TACTICA: Dealing With the 3 Armies of Ork

7 Minute Read

Oct 11 2008

First post for me here, and I decided to go with a little bit of Ork Tactics with the three different army lists you might see when dealing with the Ork Menace. The three common lists you might see when playing in a Tournament are Horde, Battle Wagon Express, or Nob Bikerz/Wazdakka 4000!!. Each has its advantages and disadvantages. I will give a little break down of each army type, a little tactics overview on them, plus a way to neutralize them if you happen to face the army often.

Ork Horde:

The army that most people are used to thinking about when dealing with the green menace. Most people know the list, 6 squads of 30 boyz (shootas/slugga half and half) with 3 rokkits in some and 3 big shootas in others (most of the time I run rokkits with shootas and big shootas with slugga/choppas). Add in a pk nob with a bosspole and you have the basic backbone of the unit. Mix in 2 squads of Lootas plus a Warboss or Warphead plus a Field Carrying Big Mek and you got the overall gist of the army.

Advantages:

Elite armies have a hard time dealing with 170+ models on the board. Smaller armies just can’t put out enough fire to take apart 30 man squads effectively. You also have a really great chance to cover a large amount of the field, so anything deep striking in, will have a hard time sticking to where they want to go, just due to the sheer fact you cover a large amount of surface. You also have huge scoring units, thus allowing you to stick on an objective for the majority of the game. You will also give all the orks behind your main horde a 4+ armor save, thus your lootas will have a great time shooting whatever they want on the field.

Disadvantages:

You will have a hard time to complete the full amount of turns in a game. You will also have the weakness of having to deal with lots of fearless wounds in any combat you “lose”. You can watch 20+ orks eat it quickly in a combat versus any type of true assault unit. A squad of khorne bezerkers should chew through a 30 man ork squad pretty quickly, especially if they charge in. You also have the issue of nothing having a way to deal with Land Raiders. If you see 3 Land Raiders across from you, you better hope you get lucky with your Rokkits. So what does that mean, the new marines are going to be hard to deal with. Sternguard jumping around the board and wounding on 2+ will be an evil unit to deal with. Mix in some Siege dreads and you have a nice way to deal with orks. Daemons are also a nice army that can push out a ton of damage via the assault phase. Soul Grinders are also a pain since you don’t have a whole lot that can go through 13 armor in assault. Also, lots of flamers can really toast a lot of the Ork Army (Eldar Seer Council with Destructors on Jetbikes).

Battle Wagon Express:

You don’t see a lot of this list, due to the fact you had to build 5+ battle wagons and if they weren’t based on GW they will be “illegal” for tournament play. With the new kit coming on the horizon you might see this list come out of the woodworks, depending on what is ruled on the whole deff rolla situation (do they hit vehicles?). 5 Battle Wagons, two squads of Nobz with all the goodies, a big mek with field, warboss, 3 20 man boyz squads, and other random goodies (trukks, storm boyz, etc).

Advantages:

When you have 5, 14 armor vehicles bearing down on you, all with a 4+ cover save, it can be a really hard thing for some armies to deal with. Mix that in with some extremely hard hitting assault units, plus a vehicle the is pouring out d6 auto hitting s10 hits and you have something that can be really scary. You will also have an extremely fast army to play, so you will most likely finish all your games when you have 5+ vehicles on the board. You can also sit on an objective with an heavy vehicle that will take a nice amount of punishment before it goes down in a big ball of smoke.

Disadvantages:

As with any vehicle heavy army, you can just eat it to lucky shooting. “How many 6’s can you roll?” Is something you will hear from time to time. Plus you are also losing the advantage of out numbering a foe 4 to 1, if you have everyone sitting in a big bomb for the most part. Also gun line armies will love you, as you have a low shooting at model count. Yeah, you ignore half of them, but if you have 15+ guns that can take you down, shooting at you, some of your boyz are going to be eating it. Also, with your vehicles being open topped, Nids with Venom Cannons are going to love shooting at you with their strength 10 make a Mek Boy cry gun. Gun line marines are going to be fine if they rule that deff rollas don’t hit vehicles, if they do, well your LR’s will explode pretty quickly, but any of your melta stuff should take out a few BW.

Ork Biker Army:

You might see this from time to time. Either Nob Bikerz or just a bunch of bikes mixed with Wazdakka. The list I throw around with in 4th was 20 nob bikerz mixed with Warbosses and Snikrot. The changes in fifth and how the game is won and lost, have changed up the army a bit, but it is still a hard unit to deal with.

Advantages:

Nob bikerz are extremely hard to deal with. And with the new wound allocation, it takes a lot of firing to even take one guy out, even with double strength weapons. Shooting Lascannons at the sqaud, just take the wounds on your warboss. He can’t feel no pain it, but he sure as hell can shrug it off. Also add in that you have a save versus almost anything. 4+/3+ cover, 4+ normal armor, 5+ cybork, 4+ feel no pain makes for a sad opponent. Mixing in the fact that this unit is also scoring and you got a scary army to try and deal with. It is also one of the few units that can effectively deal with LR’s due to the sheer amount of power klaws that run around the board. 4+ in each squad plus the warboss. Also this army is extremely fast to play and you will always have time to get something to eat even with the slowest opponent. If you want to shoot, you have an extremely anti horde gun in the dakka gun. 10+ TWL 18 inch range big shootas is nothing to sneeze at. The killpoint mission is also a moot point, as you have at least 5 to 6 kill points to give up.

Disadvantages:

Templates. Lots and lots of templates can take out this army. Anything str 8 or higher is a threat that the army has to deal with instantly or face a quick defeat. Also mix in with a 5+ objective mission, and you only have a way to get 2 of them and contest another. Another disadvantage is versus the BW army, as any of those deff rollas hit, any failed 4+ is a blown up Nob. With marines, Sternguard will be hard to deal with, as well as a dreadnought and any high strength power weapon units. Tons and tons of shooting that wounds easily can but a severe dent in your army. With the lack of models, any failed saves is just a huge dent in any mission as well as giving you a chance to fail a leadership test and run away.

So what do I play personally? I play a mixed horde/biker list. I like the advantages a horde army gives you with any objective based mission, plus I enjoy an extremely hard hitting assault unit that can pour out the damage as well as take it. Here is my current list I have painted up. I’m still finishing up another 90 ork boyz, to allow me to have a fun horde army to cover my local tables. I doubt I will play it in a tournament, as it can be a pain to push around that many dorks on the field.

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HQ: Warboss, bike, cybork, pk, bosspole, attack squig, combit skorcha
HQ: Big Mek, shokk attack gun, 3 ammo runts (it is fun!)
Troops: Nobz (8), PK (4), Pain boy, waagh banner, bosspole, bikes, cybork
Troops: Shoota boyz (29), Rokkits (3), Nob, PK, Bosspole
Troops: Shoota boyz (29), Rokkits (3), Nob, PK, Bosspole
Troops: Slugga/Choppa (29), Rokkits (3), Nob, PK, Bosspole
Elites: Lootas (15)
Fast Attack: Deff Koptas (5), TWL Rokkits

Scoring: 4, Killpoints: 8 Total: 2000

I like the amount of rokkits I throw around, so rhinos and light vehicles are not as much of a threat. Mix that with the long range of Lootas and I have a nice advantage versus Eldar and any dreadnought I might see across the table. The Deff Koptas are just there as a nuisance and as a way to be thrown in front of unit to provide a nice meat shield to pull an assault away or keep an assault unit out of the deadly 6 inch barrier to one of the larger boy squads.

And as a nice side note, here is some new Daemon art I was doodling up.

If you have any questions about the list or want to know more, shoot me an email. And again, the link below takes you to my art and miniature commission site.

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Author: Thomas / Goatboy

Thomas Reidy, aka Goatboy, the ever-evil member of BoLS. I do arts, play 40k, and even paint a lot of stuff. I have been playing Warhammer 40K since the 1990s, and have won multiple national events including Adepticon and GW GTs. I've been writing for BoLS for 15 years. Look at my Instagram to see what I am working on - or working on for someone. I am always doing something hobby related.

Orks Tactics Warhammer 40k