss with warbike, attack squig, PK, and cybork body is an awesome character. He can seriously wreck some stuff if you're careful.

Other than that, it's mostly up to you to determine how you want to run your force. The 3 basic options are horde, mechanized, or warbiker army. The best setup IMO is horde with fast options. I personally use 2 30-man shoota mobs and a mob of 10 warbikers with my warboss as the skeleton of my force. Stormboyz and nob bikers also work for the fast element, but warbikers are disgustingly shooty and very tough. I support them with lootas and big gunz. A unit of Snikrot-led Kommandos gives me the ability to stop crisis where they arise somewhat or ambush fire support units or tanks from the rear. My army functions sort of like the hammer and anvil, with my shootas constantly coming on, my warbikers hitting flanks hard, and the kommandos tightening the noose.

I don't like mechanized ork armies personally, but others swear by them. Trukks just go down too easily even with ramshackle, 12 orks is not a very effective unit, and the trukk's cost significantly reduces your force size (generally costing 6 boyz per trukk). Also, when you face other quick assault-oriented armies, the trukks don't really do anything for you.

Also, I love the shokk attack gun. It directly adds its points to the hilarity of your games. I call it 'the lulz cannon', and for good reason. You've got to have a sense of humor about it though due to its randomness. At the very least it's the only gun with ap 2 in my army and it's a blast so it can take out terminators and MEQs. Sometimes it slaughters your MEQ and TEQ foes, sometimes it kills the bearer instantly and all nearby (only had that happen on the first round once though). My experiences with it thus far are a bunch of 7s and 9s, some 5s, a 3, a 4, a double 3, a double 6 that scattered to miss the recently deepstriked terminators almost completely (nailed them with a str 7 next turn though that wiped out the rest :victory, and 3 double 1s. 2 of the double ones were the shot after taking out a unit of thousand sons though.

Orks are great for piles of dice and as the most random race in 40k, plenty of random hilarity. The single best ork tactic? Roll with it, and have fun with the randomness.


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## War_Ape

Thanks for the in-depth response, Culler. Now I hope that I can apply your advice and come up with at least a basic list to start off with.


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## Culler

No problem, I'm happy to help. When you've got an army list together put it up in that section.

As far as advanced ork tactics there aren't many unique to them. Blocking LoS to a small unit of orks (burnas, nobs, etc.) with 3 killer kans and having a big mek with a KFF behind them as well to protect the kans is an interesting tactic. I wouldn't say an overly effective one though. Maybe if you had a 30-man shoota mob on either side that were also getting the KFF it might work alright, but it's extremely costly, inflexible, and those armor 11 kans aren't going to last long, even with half the hits becoming glances. Effective ork tactics are all about unit selection, deployment, and strategy. Make sure you know how all 3 are going to go down before finishing your list.


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## apple jacks

I tried that kan thing twice, it was pretty effective against eldark: the sak gun killed a squad of ten necrons in one turn.


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## TheMotivesOfMan

There is one other army type you can run with orks that most people dont really think about, and that shooty orks. boatloads of shoota boyz backed up by lootas, an SAG mek with a min size grot squad to act as ablative wounds (he seems to get blasted a lot once your opponent sees what that gun just did to his termies ) and battlewagons with killlkanons with a KFF mek in one protecting the other one/two. Shootas in those have better los, nice protection inside, and add the nice ap 3 pie plates. 

Rolling foreward at 6'' a turn, firing the killkannons at anything that sticks their head out, the shootas picking off other targets until they get into assault range, then they hop out and start to krump eads. 57 shoota boyz with 3 pk nobs is nothing to sneeze at, and those battlewagons can take huge amounts of punishment with that KFF protecting them. 

Meanwhile the lootas are in the back, fragging things such as dreads, rhinos Falcons, wraithlords, glancing tanks, basically taking out as much of your opponents anti-tank capability as they can to ensure the battlewagons stick around. The SAG mek with his longer range is busy killing the other guy's long range anti-tank/hard infantry, such as Devastators/termies and anything that pose a threat to the lootas, cause they cant take much before they get up and run. Just dont stick the big mek into a unit of lootas! Seems like a good idea at first, but they are built to shoot different targets, and when the SAG mek inevitably blows himself up/teleports himself and the squad, those lootas are goin with him!

For variety and general hillarity, add some deffkoptas with bomms and rokkits. if you're going first, scout move them foreward and either turboboost over some troops to drop the bomms, or move up the flank to possibly hit vehicles on their side/rear armor. If you go second, you can still do this, but they might get shot up before you can do anything with them. Might try outflanking instead, to definitaly hit rear armor and generally be a huge pain in the ass behind enemy lines.

might not be as competitive as horde or fast armies, but its hella entertaining  Orks outshooting ToF lists! lawlz.


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## Cleodog1

Waaaaaaagh!!!!!! I just use huge amount of boys w/ nobz and some good elites like mega nobz lootas and tankbustas. I have defeated space marines with that


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## Culler

Sweet mother of Gork is this an old thread.


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## reedschel

ork nobs with power klaws on bikes


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## airque

ork nobs with power claws and bikes is a good idea


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## Cato Sicarius

Culler said:


> Sweet mother of Gork is this an old thread.


Indeed. Accidental threadomancy by Cleodog, methinks.


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## Kayl

Hey everyone, me and my bro just got black reach, I went with the space marine and am going with Black Templars. I've already got the Emperor's Champion, but I was just wondering if anyone could suggest of how to start constructing an amy?

Suggest other forums, blogs, vids what ever.

Thanks everyone!


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## shufflingeveryday

*Waaaagh!*

What i have learned is in smaller battles, ork boyz in numbers easily overwhelm the enemy, and accompanied with a warboss and some nobz, orks will dominate! When fighting larger battles, throwing some bikers or tukks in to aid your army ihaave found to be quite successful! The faster you get to the enemy in assault, the better.


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