Warhammer 40,000/7th Edition Tactics/Orks

This page is in need of cleanup. Srsly. It's a fucking mess.

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This is the previous Edition's Ork "tactics". The 8th Edition Tactics are here while the 6th Edition Tactics are here.

Why Play Orks

WAAAGH!

Because you want to be a hulking, green, English football hooligan with a machine gun, and you like beating people upside the head with said machine gun, while yelling at the top of your lungs. Joking aside, da Orks are one of the easiest armies to learn Warhammer 40k with, and everybody will love you for playing them. Seriously, everyone loves Orks.

But here is a fair warning. Don't let the simple starter games against a friend or a "friendly" store manager fool you; this army is easy to learn but hard to master at a competitive level, and an Ork army is a punch in the wallet once you start racking up models. Most of your units are not point effective and are relatively slow, so you have to plan multiple turns ahead to do anything against armies that can outmaneuver you or just shoot you down before you reach your goal. It has one the wonkiest codices in the 7th edition of 40k, and don't let any one who sells models convince you otherwise, even if they show you the fancy new Gorkonaut or some other expensive kit that "will win you games".

Pros and Cons

"It's a right an' proppa Orky distraction now, boss!"

Pros

• WAAAGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

• High Model Count, seriously. You can compete with Tyranids for being able to put the most models on the board and still be effective

• Scratch Buildability. The fluff for Orks is intentionally setup in such a way that you can get away with basically anything. From Looted Carnifexes counting as Gorkanauts, to The Entire Collection of all the Cars from Mad Max rendered as Ork Trukks. You can safely look at every faction in the entire game, and just think of ways you can steal their shit to use as yours.

• Everyone will love you for playing Orks. Seriously, Ork Players are universally loved at FLGS's for being fun to play against and totally awesome.

• Lots of awesome and hilarious fluff. While other codices paint Orks in a bad light, Orks, in reality, simply fight to have fun and may or may not break various scientific laws in order to do it. It also can be interpreted various ways, so making a backstory for your army is easy and fun. In fluff terms, Orks are the one faction with the brightest future. There's only war? Thanks, Boss.
• What with the Ork codex being decidely competitively subpar at the moment (more on that below), it is rather easy to find Ork armies and bits at cheap prices.

• Tying in with the point below, Orks have perhaps the best heavy support options of any faction in the game, and their fast attack options aren't bad either. Only two units are overpriced (and even then, only one is dramatically overpriced.) and all of them have very good usage; Killa Kans are the bane of Tau Fire Warriors (and really any gunline army), Mek Gunz are a very cheap way to get a lot of anti-vehicle, anti-air, and anti-infantry firepower on the board, and Lootas are 14 point psuedo-autocannons (you have to roll to determine the number of shots each time, and can be 1-3 per unit). That's not even mentioning ork warbikers, deffkoptas, dakkajets, or Gorkonauts/Morkonauts.

• Da big gunz neva tire! Outside of the Death Korps of Krieg Siege Regiment the Orks have the most artillery type units in the game and if you like this type of unit then the orks are the only way to play outside of forge world.

• As mentioned previously, Orks are very easy to learn (but not that easy to master). Far less special rules than most armies, basic Troops and HQs, and simple tactics: run Boyz up to enemy, krump, and go home. On the flip side, there's a huge variety of units and playstyles that players can use. Trukk Shoota Boyz, Nob Bikerz, Looted Wagon/Loota gunline, among many others. However, when you step into the optimised competitive category, your boyz start to struggle and it's up to your generalship as da big kunnin' boss to smash all da overbuffed umiez. Ye better be a sneaky kommando.

• Fun to paint with a lot of variety and actually a good army to learn how to paint if you want to learn to paint well: lots of big muscles to learn how to paint flesh, lots of big orky heads to learn how to paint faces, lots of opportunities to paint different materials like leather and scratched / rusted / damaged metal. Even in an army that's composed mostly of boyz, you'll have a lot of opportunities to pick a central color scheme but largely paint squad by squad and individual by individual as you want without having one model that sticks out, because they're all intentionally ragtag. Compare that to a squad of marines where you decided to paint one git's shoulder pads a different shade of red...

Cons

• Extremely point inefficient. The rest of the tactica goes into better detail about this, but every model in the entire codex costs almost double the points of similar models and options in other codices, and yet performs less. A great example of this is the Random Strength Guns, costing 50 points, and being roughly equivalent to a plasma cannon that costs only 15.. Furthermore, all of your heavy weapons suffer dramatically from a piss-poor Ballistic Skill, meaning the intrinsic value they add to your list is drastically lower than they would be in the hands of something like a Space Marine.

• Among the worst codices in the entire game. This is for a variety of reasons: lack of low AP weapons outside of Power Klaws, overpriced units (Flash Gits), many of your units will die by being breathed on and only a single now outdated and discontinued IA, leaving nearly all our forgeworld models as paperweights or at best proxies. Statlines and special rules have hardly changed even as their worth has diminished incredibly. Note: Furious Charge used to give +1 initiative as well as +1 strength.

• High model count. Even if you try to keep your numbers low, you have to have at least 40+ Boyz in order to stay competitive. Lots of time and effort must be put into painting and putting them together like Imperial Guard and Chaos Daemons. Plus it's a total hassle to put them on the table and move them, basically making Trukks an Battlewagons a must.

• Special characters are not special at all. Mad Dok and Grukk are underwhelming, while specialized characters like Zagstruk or Badrukk are basically buffed Nobs in their respective units. Vanilla Warboss or Big Mek usually suffice for whatever needs you have.

Sources

Orks are one of the armies that have a lot of sources to choose from, far more than just their current codex. This is great since it offers more flexibility and a great way for players to make their own unique army, but this also has its downsides. The biggest one is that is is sometimes hard to find the most current rules for the models; the other is that it is easy to miss out on some great rules, or even use the older rules by mistake. This section is here to help you find the things that you need. The sources listed also make great inspiration for scratch building and converting interesting-sounding units.

Here is a table of each of the sources, also used in the (____)'s for reference keeping. They are sorted chronologically (newest on top):

In print

• Codex Orks 7th edition - The current official Codex for Orks, and the first Codex to drop in 7th Edition.
• WAAAGH Ghazghkull - Released together with the 7th Ork Codex, which it supplements. Offers different Warlord traits, formations, equipment, and a slightly altered Mob Rule, among other things.

• • WAAAGH Ghazghkull Re-release: Differs from the older book by replacing the force organization chart with a decurion-like detachment instead. Also, alters the wording on some rules to allow for army flexibility. As per the new FAQ, the older edition of WAAAGH! Ghazghkull's unique FOC and Green Tide formations are still usable and valid even though they were not reprinted in the updated decurion edition.
• White Dwarf 21 (21st June 2014) - Released towards the beginning of the 7th edition. Contains the entry for the Looted Wagon that was taken out of the 7th Edition Ork Codex. The issue is no longer be available in stores, but digital copies can be found on Black Library or floating around the web. The Looted Wagon dataslate was released for free on the Warhammer 40,000 Facebook page on June 30th.

• Sanctus Reach: Hour of the Wolf - A starter set and a campaign that featured Orks, Ork missions, and Ork formations.

• Sanctus Reach: The Red Waaagh!

• Sanctus Reach: Stormclaw (Box Set)

• Escalation - It is still for sale but all rules in it are outdated. The reason why this is mentioned is because FW released a update for it with relevant rules in it.

• Warhammer 40,000: Apocalypse 2013 - GW's most recent Apocalypse book ( notice it was written in 6th but is still for sale ) The Ork units in this book are split between the normal entries and the campaign part of the book (Warzone Armageddon). It's really easy to miss the second part, but it contains some interesting units, such as the Famous Big Mek Stompa.

• Imperial Armour Apocalypse 2013 - Contains some updated units, mostly from Imperial Armour 8. The go-to book to field an Ork Superheavy. Not to be confused with the standard Warhammer 40,000: Apocalypse book, above.
• Imperial Armour Aeronautica - Contains some very niche Ork units, as well as the Flakka Dakka Trukk.

Out of print, these books are no longer for sale and are all released in previous editions. They are mentioned because some players and tournaments make use of them

• 6th Edition Dread Mob Update - While the Dread Mob list is apparently dead and will no longer be updated, the units within the update for it (eg Gun Trukks, Grot Tanks) can still be freely taken within a Codex: Orks army. Find it free on the Forgeworld site here [1]. The ITC still uses this document, and has written its own errata for it. They call it a FAQ but it involves major rule updates and some unusual rule interpretations, including the famous discount Stompa.

• Imperial Armour 8 - Written for the 5th edition. It featured all FW Ork models and even had rules for things that did not have models. This used to be the alternative source for Ork rules. It is no longer for sale. Some of the units have been updated in more recent publications, but many have not. Like many other Imperial Armour books, it was awesome.

General Rules

• 'Ere We Go: Orks may re-roll one die when determining charge distance. This is a very good rule, potentially changing a 2" charge to a 7" one. Literally every unit in the Codex besides vehicles and Grots have this rule. There is a table demonstrating your odds of rolling at least a target number with and without the rule, assuming you, like a sane person, always choose to reroll the smaller die when you fail to make a charge. If you simply want to roll as high as possible, re-roll the smaller die if and only if the smaller die is 3 or less; this will increase your average charge distance from 7.5" to 8.139" (8 and 5/36 inches).

Charge Distances Comparison

Rule	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12
Base	100.00%	97.22%	91.67%	83.33%	72.22%	58.33%	41.67%	27.78%	16.67%	08.33%	02.78%
'Ere We Go	100.00%	99.54%	98.15%	94.91%	89.35%	80.56%	68.06%	52.31%	35.65%	19.91%	07.41%

• Mob Rule: No longer does having more Boyz necessarily make them less likely to run away, if you fail a morale or pinning check you get to roll another D6.
  • 1 Born to Fight:' The unit fails the check as normal, unless it is locked in combat in which case it counts as passing instead. This result can lead to a single resilient boy staying stuck in against even a bloodthirster, but is obviously useless when getting shot at. Waaagh Ghazghkull has a way to avoid rolling this, at the price of making the other options worse.
  • 2-3 Breaking Heads: If the unit contains a character (or independent character) it takes some extra S4 hits as the boss knocks lumps out of his buddies, but then the unit counts as passing the check. If there is no character, the squad fails the original morale check as normal. If there are only characters, then they auto-pass without doling out wounds.
  • 4+ Squabble: If the unit contains 10 or more models, the unit knocks lumps out of itself as if it contained a character; otherwise, they fail the check as normal.
    • Note: Although the codex says "4-6," it may as well read "4+" due to the FAQ ruling for Waaagh Ghazgkull that "rolls above 6 count as 6."

• Waaagh! Available on Warbosses and Ghazghkull only, but can be given to others with the Prophet of the Waaagh! Warlord Trait. Once per game, all Orks in your army may declare Assaults even on the turn that they run. Not terribly bad, since it will allow your army to close the gap surprisingly quickly.

Powers of da Waaagh!

Overview

Available to Weirdboyz. Naturally, every Ork psychic power except for two is meant to destroy things loudly and spectacularly, and two of those five are AP 2; the Powers of da Waaagh are not subtle. This makes using Weirdboys fairly predictable if you're planning on running them as "another gun" to round out your army. Da Jump is fairly gimmicky, but Warpath can give a mob that extra boost right before it charges.

Powers of da Waaagh!

Number	Name	Type	Range	Target	Description	Charges
Primaris	Frazzle	Witchfire	24	Unit	Range Type S AP Special Rules 24 Assault 1 6 3 Blast A reliable Marine killer. Strictly better than Psionic Blast, at +1S compared to it, and therefore also strictly better than The Emperor's Wrath, at +1S and +6" range.	1
1	'Eadbanger	Witchfire (Focused) (Profileless)	24	Model	Range Type S AP Special Rules 24 Assault 1 - 2 Ignores Cover Model hit must pass a Toughness test or suffer a wound with no armour or cover saves allowed. Haemorrhage and Blood Boil both inflict *two* tests at 18" (and Blood Boil ignores invuln saves), followed by propagated damage, and Rancid Visitation only hits at 12" but is a Nova (all enemy units in range are hit, can hit units locked in combat) and propagates damage; the benefit of 'Eadbanger is that those other powers are WC2 and this one is WC1, but its output is much less than half as good. Try to avoid getting this power if you can; Frazzle will serve you much better, in particular.	1
2	Warpath	Blessing	Self	Unit	All models in the Weirdboy's unit that have the 'Ere We Go! special rule gain +1 Attack.	1
3	Da Jump	Blessing	Self	Unit	Deep Strike the Weirdboy's unit anywhere. Strictly worse than Gate of Infinity; if you roll doubles on scatter, your unit can only Snap Fire for a turn. Given standard Ork accuracy, this is not all that bad of a problem, as long as you don't need to fire blasts. Use at your own peril. Great at setting up Killbolt or Power Vomit, if you roll one of them.	2
4	Killbolt	Witchfire	18	Unit	Range Type S AP Special Rules 18 Assault 1 10 2 Beam For killing tanks or things in straight lines...no other special rules needed to make this nastier.	2
5	Power Vomit	Witchfire	Template	Unit	Range Type S AP Special Rules Template Assault 1 7 2 Template A psychic flamer. Quite powerful.	2
6	Da Krunch	Witchfire	24	Unit	Range Type S AP Special Rules 24 Assault 1 2D6 4 Large Blast, Barrage The mighty foot of Gork (or possibly Mork) descends from the heavens in the form of a large blast barrage. If the Strength rolled is higher than 10, the foot comes down again...and again...until less than 10 Strength is rolled or the target is dead.	2

Warlord Traits

1. Prophet of the Waaagh!: The Warlord gains the Waaagh! special rule. If the Warlord already has the Waaagh! special rule then, in addition to the usual effects, all friendly models with the ’Ere We Go! special rule gain the Fearless special rule when he calls a Waaagh! until the start of their next turn. Ghazghkull, understandingly, comes standard with this.
2. Bellowing Tyrant: The Warlord, and all friendly units with the Orks Faction within 12″ of him, re-roll failed Morale checks and Pinning tests. Zagstruk and Grukk have this.
3. Like a Thunderbolt!: The Warlord, and all friendly units with the Orks Faction within 12″ of him, can re-roll all the dice when determining Run moves or charge range.
4. Brutal but Kunnin’: The Warlord can re-roll one failed To Hit or To Wound roll each turn. Mad Dok Grotsnik comes with this.
5. Kunnin’ but Brutal: The Warlord can re-roll one failed armour or invulnerable saving throw each turn. Not as good as Brutal but Kunnin' since you will never lack To Hit and To Wound rolls but you will always lack Invulnerable saves. Not too bad if you got a mega-boss, he'll be that much harder to kill. Kaptin Badrukk has this as standard (fitting, as he has both a 3+ save and a 5+ invo save).
6. Might is Right: The Warlord receives +1 to the Strength characteristic on his profile. Strangely useless in a lot of situations, since +1 Strength isn't doing much good when your Power Klaw is already making you S10, and if you don't have a Warboss HQ, then you have one that should be avoiding the front lines. Great for an 'eadwoppa boss tho.

Wing Leaders

In Death from the Skies' second edition, you now have a bonus rule allowing you to roll on the Wing Leader chart for each of your flier wings. This is a free upgrade for all wings. With Orks you'll use the Mekboss Wing Leaders table if the Ork Wing Leader pilots a Wazbom Blastajet, and the Flyboss table if the leader pilots anything else.

Mekboss Wing Leaders table

1. Supa-rangefinda - +6" for the flyer's weapons. Nice one, Dakka even further.
2. More Killier! - +1 weapon Strength. not life-saver, but not bad either.
3. More Dakka! - Boss plane's weapons fire one more shot (except for one use stuffs). A dual-shooting Tellyport Mega Blasta is great. A triple shooting Blasta in the WAAGH's turn is even better.

Flyboss Wing Leaders table

1. Ablative Armour Plates - +2 armour until the first glancing/penetrating hit. Usually anti-air has no problem punching it straight through, but offers some protection against massed bolter or pulse rifle fire.
2. Extra shooty - roll on the Mekboss table. Contrary to the Mekboy's stuffs, who got already high-powered weapons, this can give hilarious results: S7 supa shootas, S6 firebombz and skorcha missiles, S8 boombombz. Or dakkajets with 15 shots on Waagh turn.
3. Blessings of Gork (or Possibly Mork) - Ignore Hull-point loss on a 5-6. Not a big deal, since you'll still suffer the effects of a penetrating hit, but might keep your plane in the air a bit longer.

Tactical Objectives

Being the first Codex made for 7E, the Ork Codex gets several Tactical Objectives available only for Orks in the Maelstrom of War missions. These can replace the normal Capture & Control Tactical Objectives generated by the other armies.

Codex: Orks

• 11 - More Dakka: Win 1 VP for destroying a unit by shooting.
• 12 - Get 'Em Boss!: 1 VP when the Warlord kills an enemy in a challenge. If he kills an enemy Warlord, he wins d3 VP.
• 13 - Stomp 'Em Boyz!:1 VP if you kill an enemy unit during assault. If you kill at least 3, you get d3 VP. If you kill more than 6 enemies, you get d3+3 VP.
• 14 - More Speed! Go Fasta! 1 VP if three Ork units Turbo-Boost, Flat-Out, or run 6".
• 15 - Grab Da Loot!: Roll a d6. If you control the objective marker equal to that result, you get 1 VP. (i.e. roll a 5 on the d6, control Objective #5, get 1 VP)
• 16 - 'Ere We Go! WAAAGH!: Win 1 VP if you charged an enemy over 10" before modifiers. If you do this 3 times, you get d3 VP.

These are fun and fluffy, but not really good when you look at them. Controlling an objective can be done by any unit in any turn, while some of these are very situational.

Waaagh! Ghazghkull

• 11 - Get 'em Lad! Waaaagh!: Win 1 VP if at least three of your units made successful charges during your turn.
• 12 - Da bigger dey are...: Mark the enemy model with the most wounds/hullpoints remaining, gain one VP if you kill it.
• 13 - Kunnin' and Brutal: Choose an objective and the enemy chose one of their units, or chose an enemy unit an the opponent chooses a objective, if you control/destroy one of them during your turn, gain 1 VP, if you control/destroy both, gain d3 VP.
• 14 - Dead kunnin': Choose and write down an objective number, tell you opponent the number or lie, if you capture it and lied gain 1 VP, d3VP for the truth.
• 15 - Dead Brutal: Chose a number between 1 and 6, if you kill that many enemy units in a single turn, gain that many VP.
• 16 - Show 'em whos' da Boss!: Win 1 VP if you destroy an enemy character in a challenge.

Orky Know-wots (Wargear and Vehicle Equipment)

Basic Weaponry

Shooty

• Slugga - S4 AP6, 12" pistol. Nothing special. Mostly there to give an extra attack.
• Shoota - Same profile as a slugga but it's 18" and Assault 2. Pathetic in small numbers because of Ork BS2, but when fired en masse by a whole mob of Boyz it can cause a hilarious amount of wounds.
• Big Shoota - S5 AP5, 36", Assault 3. Basically an Orky heavy bolter that can be taken as a special weapon in some units or mounted on vehicles. Just hope you're not just pissing in the wind when you fire it.
• Rokkit Launcha - A S8 AP3 potshot, special weapon for most units or vehicles and standard for Tankbustas. Best when fired in groups.
• Skorcha - Basically a heavy flamer, but we're not complaining
• Kombi-weapons - Ten points nets you a shoota with a one-use rokkit or skorcha, available for Nob units and most HQs. Better than a regular shoota, at least.
• Kustom-mega Weapons - Orky plasma weapons at S8 instead of S7, available to Meks and a few other units. Comes in slugga (plasma pistol), blasta (plasma gun but Assault 1 and not Rapid Fire), and kannon (plasma kannon). Remember that you still have Gets Hot!, so you're just as likely to kill yourself as you are to hit.

Killy

• Choppa - Orky chainsword. Nothing new, but right n'propa.
• Big Choppa - Available to Nobs and HQs, you get a giant Two-Handed S+2 AP5 axe. Because, y'know, an axe the size of three people swung around by a giant green hooligan can't even cut through Scout armor Oi! It ain't da size uv tree orkz! 'Oo yoo kallin' peepul?
• Power Klaw - Your ace in the hole and the weapon you give to your Nobs and Warboss at nearly every opportunity. It's just a Power Fist at Sx2 AP2, Unwieldy, Specialist Weapon, but it's one of your few sources of AP2 weaponry. If your opponent isn't swamped by the loads of attacks that came before, then your Nob with a Power Klaw will typically be the one that cleans up the rest.
• Killsaw - Only available to Meks and Meganobz. A chainfist (Power Klaw w/ Armorbane) in saw-form that can be surprisingly effective at mincing vehicles given the higher number of attacks Orks tend to get.

Unit upgrades

• Ammo Runt - Allows model to reroll one To Hit shooting attack. Nifty on a Big Mek or Flash Gitz
• Attack Squig - Lets model reroll a single melee attack. Nice on a Warboss and not much else. But very expensive and obsolete with Da Lukky Stikk.
• Bosspoles - Bosspoles now allow you to re-roll the D6 result of Mob Rule, though Breaking Heads result cannot be rerolled and will always make a Bosspole bearer resolve the Breaking of the Heads thereof. Nigh on obligatory.
• Cybork Body - FnP (6+). Does not stack with painboyz so it's kinda worthless.
• Gitfinda - If a model with this doesn't move, they get BS3 until the end of the turn. Neat little perk for stationary Meks. Note, Slow And Purposeful doesn't allow you to get this sweet bs3. You need to stay in place regardless.
  • Note that the above definition is exactly correct; RAW, it sets BS to 3, rather than applying a modifier. As set values happen after all other modifiers, this means a Gitfinda renders you immune to other modifiers, such as several maledictions that subtract a value from your BS.
    • While the sequencing rules will help tremendously, expect some disagreement over the result of multiple modifiers that set value, as usual for Gee Dubs.
  • Likewise, if you manage to scrounge up an additive or multiplicative BS buff from somewhere, a Gitfinda will turn it off if used; note that the Gitfinda effect is compulsory on any model that has one.
• Warbike - Twin-linked Dakkaguns and all the rules that normal bikes have. including +1 toughness. Turbo-boosting gives it +1 to cover, which can be combined with Jinking to get an amazing 3+ cover save. It's not like TL Snap Shots really hurt with an Ork's BS 2 anyway! Best thing ever.

Vehicle Upgrades

• 'Ard Case For keeping backfield shooty wagons with killkannons alive. Makes the vehicle no longer open-topped. Used to reperesent your looted rhino.
• Boarding Plank - If a unit disembarks an open-topped vehicle with this, they get +2 to their charge distance. Very good but costs accordingly.
• Reinforced Ram - Allows re-rolling difficult terrain.
• Deffrolla - For Battlewagons only. Serves the same purpose as the Reinforced Ram but in addition deals out d3 S10 AP4 hits if the tank shocked unit makes a Death or Glory attack and fails to destroy the wagon. Pass on it. Nowhere near its old glory. You're better off getting a reinforced ram and wreckin' ball to try and take out enemy armour close range.
• Extra Armour - Even a grot knows what this is! Great on anything that can't afford to spend a turn sitting still. Though, it might be more effective to get a back-up truck for the points spent on this upgrade.
• Grabbin' Klaw - Allows the vehicle to prevent a single enemy vehicle within 2" of the Klaw from moving during their movement phase on a roll of 4+. Flyers and Skimmers may not be targets, however. Used exclusively by the Battlewagon at a meager 5 points, it's worth taking.
• Grot Rigger - These grots now confer It Will Not Die, which definitely adds to survival for vehicles. Fantastic on walkers...if only they didn't suck so hard to begin with.
• Stikkbomb Chukkas - Unit is treated as having stikkbombs when disembarking. Very meh. Note that it counts as a weapon, so the vehicle can fire a stikk bomm at the enemy.
• Red Paint Job - +1 to Flat-Out movement, which is always a plus. Or useless. Depends on how you look at it.
• Wreckin' Ball - A surprise 3" Assault d3 S9 AP4 attack. Gimmicky, but fun if you actually wreck a vehicle with it.

Gifts of Gork & Mork

They are unique, and a model can take only one gift of Gork and Mork. (There seems to be some discussion about this. Don't delete it, read your rulebook again and go to the talk page[2] to discuss why you think this has to be something else if you want to change it )

• Da Finkin Cap: Give your warlord an additional Warlord trait from the Strategic table. With two WTs being unsuitable for Orks, and a third only being useful on certain maps, it's probably for the best to ignore this.
  • Alternative take Are you nuts? This thing is great. Strategic traits are da best. You probably have a reroll on it, and it is dirt cheap. Can really be a huge buff for the entire army for just 10 pts!
• Gazbag's Blitzbike: Bigger bike with S6 AP3 Twin-Linked guns (read the text above the stat line), can turbo boost 18", granting the rider +1 cover save while turbo-boosting. Now you can make your own Wazdakka Gutsmek!
• Da Lucky Stikk: Like a bigger Waaagh banner but does not stack with one. Grants +1 WS to the unit, and allows the bearer to re-roll any to-hits, to-wounds, or saves that he likes! Unfortunately if he fails any three of these rolls (in any combination) in a single turn, the bearer drops down dead and is removed as a casualty. Hilarious for beefing up Slugga and Shoota boy WS, since the HQ carrying this can be attached to literally any infantry unit. And can make your own 2+ re-rollable mega-character. Or 3+ re-rollable cover biker character.
• Headwoppa's Killchoppa: Strength +2, AP5, Rending. To wound rolls of 6 cause instant death (in addition to AP2 from rending). It's pretty goddamn vicious in ways only Genestealers know. However, you're better off with a regular PK most of the time. But still not bad and looks cool.
  • Alternative take This thing is great for taking on monstrous creatures. Get your warboss sat on a warbike and put this in his hands then let him loose towards tervigon and the like and take advantage of our glorious (and surprising to opponents) initiative 4. Get a lucky 6 or two and you can chop their heads off and mount them to your bike before they've even noticed you're there.
• Da Fixer Upperz: Big Meks only; Though the rules say Meks can take it, Meks can't take Gifts of Gork and Mork. Like the Mek's tools, but fixes stuff on 3+, which comes into play especially when involving heavy stuff like Stompas, Orkanauts and Battle Wagons.
• Da Dead Shiny Shoota: Assault 6, Twin-Linked Shoota at a knock down price of only 5 points! If you're not taking any of the pretty damn good selection above this is obligatory. Its downside is that any misses (after the TL reroll) must be rolled again, any 1s hit the closest friendly unit (not your own) within 6", so basically no downside, but a right proper ORKY one.

Unit Analysis

HQ

• Warboss: Any respectable Ork army should have one of these bad boys. The Warboss is a monster in close combat and he's also a tough nut to crack with T5 (T6 on a bike) and 3 wounds. He has a huge wargear selection as well and can fulfill a few different roles in any Ork army. Remember that you need a model with the WAAAGH! special rule to actually be able to call one. The boss has two options for weapon upgrades: The Power Klaw and the Big Choppa. Take the Klaw. Attacks at S10 AP2 are just way too good to pass up. Just keep in mind that you will be attacking last, so remember that before you go running into a challenge only to be killed before you can rip him apart. The Big Choppa could be a decent alternative, as S8 attacks on the charge is nothing to scoff at and it costing only five points, but apparently a gigantic chainsaw axe being swung by a very pissed-off hulking green brute can't go through decent armour unless it's the chaos berzerker version.. The thing's only S +2, AP 5. Compared to Klaw's ded killy S x2 AP 2.
  • 'Eadwoppa's Killchoppa finds it's home here, as getting to use the full initiative of a warboss with the potentials for rending and instant-death might make it a viable alternative over the standard klaw. If you know your opponent has lots of Monstrous Creatures, 'eadwoppas truly shines.
  • Mega armor grants a 2+ armor save to the boss and gives him a Power Klaw, Twin-Linked Shoota, and Slow and Purposeful, all for 40 points. Definitely worth the cost. He does great with a unit of either Nobz or Meganobz in a Battlewagon, leading a huge mob of Shoota Boyz on foot in a Green Tide army, or letting a squad of 15 Lootas fire at full BS while moving with Slow and Purposeful while tanking any hits. Combined with Da Lucky Stikk (and only using it to re-roll armour saves) the bearer is effectively invincible to non AP2 weaponry - chances of failing a 2+ save with a re-roll are 1 in 36.

• Big Mek: A versatile HQ less suited to direct combat, the Big Mek's role in an army is largely defined by one of two upgrades he's able to take, the Shokk Attack Gun or Kustom Force-Field, described below. While he's no slouch in close combat (he's a Nob with respect to his stat-line), his expensive upgrades usually mean you should keep him away from a direct fight if possible. Note that he'll have only one Close-Combat Weapon, but can take the Big Choppa for a meager 5 points.
  • Shokk Attack Gun - Hoo boy, this thing is a doozy. We have an Ordinance pieplate at AP2 where you have to roll 2d6 for the Strength. However, if you roll a double you'll have to consult a table to see what happens, most of the results being pretty bad. But overall it's not a bad weapon; an AP2 pieplate at any strength is nothing to scoff at, and at even S4 its capable of evaporating Space Marines. Recommened to be paired with either Grots as cheap meatshields or Lootas for a pretty nasty firing line.

1,1: The Big Mek dies instantly i.e remove the model as a casualty. Better luck next time, ya grot.

2,2: Your opponent chooses the target of the blast. Assume LoS and range still count towards this and that your opponent isn't That Guy.

3,3: Resolve the shot on the nearest unit, be it yours or an enemy. Let's hope it just hits a pile of Gretchin instead of your juicy Boyz.

4,4: The blast becomes a small one and is resolved at S6, AP6. Pathetic

5,5: No shot is fired, rather your Big Mek zooms to the target in question and is considered locked in combat. While unintentional and very detrimental in the long run, if your Big Mek has a Power Klaw it can be a hilarious way to tie up a unit and whiddle them down, granted he doesn't die in the first Assault phase.

5,6: Only non-double result. The shot is considered S10, but only the model under the template hole is hit.

6,6: Awww yeah. The shot has the Vortex rule. As long as it doesn't scatter, whatever poor bastards that will be hit cease to exist. The blast remains in play for a while and scatters randomly, so keep in mind that it'll be a huge environmental hazard later on if you wish to charge forward.

• • Kustom Force Field - Now changed to a flat 5++ invulnerable save against shooting for every model within 6" of the Big Mek. What makes this utterly invaluable is that this invulnerable save transfers over to a transport if the Mek is inside it. Keep in mind this is the ONLY invulnerable save (well, except Badrukk's armour plate) in the Ork codex, and of fucking course it only works against shooting attacks.
  • Taking Mega Armor on a Big Mek really depends on personal taste; do you want a Big Mek in the back lobbing artillery or do you want him on the front lines? Keep in mind you can stack saves and make him pretty bulky: with KFF you have a 2+ armor save and 5++ against shooting. As with the Mega Armored Warboss, you can confer Slow and Purposeful onto Lootas or Mek Gunz, making them move and fire at full BS. And with the KFF, they all now have a Daemon save against shooting.
    • Tellyport Blasta - If your Big Mek does have Mega Armour, he can take one of these, which is a shoulder mounted S8, AP2 Blast weapon that causes instant death or auto penetrating hits on any to-wound rolls of 6. However the range is the same as a standard pistol- one bad scatter (bear in mind the standard Orky BS2) and you could be blasting your own Orks. Slow and Purposeful justifies this as you can freely move and shoot it. Just remember that if you've already invested in Mega Armour and this thing for a Big Mek, you might as well give him three Ammo Runts to make sure your gambit pays off.

• Weirdboy: Weirdboyz are your Psyker. Clocking in at 45 points for a Nob with a Force Staff, the Weirdboy is fairly cheap. Furthermore, they have a special rule where if they're within 12" of 10 or more Orks, they generate an additional Warp Charge, yet should they fail to successfully manifest a power that turn, they take an S2 hit...So even before you upgrade, 45 points for 2 Warp Charge seems really good, and yet despite this, the Weirdboy is **Not** a priority HQ choice for many Ork armies, unlike in other Psykers. This is because they don't have access to any of the base rulebook disciplines besides the Daemonology ones (Sanctic and Malefic), they compete slotwise with Painboyz, Meks and the Warboss, and they don't have any actual options available to them other than upgrading to ML 2. Most notably, this means they cannot take a Bike, which severely limits their own mobility and ability to get into ideal positions to use their deadliest powers. If you really want to use Weirdboyz, the simplest option is to just run them as an HQ-filler/"Squad Support" weapon. 2 dice plus whatever you get from the D6 from harnessing warp should be enough to toss a Eadbanger here and there, while not slowing down the Mob from running or doing their own thing.

• Painboy: Yup, he's an HQ now, and there was much rejoicing. Priced 50 points for a Feel No Pain in a squad of your choice. Can take a Warbike to keep up with those faster squads and give him something to shoot, considering he has no ranged weapons. This is the reason why you should take the Ork Horde detachment: to snag a Painboy in that third HQ slot.

• Mekboy- Basic Mekboys can still be taken as free upgrades to loota/burna units. They can now also be taken by themselves as a free HQ slot for every other you have filled, and must be attached to a unit. Still a very, very cheap way to repair vehicles with the added advantage of being more plentiful, especially since they can equip Grot Oilers. You can throw it in a mob of Boyz to keep your Nob out of dangerous challenges. Come standard with a Choppa and Slugga, but can take an absurd amount of weaponry: Kustom Mega-sluggas and Blastas, Rokkits, Kombi-weapons, and a Kill-saw. A Kill-saw can make the Mek a nasty little thorn to suck up challenges and hopefully chew some holes in some vehicles.
  • Note: The Mek is still an HQ slot, and thus could be taken as your mandatory HQ for a CAD. Though you would not get the option for another Mek, this can be useful for any "second detachment" where you wish to increase your slots and wish to save points.

Special Characters

• Kaptin Badrukk - The Flash Git Kaptin that we've had a model for for a VERY long time, but until now had no unit to stick him with. He's basically a Nob with +1 WS and +1 attacks. He doesn't have any other special rules unique to himself other than his wargear, which comes with the standard Slugga/Choppa configuration, along with scavenged Power Armour and force field bitz for the 3+/5++ saves. He also has a Kustom Ogryn Ripper gun that is essentially an Assault 3 Plasma gun. He's not bad, being survivable allowing him to reroll his saves from Gets Hot, and if Gitfinda isn't doing the trick, a few Ammo Runts can help.
  • Alternate Opinion: The jolly Kaptin' is sadly overcosted for what he does. A Warboss with a Eavy Choppa, Gitfinda and Gazbag puts out the same amount of shots at the same but twin-linked, and costs less points to boot! Sure, Badrukk is AP 2 instead of 3, but the Boss is tougher, more mobile, can provide board presence, and there are no real units worth attaching Badrukk to. The only other AP 2 shooting in the codex generally prefers to stay in the Ork player's backfield, while Badrukk costs the same as an entire unit of Flash Gitz alone. Plus, to choose Badrukk as a Warlord means forfeiting the ability to Waaagh, which is just plain un-Orky.

• Mad Dok Grotsnik - Grotsnik is an interesting character. His profile is -1 Strength away from being a Warboss and his One Scalpel Short of a Medpack rule got better, so he no longer runs about the battlefield in circles. Instead, he makes a unit Fearless and grants them Rampage, on top of Feel No Pain from the Dok's Tools. Despite that and a nice T5, he's only I3 (Power Klaw is Unwieldy anyway) and 4+ armor, so any schmuck with a power maul could kill him. Do not try to put him in a challenge with a beefed up captain or chaos lord. He will get smashed, guaranteed. He's mostly meant as a pseudo-DISTRACTION CARNIFEX and melee anvil with a pack of Nobz.
  • While One Scalpel Short of a Medpack all sounds cool on paper, Rampage only activates when the squad is outnumbered and this is only really going to happen to Orks when fighting against Guardsmen or Nid blobs or if he joins Nobz. If the Orks find themselves outnumbered by other forces it's typically a sign that the combat has not gone very well for them already and they should expect to see more boyz drop, so therefore being Fearless with Rampage guarantees an Epic Last Stand in a small unit with a fair bit of bite. IF you take him, make sure you dedicate that unit to getting stuck in, as he can't leave a unit he's joined to until it's entirely dead.
    • Can be devastating if you pair him with a barebones unit of Meganobz. You'll number at four guys, whereas most infantry units have five or more guys. Unless you're running up against MCs, you'll be outnumbered and get Rampage like 75% of the time. And on the charge, you'll have 21-29 S9 AP2 attacks if you're outnumbered. Kit them out with killsaws for maximum damage and to compensate for those times when you're not outnumbered, for a maximum of 24-32(!) attacks on a charge with Rampage. Plus Fearless and FNP keeps those MANz on the table much longer.
• Boss Zagstruk - Boss Zagstruk is a "cheap" HQ, costing only slightly more than a naked Warboss. With a Rokkit Pack and Eavy Armor, his unique power is that his Hammer of Wrath attacks are S8 AP 2; this mainly exists to punish enemy armies where characters are forced to accept Challenges. In practice, Zagstruk is a backfield vehicle hunter and charge supporter, able to assume a low model profile before using the Waaagh to benefit from a large threat range; six Strength 6 attacks are a reasonable threat vs most vehicles. That said, Zagstruk is generally not seen compared to using the second HQ slot for a Big Mek or Painboy, though he has utility as an "assassin."
• Grukk the Face-Rippa (Stormclaw): Now the only footslogging Warboss special character since Zagstruk and Badrukk are both just big Nobs (pun intended). Grukk isn't half bad though. As for a generic character with equivalent gear it'll cost you 119 points, for the extra 11 points Grukk gets true (5+) FnP and his power klaw has the Shred USR and his warlord trait is fixed as Bellowing Tyrant which helps his army deal with the now more perilous morale checks. Grukk would be a staple in games of 1000 pts or below, if only he wasn't a rare model... which means make your own, scour EBay, or look for Chinese recastors. GW now has a pack with this guy and pack of Nobz for about $50, not bad.

• Zhadsnark 'Da Rippa' (Forge World): People used to call this guy the better Wazdakka, now he's the ONLY biking special character left. He has twin Big Shootas, a power klaw at normal initiative (Space Marine no less!) and he can choose to Turbo Boost and then Tank Shock a unit (just don't try to figure out how this works vs vehicles). He also gets to take warbikers as troops, no surprise this is one of the only character that still does this. But, he comes with a catch: No Deff Dreads, Kans, or Big Gunz (Big gunz are no longer in the codex Mek gunz are...) This means he must be used as a close combat shock unit, and needs a warbiker or nob-biker retinue. His lack of an any kind of decent save (he has a T-shirt save) or Eternal Warrior makes, and his high point cost makes him risky for competitive play. His rules are never updated to 7th so he does not have the 'ere we go special rule. Read your rulebook again to know just how sad this is. Note that this is the ONLY way to still get bike troops.
  • Alternative take: though his armour is paper, he has the Jink special rule, which, along with the Skilled Rider USR, offers a nice, 3+ cover save. Not something to rely on against Tau, and Ignore Cover weaponry, but with a unit of scouting warbikes, immune to dangerous terrain test, and rolling in 3+ cover can be a nasty surprise.

• Mek Boss Buzgob (Forge World): Hoo boy, its Buzzgob. The poster boy of the entire IA volume, this dude is full of win but has not aged well overall. First off he is more expensive then a warboss. His entire statline is better than a Big Mek. He comes with 'eavy Armor, a Big Choppa, and a Bosspole from the start. He also runs around in an orky Full Tech Harness, the Mek Arms. They give him D3 attacks on the charge in addition to the +1 he gets normally. Unfortunately this makes him a close combat monster against hordes and unarmored unit. Then he lacks Cybork Body and Eternal Warrior, which means he dies to Railguns/Lascannons very quickly. He has to be the warlord and has a horrible warlord trait that makes nearby dreads scoring only does a thing in the dreadmob list where troop dreads don't score. So who does really want to spend so much points on a mek with buffed stats but no good weapons or good extra abilities such as good repair rols or a foce field. The trick is to put him in his transport with a mek(boy) retinue to ensure his success. The update is using the older codex as a reference so he does have the WAAAGH special, making him the ONLY non-Warboss model that can call a WAAAGH. Buzgob is also famous for smuggling a MEK STOMPA into Appocalypse or similar "larger games" for a bargain. Previously we all had to agree that our regular game size fits in that category, agree on using dubious source and ignore the fact that FW admitted that it was an oversight. Nowadays we have the ITC ruling who does this for us.

• Skalk Bluetoof (Forge World): Missed because he only gets mentioned much later in IA8, but unlike all of the other special campaign characters, he does have a listing as an HQ choice for a normal Orks army. He's an old wily Death Skull and has -1 Strength compared to a normal Warboss and also misses out on "Ere we go" because it's from an older version of the rules. However, he has Eternal Warrior due his luckiness, a Kustom Mega Blasta that only Meks usually get and his army may take a mob of Lootas as a Troops choice because of the Deathskulls penchant for nicking everything. As a final bonus, he and a squad of Nobs may be mounted on "Bonemuncha" (a Gargantuan Squiggoth) as a unit option not a Lord of War choice. Bonemucha is a trap, don't use it Gargantuan Squiggoths are hugely overcosted compaired to other gargantuan creatures * cough wraithknights cough, knights*

Troops

• Boyz: Basic unit and right proppa. Most times, regardless of what kind of list you run, Boyz are the core of your army. With a mediocre Ld of 7 be prepared to babysit them with a Warboss or a Big Mek, and unlike previous editions, buying a lot of boyz doesn't help with this. Without FnP or 'Eavy Armor they will go down due to Leadership and a paltry 6+ t-shirt save. Still, 6 points per T4 boy isn't bad, 7 if you upgrade to shoota boyz.
  • Shootas or sluggas? It's not so apparent in 7th Edition as sluggas do have their advantages like costing less, not shooting the enemy out of charge range and with the return of the old WAAAAGH! you'll find yourself running instead of shooting way more often. However, shoota mobs are far more versatile and can still beat the majority of whatever they face in close combat, by sheer weight of numbers since the difference between a slugga and a shoota boy is just one attack. A very interesting phenomenon is that your opponent will have a tendency to ignore Shoota Boyz in favour of attacking other apparently greater threats, due to the (true) perception of Orks being a melee army and its basic shooting not worth shit, especially now that everything scores it becomes less imperative to take out the Troops units first. Shoota Boyz have 1 less attack than Sluggas but still get all the other rules and can of course have a kitted out Nob (see below), so that 1 point upgrade can actually save your unit more than it costs in psychological tricks. Also, there are free stikkbombs now, for what little good they do. Here's a basic rundown of your options:
    • Slugga Boyz: Boyz with a Slugga and a Choppa. They're not too great in the Shooting phase, the Slugga's only there to give them +1 Attack and to give them something to do as they charge toward the enemy. They're awesome on the charge; 4 Attacks per model, at Strength 4, will handily rip apart infantry of all flavors. Just remember that everyone goes before you, except Unwieldy Weapons . Also, the world's greatest tarpit. One point cheaper than shootas. Try to stick to the theme. If you run a footslogging army, you're better off with the majority of them footslogging, if you're aiming for lightning assault, stick them in transports. 'Ere We Go, the new Waaagh! and boarding planks made getting into combat easier than ever. Getting your boyz stuck in by turn two is entirely possible. Sluggas have become a thing once more. It is suggested to add high leadership HQs, Painboys, or 'eavy armor as Trukks are still fragile and with explosions being S4 they will likely have to take two leadership checks one for pinning and one for losing 25%. NEVER buy any ranged weapon upgrades for slugga boyz, they are a waste of points since they can't be used in close combat. Generally speaking, if you are foot-slogging boyz, you want to have majority be sluggas in order to keep the price down.
    • Shoota Boyz: 1 point per model upgrade. Sure, every other git shoots better than you; don't cry, all your weapons are Assault. Who sez we're stupid; shoot 'em, charge 'em, let the Grots clean up the mess. Also, Shootas are Assault 2, and have an 18" range, meaning you can still bring the dakka even if those gitz with Rapid Fire weapons can't. If you have a mob of 30 boyz with Shootas, bring a bucket of dice. 60 shots means roughly 20 hits, usually 10+ wounds. Getting charged? No problem! Overwatch will help you out a little. Bring some Big Shootas along for even more fun. Put 'em in a Trukk with Reinforced Ram and Red Paint Job. Watch your opponent cry as your effective range goes from 18" to 31" with 24 shots. Just remember that Snap Fire makes you worse shots than usual.
  • Mob size - The recommended sizes for fielding Boyz is 12/20/30, depending on the point value you're playing and/or if you're using the Orks organization chart. Generally speaking, though, you're still playing Orks, so more orks is always better. Conventional wisdom says that the only reason you ever take less than the full 30 boyz is because 30 don't fit in a battlewagon or a trukk.
  • Upgrades - Quit mucking' about. You gitz is always muckin' about.
    • Nob - Always bring a Nob, even if it is just to have a character in your mob to make the Mob Rule less punishing (rolling a 3 or 4 means you auto fail the check if there is no character in the unit). Give him a Bosspole and a Power Klaw, though the Bosspole is not as mandatory as it was before, as it only allows you to reroll on the Mob Rule table rather than rerolling Ld checks, but it's better than nothing. And the Power Klaw is still our Swiss army knife. Never leave home without one. It will handily krump gits of all sizes, including ones hiding in metal boxes. The Nob has access to the ranged weapon options and can take a shoota for free. As the Klaw is a specialist weapon and the Big Choppa is 2 handed there is no CC advantage to taking a slugga on your nob over the shoota. Well done gitz you just got yourselves an extra shot!
      • Note - In 7th, if the challenger does not kill a Nob (in the case of things like distraction guard sarge), all of that nob's overkill hits the squad, so really no big deal. If you are worried about losing a nob challenges, add a cheap, bare-bones mekboy in the squad to accept challenges so your nob can use his power klaw on the rest of those poor gitz.
    • 'Ard Boyz: A 4+ armour save upgrade, making your boyz much more durable. Can get expensive, however, especially in high numbers. No limitation anymore. When you run out of HQ slots for Painboyz to give your boyz some much needed protection from the Mob Rule table, upgrading a mob with 'Eavy Armour has become a viable option since it triples your chances of surviving hits from it. Combine with a Painboy for a nigh unkillable tarpit. This upgrade is usually better for the Slugga boys, who are more likely to be shot at. A full mob of Sluggas charging down at something, with 4+ armour save protecting them, will bring down anyone not lucky enough to have power weapons or en masse rending, or give sluggas that added bit of survivability to win shoot outs with other basic infantry. With luck, it is possible for them to take out a full squad of assault terminators (except that 4+ armour does not help anymore than 6+ against AP3 lightning claws or AP2 thunderhammers...). This is almost required if you are running Trukk Boyz, as the the 4+ armour will make it to when that trukk explodes your boys can practically laugh it off. Beware of AP4, if you go up against anything with AP4 you might as well forgo the armour for t-shirts with silly phrases on them, they'll fare just as well. 'Ard Shootas are better for use at holding objectives since they have that extra +4 and can keep the enemy away/at bay for a bit. Especially useful with objectives that have little to no cover around them, and if you're running Orks your opponent is gonna NOT want your ladz to have any cover when holding.
    • Rokkit Launchas - Rokkits are dirt cheap now, at 5 points. If you have points lying around, feel free to bring a few in a slugga unit. Don't count on them to kill anything reliably, but the added AP3 firepower is nice against MEQs in a mob full of sluggas. Since they are mutually exclusive with Big Shootas, never take on a shoota unit. One can be taken for every ten models in the unit.
    • Always use Big Shootas on Shootas - Big Shootas reach out and touch the enemy while you're mucking about, and are 5 points apiece, like the Rokkits they are mutually exclusive with. Going from a Shoota to a Big Shoota costs less than adding another Shoota to the unit by 2 points (5 instead of 7), and shoots 150% the dakka at 200% the range, 125% the strength, and 200% the effective penetration. In fact, Big Shootas also outperform Storm Bolters in every way, while costing what dem kanned 'umies usually have to pay for them. Big Shootas give you options to return fire at units like Dark Reapers/Devs/Warp Spiders or simply rake troops on the opponent's line with your objective holders.
      • Rokkits and Big Shootas are the same cost for Slugga and Shoota Boyz, meaning a Big Shoota boy in a Slugga unit costs a point less than one in a Shoota unit, and likewise for Rokkit Launchas.
• Gretchin: Dirt-cheap and expendable, usually used as screening units for infantry, holding objectives while your Boyz do the fighting, or for tying up more dangerous units in assault. Gretchin are one of those diamond in the rough units, with a low points cost and low footprint, your enemy will time after time ignore these guys. Especially in multiple objective games, chuck your objective in a piece of terrain (preferably in the heart of a ruin) and your opponents will likely be distracted with the sea of Orks. Total up your objectives at the end of the game, and let your opponent know that they forgot that one objective held by ten Grots. Their ranged attacks can actually do a decent amount of damage to enemy infantry, owing to the Grots' higher Ballistic Skill, as well as the volume of shots coming from a large unit. If you're fielding big units of footslogging boyz, you NEED to field Gretchin to protect them from incoming fire and Overwatch. If you're doing a mob list, these guys are essential as 5/6 games now have objectives, and leaving a mob behind doing nothing will lose you games. ALWAYS TAKE THEM. Laugh your fucking ass off when one Gretchin kills a terminator on overwatch and earns back his entire squad's points. Also brilliant cover campers, as most barricades/ aegis defence lines completely hide them.
  • Rustgob's Grunts (Stormclaw) - Overcosted for no reason. it's just a normal Grot mob with a Squig Hound and grabba stick. Costs 5 points more than just building the same unit manually. Never field this.

Elites

• Burna Boyz: Orks with Burnas, 7th edition put Burnaboyz in a somewhat awkward spot due to the changes to casualty allocation; you no longer can "clip" a few models from an enemy squad in order to pile on casualties. They also compete with Tankbustas and Meganobz while lacking the all-comers combat potential of either. The *main* reason to take Burnaboyz in 7th is because you can swap out up to three of them for Mekboyz; keep them safe and you have a relatively reliable "mechanic" unit that can do spot cover-flushing in a pinch.
• Tankbustas: Orks with Rokkit Launchas. Your primary anti-tank/MEQ infantry unit, Tankbustas have Tank Hunters and their special rule Glory Hogs grants an extra Victory Point if the Ork player uses them to First Blood against an enemy vehicle. That said, even though the Glory Hogs is fairly situational, they are one of the few reasonably-costed units in this Codex, and with the entire unit possessing Rokkit Launchas and Tankbusta/melta bombs, they do a pretty good job at trashing vehicles. Their models are horribly expensive when buy the official box; convert as many as you can.
  • Loadout: Not too many options other than their unit size. You have the option to give Bomb Squigs to up to 3 models, or to have two models swap their Rokkit Launchas for Tankhammers. Tankhammers are essentially an Unwieldy melee-profile Rokkit Launcha, with the addition of a single one allowing the unit some additional punch in melee; however, they are expensive. Bomb Squigs on the other hand are strongly worth considering, serving as a one-shot S8 AP 4 hit that always hits on 2. Since AP 3 does not benefit weapons vs vehicles, taking the maximum of three Bombsquigs is barely more than the cost of a single Tankbusta, and gives the unit that much more reliability; after all, their lack of armor means that you cannot bank on a Tankbusta unit getting more than one good turn to shoot.
  • Taking a Nob: Tankbusta nobs get more out of big choppas than nobs in any other unit. Given that the mob they're leading has all AP 3 all the time, they aren't exactly desperate for help vs MEQs and wreak most things with AV in assault anyway, which takes away from the Power Klaw being as much of a must-have as with most other mobs. Big Choppas, on the other hand, give an extra edge in thinning mobs with their strength bonus and AP 5, which helps a comparatively small mob of boyz kill guardsmen and the like fast enough to keep from being overrun. Even if the likes of Land Raiders and Ironclads are out of reach for the nob (taking a weapon on the Nob doesn't remove his Tankbusta Bombs, so he can still attack Land Raiders and the like), the rest of the mob also has tankbusta bombs and several tank-hunting s 6 or 7 hits mean he can still contribute to bustin' tanks with the rest of the lads.
  • Transport: Tankbustas want a Transport. They are fragile, and a Tankbusta unit deployed in the open has a giant target painted on them. If your opponent agrees to Forgeworld, the Gunwagon is the most efficient option for this purpose as it can be squadroned and has really good durability for its cost. Otherwise, it's a tossup between the Battlewagon and the Looted Wagon; Trukks sadly remain too fragile for their cost.
• Kommandos: Orks in camo. They're basically 10-point Slugga Boyz with Infiltrate, Move Through Cover, Stealth, and access to Burnas. The models look great but they are finecast and really expensive, so just convert some of your own out of boyz. Good siphon unit when infiltrating in squads of 5-10 with minimal upgrades (nob w/ bosspole), forcing your opponent to shoot at them on the first turn. Even if you don't have any good spots to hide them in your opponent's deployment zone, just throw them 6" ahead of your other boyz to give them a head start while providing cover saves like grots. If you want to run big squads of kommandos with all the shiny toyz your best bet is to outflank them to create some mid-late game pressure when your opponent is already busy dealing with the rest of your army. You can take two special weapons as Burnas, Big Shootas, or Rokkit Launchas in any order. Rokkits are a tad unreliable considering you only have two shots per turn, so it's recommended that you take Burnas to make the most out of being behind their juicy flanks.
  • Boss Snikrot: Is now an independent character and is his very own Elites choice all to himself, though if you have a squad of Kommandos he does not take up an Elites slot. If you attach him (and NO OTHER character) to the Kommandos and keep them in reserve, they can come on from any board edge and gain Shrouded on the turn they arrive; attacking the enemy from their rear is always great fun but since you can no longer assault out of reserves, but Shrouded should back you up from at least a few of these hits. Once again though he's not that fantastic all on his own. He causes Fear, and he does have stikkbombs which gives him a shooting attack, albeit at short range and low strength. Finally his Mork's Teeth are pretty basic AP5 Shred weapons which aren't too great against marines though he WILL chew up guard squads with sheer numbers of attacks.
• Nobz: Nearly three times more expensive than a normal Ork Boy, but with +1 Wound, +1 Attack, and +1 Strength. However, like the Warboss, they get access to the shiniest wargear available to the Ork army, from Power Klaws to Kombi-shootas to 'Eavy Armor. Great in both close combat AND shooting. Best used as bodyguards for your Warboss. This massive Orky beatstick will likely cost several hundred points, and isn't going anywhere fast without something to cart them around. However, this mean, green pain machine is quite cost-effective by many armies' standards; let them Ride Trucks, Battlewagons or Bikes and opponents will bitch and moan. Do not run these guys without some way of raising their Leadership or giving them fearless. They should be bodyguards for your Warboss anyway. They can take Kombi-weapons, so their potential for firepower is something to consider.
  • What melee weapons you give them really depends on taste and how many points you're willing to dish out. Giving all of them Power Klaws will be hideously expensive (more so than usual), yet with just Big Choppas they'll struggle to take down even Space Marine Scouts in CC despite the Strength boost. You need to strike a balance between cost and power with Nobz
  • Waaagh! Banner - The Waaagh! Banner adds +1 WS, making the WHOLE SQUAD WS 5, and has the added advantage of making your mob look even more badass (and yes, that applies to HQs attached). If you ever think about not taking one, punch yourself in the face.
  • Biker Gangs: Even worse is the notorious "Nob Biker" unit, a tactic that lasted three entire editions and fueled much RAGE. Toughness 5 warbikers with an Armor, Cover, and an Invulnerable save with Feel No Pain they are some-what close to invincible. As bikes you get Hammer of Wrath to reinforce your massive wound-output machine on the charge. You will pay for them dearly in both points and money, and it's a great way to get people to hate you. Unless, of course, your opponent is fortunate enough to have S10 Blast weapons on hand, or weapons that inflict Instant Death. But since most Instant Death comes from close combat, you have a good chance to counter it with your wound-allocation and high WS, or just plain avoid it. Twinlinked Dakkaguns mean that Jink's snapshot only rule does not affect Orks as much as other armies.
  • Skrak's Skull-Nobz (Stormclaw) - A Fixed formation of Nobz, this requires a full-armor, 2-Klaw, 2-Pole, Kombi-Skorcha mob with an Ammo Runt. Not much more expensive than the stock loadout, but you get a model with a free Bosspole and Hammer of Wrath by taking it
• Meganobz: Nobz in Mega Armor with Power Klaws. At first, there's a lot to like about Meganobz. Getting 3 Power Klaw Attacks base and a 2+ armor save for only 40 points, combined with Furious Charge, means they're very efficient at dismantling enemy infantry (save for truly dedicated Close-Combat or HQ units), or for pulling wounds away from your less-armored Orks. The entire unit can take Kombi-Weapons, meaning once per game, they can throw out a decent volley of Rokkit or Skorcha fire, possibly wrecking or crippling vehicles and infantry prior to assaulting. They can also replace their Power Klaws and Twin-linked Shootas for a pair of Killsaws. Almost mandatory on one Nob. Then you realize how many issues they have holding them back. They are terminators that lack any Invulnerable Save unless you pay to get a Big Mek with Mega-armor and KFF (which doesn't work in close combat) and they can't take a Waaagh! Banner. Slow and Purposeful means that they can't overwatch, run, or sweep and lack any access to heavy weapons to at least give them something useful to do while waddling slowly towards the enemy. They are still Orky Terminators, though, and naturally their Transport will be a high-priority target. One of their biggest issues is with leadership; unless they are accompanied by a leader (preferably a Warboss), these guys have a good chance of hitting the dirt after a single pinning wound is taken, or the moment they lose combat. The Mob Rule table fucks them over, hard. They will never have ten or more models so grab a bosspole or keep them in melee constantly if you run them, preferably both. Keep them *far* away from S 8/9 MC's, any form of AP2 or ID, all of which makes these MANz melt. The bright side is that they're relatively cheap and have a min squad size of 3 - means you can run just 3 of them in a Trukk with reinforced ram and a bosspole for just 160 pts. And even 3 of those guyz will murderise almost anything that's not an AP2/massed rending in melee. It's called MANz missile. And it works if you're careful with their Trukk. Another thing is that Meganobz can have combi-skorchas for just 5 pts. Not half bad for a heavy flamer, eh.

Forgeworld

• Grot Tanks: An odd unit. You get another vehicle squadron of 2HP Armor 10 all-around Metul Bawkses, seemingly the Orky specialty. They get 5+ invulnerable. saves from all shooting attacks that aren't Ordinance, Destroyer, or Armorbans which is uncharacteristically neat. They also count as Tanks, so you can Tank Shock things, too. However, what makes them really fun is their Ballistic Skill. Having BS3 gives them an advantage to using Orky weapons, all of which are listed below. The Grot Tank's only real caveat is their unreliable 2D6" movement. Plus, if you roll double-ones, one of them takes a Penetrating Hit. Getting a Kommanda Tank is always a good idea, what with the 2 different weapons and ability to fix your terrible movement roll when it inevitably happens. Their Tank status, 5+ invo., small model size and high fire power make them perfect for ramming big holes in enemy formations. Modeling note: Don't bother with Forgeworld. Easy to build and make look better than Forgeworld for MUCH cheaper.
  • Unit Synergy: Just like Warrbuggies, only better. They can Tank Shock bothersome units off of their advance. Their 3-6 numbers can give an even wider cover spread when advancing. Additionally, since these guys count as Elites, you can exchange them with Warbuggies and vice versa to swap similar units around your force organization chart.
  • Can prove to be more useful than Kans due to higher numbers, a full squad of 6 can pack 7 weapons as opposed to 3 and becomes far more deadly. This will cost you a lot more points-wise, so take that into consideration. Decide what you want them to do and use a squad of Kanz or a Mega Tank with different weapons to balance out. Keep some Meks close by though.
  • Grotzooka - 14 SMALL BLASTS! Fucking cheese, especially against horde armies like 'Nids. Simply smack them into the centre of the mass and drink your opponents tears.
  • Big Shoota - Owing to the BS3, this makes for a nice little way to hurt enemy infantry and be more threatening to enemy vehicles while saving on points.
  • Skorcha - You still need to get close, and given the variable movement, this doesn't seem very useful when you could be bringing the dakka at range, but if screening your boyz, might be good to ruin up a critical unit before a charge. If they haven't been destroyed first...
  • Mega-Blasta - Still comes with the risk of getting hot, and with the risk of rolling double 1's on movement means that this makes your tanks even more fragile, although the 5+ invuln at least gives you a chance to save it. Not worth the risk and points.
  • Rokkit Launcha - Fantastic at ruining a vehicles day, especially with working alongside Deffkoptas. Chuck out some rokkits to the front while the Deffkoptas roll for anal circumference. However the Str 8 AP3 also means they are superb at crippling Marines or any other toughness 4 units too.
• Mekboy Junka: The Mekboy Junka looks like an Ork Looted Wagon with a price hike on it in exchange for getting three Big Shootas and a quirky Turbo-Boosta ability; the Turbo-Boosta lets the vehicle elect to become Fast on a 2+, but risks Immobilization on a 1 (fortunately without HP loss), so having Mekboys on-hand becomes paramount. This vehicle has a lot of options to the poi that that it looks like it cannot decide what it is or it wants to do, and it's very easy to get carried away on spending points to upgrade it. The question then becomes what you want to do with this customizable vehicle.
• Supa-skorcha?
  • Big-Zzappa?
  • Kustom Force Field?!
  • Two Grot Bombs: The alphastrike option, a Mek Junka can take two Grot Bombs for the cost of a Trukk. Though it can only fire one each turn due to them being Ordnance, they provide a cheap and relatively accurate barrage weapon, allowing for the ability to murder Power Armor or chip hull points from vehicles, all while ignoring intervening cover. Don't feel bad about only having two bombs; it's not like Junkas are durable and meant for protracted engagements.
  • TURRET-MOUNTED SHOKK ATTACK GUN!?! Yep, this monster can pack some pretty heavy ordinance.
  • Don't forget that it also counts as a dedicated transport for a Big Mek, so you can have one without it eating up your precious Elites slot, so long as you have a Big Mek. (And you do have a big mek, right? What self respecting Ork army doesn't have one?) Just remember to not actually put your Big Mek in the Junka, because that consolidates your KFFs and negates the whole point!

Dedicated Transports

• Trukks: Available as Dedicated Transport for 12 eager Orks and our main transport in the ork codex. Most units now have access to this as a dedicated transport (Ork Boys, Nob squads, Meganob, Burnas...) but it's mostly a mixed bag due to its fragility. If you field one, don't expect it to stick around for long. When choosing upgrades, it's often better to get more vanilla Trukks than a few "super"-Trukks. On one hand, it's a fast, cheap, open-topped vehicle which can provide your Orks with an amazing assault range. On the other hand, it's very fragile (AV 10, Open-topped, 3 HP)causing them to explode when looked at. Due to their habit of exploding, it's risky to add on fancy bits (otherwise learn the lesson of putting your all your eggs in one basket.)
  • Note that a Mob can purchase a Dedicated Trukk, even if it cannot fit inside it. Though it's a fringe use, keeping an empty Obsec Trukk or two in Reserve can help with scoring Maelstrom objectives. Deffkoptas do it better, but the Trukk doesn't use up a FA slot, meaning another Bike or other unit option.
  • In conjunction with the new Mob Rule, when the Trukk explodes, you'll typically lose the orks inside unless they're wearing 'Eavy Amour, which ups their cost. An alternate option is to fill them with special units, like Meganobs who can shrug off the explosions.
  • 12 regular Ork Boyz are not adept at dealing with enemies in assault, save those who shouldn't be in assault anyway. While they can mess up Tau, or Tactical Marines, the moment they charge into a unit of Grey Hunters, the results aren't pretty.
  • Ramshackle downgrades penetrating hits to glances on a 6+ now.

• Battlewagons: The most durable non-Super-Heavy-Vehicle transports we have. One thing most armies should have is some way to reliably deal with heavy armour, especially of the Land Raider variety. Marines and Guard get Meltaguns and Lascannons. Eldar get Lances. Tau get Meltaguns and Railguns. Tyranids get Zoanthropes (and the Tyrannofex to a lesser extent). Orks get the Battlewagon (note that since the nerf of the Deffrolla, the Battlewagon is no longer the anti-heavy armour beast-machine it used to be. You're much better off using Mek Gunz and Deff Dreads to take on those large metal boxes. Still great transports though). Costing 110 points, you start off with a chassis, and no gun. From there, you have several options:
  • Weapons:
    • Rokkits/Big Shootas: The Wagon can take up to 4 Rokkits and/or Big shootas for 5 points each.
    • Killkannon for 30 points, but it reduces the transport capacity to 12 (still fits a unit of Nobs+Warboss+Painboy just fine). The Killkannon Wagon is best used at distance, so if you are going to fill it with a unit, make sure said unit doesn't want to be in combat. Also, keep in mind that the Killkannon is an ordnance weapon which means that other guns and passengers (as of the FAQ) will be shooting snapshots whenever you let that Killkannon loose. If you absolutely, positively have to have it, go cheap: give the battlewagon that killkannon you want, an 'Ard Case, and Extra Armour. Grot Riggers and Reinforced Ram if you really want it to live.
    • Kannon, Lobba, or Zzap gun for 10 points. This depends on how you want to use your Battlewagon. A Kannon can be fun with 4 Rokkits and Tankbustas inside to create a rokkit-crazed Wagon of Glory. The Lobba is interesting as Barrage ignores the Orks' typical BS2. Considering the amount of firepower your wagon is going to be attracting, the Zzap Gun is perhaps the least useful option of the three to take due to the chance of Gets Hot and the low BS of the Wagon making the risk-to-reward ratio deeply unfavorable.

Fast Attack

• Stormboyz: Slugga Boyz that pay 3 pts for a freaking rokkit stuck on their backs. They are Fast, really fast, even faster than normal jump pack infantry, (they get to run 2d6, but must take dangerous terrain if doing so) and ded killy with 30 of them, all for not much more than an average boy. With the option to use your Jump pack once per turn you can trade in the 12" move for a reroll on your charge dice that also has hammer of wrath. The guyz can perform insane charges from time to time. When you call a WAAAGH! they can fly 12" then run 2d6 and then charge 2d6 with 1 dice rerollable. That's an average of 23-27" charge range. Watch out for your opponent's jaw flipping the table on the way to the ground when you perform a charge across half the board. Especially effective in an army of footsloggas that lack such spead and threat range. A squad of ~10 stormboyz with a pk/bp nob for ~130 pts is possible to hide behind blobs or in good cover and still be choppy enough to kill stuff dead even after rokkitpack losses and overwatch. But don't try attacking a gunline with five. It's not going to tie them up for a turn. Orks take fire due to large numbers - attacking alone with a small unit they'll get massacred.

• Deffkoptas: Basically a jetbike version of the Warbuggy, more maneuverable, and can also scout. T5 and 2 Wounds, even though they aren't nobs who fly them. Their standard twin-linked big shootas make them pretty good for harassing groups of infantry, especially when accompanying groups that have might not be able to Overwatch, like Burnas and MANz. Their twin-linked rokkits and/or buzzsaws make them good tank-hunters since they can very easily get into a position where they can fire at the side or better yet the rear armor of a vehicle. They can take a 4+ jink but have to fire snap shots next turn. They'll have trouble against vehicles like Land Raiders or Monoliths since they have armor 14 on all sides, though they can at least glance it to death. The biggest problem from using them is their leadership; basic Ld is 7 and no option for a bosspole, a character or a squad of 10 or more. Meaning they will automatically fail on the Mob Rule table unless they are in close combat (why would you want them to be?) or unless you attach a character on a bike. They should be fielded in small units of 1-2 outside of Apocalypse games.**They got cheaper and weapon upgrades are free!
  • Alternative take: These guys are jet bikes with scout, meaning that their scout move is 12" or they could outflank. Combo that with the big bombs for s4ap5 lg blasts. If you have first turn scout and take the full 12" movement to see if you can destroy any infiltrators or scouts that the enemy has. if you go second then outflank and use the big bombs to harass enemy GEQs.
  • Alternative take: These things are great never leave home without them. They are dirt cheap, our best objective grabbers in the game and a perfect suicide squad to absorb overwatch.
  • Alternative take: Take a single Deffkopta and attach a Warboss on a Bike with a Power Klaw, Da Lucky Stikk and all the upgrades that make him super killy. Scout the Warboss up first turn and get into an ideal position to start krumping turn two, using that Deffkopta as Overwatch fodder. If the Deffkopta is still alive, use it for Linebreaker with a 24" turbo-boost or making a mad dash towards an Objective.
  • Alternative Alternative take: Take five Deffkoptas, give them Buzzsaws, attach a kitted-out Warboss and Painboy on bikes. Laugh as your toughness 5, 2 wound DEFFSTAR (it sounds so much better) tanks anything from Lascannons to Thunder Hammers to the face all the while ravaging your opponents anus worth of tanks and Space Marines. Just don't send them up against anything with a substantial invuln (+4 or better).

• Warbikers: Really. Really. FUN. These guys are the core of any mobile Ork army. Surprisingly durable; Toughness 5 for the bikes, 4+ Armor Save base and +1 to cover saves after turbo boosting, which when combined with jinking leads to copious tears when your enemy's guns fail to kill anything. Bikers are also great because they have their hilarious Dakkagunz, Twin-linked, Strength 5, AP 5, and Assault 3 lets you move 12", send home (on a normal squad) about 3 really solid shots into the infantry you're assaulting, and then crash right into the opponent's lines and send thirty Furious Charge attacks their way, plus some Initiative 10 Impacty goodness. The only obvious downside to the Bikers is their point cost. They are really pricey, at 3 times the cost of a normal Ork Boy, and their squads are only practical in 5+ man squads. They are best for larger games, where they can safely suck up points and use their Nob+Bosspole+Power Klaw to full effect, but using "Look Out, Sir!" is only for dire circumstances. Watch out for stuff that ignores their cover saves. Heavy Flamers will ruin your Bikers' day, just like they do to all of your infantry. On a final note, you CAN field squads of 12, letting you use Mob Rule, but they become nigh-impossible to move without getting stuck in terrain or moving into the open. However, thanks to their 4+ jink cover save (come on, you're BS2 TL, of course you take it), they're a lot more survivable out in the open than your Boyz are.

• Warbuggies/Wartrakks: Now that twin linked rokkits are free and the squadron can outflank, Buggies are extremely useful as a cheap distraction unit, and also has a high chance of stripping some hull points to boot. Their speed and ability to provide support weapons are very useful to the Ork advance, but are rivaled by their cousin the Deff Kopta. The Big Shoota adds little beyond normal Ork shooting. The Skorcha or Rokkit Launcha remain the primary reasons to take these vehicles. A good tactic is to use two Big Shootas and two Skorchas. Any more Skorchas likely won't get in position and will waste their shot, whereas one or more Big Shootas can continue to fire regardless and make the unit useful.
  • Warbuggies vs. DeffKoptas: While they aren't quite as good at moving into a position where they can strike at an enemy vehicle's rear armor as Deff Koptas (since terrain is actually a problem for them), Warbuggies are vehicles and don't struggle with leadership like Deff Koptas do. In regards to durability, S4 weapons glance Buggies on a 6+, wound Koptas on a 5+. S5 weapons wound Koptas on a 4+, but now start to pen Buggies on a 6+. Open-topped means a heavy bolter can blow up the Buggie, whereas S10 is required to ID the Kopta. On the flipside, S3 weapons can still wound the Kopta while doing nothing to the Buggie. The Kopta can jink, however, thus increasing the chance of your opponent wasting shots. But 1-2 casualties means they will most likely fly away and never come back. Buggies can lose most of their squad and one will still be zoomin' around and shootin' stuff. Then there's close combat. Vanilla Marines hit Buggies on a 3+, glance on a 6+, and receive no damage (unless a powerfist blows one up). They hit Koptaz on a 4+ and wound on a 5+ (to a 4+ save) then take some shots from the pilot. Plus Koptaz can shoot at vehicles then charge them to finish the job, or charge units to keep them from shooting for a turn. The Buggie gets left out in the cold there, with no ability to tank shock and ram (wishlist). Warbuggies can upgrade to use Skorchas (getting the Trakk upgrade in the mix), so it does have a weapon option the Kopta doesn't (and a fairly significant one on such a fast platform). So which one is better? Who cares? Take both.
  • Unit Synergy: Rokkit Warbuggies make good escorts for Battlewagons, on the accounts of being able to block off assaults, screen against mobile anti-tank elements, or to block enemy vehicles from moving away from the Deffrollas. Warbuggies provide much-needed anti-tank firepower for Zhadsnark lists, while maintaining a low-enough profile that one can easily provide cover saves for the Buggies by using Bikes to screen them.
  • Trakk Upgrades: Basically works like Reinforced Ram, allowing re-rolls on difficult terrain. Upgrading to a Skorcha includes Trakks in the cost.
    • You can now take up to 5 Buggies in squadron.

• Dakkajet: (Fighter) AV10 flier with two S6 assault 3 supa-shootas attached. Spend 20 points on a third supa-shoota and 15 on a flyboss for +1 BS against air targets (which includes skimmers and jetbikes too). Thanks to Death from the skies, Fighters now have a -1 BS against ground targets, but with built-in Strafing run you're shooting them with BS2 all the same. Against Air targets the hilarity grows, if you use formation bonuses. Add in Unmerciful attack pattern, and hammer those jets with a successive rounds of BS3-BS3-BS4 TL shots. Declare a Waaagh! and you go from 9 to 12 shots that turn. If you want you can go ahead and paint it red too for 5 points, just to get that incredibly-important extra inch, especially when you can fly 36 inches already and you need to throw away five points. Can be a rape machine against infantry, light vehicles, and air targets in the proper formation. Only downside is starting in reserve. Contrary to popular belief, they are passable at shooting down enemy flyers. Dakkajets are probably the squishiest flier in the game and taking one against an opponent without anti-air is not too unbalanced, especially against MEQ's. However, with their 110 points they're at the cheap end of the price scale, along with the Space Marine flying bricks.
  • Anecdote- my Dakkajet has taken down Flyrants, Flying Daemons, and the occasional Daemon Prince. If you need anti-air and you want Lootas to shoot elsewhere, the Dakkajet is your boy Unless you can't be bothered to take a battery of Traktor Kannons (see below) or you can't afford the £28 price tag on a 40 point model.

• Burna-Bomma: (Bomber) A somewhat unique flyer in the 40K universe, this is what happens when Burnaboy meks take inspirayshun from Flyboyz. Another piece of anti-infantry and light-vehicle eraser that the Orks don't necessarily need, but love to take anyways. It does have a lot of ignore cover weapons, which is a Gork-(or Mork-)send against pesky, jinking skimmers and jetbikes. It can take up to 6 Skorcha Missiles as well, but don't get too much carried away with it; usually you'll end up dead/off table before you could use all of them. That being said, there's some merit to slamming every Skorcha missile into a prime target (heavy support infantry in cover, huge tarpits, jink-happy things, T5 Tyranid squads) on the first change you get. Ork flyers aren't typically tough, so squeezing every point out as soon as possible may maximize your value.

• Blitza-Bomma: (Bomber) Is suddenly absolutely amazing. Its bombs now strike at S7, ap2, Large blast and Armorbane, so it can fuck up just about anything you point it it. And as dropping a bomb is not technically a shooting attack - it's a bombing run - it can target invisible units and the enemy can't opt to jink against it. Add in the flying patterns' Ignores Cover or Tank Huntesr bonus to remove nearly any kind of enemy armour around. Still has the table of fun things that can happen when you drop the bomb, but you're Orks and you live to watch your own dudes self destruct, so that shouldn't be an issue. Rolling "dakka-dakka-boom" got even better, as the free gun hits now get automatic back armor, but it sadly doesn't work RAW cause you won't be able to draw line of fire from its weapons after it's finished the move over an enemy, so make sure your opponent doesn't mind a little RAW violation as codex writers might have overlooked it. With the nerf to "Waaagh Plane" hurting the dakkajet really badly, the blitza-bomma's time is nigh. Great distraction to draw fire.

• Wazbomb Blastajet: (Attack Flyer) The Wazbom Blastajet is an interesting Ork flyer, which also happens to look totally badass. It contains an impressive amount of dakka, coming with a Smasha as well as a Twin-Linked Kustom Mega-Kannon as default, which can be swapped to avoid gets hot with a twin-linked Tellyport Mega-Blasta for peanuts. The only problem is the range on the Smasha and the Tellyporta don't synergize all that well, so take it for what you will. The good thing is that the Tellyport Mega-Blasta is affected by both the Waagh Plane special rule and the More Dakka Wing Leader ability. If you happen to have both, feel free to rake the battlefield with 3, potentially insta-gibbing blast markers! You can take a Twin-Linked Supa-Shoota with Interceptor at the fairly expensive price of 20 points if you're really worried about other fliers. The Blastajet also comes with a Stikkbomb Flinga, which can be used once per each shooting & dogfight phase for a 5+ invuln save against a glancing or penetrating hit. Perhaps more interesting is that the Flinga can be swapped with a Kustom Force Field, but at the cost of 25 points. This seems to be for the purpose of running the jet in a wing or with other Ork flyers, but by that point you've probably sunk 300+ points into the damned things (the fully decked out blastajet is almost 200 points by itself) only to have their crummy AV10 cause them to fall out of the air anyway, and in my experience my opponents have typically wanted this thing dead.

Forgeworld

• Warkoptas (6th Edition Dread Mob Update): 1-3 AV10 Skimmers that can carry 10 models (except MANz). The basic guns on these guys are a Big Shoota and a Twin-linked Deffgun. It can swap its Big Shoota out for the other basic heavy weapons, and while that's okay for infantry popping, you're gonna want more. GIVE THIS SUCKER A TWIN-LINKED RATTLER CANNON. It shoots 2D6 AP6 Bolter madness, but if you roll double 1's, it's automatically destroyed (a Mek can still repair it). Give it Red Paint Job to make it go FASTER! Give it Big Bomms to nuke crap in its spare time!
  • Note: If you don't like the idea of using AV10 transports, check out the Heavy Support section. The ork codex might give you the idea that this and the battle wagon are our only transport options. But the truth is that we have the most transport options avalable of any codex in the strange thing is most of them are crammed into the heavy support section.

• Fighta-Bommer: Your Focke-Wulf. The FOUR TWIN-LINKED big shootas are kind of good for hammerin' out dice at everything, but as most flyers tend to have AV 10 somewhere, they'll still ward off most fliers, as long as you attack the weak areas. Additionally as far as aircraft go they are pretty damned tough mofos, but the main reason you want these is the absolutely nasty ordinance they can carry, Grot bombs are more outright destructive but can't be used against aircraft while rokkits can bring the pain to anything in the game. Shame about the limited ammo though. With Imperial Armour Aeronautica, these ground-pounders do best loitering around the battlefield and waiting for the perfect time to strike, then heckling and drawing fire. Honestly, it feels a little underpowered, but can still serve as an anti-armor Burna-Bomma. Use it as a Fighta-Bommer ya git! It's in IA:Aeronautica, and it allows ya to use it in regular games. It's even got amazing Apocalypse-only munitions. Man up and don't use any panzy Burna Bommer. Pretty much to closest thing to a Thunderbolt the Orks will get, while other units can do one thing better, the utility of the Fighta-Bommer allows you to use it in anti-infantry, light anti-tank, and air-superiority duties.

• Fighta: Your Messerschmitt. Pretty useless now since the Dakkajet does everything it did better, can be upgraded to BS3, and isn't Forgeworld.

• Grot Mega Tank: (Imperial Armour Apocalypse II) This is an interesting vehicle. The Mega tank has the same 5+ invul as its smaller brethren, but is still too fragile with 12/11/10 and only 3 HP. It mounts 5 Killa Kan weapons, 2 of which are Twin-linked, and it has BS3 and fires weapons independently, which makes it potent on the battlefield. It's pretty cheap, but its point cost reflects its survivability. Auto-comes with a Dozer Blade, Reinforced Ram, and Grot Riggers, meaning it does as it pleases and has a chance to recover when the the enemy decides to FIRE THEIR LASCANNONS, but it is still Armor 12 11 10. Boom Kanisters help deter those pesky Meltabombers and Haywire-welders, but don't guarantee anything. You need to take a mob of Grot Tanks alongside it, so you already have a cover screen (pray for some 4-ups!).
  • Unit Synergy: You need to dish out weapons amongst the Grot Tanks and the Mega Tank equally. Form them up and give them fitting weapons for what you want them to do. Remember you lose 5 of 'em when your Mega Tank becomes shaken. However, as it is able to independently fire all of its guns, adding a mix of various weapons remains a viable possibility. Staying in the middle of the field, it can then rapidly respond to a variety of threats. Modeling note: These are VERY fun to model on your own and are easy to do. I suggest you make your own instead of buying from forgeworld.

Heavy Support

• Lootas One of the main issues Orks have is that most their weapons are very short-ranged. When dealing with Panzee, Dark Panzee, Blue Gits, or Squishy Umie, this is annoying, as the bad guyz tend to Dakka on your army. Lootas for da win. You only get three squads at most (less, if you wish to take any other Heavy choice), but they are also the most point-efficient source of Strength 7 shooting in the game, even with the awesomeness that is Ork accuracy taken into account. Their main role (which is critical in the majority of Ork builds) is to cover your advance, shooting enemy artillery, light speeders, and other targets which would harry your footsloggers or Trukks. Lootas work quite well on pretty much anything (without 3+ saves) nowadays, since three Glances will bring down most vehicles soundly, and with their volume of shot they are bound to throw out enough to cripple even heavy tanks, Armor 14 is the only thing they can't touch. Overwatch means they can react to charges well, but they will still die in one turn if they don't kill what charges them first. They can also Snapfire on the move now, so they're not totally stationary. Also, they do a reasonable job of Anti-air. Don't be afraid to go to ground with these guys when they're at risk of getting blown off the table. As said before, snap firing isn't that big a deal for a BS2 army because of its ridiculous shot density, but the added coversave is. Now cheaper and competing with other Heavy Supports... The fuck? Can upgrade up to 3 lootas to mekboyz for free, if you so desire. < (Could keep a Battle Waggon or Big Trakk going for you..)
  • Alternative take: Take a Big Mek or Warboss with Mega Armour and Da Lucky Stikk and stick them with a fifteen man Loota squad. Suddenly you've got a 2+ re-rollable armor save tanking for your beloved Lootas, which also have Slow and Purposeful so they can now move and shoot (doubling their firepower)! You can't Overwatch, but 45 WS5 attacks still kills 3 MEQs on average and then your Warboss can mop up with his re-roll to hit and wound Power Klaw. Remember that Lootas get Stikkbombs, so you do have Assault Grenades for what they're worth.
• Flash Gitz: New dex took them from "could be good if they were half the cost" to "better than they used to be, for half the cost." They no longer have heavy armor and can no longer take any upgrades to their Snazzguns, but what they do have is being 3 points per model cheaper, and the Snazzguns are now s5 apd6 ASSAULT 3 (this means that half the time a squad of five is a -1S Vulkan Mega-Bolter or better), meaning you might actually hit something with them now. Speaking of hitting something, Gitfindaz now grant BS3 if you don't move. Could be tricky to pull off, but the joy of watching your opponent shit bricks at the amount of low AP, quasi-accurate dakka these guys can throw out will be worth it. Keeping them in vehicles or near a Kustom Force Field (or preferably both) is highly recommended, as 6+ armor is not fantastic an a 22pt model.
  • A few tricks to try with these guys include: Giving them a Painboy to help offset their poor 6+ save; Giving them a Mega-Armored leader to give them all Slow and Purposeful and trying to claim that Gitfindas work regardless of whether you move or not; Replacing Lootas with these guys in the KFF/Mega-Armored close-support Big Mek strategy (and throwing a Painboy in there for fun) and seeing how it stacks up to a Warboss/Nob Squadron with Battlewagon transport.
• Mek Gunz: A wonderful unit. Brutal in lower point games (1000 points) and still very effective in high end games. We USED to be limited to just 3, but now (thank Gork and Mork) we can take 5 in whichever variety we wish. Just shut up and field a battery of these guys. "But what if-". No, shut up, just do it. Get the full number of cheap-ass Grot bodies for absorbing wounds, and cheap Ammo Runts to help offset your average Ballistic Skill, all at 3 points a pop. Note that when we say "average" ballistic skill, it is a relative term. Orks have BS2, while Grots always have a more average BS3 statline. BS 3 units might as well be a giant sniper rifles in an army book of BS 2 blunderbusses! To make it even better, the new artillery rules state that the crew now uses the guns' toughness. T7 Grots? Yes, please! Want to be a jerk with these guys? Put a normal unit of Grots out front for that sweet cover save. The main problem with fielding Mek Gunz is that they take up a Heavy Support slot, which may or may not pose a problem for your list. You can choose to mix and match the guns below, and if you're only taking one Mek Gunz squad you might want to. Having a pocket Traktor Kannon is a must for a take-all-comers list. However, if you're able or willing to take more than one squadron of Mek Gunz, you'll probably want them to be grouped by the type of target that squad should be shooting at. Bubblechukkas, Lobbas, and Kustom Mega-Kannons are can be grouped against infantry, with Traktor Kannons, Zzap Gunz, Smasha Kannons in the anti-tank role. Kannons can mix in just about anywhere. GW being who they are they overcharge like fuck for these things (like £28 for a forty-point model overcharge). If you're poor, then in true orky fashion build your own: stick together a bunch of other guns you have lying around and putting them amongst a squad of Grots.
  • Kannon - For 18pts, you get a 36" Missile Launcher(Shells) unit with BS3. It can switch to Frag rounds that are Str4 AP5 Small Blast; very versatile good if you don't know what you'll be facing. Be the bane of Space Marines: 135pts for a fully manned semi-twin-linked Str 8 artillery battery is peanuts. Take 5.
  • Lobba - The Lobba provides perhaps the best anti-infantry Orks have to offer. 48-inch range and Barrage allows you to hide behind terrain and fire safely all day long. S5 AP5 Small Blasts are awesome to drop around for a midrange army; park your Lobbas behind a building and start sniping sergeants. Less utility than kannons, but greater range and much easier to keep alive for the exact same price as Kannons. A true Morksend. Take 5.
  • Kustom mega-kannon - S8 AP2 Plasma Cannons, what's not to like? You also get a nice Blast area. Morksend 2, plasma boogaloo. Take 5. And bring 2 extra Gretchins per gun, to ensure survival of the dreaded Gets Hot! rolls.
  • Traktor Kannon - Perhaps the most beautiful, unique creation Games Workshop/Gork/Mork has created. This is, by some, considered THE BEST ANTI-FLIER WEAPON IN THE GAME (although Tau and Skitarii players will disagree). Orks used to have to rely on Lootas aiming upwards for AA fire, but now we have something OH SO MUCH BETTER. 30 pts per kannon (but you generally want some extra Grots or Ammo Runts too) gets you a Krak Missile with Skyfire adn the new Traktor rule, which can be semi-Twin-Linked using Runts. 2-3 Traktor Kannons with some Ammo Runts is all you need to mess up any Flyer/FMC you're likely to face in a single round of shooting.
    • The Traktor rule makes it so that for every glance or pen from this weapon, a Flyer also suffers an Immobilized result (which as of 7th has a 1/3 chance of auto-killing Flyers), and against FMC's, when they take a grounding test, they take it at a -3 (so a 6+ to succeed) It's the glorious reverse-Lifta Droppa.
    • The new Skyfire rules also state you can shoot at Skimmers without having to Snap Fire. That means these gunz are must-takes against Tau, Necrons, and all flavors of Eldar.
    • You can add one or more of these things to any of your batteries, since you upgrade on a per-gun basis. Meaning you won't be stuck with a useless anti-air battery half the time, but instead you can just slap one of these babies in your Kannon gun line for some added anti-air duty should the need arise. It's cheap enough to not be missed if it can't fire at flying things. That said, split up the anti-air and artillery when you can for the most efficient barrages.
    • In my experience, these are the most passively effective weapons in the game. People know what they do, and most of the time will do whatever they can to keep their flyers out of range. With some clever deployment you'll force opponents to second guess their movement and gain a big advantage on the table without even firing the fucking things. Imagine seeing that Flyrant across the table float around aimlessly in the backfield and hard flank, having to pick on some placeholder Grots instead of ripping apart the mobs of Boys in the center of the table, all at the mere sight of a couple Traktor Kannons. I have. It rules.
  • Zzap Gun - The 1st of the Random Guns. The Zzap Gun's variable Strength (averaging at 6.889), low AP, and potential to kill its own crew makes it too unreliable for tank-hunting. IF you really like randomness in your army (or are going for some sort of theme): sure, take them. But compared to the other options for 18 points a gun, this isn't worth it, regardless of what anyone tells you. Don't take 5. Or any. People will tell you that this might be useful against Riptides and Wraithknights, but they're wrong. Why? Because Gork and Mork said we could do better with the Smasha Kannon.
    • Alternative opinion: In this authors opinion, these guns are a perfectly viable alternative to Smasha Kannons - with Smasha Kannons you are basically paying 6 points to lock the second D6 at a completely average number: it's average strength is 7.5, which is only 0.6 higher than the Zzap gun. The Smasha Kannon's AP1 is offset by the Zzap Gun's extra Range and automatic Crew Shaken inflicted on ANY glance, and Gets Hot! doesn't matter as much when you have Ammo Runts.
  • Smasha Kannon - The 2nd Random Gun. The so-much-more-effective version of the Zzap Gun. This is the new answer for Orks dealing with AV14 without running up and hitting it. S4+d6 and AP1 makes this gun like the Zzap Gun, but INFINITELY more reliable. No chance to fry your own crew, and your margin of Strength error is much lower. Plus, every now and then the unit decides to become a 5 man unit of Rail Guns, and that's just awesome. Take 5.
  • Bubblechukka - The 3rd Random Gun. Did you like how random the Zzap Gun was? Well Games Workshop knew you did! And gives you the absolutely fantastic Bubblechukka! Note sarcasm. As with the Zzap Gun, there's really no reason to take this outside of the "Fun" or "absolutely-pissing-around" area. One d6 determines both Strength and AP simultaneously. When you can slice through that terminator armor like a hot knife through butter, you need 6's to wound, but when your strength is high enough to wound on a 2, everybody and their pet Kroot get an armor save. That said, with up to 5 large blasts you will throw out enough wounds to cause quite a few deaths anyway, even on terminators. You could do worse, but you could also do so much better. Maybe, but probably not, take 5.
    • Final Note: As with Lootas, feel free to attach an IC with Slow and Purposeful, like a Big Mek in Mega Armour, to move and shoot these guys. Hint, hint.
• Killa Kans: As a general rule, Walkers in armies are either horribly fragile gun-platforms, or are taken in single squads. Blurring the line between these two extremes is the Killa Kan. Not as durable as a normal Dreadnought or Deff Dread, but with thicker armor than other squadded Walkers, lacking extra guns, but packing a strong Combat Weapon, the Kan is a rather versatile unit. Mobile and accurate, pretty much every weapon choice is viable for this unit. Armor Plates and Grot Riggers are always a good option, keeping Penetrating Hits from slowing you down and getting lost Kans back on their feet. In many armies, you cannot go wrong with a squad of Kans. Just remember that you only have two Hull Points. Only two. More importantly, if 25℅ of Kans in a unit are destroyed the remainder have a chance to suffer Crew Shaken - they're still Grots at heart, after all. If you can, always take 6 if only to make six pack jokes. If you have room in your Heavy Support, Kans now work amazingly with Deff Dreads, with the Kans providing a cover save for the Dread, and the Dread giving the Kans a boost an their "don't be a cowardly grot" check.
  • Loadout: Every Killa Kan has a Kan Klaw by default, making it effectively S7 AP 2 in melee; their low WS and lack of attacks unfortunately mean they're a supporting unit at best. Aside from the Klaw, each Kan has its choice of gun: The Skorcha can be ignored since it doesn't take advantage of the Kan's BS 3 while the Kan is too slow to truly use it. The Big Shoota, Rokkit Launcha, and Mega-Blasta are all options for taking advantage of BS 3, though the Rokkit Launcha is probably the best option since you *need* anti-tank and don't want to blow yourself up too much. That said, the final option (and the main one if you're considering Kanz) is the Grotzooka: Two Strength 6 blasts at 18" are enough to force saves.
  • Krumpa's Killa Kanz (Stormclaw) - 3 Kanz with a Grotzooka, a Shoota and a Rokkit Launcha. It's a slight more expensive than normal, but it allows the Grotzooka-firing Kan to be a Deff Dread so they can regroup around him. The grotzooka kan also is a character, meaning he can issue and accept challenges. Perfect for crippling enemy leadership by sniping the sergeant.
• Deff Dreads: A dedicated close-combat Walker, the Deff Dread is able to dish out a ton of S10 hits in an assault, with the right upgrades. Of course, being an Ork, it's got abysmal ranged capability, so it should usually spend its Shooting phase running at whatever needs to be krumped. Be careful, having only 3 Hull Points and Armor 12 means it can't take much anti-tank punishment. Armour Plates and Grot Riggers also highly recommended. As a Heavy Support choice it's often overshadowed by more versatile choices, like Killa Kanz or Battlewagons. And unlike Dreadnoughts or Penitent Engines, you cannot take squadrons of these things; one Deff Dread eats up a Heavy Support slot and that's that. The only thing saving him is the amount of attacks he can dish out and how cheap he is, making him useful in smaller games. Get him stuck in the assault an' keep 'im dere.
  • Loadout: The Deff Dread comes with two Dreadnought Close Combat Weapons by default, and must take its choice of two additional weapons. Slapping on extra Close Combat Weapons is one option as is extra Skorchas, but you end up locking yourself into a "short-range only" role. You "could" take Big Shootas, but a pair of Rokkit Launchas also provides additional utility; finally there's taking a pair of Mega-Blastas if you're feeling lucky. For most purposes though, this choice is fairly superfluous; if you're taking a Deff Dread, you're probably not 100% concerned about optimization anyway.
• Gorkanaut: New big walker. It's pretty well armored with 13/13/12 and 5 hp, has 2 rokkits (meh), 2 twin link big shootas, a scorcha, and the Deffstorm mega shoota, which pumps out a whopping 3d6 s6 ap4 shots a turn. This loadout is very nice on the overwatch, with lots of dakka being supported by a template. Also is s10 ap1 with 4 attacks and rampage in CC, so it'll shred most things it comes into contact with. Overall, it's an infantry wrecker. Has a 6 man transport capacity with no assault vehicle or firing points for...reasons, so don't use it to transport anything that wants to assault or shoot.
• Morkanaut: New big walker. Shares the armor, hp, strange transport capacity, and some of the weapons with the Gorkanaut above. What's different is the lack of rampage, a kustom mega-blasta instead of a scorcha, and a kustom mega canon (think s8 plasma cannon) instead of the deffstorm shoota. What truly sets this thing apart is the ability for it to take a kustom force field, if you want to take advantage of a 6" radius KFF extending from a fatass base.
  • Both the Gorka/Morkanaut can take grot riggers, which cost 20 points and grants IWND.
  • Wanna know what to use that Transport Capacity on? Pay for a Gork or Morkanaut. Give it Extra Armour and Grot Riggers. Then buy a Big Mek and pay for both Da Fixer Uppers and a Kustom Force Field (if you picked the Morkanaut, you can pay for it's Forcefield instead). 360pts minimum, but the 'Naut will absolutely refuse to die thanks to a 5+ Invulnerable against shooting, It Will Not Die, ignoring Crew Stunned & Shaken results and the ability to fix either Weapon Destroyed, Immobilized or Hull Points on the roll of a 3+.
  • You can do a discount version of the above by using Burna boys with maxmimum meks, or even the slotless meks each HQ choice unlocks.
  • While not what you should ever be doing at all, you can take a squad of meganobz along as portable cover if you want to run your 'Naut as a long ranged weapons platform. vomit the fuckers out right in front of you, fire, then dare your opponent to try and charge through your TEQwall.

• Looted Wagon (White Dwarf 21):Av 11 front. 37 point tank that can buy a 30 point killkannon without losing transport capacity. Can take up to 3 smaller weapons (scorcha/rokkit/big shoota) in any combo for 5 pts a pop. Other than that, can take anything from the vehicle equipment list pretty much. Good for a cheap, 24" s7 ap3 Large 5" blast marine killing template or for getting a more durable transport than a trukk, if it weren't for the fact that heavy support is probably the biggest fight for space with the new dex.
  • Alternative take Don't see the looted wagon as some old nostalgic choice that likes to eat up heavy support slots, see it as a 7 point upgrade for that turns trukks into open topped rhinos with no gunz. And who would not want that. Just try to imagine the face of a space marine player when he realized that the only thing he had to do to make it an assault vehicle was to cut off the top.

Forgeworld

• Big Trakks:AV 12 front. Can be taken in squadrons of up to 3. This is the variable-use workhorse of the Imperial Armour 8 vehicles list and the next step up in durability from a Looted Wagon. The Big Trakk can also take 'ard Case, which makes it a inferior as a transport, but tougher as gunboat. Your first choice should be to give one of these a gigantic gun. Ignore the "classic" first tier gunz, go straight to the big stuff. Take two of these suckers with Supa-kannons if you want to play Guard and shell everybody with Orky Earthshakers (which you do). Remember that you can have three in a squad to manage your Heavy Support slots. They will probably be dead by endgame, too, so try not to deck them out too hard.
  • Transport: These vehicles are somewhere between a Battle Wagon and a Trukk. They give a significant armor bonus, and can mount 4 infantry-portable weapons just like a Battle Wagon. If they are Open-Topped, they make a good assault transport, but they are still vulnerable to Lascannons in ways that Battlewagons just aren't. Due to the changes to scoring in 7th Edition, using a Big Trakk as a point-taking cavalry is a good idea, particularly because of how well it deals with terrain. It can take four Big Shootas which can upgrade to Rokkits or Skorchas, and two Grot Sponsons. This could mean that you could charge this thing onto a point, and drop out a 12-ork squad of Burnas with a Mek to point-guard while the Trakk deals metric tons of lighter Snap Shot firepower. The greater ruability of the Big Trakk paired with a mek or two could really earn their points. This strategy is untested.
  • Dedicated Anti-Tank-Weapon: You can slap a Big Zzappa on this thing (works just like a regular Zzap gun, but with more range and d3 shots), along with up to 4 Rokkit Launchas. That's potentially 7 shots per turn, 4 spelling doom for light armour, d3 being anything from s5-10.
    • While a Big Trakk with just the Big Zzappa is actually cheaper than an un-upgraded battery of Zzap guns, it also has a random number of shots each round, has to deal with the drawbacks of not being crewed by Grots (namely, BS2; but then again, you also can't fry said Grots) and is a lot easier to destroy. On the plus side, it can be repaired, and if you choose to pay for the upgrades, you can slap the aforementioned 4 Rokkit launchas on it (note that it comes with 2 Big Shootas inbuilt, so you already have a good measure of protection against 'Weapon Destroyed' results). Best set up behind an Aegis line, with a squad of Lootas (including a Mek or two) nearby to facilitate repairs.

• Mega-Dread (Imperial Armour Apocalypse II): This thing is fun. It's a dedicated close combat shock unit, but boy oh boy does it do its job well. The Rippa Klaws wreck everything in close combat, and get Wreckers stratagem in Cities of Death. The Killkannon, normally too short-ranged to be effective, finds its home here. This thing will blast apart your enemy squads, before the Dread will munch them to bits in close combat. It is also very hard to stop, being armor 13 everywhere but the back (which is 11) and has base strength 10 making for a tasty HoW. Careful around prolonged Termie throwdowns, you never know what they wield. This guy can also get a Twin-linked Supa-Skorcha that will make MEQs do the burny dance like there's no tomorrow, but the Killkannon can eat Marines at farther ranges. Don't even bother with the Mega-blasta, the Rokkit Launcha has the same Strength (8) and can fire off the same number of shots (one), has the same range (24"), is 5 points cheaper, and does not suffer from the gets Gets Hot! rule. The Mega-Dread can also get Grot Riggers (handy), an additional Big Shoota for Snap Fire, and a Mega Charga (helpful until inevitable tard-out). Best against Marine Equivalents and Light Vehicles/Walkers.
• Kustom Meka-Dread (Imperial Armour Apocalypse II): A more badass cousin of the Mega-Dread. It can take a Kustom Force Field, freeing your Big Mek to be doing other things, and providing more sorely-needed 5++ protection for your force. The Mega Charga allows you to have Fleet, which is nice because the Meka Dread should be in close combat all the time (rolling a 1 really sucks, though). The Rokkit-Bomb Racks counts as Lobba that can fire D3 shots a turn, but it has 1/3 chance of running out of ammo any time you fire it, so it tends to be a waste of points. Remember, then, to only take the KFF. It can also replace one of its Rippa Klaws with a heavy weapon (Rattler Kannon recommended), though you may want to keep the close combat krumpiness. And holy shit those Fixin' Klaws! It adds 2 attack on the charge, and the Meka Dread can attempt to repair itself. An AV 13, 3 HP, 5 S10 AP1 attacks, self-repairing monstrosity? Yes please. But on the other hand this thing is expensive as hell (both in RL money and in-game points cost, especially with KFF), and needs at least one other Mega-Dread in your standard Ork army to be taken.
  • Vanilla Kan Mob: If you don't wanna play around trying to get a version of Imperial Armour 8, get a taste of what you are missing by making the most of your Kustom Meka-Dread's Kustom Force Field (which you took, right?) by surrounding him in Killa Kans. The Kans can screen shots for the Meka-Dread, which will inevitably draw a lot of fire anyway (so circling the wagons isn't exactly a worse attention magnet). The Meka-Dread will give the Kans a 5++, which makes them much more survivable and gives them more time to make good use of their BS3 weapons. Since cover saves stack, your Meka-Dread will be getting 4++, on top of all of its already impressive durability.
  • 7th Ed Shenanigans: With the revision to how Grot Riggers work, its possible that you could give the Meka-Dread the It Will Not Die special rule, instead of the older 5th Edition version of Grot Riggers that Imperial Armour 8 assumes. This means that, in addition to the Fixin' Klaws repairing the Dread, you have a 1/3 chance to automagically regain an HP at the end of your turn.
• Gun Trukks (Forge World): These are bog-standard AV 10 all-around Trukks, but with bigger guns in them. Big Lobbas are great for softening up those shooty units that won't stand still long enough for you to charge them, and the large blast makes those scatters a little less painful. You can also take a Supa-Scorcha, creating a fast vehicle with a s6 ap3 template weapon that HAS to be dealt with, taking attention off your important units. Note that these trukks can be put in a squad of up to 5 in a single force organization slot.
  • The Mek Gunz Comparison: With the advent of the 7th Edition codex, the orkish field artillery got a whole lot better. When choosing between the new Mek Gunz and the older Gun Trukks, you will need to consider their place in your army. Gun Trukks bring a different variety of weapons to your army than vanilla Mek Gunz, namely kannons and mortars. Mek Guns the benefits of the Artillery unit type namely a large pool of expendable crew, while Gun Trukks enjoy greater mobility.
• Flakk Trukk (Imperial Armour - Aeronautica ) This was the primary orkish ground based anti-aircraft unit before Traktor Kannons, it is still not bad. Instead of having two twin-linked Heavy 2 guns like the Hydra, the Flakka-Dakka gun just has a single Heavy 4 weapon. It's very useful against infantry in a pinch, just like its Imperial counterpart, but its lack of twin-linked goodness causes it to suffer somewhat in accuracy. The reason you don't just go straight to a guntrukk squad with Flakka Gunz is the special rules. Flakka-Dakka Gunz can move flat out and fire their weapons, provided their target is a Flyer. This can let you keep up with a Flyer and move across the board to hit some rear armor next turn. The front and side armor is also higher than a Trukk, and you can get a co-axial bolter to spot for you, giving you that twin-linked goodness you so desperately need (and trust us, with Orkish aiming skills, you need it.) Put on a troll face for when you blast those hideously expensive Thunderhawks out of the sky for a fraction of the price.
  • Alternative take Just use loota's in a trukk. They also use a heavy support slot and you get more dakka for your points.
  • Anuver Alternatif? Why chase fliers all over the table? Stick a Big Mek with KFF and Gitfinda in an Aegis Defense Line with an Icarus Lasscanon. Up to three ammo runts for to-hit re-rolls, if you feel like it. That's between 175 and 184 pts but it can give a red nose to any enemy flyer AND to any enemy AV14 vehicle virtually ANYWHERE on the table within LOS. Remember that your orks will also allways need effective long-range anti-armour support. 175/184÷2= 87/92 pts for each capability (AA and AT). You can drop the KFF if you still think it's expensive (125/134÷2=63/67 pts) and it will remain more survivable than any Flakk Trukk or Flakk Trakk. It can't move but it doesn't have to either, because of the 92 inch Icarus fire range and because you wanna shoot every turn with BS3 anyway. Place it on an objective in your backfield. It is a relatively small and difficult target for even large-blast barrage weapons and at the same time is not too expensive so as to be considered a DEFFSTAR. This set is by no means a game-winner either, but after you popped his first Stormraven/Land Raider (maybe even on turn one if you're lucky), it will become a huge distraction for your oponent and would have already redeemed its points-value. This is a virtual heavy support that doesn't compete with other heavy support choices for a slot in the FOC and threatens flyers and tanks at the same time from the very begining of a game. Oh! By the way: Scratch-build the Aegis and Icarus models in orky fashion, out of a discarded lascannon and some unused imperial dozer blades. It'll be money-wise more economical than any FW/GW product. Now you tell me: how's that for a combo?

• Flak Trakk (Forge World): AV12 front. Just imagine a Flakka-Dakka gun on a Big Trakk and you are done.
• Gun Wagon (Forge World) Av13 front. It's an AV13 Battlewagon with half of its transport capacity and less gun options, that can be bought in squads of 3 for twice the cost of a Trukk. This thing might be called Gun Wagon but it doesn't have to take a Big Gun, and it is actually not bad transport capacity for its point cost. These guys are a venerable Forge World model, from days long past.
• Lifta Wagon (Imperial Armour Apocalypse II): AV14 Front. An other unit that took a huge hit with the IA Apocalypse update. It's a Battlewagon with motherfucking titan weapon strapped to its back. Unfortunately the Lifta Droppa got nerfed into the ground. Now, in contrast to the proppa version of a Lifta Droppa, it gently moves vehicles a few inches. It only hit on 5+ now (but Mork save you if you roll a one), but it deals d3 Glancing Hits or a single Explodes! result regardless of what you roll on the scatter die to move the vehicle. The enemy can take Cover Saves against the Lifta Droppa, so be wary of terrain, smoke, sneaky Eldar Fields and Jink saves. It can also target Flyers now, but snapfires. Almost too random for its cost, even for the most mental mekaniaks.
• Big Squiggoth (Imperial Armour Apocalypse II): A monstrous transport, this is an odd one. Check your rulebook nope you are not mistaken that creature type does not exist so expect a lot of strange rule situations with this one. FW makes 'em but they can also be made out of old dino toys, green stuff and plasticard if you're the inventive sort. It's a big dumb beastie that's part angry dinosaur, part tank. Treat it like a support Carnifex that can eat almost all the dakka sent at it with impunity (although the spiky panzees will love you for fielding it), then dive into a squad of (nearly) any infantry and mulch it while the 15 boyz up top either hang out the top shouting expletives or pop out and support it. Unfortunately the daft thing needs some encouragement to not run away with its pathetic LD 5, so your Boyz may need to get stuck in with it, if only to provide emotional support. It can carry a small artillery piece (in the Kannon, Lobba or Zzap gun variants), and it has Dead Space Marine^TM barding providing a nice 3+ save. At WS2 they don't hit much in close combat, but conversely with Toughness 7 it also takes a lot to wound it back. That said it has a few tricks up its sleeves to offset the poor Weapon Skill: Trample gives you d3+1 Hammer of Wrath hits when you charge in, and the Wild Rampage rule gives it d6 additional attacks (much like a Chaos Spawn) on top of the measly 2 it has base, after losing at least 1 of its 6 wounds. Lastly, for 15 points more, the Snakebitez can jam-pack it full of [Doomrider|cocaine!] dodgy drugs that send it into a tizzy, letting you roll once on this chart after deployment:

1. Start the game with one less wound! Unlucky, but thankfully can only happen once. On the plus side Wild Rampage is now active from turn one.
2. The drugs make the Squiggoth go all red, gains Fleet. Very useful, but maybe not worth 15 points.
3. Lets you re-roll the dice determining the amount of attacks for both the Trample and Wild Rampage rules, vastly improving ability to dish out damage.
4. Preferred Enemy (Infantry). Being a bit more reliable in close combat isn't a bad thing, but it's not that great either.
5. FNP (5+), aww yeah! You can't get much tankier than that!
6. You lucky git! You get to roll on this chart again, twice. Any more 6s are re-rolled until you get any other result though, no exploding dice.

• Grot Bomm Launcha (Imperial Armour 8): Forge World still produces these. Used to be unknown where they fit, but ITC places them here in Heavy Support, squadrons of 1-3. Basically a Buggie with a Shoota and Grot Bombs: 24-72" S8 AP3 Barrage Ordnance pie-plates, which count as Twin-Linked but can only fire once per game. Hilariously cheap for something that can evaporate entire squad of marines in a heartbeat, or blow holes in any vehicle. Once they launch all their bombs, you can Flat-Out the buggies into the middle of battleground, blocking enemy paths and LoS like those pesky Humie Land Speeders.

Lord of War

Note: Don't waste yer teef on da stuff GW sells, an' don't get yerself arrested punchin' out dere teef neither. Make yer own lords of war. Ell more den wun git built imself a stompa outa a mister potato head!

• Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka: Inexplicably moved to Lord of War, despite his profile remaining the same as before... He costs a metric shitload, but his 5++ Cybork body has been nerfed to a FnP 6+. He's immune to Instant Death and is a close combat monster on his Waaagh!, which makes his 2+ save into a 2++, and due to his Warlord trait also grants Fearless to the army with his sheer amount of power and beef, but watch out, as it only lasts one turn now instead of two. In his Waaagh, Ghazzy can take on almost every HQ in the game in a 1-on-1. Take him when you absolutely positively got to kill anything or anyone in a challenge. Be wary of Eternal Warrior with 3++ or better foes (he will get crushed every time guaranteed) and you won't have to worry about anything other than incredibly unlucky/lucky rolls. Feel free to give him a Nob guard for some Look Out Sir! meatshielding, so you can direct his phenomenal number of Power Klaw attacks into whatever you want to die without worrying so much about the initiative problem. Prophet of the Waaagh! is now not as shitty, as it allows Mega-nobz and Ghazzy to run on that turn (in addition to the usual Ork effect of allowing charges after running).
  • Don't forget to give him an Attack Squig! Now that Ghazhgkull can take anything from the Runts and Squigs section, there's no reason why you shouldn't buy him a pet squig to help him tear shit up in close combat.

• Gargantuan Squiggoth IA 8:Raid on Kastorel Novem: A fun, strange and sadly overcosted unit. Gargantuan Creature and counts as an open-topped transport that moves 20 boyz straight into the thick of the fighting, then beats up on people with super-high strength attacks at WS 2 (thank Gork for the Stomp attack). Ignores strength 4 and below attacks, making bolters useless, and since it's a gargantuan creature, poison and sniper weapons can only hurt it on a six. Can carry bigger artillery pieces and two of them to boot, as well as 6 passenger-fired Big Shootas. Armor save poor for what will come its way. The only big downside (aside from its point cost) is the huge fire magnet taped to its back. Deathmarks, Vortex Grenades, Railguns, Hammer Blows, Dreadnoughts, and pretty much any other high-strength weaponry will ruin it's day. Even 'Autocannons' will ruin your day. Three Defilers, Ironclad Dreadnoughts, or enemy Deff Dreads will just outright butcher you.

Stompas

• Stompa (Codex: Orks): a massive superheavy walker with 13/13/12 and 12 hull points. it comes equipped at with a Supa Gatler, 3 Supa Rokkits, a few Big Shootas, and a Skorcha. Not to mention the S10 AP1 goodness that is the Deff Kannon. But this comes at a cost of 770 points- and for 30 more points, it can have It Will Not Die. Oh, and the Supa Gatler cannot pump out infinite shots in a single phase anymore. It's 3 shots at S7 AP3 Assualt 2d6- each 2d6 can be fired at a different target. However, after the first firing, a doubles roll for number of shots causes it to run out of ammo.
  • If you have access to IA8 and don't mind using some of the stranger rules Forgeworld has to offer, then go with the Kustom Stompa. It gives you more upgrade options and is cheaper in points. even if you made the exact same Stompa for around 170 pts less. See below for more info.
  • One of the nastiest things you can do is fill it with as much meks as possible by using several 5-man squads of Burna Boys/Lootas with 3 Meks in the Stompa, mek boyz and big meks. Depending on the Stompa load out, that's up to 18+ repair attempts a turn, making it all but impossible to destroy the Stompa unless you manage to do it within a single turn. And since superheavies ignore any vehicle damage except loss of hull points, you don't even have to worry about accidentally bangin' yer own krew ova da hed wiv a spanna (Dem softies shoulda stopped kumplainin' ennewayz).
  • Really don't get carried away with it. I assumed it was indestructible the first time I used it and it lost all 12 of its hull points during Turn 2 in a 1500 point game. Surround it with enough Ork Boyz to protect it from any ridiculous anti-armour units (hyper-upgraded Hive Tyrant and 3 Tyrant Guard with crushing claws), since even the most OP unit isn't going to get through 30 Fearless Orks in a turn. It shoots better than it fights, remember that. Although, to be fair, it did annihilate the Tyrant back by standing on him.

• Kustom Stompa (Forge World): An interesting and varied titan choice. This unit was designed to be fully-customizable Stompa-maker for kitbashers and kustomizers, so that you can build goofy Stompas and make them game-legal (with fair price tags). These guys can do anything you want, including bullet-spamming, pie-plate dropping, and rip-and-tearing (for the right price, of course). The only problem is that this Stompa is generally weaker-skinned than other Stompas, having fewer Power Fields than the Big Mek Stompa and fewer Structure points than some of the other Stompa variants. All this compounds with the points cost if you go overboard on the guns. And you want to go overboard on the guns. So much. All-in-all, this is unit is whatever you want it to be. Send cheap hordes of them armed with Titan CCWs at your enemy, or stand back and watch just one release game-breaking firepower from functionally 6 main titan-class weapons at once. Definitely lives up to the classic Gargant name in terms of Dakka.
  • NOTE: You can give this thing 3 Gigashootas allowing for 18D6 Str 6 shots per turn!

• Klawstompa (Forge World): A cheap (points-wise) and fun titan. You can make one by taking a Kustom Stompa and equiping it with two (Str D) claws. It doesn't have his own entry in the book, but it should, since it's so different from a normal Kustom Stompa. You will miss out on most ranged weapons, but it gives you close-combat buffs instead and the option of a guaranteed 12" charge range upgrade. This makes him a close combat monster, but still has the option of a big flame-thrower S6 AP3 Hellstorm-template weapon. Who doesn't want automatic S6 hits? Bonus hint, always equip it with an other cheap ranged weapon to do the Imperial Knight Stubber Trick.

• Buzzgobs Mek Stompa (Apocalyse, 6th Edition Dread Mob Update) So you want a Stompa with all the gunz, but you don't want to pay the points for it. Don't worry Buzzgob might just know the way to smuggle one in using the ITC rulings. More on that later. This is your goofy and shooty Titan. Comes with Lifta-droppa, for dealing with those pesky Land Raiders, and an extra shield for soaking up those Volcano Cannon kame-hame-has coming your way. Unfortunately it's not that good in practice, given the high points cost and the fact that its single-shot strength-D Gaze of Mork and Lifta-droppa both have to hit on BS2. The best thing you can do is stuff it full of Lootas and Meks to keep it moving and give it an all-around shooting boost.
  • How to get it for a discount. Play the ITC rules and get it as an upgrade for Big Mek Buzzgob and get a stompa as a 300 point upgrade. You will have to know the secret link to this outdated FW document and you will have to use multiple dubious interpretations of the text in but that doesn't matter for the ITC. If do use those rules Buzzgob can sneak one of those monsters in and you will now have a stompa that is not in the codex or any supported document. Here is the link: [3]

Tanks

• Kustom Battlefortress: (Imperial Armour Apocalypse II) the Battlewagon's super heavy big brother. They are and look like looted Baneblades variants. Use it exactly like you would a regular Battlewagon, just on 'roids. Has a massive 30-man transport capacity, Open-Topped by default, and comes with 3 Big Gunz of your choice, mix and match, built right into the starting cost. You can pay to replace the Big Buns for bigger gunz (sacrificing some transport capacity for certain guns) or enjoy the novelty of having a relatively cheap Super-Heavy that can take 30 Boyz into the thick of it (likely) unharmed. A wide array of options for pintle-mounted guns are also available, just in case you want to add more dakka.
  • Note 1: This is also a legitimate way to take Grot Bomms, as they currently have no CAD slot on their own, but can be mounted on this.
  • Note 2: A Kustom Battlefortress setup with Kannons, Supa-kannons and max rokkits makes the Battlefortress one hell of a Gun-wagon, but still pales in comparison to the Kill Bursta.

• Kill Tanks (Imperial Armour Apocalypse Second Edition):These come in three flavors, the Kill Krusha, the Kill Blasta and the Kill Bursta. Creative, yes. One thing of note is that all of these can transport up to 12 models and count as open topped. So those of you who take battlewagons filled with nobz equipped with killkannons, go nuts, these can do the same but better. Oh so much better.
  • A note on the kill tanks: they ONLY count as open topped for the purpose of embarking or disembarking. Every other rule regarding O.T is ignored.
  • The Krusha's Kannon comes with a variety of sexy shells which are all pretty good, but still no Bursta kannon. The main two are Boom Shells (60" range, S8 Ap3, 5" Blast) and Tankhammer (S10, Ap2, no blast) while the other two are pansy anti-infantry crap that you'll never use. The Krusha Kannon (and Kill Krusha itself) can go a little wonky on occasion, so be mindful of how much pressure you put on this tank to perform on the front lines. This tank, more than the others, is an up-scaled Leman Russ, a Apocalypse-scale middle-range Main Battle Tank. It should be in the front, heckling "classic" tanks while avoiding the Apocalypse heavy-hitters.
  • The Blaster's Giga Shoota is somewhat meh, giving you 6D6 S6, Ap4 shots. In theory that should be nice. Mathematically, the average is 21 shots, and 90% of the time you should get at least 16. However, when it really matters rolling a few ones can make his thing next to useless. In general this tank supports infantry advances well, and tends to eat enemy infantry and light vehicles. Though Apocalypse being what it is, those two tend to come in bushels or not at all, relegating this behemoth to lumber behind your Green Tide and protect it from other infantry-eaters. It's not bad, but for the points you spend on a kill tank, there's so much better:
  • The Bursta is where the real class is , although for some (complete bullshit) reason it comes with the actually good (see below) Belly Gun as standard and you need to buy the motherfucking Bursta Cannon. Anyway, once you've bought it you are able to seriously bring the pain. It's essentially a Demolisher Cannon on steroids. It only has a 36" range, but it's a Destroyer weapon with Ap 2 and a 7" Blast. And it is pure fucking class. It'll blow MASSIVE holes in anything you point it at. Terminators? Land Raiders? Pfft. Fuck that shit. All dead in one shot. If you can land one blast on a reasonably pricey unit, you'll pay for it twice over, and that's why the Bursta's amazing. Particularly if you scratch build them (and why wouldn't you? You just need a box with tracks and a big fuckin' gun), then even getting them Laser-Destroyer'd in the second turn after you rape an HQ/terminator/GK paladin/ANYTHING squad is still just as sweet because you paid nothing at all for the privilege to do so.
    • In defense of the Belly Gun: Now, hold on just a minute there. While I'm not going to say that the bursta isn't pure fucking class, and It's certainly worth the 50 extra points it costs (the tank itself is 350, you can afford it), I find that the Belly Gun actually has potential. S7 AP3 vaporizes any MEQ it catches, but the amazing part is the area of effect. Each time you fire, it has a blast radius of 3d6". Radius (as the special rule specifically states). At worst (.46% or the time or 1 in 200 shots) you've got a battle cannon with -1S and a slightly larger (6") blast. 90% of the time you're getting at least a 7, throwing a large dominoes pepperoni pizza downrange. 90% of the time! On other far end, again at .46% of the time (1 in 200), you roll that holy 18, and put down a three fucking foot blast (thank Gork it's 36"!). Go ahead and clear half the table. Mork'd be roight proud. Sure, it's not strength D. It's not going to be clearing termies and land raiders like the Bursta Cannon will. But if you're going up against Nids, Deldar, blob guard or other Orks, consider giving this thing a try. At it's worst it's merely okay, and randomly it'll be awesome. If you're playing orks then you know that as far as random guns go, this ain't half bad. Frankly it's kinda sad that these two amazing weapons are both strapped to the same tank. The bursta cannon is so very good and so badly needed to handle enemy superheavies (almost all of whom can blast massive holes in your army and so demand an effective answer) that the belly gun just gets kinda forgotten. Even performing at it's worst it'll demolish a squad per turn. If you're playing big games consider taking one of each. the belly gun will either take the heat off your titan hunter, or it'll force your opponent to respect the potential 3' blasts. Possibly both. Seriously when was the last time you needed a blast marker bigger than a manhole cover? *(Alternate take: Be prepared to get into tons of arguments / be banned from using this model / never get a game again as while this is certainly RAW - and basic math terminology - this is certainly not RAI)*

Non-Lord of War Super Heavies

Tanks

• Skullhamma Battle Fortress (Apocalypse): If the Battlewagon is the Ork equivalent of a Land Raider, then the Battle Fortress is the Ork version of the Baneblade. Can carry a metric shit-ton of orks and royally wreck the shit of anything that gets in their way. Very customizable like the Battlewagon, and generally if it works for the Battlewagon it works for the Battle Fortress. Unlike the Wagon, the Skullhamma Fortress gets some really sweet guns, and it can carry full sized mobs into the midst of the enemy.

• Dethrolla Battle Fortress (Imperial Armour 8) One take on the Deathrolla Fortress is that it is a nice, cheap Super-Heavy Tank. Another take on the Deathrolla is that it's just really an 'ard-Cased Battlewagon with twice as many hull points, +1 to Side and Rear armour values, and a big gun for thrice the cost. To be fair, that sounds pretty good when you take into account that it won't immediately explode under anti-tank fire like the normal Battlewagons tend to. Dethrollas like ferry huge swaths of Boyz to the front lines, and act then like infantry support tanks. The actual usefulness of this Super-Heavy transport role is up to you.

Fliers

FW doesn't make the models for these super heavy fliers, so you have to make them yourself.

• Bomma (Imperial Armour 8) : Your Heinkel. Like the Fighta-bommer only bigger and slower with more dakka and ordinance. Enough defensive weaponry is on this thing to see off waves of interceptor aircraft, while it carries enough ordinance weapons to pretty much wipe out an entire formation on turn one. Just one of these can spit out enough supa-rokkits to wipe an Leman Russ company off the gameboard or drop enough grot-bombs to turn six full sized Gaunt Broods with an accompanying Hive Tyrant with Tyrant Guard and Warrior Prime (about to tear into your front lines) into a few scattered bugs and a lonely Hive Tyrant who will be blown apart by your Lootas next turn. It also comes with eight (8!) Big Shootas mounted along the flanks, which can shoot at differing targets.

• Blasta Bommer (Imperial Armour 8) : Your Henschel, AKA: the Panzerknacker. Much like the Marauder variant for Imperials, instead of bombs and ordinance this thing carries lots of heavy guns for ground attack. Think of this as an Orky A-10 Warthog (the Orkiest of all airplanes). It can crank out a hilarious amount of Shoota, Zzap Gun, and Rokkit hits to mow down large numbers of enemies, while having the range to buzz around, loitering out of reach of the enemy's guns. The lack of Blast weapons means this is more suited for destroying a few hard targets over obliterating large formations, playing counterpart to the traditional Bomma. However, it is the death of Titans, MEQs, and any vehicle anywhere. Just think of it in terms of it's gun: 120" Range, Str 9, Ap 3, Heavy 3D6, plus D3 Supa Rokkits.

Supplements

Waaagh! Ghazghkull

This book was originally released as a pre-order bonus back when the Codex was released. It was eventually re-released later on, to fall slightly further in line by adding an Ork Decurion, but it's otherwise pointless.

• Biggest an' Da Bestest: Independent characters must issue and accept challenges. Additionally, if the warlord successfully kills a character in a challenge he can reroll to-wound rolls for the rest of the game. This shit sucks. Orks have access to wound rerolls on our warlord traits and with the lukky stik. You never want to be forced to take a challenge you can't win with your warlord. Some say it's the orky way to blindly accept challenges. I say it's even orkier for the big boss to shove a few boyz in front to deal with a formidable opponent before it's your turn to krump em (kunnin eh?).
• Da Boss iz Watchin': Units with this rule in mobs get +2 on Mob Rule rolls, but if they roll Breaking Heads or Squabble, they take d3+3 S4 AP- hits. Yeah, you better pray that you pass morale, because the price for failing got much higher.
  • 'Alternative take' This is kinda a blessing for larger units since they no longer can roll a 1 so they don't flee as fast.
    • 'Alternativer take' This does more bad than good. Sure, your units of 10+ boys won't run from shooting, but you'll never roll a 1 to stay locked in combat, and units of less than 10 boyz have a 1/6 chance of passing on the table (must roll a 1 to get a breakin eads result), and if they do they take a bigger beating. This rule alone is enough to forgo the great waaaagh! detatchment all together. Such fucking bullshit.

Also, you gain "The Great Waaagh!", which allows your warlord to declare a Waaagh! every turn, including the first. Use Council of the Waaagh! as your Command choice, use Ghazkull as your warlord, and huzzah! you have a warboss with a 2++ every turn including the first! Now go and kill a Daemon Prince every turn! (Prices start at 1053 points with no upgrades whatsoever.)

Warlord Traits

1. Supa Shootist: Warlord has BS3. ORK SNIPERZ!!!!! WOO!! in all honesty, it's better than nothing...
2. Waaagh-mongerer: Warlord and unit get Crusader. Neato since it means you can run a bit further when you Waaagh!.
3. Madboy: Warlord gets Rage.
4. A Kunnin' Plan: Warlord and his unit get Outflank. Neat tactic if you need to surprise someone with a big mob of boyz sandwiching them, especially if you add in Snikrot's formation. Even better, stick your Warlord in a STOMPA and have it come in behind Guard players' enemy lines and watch them panic.
5. Kallin' in a Favour: One weapon the Warlord gets (that's not from the Kustom Gubbinz list) gets Master-Crafted. Considering how craptacular Orks are with guns, you're better off putting it on a melee weapon.
6. Dead 'Ard: Warlord has FNP. Awww yea, (Unless you already bought Da Supa-Cybork upgrade. There's no mention on the FNP stacking, making this combo a washout)

Orkimedes' Kustom Gubbinz

Unlike artifacts from the normal Ork book, you can (presumably) stack Orkimedes artifacts together, however only the formations and detachments from the supplement can use the Gubbinz and, as pointed out above, that's a questionable decision. The wording of the newer version of the supplement specifically states that you can use both vanilla ork dex artifacts as well as the waaaugh! ghazghkull artifacts: so do not feel limited to using one set over the other.

• Choppa of the Ragnarork: A MURDA CHOPPA (+2S, AP5) that gets better the more you kill. At the end of every assault phase where the wielder gets a kill it gains +1S and -1AP, maxing out at S+6 AP1, and this stays the entire game. HOLY CRAP YOU BETTER PROTECT THIS GIT! Run any character who takes this with some other squad level character so that he does not get challenged and forced to fight with a AP5 weapon against a Space Marine Captain or sit that turn out and not kill anything to get a better choppa.
  • Alternative take: This weapon is a lot of fun to play with and watch as it gets stronger, but the thing really is terrible. To max out this weapon you have to be in close combat for at least 2-4 turns, possibly not killing anything with its weak base stats, causing the weapon to not get any stronger. By the time you do manage to make this weapon useful and dead-killy, it will almost be the end of the game. This weapon would be far better if it got better for each kill made, instead of getting at least 1 kill in the turn.
• Big Bosspole: Bearer and his unit get Fearless, which is a good thing if you have a unit chock full of boyz. Brutal synergy with the Green Tide formation available from this Book.
• Da Supa-Cybork: User gets FNP (5+), Relentless, and eternal warrior. Give it to a big mek with a shokk attack gun to shokk on the go! Fluffy but waaaaaay too expensive. Might be useful if you're really afraid to loose your boss to ID (In which case, it's probably better to just choose Ghazzy and the Waaagh! every turn formation for an 2+/2++/5+++ EW strikes at initiative monster for around the same price as a kitted out warboss with this).
• Da Killa Klaw: It's a daemonic Power Klaw that's Dead Killy. Seriously. Like the Black Legion's Hand of Darkness, you can exchange all your melee attacks for one ID hit. Better make sure you can survive long enough to make this shit work.
  • Extended Opinion: The only thing interesting about this item is giving it to a Warboss that already has a Power Klaw so he can get that +1 attack for two weapons. At S10, you are already insta-killing most stuff anyway, and the stuff you aren't is taking one hell of a beating when you swing. Honestly, Headwoppa's Killchoppa is far better than this item because it is cheaper, lets you keep all your attacks which can cause instant death, and lets you actually make use of that initiative 4. Put him on a bike and watch him drive with those 2 hellhuge klawz!
• Mega Force Field (Big Mek only): Essentially an improved Kustom Force Field that works on a 4++ instead of a 5++, and does not require replacing the Big Mek's Slugga. The same issues with the KFF are here too, but the Mek can at least take a Shokk Attack Gun with this, if you care more about HQ slots rather than point efficiency.
• Kill-Dakka: This gun is weird. It's got 6 different firing modes, with one that gets selected before deployment. Overly expensive for the results, but pretty damn fun. (Has some pretty nice synergy with a flashgit Battle Wagon Big Mek, also extremely fluffy in this formation).

1. 24" S7 AP4 Heavy d3+1 shots. Basically an autocannon with up to 4 shots. Great if you get this with Mega-armor.
2. Assault 1 Flamer with S5 AP4. Meant to make dead blobs.
3. 24" Assault 3 S6 AP4 shoota. Well, you just got a heavy bolter.
4. 24" Assault 1 S2d6 AP4 Zzap gun.
5. 24" Assault 1 S6 AP5 Blast.
6. 24" Assault 1 Sd6 APd6 Bubblechucka Large Blast.

Formations and Detachments

The Orks just got a new version of WAAAGH! Ghazghkull, featuring a decurion-style version of The Great WAAAGH! detachment. This whole section needs an update, so please do some editing where you see fit.

Detachments

• Ork Horde (Codex): This was a big thing when our codex dropped since this was the first alternative detachment, but has since dropped far off the deep end in usefulness since the dawn of the Decurion. All this adds is three more Troops units (one more compulsory) and a third HQ. However they DO NOT get the "Objective Secured" rule that the CAD gets, instead they get a special rule where if an Ork Unit contains 10 or more models, and rolls a 10 or more on charge distances, they all get Hammer of Wrath for that charge. This strategy favors high model counts of Orks versus high unit count of Orks. Units that have high enough body counts to have more than 10 boyz in a squad by the time they reach the enemy to charge Boyz and Stormboyz. This combines well with Da Finkin' Cap as it allows Orks to roll on strategic trait's chart from the main rulebook, giving the possibility of outflanking up to 3 units. Remember that most Ork models with 'Ere We Go are S3, so this will likely lose effectiveness against high toughness, low model count armies.
• The Great Waaagh! (Waaagh Ghazghkull) You must take 1+ core choices (warband or goff killmob), with 1-10 auxiliary and 0-1 command choices. For your trouble, you get the Biggest an' da Best and Da Boss iz Watchin (meh....), a reroll on the warlord trait table, hammer of wrath on units of 10+ orks whenever they make a charge (not just a charge of 10+ inches now), and the ability to call a Waaagh every turn INCLUDING the first. This can help you get stormboyz and trukk mobz into combat, and help your boys get a charge infiltrator/scout units, as well as assault themed armies that are going to meet you half way and advance (if you go second). This can also make your orks fearless if you take ghazkull or roll a 1 on the ork warlord trait table. The problem is that to get Ghazghkull you have to spend 600+ points on the Council of the Qaaagh, AS WELL AS 600+ points on a core unit. On top of this, you get the biggest and da best/da boss is watchin, which are somewhat detrimental. Personally, I'll continue to play the formations separately just to not deal with the 2 shitty rules, while still having access to multi-waaaghs for the majority of the game, a 1/6 rerollable chance of getting fearless from turn 2 and on, and possibly access to the Orkimedes' Kustom Gubbinz.
  • Biggest an' Da Bestest: Warlord must issue and accept challenges. Additionally, if the warlord successfully kills a character in a challenge he can reroll to-wound rolls for the rest of the game. This shit sucks. Orks have access to wound rerolls on our warlord traits and with the lukky stik. You never want to be forced to take a challenge you can't win with your warlord. Some say it's the orky way to blindly accept challenges. I say it's even orkier for the big boss to shove a few boyz in front to deal with a formidable opponent before it's your turn to krump em (kunnin eh?).
  • Da Boss iz Watchin': Units with this rule in mobs get +2 on Mob Rule rolls, but if they roll Breaking Heads or Squabble, they take d3+3 S4 AP- hits. Yeah, you better pray that you pass morale, because the price for failing got much higher.
• Great Waaagh! Detachment: It was not reprinted in the Waaagh! Ghazghkull re-release, but the FAQ says this and the Green Tide formation are still valid. Take your typical CAD and add an extra 2 Troops and 2 Elites. 1 HQ, 2 Troops, and 1 Elite are compulsory. For using this, you have to deal with Biggest an'da Best and Da Boss iz Watchin', which is rather painful. The 'benefits' are the customary Warlord Trait re-roll and the ability to roll a die for each unit from this detachment, adding +1 to any unit that is classified as Troops. Any result of 6+ gives that particular unit Deep Strike.
  • Biggest an' Da Bestest: Warlord must issue and accept challenges. Additionally, if the warlord successfully kills a character in a challenge he can reroll to-wound rolls for the rest of the game. This shit sucks. Orks have access to wound rerolls on our warlord traits and with the lukky stik. You never want to be forced to take a challenge you can't win with your warlord. Some say it's the orky way to blindly accept challenges. I say it's even orkier for the big boss to shove a few boyz in front to deal with a formidable opponent before it's your turn to krump em (kunnin eh?).
  • Da Boss iz Watchin': Units with this rule in mobs get +2 on Mob Rule rolls, but if they roll Breaking Heads or Squabble, they take d3+3 S4 AP- hits. Yeah, you better pray that you pass morale, because the price for failing got much higher.
• Air Superiority Detachment (Death from the Skies): The very same, as all other factions get with an access to air-force. Really, not much to talk about, if your enemy brought the same detachment, most of your perks are being nullified anyway, and you don't have transports to capitalize on the Object Secured planes. Look rather for the Ork Skwadron, or the Kustom Wazmob formation.

Da Great Waaagh!

Coming with the re-release of this book was an Ork Decurion. However, it's clear that this was very phoned-in.

• Command Benefits: There are three benefits. The first is being able to reroll your Warlord Trait if rolling on the Ork Table. The second one is Stampede which states that if your Warlord is a Warboss from this detachment, you can Waaagh every turn. The final benefit is called The Greenskin Hordes which states that every time a unit from this Detachment which starts the Assault Phase with 10 or more models manages to successfully charge an enemy and roll a 10 or more for charge distance, it gets Hammer of Wrath. Extra hits are appreciated, though sadly they're only S3 hits. It must be confusing that Gretchin benefit from this too.

Core (1+):

• Waaagh!-Band: Literally the exact same Formation as the Ork Warband in the basic Ork Codex, with a different name. The benefits are exactly the same as the Great Waaagh, meaning this effectively gets no bonus.
• Goff Killmob: A Warboss (possibly replaced by Grukk) joins a pack of Nobs, 3 bands of Boyz, 1 pack of Kanz, a Gorkanaut and 2 Deff Dreds. In exchange, the Infantry units from this formation may reroll their charge distance. Although the benefit is better (since it stacks), it does mean taking a Gorkanaut...

Command (0-1 per Core)

• Council of da Waaagh!: Pretend you're in 5th Edition all over again! Ghazghkull and Grotsnik get to grab 2 Warbosses, a Big Mek, and a mob of Nobs with a banner. They now count as a squad. Aside from netting the bonus rules standard for the supplement, they net +1 WS on the bosses and the ability to roll for two Warlord Traits from the supplement and add them both to Ghazzy's default trait. The Banner-bearer also gives THE ENTIRE SQUAD AN ADDITIONAL +1 WS (on top of the normal +1 of the banner), as well as giving all Orks within 12" a re-roll on failed Morale and Pinning tests.Some people may argue that you only get the +1 WS on the Nobs, but the Waaagh! banner does say the unit gains the bonus, just like in a standard group of a Warboss and a Nobz squad with Waaagh! Banner, the Warboss would gain that bonus there too.As close as you'll get to your Herohammer deathstar and can be quite tanky to boot. Give the Big Mek the relic force field, take the Nobz in a small as possible squad and give the Warboss' Mega-Armour and 1 of them the Eternal Warrior relic. This will run you up 800~ points but will still fit in any transport, be mostly Toughness 5, have a 2+ and 4++, and FnP and EW on the 2 main damage soakers. Will also put out enough S10 attacks to kill anything* in a single turn of combat: 16 + D3*3 if you're outnumbered at WS8 (on the warbosses (+1 from formation, +1 from Waaagh! banner and another +1 for the special banner)).Warning Terms and Conditions apply on "Anything". Your 4+ invuln save is only good against shooting and all klaws are still I1. Any real close combat squad will laugh at these wannabees.

• Oddboyz: Your non-Warboss HQ choice. Just grab a Mek, Big Mek, Painboy, or Weirdboy.

Auxiliary (1-10 per Core)

• Ghazghkull's Bully Boyz: 3 separate units of 5+ Meganobz. As a very melee-based formation, they not only get Fear and Fearless, but they also get +1 WS, making them even more of a threat in combat. There's still a lot that can blow them up though, and S&P will make it easy to wreck them. This formation does, however, fix the main problem with Nobz - their piss poor LD. Fearless means their LD7 no longer matters which is the main reason they suck. Put the whole formation in Battle wagons and you can be sure the enemy will have to kill every last Nob. Take Kombi Skorchas on every Nob so you have 15 single use heavy flamers to melt any tarpits that get in your way.
• Da Vulcha Skwad: Zagstruk grabs 3 packs of Stormboyz. This formation is sadly trash since it must start in Deep Strike Reserve, while lacking the ability to charge from Reserves or mitigate Scatter. Furthermore, the entire Formation makes a single Reserve roll and Orks do not have innate Reserve manipulation and so unless you sink extra points into a comm-relay, there is a 1 in 3 chance that the Formation fails to arrive. The only other bonus is that the Formation can merge into a single unit, yet do you really want to Deepstrike a mob of 30+ unarmored Orks in an easy-to-pieplate group?
• Badrukk's Flash Gitz: Badrukk grabs 2 bands of Flash Gitz. A surprise formation, Badrukk joins up with 2 mobs of 10+ Flash Gitz. They can join into a single superblob similar to the Vulcha Boyz, but this is not worth it since they can only shoot one unit at a time and you do not get bonus points for overkill. Their other bonus is that their Snazzguns gain Master-Crafted; however, each Snazzgun fires three shots, and Master-Crafted only lets you reroll one miss per weapon. Say you have 20 Flash Gitz in your super-unit: they do not roll 60 shots before rerolling up to 20 misses. Rather, you roll three shots at a time, rerolling up to one miss, and repeat this process a total of 20 times. Your opponent will hate you not for the damage you do, but the amount of time it takes to resolve the attack. In short, this Formation is another hard pass; take Flash Gitz if you want, but not in this Formation.
• Boss Snikrot's Red Skull Kommandoz (Waaagh! Ghazghkull) - Boss Snikrot grabs four Kommando Mobs; no more, no less. This formation gets the same ability to jump in on any side of the table and get Shrouded when they arrive, but they also get a re-roll on a failed cover save if they don't shoot the turn they arrive.
• Blitz Brigade: Five Battlewagons, all with either rams or deffrollas. Surprisingly, they get Scout, which is pretty hard to imagine for an Ork vehicle, but if they do so, anyone embarked on them won't be able to charge on the first turn, unless you take turn two, then you can charge away, otherwise they are useful as delivery for either shootas or flash bitz or as mobile cover for other chargers. With the new update of Waaagh! Ghazghkull, all battlewagons ram at S10. Sweet.
  • However, with this formation a good choice would be killkannons. Firstly, taking 'ard case wouldn't be a problem if units inside can't charge out of it turn 1 anyway. Secondly that scout move gets them up and into range turn one. with five large blasts at S7 AP 3. Your opponent is gonna have to duck and cover in order to survive that kind of on salvo turn 1.
• Gorkanaut Krushin' Krew: Grab 3 Gorkanauts that will become huge fire magnets not only because of their standard mega-ness, but because they get additional rules as the game goes on. On Turn 2, they get Rage. On Turn 3, they get Hatred. After that, they get Shred. Keep them alive that long, and you'll have the ability to crush anything you get near. Just remember to keep them in the best possible positions (in close combat, hidden from Lascannons, screened by smaller units, etc), because until they start gettan gud, they are only basic Orkanuats, and basic Orkanauts are basic bitches.
• Dread Mob: A Big Mek and Painboy grab 2 Gorka/Morkanauts in any combination and 3 each of Killa Kanz and Deff Dreads.
• Air Armada: 3 Dakkajets grab a Burna-Bommer and Blitza-Bommer.
• Dakkajet Skwadron: 3 Dakkajets
• Burna-Bommer Skwadron: 3 Burna-Bommers.
• Blitza-Bommer Skwadron: 3 Blitza-Bommers.
• Speshulists: Grab a pack of speshul boys: Kommandos, Flash Gitz, Burnas, Tankbustas, or Stormboys.
• Speed Freeks: Grab a pack of Warbikes, Warbuggies, or Deffkoptas.
• Mekboyz' Big Stuff: A Stompa, Morka/Gorkanaut, Battlewagon, or Mek Gunz. Whatever fits, really.

Dataslate Formations

• Painmob (Start Collecting! Orks box) - This formation requires a Painboy, a mob of Boyz, a mob of Nobz and a Deff Dread. The pros are that you get a free Painboy slot, which is definitely welcome, and the other units aren't restricted to a specific size (you needed a big blob of Boyz anyway, right?). A mob of Nobz can be kept cheap (minimal with no upgrades is around 50 points) and small enough to be kept as a hidden backfield objective holder, or you can kit it out to be brutal. The only real tax unit here is the Dread, which doesn't really synergize with the rest of the formation as-is. To offset that, you get the special rule Pile On Da Pain, which lets all the units in this formation, once per game, get an extra round of Close Combat during the Movement phase if they're already stuck in, and the enemy can't hit back. But since GW gives with one hand and takes with the other, all units with this rule need to perform it at the same time. If you're taking this unit, at least stick some Killa Kanz around the Dread so it won't be dead before it hits enemy lines.

• Ork Warband - This requires 1 Warboss, 1 Mek, 1 unit of Nobz/Meganobs, 6 units of Boyz & 1 unit of Gretchin and gives you all the same benefits as the Ork Horde detachment (re-rollable traits + HoW if 10+ models roll more than 10" charge). In addition your Warboss can call a Waaagh EVERY TURN AFTER THE FIRST You'll never have to play a battleforged army ever again! Just add unbound Ork units after you've qualified for the formation.
  • This formation is easily overlooked and underestimated: when taken bare-bones it forms the core of a 1000pt army that still has room for more Nobz, Boyz, or a few good toys and upgrades that lets you overwhelm an opponent with superior numbers. Waaagh-ing every turn even the first will let you shoot up the board faster than your opponent can anticipate with more bodies than they can deal with unless they take very specific lists. And even then, HoW hits are much easier to achieve. Additionally, all the required units have a use on the field: Grots maintain their use as a screen or backfield objective holder, while a small 3-Nob squad can do the same job while being just as easily ignored by the enemy. That Mek can babysit Mek Gun batteries, help Lootas with Mob Rule or take challenges for a PK Nob/Boss. And while you can't count on it to happen, rolling a 1 on the Ork traits table (with the reroll this formation allows) means your army is Fearless every turn even the first, assuming you can protect the Warboss. Putting a (cheap) Finkin' Kap on that (cheap) Warboss allows for further shenanigans. This formation gives a ton of strategic opportunities that your opponent WILL underestimate. The one downside is model count; not for a new player, but it's a way to keep your footslogging army from previous editions viable.

• Grukk's Rippin' Krew (Stormclaw) - All of the Unique Stormclaw formations go here. Thankfully, Grukk allows everyone to re-roll morale (Cowardly Grotz included), and the ability to Deep Strike. If you decide to pull everyone in Reserves (which'd be kinda ridiculous) they'll all automatically arrive on the first turn so you can shock them by not being automatically disqualified. This formation would be great if you weren't forced to use the named units of the storm claw box that are all kind of oddly equipped.

• Dread Mob (Waaagh! Ghazghkull)
  • NOT the same as the Apocalypse formation. This one has a Big Mek and Painboy joined by 2 Gorka/Morkanauts, 3 Deff Dreads, and 3 squads of 3 Killa Kans. With the new units put onto this unit (one of which has dubious use here), the entire formation gets a re-roll on one charge dice and d3 HoW hits, which make the walkers slightly more killy. Most important to note: if you take another detachment with a Warboss as warlord, the fact that all the walkers have 'Ere We Go! makes them benefit from calling a Waaagh!, allowing them to run and then charge in the same turn, just like da boyz! To make the best of this formation you are going to want to get those walkers into close combat by any means necessary, including screening the larger walkers by way of the Kans. Hordes of Boyz may end up blocking the metal death machines from getting stuck in as soon as possible, so don't be stupid play accordingly.

• Green Tide (Waaagh! Ghazghkull) - Another remade formation, this one limits the Warboss to staying with 10 mobs of boyz. The only thing that remained this do-over is the ability to Waaagh! on end. The unit becomes more valuable now, as they're now worth 11 VP if they're entirely destroyed, which kinda kills the incentive to use them, especially now that they can't just grab any more boyz to boost their numbers. They also get HoW if they charge 10+ and the ability to allocate wounds if they roll anything other than a 1 on Mob Rule, which kinda keeps them alive, but it's not as good as the Apoc form. Although giving your Warboss a Big Bosspole means the unit is Fearless, negating Mob Rule entirely. Since the Formation allows you to take Unbound units while keeping the Formation's special rules (you weren't going to bother with ObSec in this list anyway), tossing in a single Painboy gives the entire blob FnP, and a KFF or two near the front/sides/rear of the unit - basically moving to wherever your opponent is hitting you from - helps keep your boyz much more protected than your opponent will anticipate. Orks: it's all about underestimation! This formation has proven to be very powerful. But not easy to master as it's a helhuge single squad with all it's goods and bads. The goods are that the buffs like FNP and Fearless affect everyone. The bads are you're running a single freaking squad that can get stuck into an invisible or hardy enemy attacking from the flank, so positioning and support are VERY important.

• Gorkanaut Krushin' Krew (Waaagh! Ghazghkull Supplement Update) - 3 Gorkanauts that will become huge fire magnets not only because of their standard mega-ness, but because they get additional rules as the game goes on. On Turn 2, they get Rage. On Turn 3, they get Hatred. After that, they get Shred. Keep them alive that long, and you'll have the ability to crush anything you get near. Just remember to keep them in the best possible positions (in close combat, hidden from Lascannons, screened by smaller units, etc), because until they start gettan gud, they are only basic Orkanuats, and basic Orkanauts are basic bitches.

• Mogrok's Bossboyz (The Red Waaagh!) - A Warboss grabs 3 Big Meks and an ML2 Weirdboy. One of your Meks gets Kunnin' But Brutal, giving him some extra protection with his KFF (which you took, right?). You also get +1 on the Seize and can give d3 units Outflank and Acute Senses for extra sneeky if you use this alongside Snikrot's boyz. Of note, you can outflank ANY unit, including Stompas and Orkanauts, right into your opponents lines (bonus points for Burna-laden trukks)! (TAKE IT FOR THE GREEN TIDE! THE LULZ JUSTIFY EVERYTHING)

• Skyboss Wingnutz' Sky Armada (The Red Waaagh!) - Pack in 3 Dakkajets (one with a Flyboss) with a Burna-Bomma and a Blitza-Bomma. This is meant to purely piss off anyone aiming at them, as they can jump off the Table to Ongoing Reserves, restoring their HP and One-Use weapons before going again.

• Grukk's Goff Killmob (The Red Waaagh!) - Grukk and Skrak's Skullnobz have to join 3 mobs of 20+ bare-bone boyz, a Gorkanaut, 2 Deff Dreads, and a 3-Kan mob. They get Fear for joining up, but the Boyz and Nobs also get a re-roll on the Charge just to make sure they make it. Not much else, though.

• Ork Skwadron (Death from the Skies) - A formation-level alternative of the air superiority detachment. You must take 3 wings from Dakkajets, Burna Bommerz, or Blitza Bommers in any combination. One wing gets +1 BS and agility, plus the Skilled rider USR. The whole formation move flat out and can shoot, provided all the wings are in an attack pattern, and they are not more than 24" far away from each other. Shame, that it can be nullified by shooting out one wing (or at worst, a single plain from a 2 plane-strong wing).

• Kustom Wazmob (Death from the Skies) - A speshul wing, which is led by a Wazbom Blastajet (with a compulsory kustom force field), followed by three other planes (Dakkajet, Burna Bommer,Blitza Bommer, or Wazbom Blastajet, in any combination). If you fly in a Fortitude pattern, you'll get 3+ invulnerable save. RAW it can be used against hits from the Clipped 'im! results on you Blitza Bommers' bombing runs. Still can be nullified by shooting down a single plane from the formation, but the whole lot can be fielded just under 500 pts.

Apocalypse

If you like scratchbuilding, large games and, silly rules and playing unbound this is the game type for you.

Apocalypse Formations

These formations are Appocalypse only.Most of them are more powerfull then normal formations and you can't use them in most normal 40k games.

• Battlewagon Steamrolla Squad (40k Apocalypse) - 3-5 Battlewagons all grab Deffrollas and start rollin'. When in Broadsword pattern, the Wagons can all re-roll how many hits their Deffrollas inflict and gain a 4+ Cover save against front armor damage, making them really tough against oncoming enemies. Now that Deffrollas only work when enemies choose Death or Glory, this squad is best used in a wall formation to take enemy infantry, and push them somewhere else.

• Burna-Bommer Squadron (40K Apocalypse) - 3-5 Burna-Bommers. Let's rock. When in Arrowhead pattern, 2+ of the Bommers can make a bombing run and keep one of the Blast markers used in that run on the board after all is said and done. This marker now denotes the area as Lethal Terrain, which can help if used properly. In addition, if they hit anyone, the enemy must subtract the number of flyers from any morale or pinning tests they make in that turn.

• Da Bully Boyz (40K Apocalypse) - 5 Warbosses (One who could be Ghazgkhull) each take a mob of either Nobs or MegaNobs to get stuck to for the game. One of the Bosses (or Ghazzy if he's available) becomes the Supreme Boss. The first big thing you'll see is that this gives them all a welcome FNP and Fearless, making them very ready to get stuck in. In addition to that, the Supreme Boss (or Thraka) gets to use a special Rok Strike that's infinite range Assault 1 S10 AP1/S8 AP3/S6 AP5 Apocalyptic Blast. Quite blatantly, this will make every Orbital Bombardment suck a big one because you got the biggest boom in town.

• Dread Mob (40k Apocalypse) - 2+ Deff Dreads are put with 2+ squads of 3 Killa Kanz. The survivability of these things is boosted first by getting It Will Not Die. In addition, each model gets to roll d6 for new gubbinz: 1 gives them HoW (irrelevant now that all Walkers get it by default), 2-3 gets +1 S, 4-5 gets a 5+ Invul, while 6 gives you all of this. No matter what you get, you'll find something to use from this force of angry tin cans. Note that this has nothing to do with the Army of the same name from Imperial Armour 8.

• Green Tide (40k Apocalypse) - A Warboss gets stuck in with 10 mobs of boyz for a propa footy WAAAGH!!! This is how da Orkz do it! First off, any mob of boyz within 2" of the Tide must join it at all costs, even if they have to disembark from a transport, while Characters besides the lead boss can join or leave whenever. Any mob that retreats within that range can also join in and automatically regroup. In doing so, the force can now Waaagh! every turn, with a bonus die given to their charge distance (picking the highest 2) if the rest of the army uses Waaagh! GO NUTZ!

• Bikeboyz Kult of Speed (Warzone Armageddon) - A Bikerboss takes 6+ mobs of bikerboyz, 2+ squads of buggies, and any number of Nobz on bikes.
  • This is the best way to run bikes. They can shoot whenever they want, even if they Turbo-Boost or Flat Out. They can also move absolutely anywhere if they arrive from reserves, so long as they keep out of 12" of the enemy at any point in the arrival.

• Karnage Skwadron (Warzone Armageddon) - 3+ Dakkajets. TIME TO SHOOT!
  • Plain and simple, this is a kamikaze formation. Yes, they get +1 on their jink saves, but they need to be 2" from any other models/bases. Therefore, their use comes from their other rule: Once they move to a Superheavy, each jet can sacrifice themselves and place a Large Blast that scatters 2d6. Anyone hit by this takes d3+1 S10 AP2 random hits (on side armour for vehicles) that can ignore all shields.

• Ork Stormer Elite (Warzone Armageddon) - At least 3 mobs of Stormboyz take to the skies. Since they're forced to footslog it, they get a nifty bonus FNP and Fearless to keep them fighting a bit longer. In addition, they can charge from reserves, removing d3 of the gitz that do charge.

• Overlord Von Strab (Warzone Armageddon) - One lone Company Commander (read: HERETIC) gets to hire a 9-Nob mob. Doing this works like Cypher: all Guard units now have Hatred against this unit, and every Guard Unit within 12" MUST charge his ass. He also counts as a controlled asset for his side, but becomes a controlled asset for the other side if he ever dies. In addition, he can't grab an extra Strategic Asset.

• Red Skull Kommandoz (Warzone Armageddon) - Boss Snikrot leads a mob of Kommandoz. This unit just oozes with sneaky. First off, whenever they arrive from reserves, the boss gives Orks within 12" of him Shrouded for the turn. Second, they can jump into Ongoing Reserves on any Ork turn so long as there are no enemies within 12" of them.

• Stompa Mob (Warzone Armageddon) - 2-4 Stompaz with an optional Big Mek Stompa unite for hugeness. This is your superheavy formation. None like it. If the Big Mek Stompa is with them and they use Arrowhead Pattern, the Mek's fields get to protect everyone in the formation, which is neato. If in Broadsword Pattern, the Stompas can then re-roll all Stomp results, making them even bigger threats.

• Shokk Attack Battery (Apocalypse Datasheet) 3 Shokk Attack Guns and a Snotling herd, a new unit which are basically Grots but with BS1. One Mek is designated the Boss Mek, which doesn't affect his stats. These Meks can fire at the same time using an Apocalyptic Barrage, though it should be noted that this also applies the negative effects across the board between the three gitz. They use as many die as there are Shokk Attack Guns remaining in the battery. On a Triple 1, all three models are removed and a Vortex Grenade effect is placed where the Boss Mek was standing.

Building Your Army

Picking Your Detachment

The Orks have access to many different detachments. Besides the Normal Combined Arms and Unbound options in the base rulebook, there are formations and the Ork Horde Detachment. Formations have a lot more requirements than FOC, so you will need to meet them. Many Formations are interesting choices, but the lack of freedom and options means they will likely be joined by another detachment.

Decide whether or not you want Objective Secured; in the tournament scene stealing objectives is considered a top-tier strategy. In friendly or lower tiers of play this might not be a factor. The Ork Horde Detachment is a good option if you want to field more HQs, though this requires the tax of more troops.

Picking Your Warlord

If you want to take the Warboss as your warlord, remember that the Waaagh! is a powerful ability for the Orks and is only accessible if the Warboss is your warlord. However, if you are making a gun line as opposed to a melee charge, don't worry about him. The warlord in an Orky gunline army could be anything, though it is good to take an HQ that has survivability (such as Big Meks) and access to Gifts of Gork and Mork.

Weirdboyz can actually benefit from the Ork Warlord Traits, with only the fifth trait being a borderline-useless wash. Special characters are always a good choice, but if they force you to have a warlord trait make sure that it's one you want or one you can use. Otherwise you can just take them as a secondary HQ, and have a generic HQ to get you your preferred trait.

Picking Your Troops

There aren't many choices for Ork Troops now that FOC HQ's don't exist. Play unbound if you want to skip this selection. But if you want to play with a battle forged army, feel free to fill this slot with minimum squads of Grots.

It won't take up a lot of points and will leave you to build the rest of the army as you see fit. Ork Boyz are always a solid choice for the Warboss on a close-combat rampage. Need to take them on a trip? You can doggy-bag them in a Trukk. If you want to play around with Objective Secured, Ork Boyz are your best bet as they have the mob rule to keep them in line. Grots will just run or get procedurally eaten by Squig Hounds.

Picking Your Elites

Elites are pretty lackluster for Orks. Mostly they are units that you want to get into melee, the only exceptions being Kommandos and Tankbustas. Even then, Kommandos only can take a limited number of heavy weapons. That in mind, Kommandos are meant for backfield distractions and shoving Rokkits up AV 10 rears.

Tankbustas are great anti-vehicle choice since every one of them gets a Rokkit Launcha, Tank Hunters, and Tankbusta Bombs. Burnas are anti-MEQ in close combat and solidly anti-horde at close range; they are good for holding points and abusing cover, but really shine with a transport. Nob squads are more elite versions of Ork Boys with access to all the toys, but they aren't as hilariously slaughter-matic as they used to be.

Now that Cybork Body got nerfed to the ground, all of the old problems with Nob squads are starting to really show through: insufficient armor, bad initiative, can't square off with other 5-man close-combat death squads and expect to survive, and easy so blow far too many points on. Nowadays they don't even get the 5++ that saved them from Instant Death. Most Elites are a complement to or reinforcement of your squads of Boyz. Figure out what you want to do better, and then set it loose.

The exception to all of the above are Grot Tanks. Grot Tanks fantastic, tournament-competitive, and not anywhere in the basic codex. They came from Imperial Armour 8, and got ported over during the 6th Edition jump, which means that they are legal in any game without the need to be running an actual capital-d Dread Mob Army. Treat them like Warbuggies on steroids: screen units, harass flanks, and generally make moving around hard for the enemy. Keep track of all their little eccentricities, because most of them are super irritating for the enemy.

Picking Your Fast Attack

This is where most people will throw their Warbikes on the table from. The stuff here is fast and is great for moving about the board, and Orks can pick up a surprisingly large volume and variety of highly-mobile units.

Bikes are a tough, fast and deadly unit that can close the distance to close combat in Turn 1, though it hardly needs to thanks to its useful guns and multiple survival tactics. Warkoptas take over the scouting role that you might want to put bikes in: even more flexible than the biker boyz since they can fly over terrain, and great for taking rear-armor rokkit pot-shots.

Stormboys are the Turn 1 assaulters, even more so than bikers, though they tend to attract a lot of attention so keep them in close combat lest they be forced to take a volley of bolter-fire. Don't bother with Warbuggies or Wartrakks, just take a squad of Grot Tanks.

Ork fliers were the new flavor of 6th Edition, and still maintain a rather large presence in the Fast Attack section. All vanilla-codex Ork fliers are thin-skinned glass cannons, and will fall out of the sky if a Hydra so much as looks at them, so resist the temptation to kit them out too hard. That said, both bombers and fighters will barf shocking volumes of fire on their chosen targets, especially if you let loose with some of your plentiful one-shot bombs and missiles.

Orks are naturally great at airplanes, because all of their weapons are configured for that classic orkish BS2. Dakkajets are the weakest of the bunch, but they're cheap and can tear other fliers out of the sky like nothing else. Blitza-Bommas are dedicated armor killers, which Orks need desperately. If you absolutely positively need that Leman Russ dead Turn 2, accept no substitutes. Burna-Bommas are a middle-ground, designed to kill dug-in infantry. You have a lot of anti-infantry as Orks, but a Burna-Bomma can eat entire squads of cover-abusing gunlines and MEQs in a single turn, if you are willing to blow your whole load at once.

Picking Your Heavy Support

This is the most crowded section in the codex, as well as one with the most firepower. Heavy Support comes in two flavors, Heavy and Support. As a general rule, you will want to find a way to synergize these units with your other force organization choices, not the other way around.

If you want to Support your Boyz and their toyz, you are mainly looking at Lootas and ways to make Lootas not run off the table (Painboys with bosspoles) or die to blast weapons (Meks with KFF). You may also consider the Mek Gunz for the same role as the Lootas. Mek Guns are your swiss army knife: you can kit them out to take on various threats, but only really one threat at a time.

Also, they are the best anti-air unit in the game as of release. Depending on how deeply you want to dig into the Ork Rules Rabbit Hole (or Squig Hole, as it were), you can pull out the Imperial Armour 8 rules and summon Big Trakks with Supa-kannons and pretend you've got Basilisks (for a pretty penny in cash and points alike).

Your other flavor is Heavy: close combat and close-support units to put bigger gunz in with your boyz. You have three sub-flavors, walkers and tanks and Flash Gitz. Flash Gitz are an actual option nowadays, but unless you're running Kaptin Badrukk's Flash Gitz to maximize your damage output, you may want to go with Burnas or Lootas. Walkers are next, and Orks get a lot of them.

Kans are good screening larger Dreads, and in smaller games can support infantry advances well with their BS3 Grotzookas and Rokkits. Deff Dreads are selectively useful: with 4 DCCW arms they can feast on most other units in close combat, but they are very susceptible to being shot to death and their ranged weapons are underwhelming. Other options such as the Morkanaut with KFF give a nice boost to your army's overall defenses, but the Orkanauts don't really know what they want to be, and tend to not be worth their points.

Battlewagons are usually good for moving units around (like Flash Gitz and Tankbustas), and make great battering rams for inserting Nobs, Burnas or Warbosses into close combat. They can even be taken as Dedicated Transports by some units, which frees up your Heavy Support slots for more Lootas. Also, consider looking at Mega- and Meka-Dreads, which make a fantastic distraction and have a tendency to consume whole vehicles, monstrous creatures, and buildings in a single assault phase.

Picking Your Transports

Don't be fooled by the 7th Edition Ork codex. You are not stuck with only paper thin Trukks or expensive Battlewagons. We have the most transport options out of any codex. Marines have technically more, but they just call every rhino-chassis tank with a different gun a different transport and that doesn't really count. I'm talking about real choice.

From AV 10 open-topped skimmers all the way to AV 14 'ard-Cased battlewagons and literally everything in between. The only thing that is missing are flyer transports (and you can get those if you play an IA8 Dread Mob army). Check the Heavy Support section for more info, and seriously consider playing Unbound if you want to avoid cluttering up the Heavy Support section, since most Ork transports come from the Heavies section.

Transports are a big deal for Orks. Since we rely on huge infantry waves or swarms of lightly-armored vehicles, each list needs to find the transport that is right for the job. Do you want to dump the points for the Battlewagon to move units, since you need to make it Open-Topped to be useful? Do you want to risk the now-nerfed Trukks in favor of more esoteric choices like Big Trakks for just a few dozen points more? Do the math on survivability versus speed versus firepower.

Also keep in mind squad sizes: Boyz need to be in big groups and shoving them in 12-model transports cuts their maximum squad size in more than half, but Burnas and Tankbustas can be effective in squads of only six.

Picking Your Lord of War

You want, you need the Stompa. With so many unfair choices out there for other armies (KNIGHTS) the Stompa is the most balanced Super-Heavy in game. Sadly your only limitation is that Tournament Organizers will ban super-heavies, and taking them in low points matches is a dick move. Ghazzy is a great option and with his built in fearless Waaagh! means you are all set to use him and leave the HQ slot for your important stuff.

Tips and Tricks

• Mob Rule and boyz: Always keep the Mob Rule table in the back of your head. Either equip your Boyz with a way to negate the wounds they inevitably suffer from rolling a 2-6, or make sure the odds of getting forced to throw on the table are as low as possible. The first is done by having your units upgraded with 'Eavy Armor or FnP, at least granting you a chance against the wounds you take, as the hits you will take for failing Mob Rule are AP-. With FnP, this means you get to take your 6+ t-shirt save as well as your 5+ FnP check. It's roughly as efficient as 'Eavy Armor. If you're truly autismal about losing boyz (why should you be? You're playing orks.) you can just give them both upgrades. Or you can just throw them in a Battlewagon for safe keeping. The second option is done by cranking up the mob's Leadership by adding a Big Mek, a Warboss or Grotsnik to the unit, upping their Ld to 8, 9 or just giving good old Fearless. These options are expensive, mind, but will add some reliability to the mob, because the odds of being forced to throw on the table are lessened. Also, always take a Nob with a Bosspole, just in case.

• Mob Rule and small units: Mob Rule poses an entirely different problem for small units. At first glance it sounds nice, being able to pass Ld checks by taking a few wounds, regardless of unit size, but the chart is deceiving. I am not talking about taking D6 Str4 hits, I am talking about not meeting the conditions on the Mob Rule table and outright running off the board or getting pinned. Most small units will not run more than 5 models, and if they run over 10, they are abysmally expensive and will generally only be done by Lootas. Having less than ten models in your unit means a 50% chance of your unit not succeeding on the Mob Rule table and legging it. The problem is increased if you roll a 1. Most of our small units do not want to be in close combat, or only reluctantly so. Meganobz are the main exception here. But think about Lootas, Burnas, or God forbid, Deffkoptas. Which brings us to the last problem. Not having any characters in your unit further increases your chances of fucking up on the table by 33%. This means Deffkoptas will fail on the Mob Rule table 100% of the time, unless you are in close combat, because max unit size is 5 and they cannot have any characters unless you add an HQ on a bike. Lootas suffer from the same problem, but this can be solved by buying an HQ Mek and attaching it to the squad, at least guaranteeing the Character requirement on the table. In short, when taking small units with Mob Rule always take a character with you, always take a Bosspole when possible because the reroll is worth its weight in gold, and always try to get 10 models unless the unit is a throw-away, like a MANz missile in a trukk.

• More Reliable Shokk Attack Gun: If you take the Shokk Attack Gun there are several pieces of wargear that will help you drastically. The downside to this is that you have to put a lot of points into the Big Mek which could be for naught if you roll double 1's. Note that none of this allows you to reroll the strength. Wargear as follows:
  • Gitfinda - Gives the Big Mek BS3 if stationary that turn. Helps to mitigate the scatter.
  • Mega Armour - Slow and purposeful grants the entire unit Relentless. Note the unit needs one model with Mega Armor; the Big Mek can't take it with the Shokk Attack Gun.
  • Warbike - Gives you speed, survivability and... relentless.
    • BE AWARE: Per the most recent FAQ, a Gitfinda does not stack with Relentless of either type (bike or mega armour). *Ork tears inbound*
  • Da Lucky Stikk - This allows re-rolls of To Hit or Armor Save. This means that they can re-roll scatter once per attack.
  • Ammo Runts - Cheap expendable counters that allow you to reroll the scatter. Nothing new here.
  • Tank bustas- Attach your Big Mek to these guys to pick up Tank Hunters for him.

• Zhadsnark's Psycho Deffstar A hilarious bike-heavy Evil Sunz deathstar reserved only for the maddest of Speed Freaks who reminisce to the good old days of Armageddon and are pissed that GW removed Wazdakka from the book. Here's what you will need:
  • Zhadsnark Da Rippa - FW Biker Hero (see above)
  • Biker Warboss - With Gazbag's Warbike and a klaw (You will probably just use your old Wazdakka conversion that's gathering dust)
  • Painboy on Bike - This git is important, protect him.
  • Warbikers/Nob bikers - It's up to you which type of bike you field, but Warbikers are much cheaper and will gain the Scout rule when joined by Zhadsnark
  • Big Mek on Bike w/ Shokk Attack Gun - This is optional. Nothing stops you from using a SAG and a bike, and doing so will allow you to shoot on the move
  • Big Mek on Bike w/ Big Boss pole - Also optional. Ally into the Ghaz supplement and pick up the relic bosspole, granting fearless and fixing any LD issues
  • Big Mek on Bike w/ KFF - Also optional, but a nice way to keep your bikers safe from nasty ignores cover weapons. If you really have the spare points and want to make them even harder to kill, take the Mega Force Field

The idea is pretty simple, a massive terrifying mob of bikers lead by several power HQ's, all protected by a painboy's FNP. But the presence of Zhadsnark provides some interesting bonuses. For starters he will make all your Warbikers into troops, either letting this unit or other Warbiker mobs in your army score easier, not only being very fluff-accurate for any Evil Sun players want the focus to be on bike lists.

Zhadsnark's Skilled Rider special rule grants 1+ to cover saves (Adding to the Warbike passive rule, giving a 2+ when Turbo boosting) and you ignore the dangerous terrain checks needed when driving over difficult terrain. These effects will benefit his entire unit as long as he remains alive. He also gives his own warbiker unit the option to Scout which in turn, grants the ability to also Outflank should you choose. Nothing is better than seeing the look on your opponents face as your horde of biker's makes a free 12 inch move towards him before the game has even begun. Or they simply roll on from one of the table edges, unleashing their vast and brutal Dakkagun fire. Don't forget that Gazbag's Blitzbike is ap3, and as he wields a kustom klaw that strikes at initiative 4 Zhadsnark can krump almost any Monstrous creature he runs into, even weaker HQ's will need a decent invuln if they have any hope of surviving. Defensively, the unit is as tough as you would expect and Zhadsnark's lack of any kind of save or invuln is negated by the painboy being around. Whilst not the most reliable or cheesy Deathstar around, this will catch the gits at your LGS unaware, and is the fluffiest way to portray a classic Speed Freak army.

• Strength in... Somewhere: Unless you are running 180+ boys (because Tau/AM/Eldar exist and because you're asleep most of the time) look to the other troops choice. Use Grots like combat-squaded Marines, or 6-man Fire Warrior teams: do nothing but sit on an objective. 40 Points vs whatever you're running for Boyz; the less points spent on Boys the more points you have for toys! Consider not bringing Power Klaws with your Boyz either, because if you can't drown it in weight of dice, maybe you should think twice. Be very, very cognizant of every points trade you can make, and everywhere you can save points for better value elsewhere. Think specifically Elites and Fast Attack FOC. All the walkers are trash. But sacrificing a squad of Tankbustas to take out two Wave Serpents isn't a bad trade. Speeding some Burnas into the fleshy underbelly of your opponent's army is satisfying. Lootas and Mek Guns can provide all the firepower you need whilst using Buggies Grot Tanks, Kommandos, and some of the better formations to handle back/mid/fore-field disruption. Or just run ALL Grots... no nothing else... All Grots Motherfucka.

Allies

Allies of Convenience: Chaos Space Marines. The Lost and the Damned. (Imperial vehicles with their points costed to reflect BS2..? *cough* Looted vehicles. *cough* OG Blood Axes.)

Desperate Allies: Dark Eldar, Eldar, Necrons, Chaos Daemons, Tau

Come the Apocalypse: Armies of the Imperium, Tyranids

Orks only look out for number one. Blood Axes and Freebooterz will work with both the Tau and Imperial Guard as guns for hire. Orks don't care who gets them to the fight, in fact they are probably the least racist race in the grim, dark future. You want to show them a good fight? They will always fight with anyone, its just everyone else who has to get over their own egos to work with the Orks. That being said Orks always treat everyone the same, show us a good fight and we will show you one as well.

When running allies, always consider filling in the parts your own army lacks. For orks, this is high Strength, ranged AP2. We do not need choppy things, we need a very particular kind of shooty, or otherwise useful anti tank weaponry. There are generally three useful allies for Orks that give us what we need: Tau, Necrons, and Imperial Guard. Some examples of what you could run:

Keep in mind you can now team with Come the Apocalypse so expect a sharp increase in looted Carnifexes on the board.

Allied buffing / debuffing

Since only the Tyranids have a worse choice of allies than us, don't expect much in the way of allied buff synergy. At best we get the Chaos Demon Skarbrand, with a 12" RAGE and Hatred bubble that specifically works regardless of ally status. Rage and Hatred are pretty nice for our melee hooligans, but this is a bit of a tricky combo with 6" One Eye Open. Too bad Skarbrand's true murdering instakill potential isn't in play if he isn't the warlord.

Generally we're not going to get any buffs from allied detachments. Instead, consider Allied debuffs. The Fiends of Slaanesh and the dark eldar have some nice options for reducing enemy initiative, Imperial Rad-weapons reducing toughness, Mechanicus BS reducing attacks, and Chaos marines and Eldar providing options to throw away your opponents overwatch.

To put it anudder way: Dem gitz wez work with can't make da boyz any bedder, cuz deys already green and green is best! But... deze 'ere udder gitz can make our foes weak'r dan grotz! Har har, let's get stompan, boyz!

Specific Ally tactics

Alpha Legion Intervention: -

• HQ: Lord/Sorceror/Daemon Prince. Build to Compliment list. The mandatory HQ choice.
• Fast Attack: Spawn/Bikers/Raptors to compliment speed freaks.
• Heavy Support: Havocs/Forgefiend to Compliment Lootas. Maulerfiends to compliment Speed Freaks.
• Troops: Two blocks of Cultists or Marines with banner. If using Marked Lord/Sorceror use complimenting traitor legion.

Formations:

• Helbrutes dataslate: Mayhem pack for some decent disruption.
• Khorne Bloodstorm: works to same effect.

Eagle Day: Clear sky on turn 1, then you blitz your opponent into the ground on turn 2 with enough flyers to make Herman Goering blush. Run this with dakkajet-spam lists.

• HQ: Generic CCS. Keep him cheap, but you might want to replace him with Creed for extra shits and giggles
• EVERYTHING ELSE As many Valkyries/Vendettas as you can possibly fit in using dedicated transports and fast attack.

Tau Railgun Central: -

• HQ: Generic Battlesuit Commander. Keep him cheap. The mandatory HQ choice.
• Heavy Support: The XV-88 Broadside Battlesuit and/or Hammerhead Gunship. Under our old codex and their old codex, broadsides were about the best thing we could take for allies. Their guns are now "Heavy Rail Rifles": Str8, AP1, 60". Still great, but these days a case can be made for taking the Hammerhead gunship for the old school Str10, AP1, 72" tankwrecker. Why not a few of each?
• Troops: The bare minimum number of mandatory Fire Warriors.

Tau Suicide Squads:

• HQ: Generic Battlesuit Commander. Keep him cheap. Deep Strike and hunt armor.
• Troops: Kroot Carnivore Squad(s), give them sniper rounds to pick off SGTs and possibly pin units. Otherwise outflank to control space.

Green Imperial Tide:

• HQ: Lord Commissar (either power weapon/fist or Gunslinger Plasma/Bolt Pistols)
• Troops: Infantry Platoon. Load out as desired, using Priests and Primaris Psykers to boost.

Necron Night Fighting:

• HQ: A Generic Overlord with Warscythe and possibly a resurrection orb to get the most out of your warriors, and a Cryptek. Make the Cryptek a Harbinger of Destruction and buy him a Solar Pulse. This'll give him a big fat long ranged S8 AP2 armor zappin' staff, and more importantly, it will give him the ability to turn your opponent's turn into fucking night fighting. Yes, this means your giant fucking horde blobs of boyz now get a free turn of not giving no shits about getting shot at. Hilarious in combination with a KFF.
• Troops: Two squads of warriors. Size depends on your preference. They're just there because the FoC wills it so, and to catch bullets for your Cryptek while he goes ZZAP MOTHERFUCKER. Cart them around in a Ghost Arks with the Cryptek and overlord if you've got the points.

Alternatively, minimum size immortals squads are cheaper.

• Fast Attack: A fuckload of Canoptek Scarabs. Land Raiders giving you asspain? Not anymore.

Skitarii Turn everything about Orks inside out and you get Skitarii. On one hand, they're great for dealing with combat-focussed Cs and ICs due to Precision Shots, as well as flamers and blast special weapons. On the other, they've got a completely different army dynamic, so every point you spend on Skitarii will weaken your big green assault (fighting alongside Ruststalkers won't work due to One Eye Open). Get a small force of Rangers and/or load out a Dunecrawler with anti-tank weapons, keep them back where they can use Protector Imperatives over and over again, and use them to assassinate everything your opponent has up his sleeve so your Boyz can do their thing unimpeded.

Alternative Rules

Where there are fanboys, there's a way. The Orks are currently gutter-level in terms of the 40k balance, so naturally some gits have gone about making their own variations that try to keep the unique Orky flavour while making the army more viable in the general game scene. You should consider talking your gaming group into adopting the Space 0Din fandex. It vastly improves your experience with playing orks by making them not suck, and has changes such as a Mob Rule that doesn't hurt your own dudes, and a WAAAGH!!! that benefits either shooting or melee.. Just in case you wanted your WAAAGH'ing dudes to just shoot twice as many dakka

Alternatively you could try Dr. Zoidbork's Codex: Orks Rewrite. Be warned: book'z a big 'un!

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Warhammer 40,000 Tactics Articles (10th Edition)

General Tactics	General Weapons Terrain
Imperium	Space Marines (Black Templars, Blood Angels, Dark Angels, Deathwatch, Space Wolves) Grey Knights
	Adeptus Mechanicus Adeptus Titanicus Imperial Knights Imperial Guard Sisters of Battle
	Adeptus Custodes & Sisters of Silence Imperial Agents (Inquisition, Rogue Traders, etc.)
Chaos	Chaos Space Marines (Death Guard Thousand Sons World Eaters)
	Chaos Daemons Chaos Knights Chaos Titans
Eldar	Eldar (Craftworlds, Corsairs, Harlequins, Ynnari) Dark Eldar
Necrons	Necrons
Orks	Orks
Tau	Tau
Tyranids	Tyranids Genestealer Cults
Votann	Leagues of Votann

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Warhammer 40,000 Tactics Articles (9th Edition)

General Tactics	General Movement Psychic Fortifications Tactical Terrain Weapons Apocalypse
Imperium	Space Marines (Blood Angels Dark Angels Deathwatch Space Wolves) Grey Knights
	Adeptus Mechanicus Adeptus Titanicus Imperial Knights Imperial Guard Sisters of Battle
	Adeptus Custodes & Sisters of Silence Inquisition Officio Assassinorum Rogue Traders
Chaos	Chaos Space Marines (Death Guard Thousand Sons World Eaters)
	Chaos Daemons Chaos Knights Renegades and Heretics
Eldar	Craftworld Eldar Dark Eldar Harlequins Ynnari
Necrons	Necrons
Orks	Orks
Tau	Tau
Tyranids	Tyranids Genestealer Cults
Votann	Leagues of Votann

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Warhammer 40,000 Tactics Articles (8th Edition)

General Tactics	General Movement Psychic Fortifications Apocalypse
Imperium	Space Marines Blood Angels Dark Angels Deathwatch Grey Knights Space Wolves
	Talons of the Emperor (Custodes and Sisters of Silence) Adeptus Mechanicus
	Adeptus Ministorum (Sisters of Battle and minor factions) Adeptus Titanicus
	Imperial Knights Imperial Guard Inquisition Officio Assassinorum
Chaos	Chaos Space Marines (Death Guard Thousand Sons)
	Chaos Daemons Chaos Knights Renegades and Heretics
Eldar	Eldar Dark Eldar Harlequins
Necrons	Necrons
Orks	Orks
Tau	Tau
Tyranids	Tyranids Genestealer Cults

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Warhammer 40,000 Tactics Articles (7th Edition)

General Tactics	General Movement Psychic Fortifications
Imperium	Space Marines (Siege Assault Vanguard) Blood Angels Dark Angels Deathwatch Grey Knights Space Wolves
	Adeptus Custodes Cult Mechanicus Skitarii Adeptus Sororitas
	Imperial Knights Inquisition Officio Assassinorum
	Imperial Guard (Armoured Battlegroup Death Korps of Krieg Assault Brigade Death Korps of Krieg Siege Regiment Elysian Drop Troops D-99)
Chaos	Chaos Space Marines Khorne Daemonkin Chaos Daemons Renegades and Heretics
Eldar	Eldar Dark Eldar Harlequins Corsairs
Necrons	Necrons
Orks	Orks Ork Dred Mob
Tau	Tau
Tyranids	Tyranids Genestealer Cults

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Warhammer 40,000 Tactics Articles (6th Edition)

General Tactics	General Movement Psychic Fortifications
Imperium	Space Marines Blood Angels Dark Angels Grey Knights Space Wolves
	Adeptus Sororitas Inquisition
	Imperial Guard (Armoured Battlegroup Death Korps of Krieg Assault Brigade Death Korps of Krieg Siege Regiment Elysian Drop Troops) Militarum Tempestus
Chaos	Chaos Space Marines Chaos Daemons Renegades and Heretics
Eldar	Eldar Dark Eldar Corsairs
Necrons	Necrons
Orks	Orks Ork Dred Mob
Tau	Tau
Tyranids	Tyranids

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Warhammer 40,000 Tactics Articles (All)

General Tactics	General (8th) Movement (8th 7th) Psychic (8th 7th 2nd) Fortifications (8th 7th) Tactical Terrain Apocalypse (8th)
Imperium (8th)	Space Marines (8th 7th 6th 5th 4th 3rd) Blood Angels (8th 7th) Dark Angels (8th 7th) Deathwatch (8th 7th) Grey Knights (8th 7th 6th 5th 3rd, AKA Daemonhunters) Space Wolves (8th 7th 6th 5th)
	Talons of the Emperor (Custodes and Sisters of Silence) (8th 7th) Adeptus Mechanicus (8th 7th) Adeptus Ministorum (Sisters of Battle and minor factions) (8th 7th 6th 3rd, AKA Witch Hunters) Adeptus Titanicus (8th)
	Imperial Knights (8th 7th) Imperial Guard (8th 7th 6th 5th 3rd) Inquisition (8th 7th 6th) Officio Assassinorum (8th 7th)
Chaos	Chaos Space Marines (8th 7th 6th 5th) Death Guard (8th) Khorne Daemonkin - 7th Edition Thousand Sons (8th) Chaos Daemons (8th 7th) Chaos Knights (8th) Renegades and Heretics (8th 7th 6th)
Eldar	Eldar (8th 7th 6th 5th) Dark Eldar (8th 7th 6th 5th 3rd Revised) Harlequins (8th 7th)
Necrons	Necrons (8th 7th 6th 5th 4th)
Orks	Orks (8th 7th 6th 5th 3rd) Ork Dred Mob - 7th edition (6th 5th) Ork Kult of Speed - 3rd edition Feral Orks - 3rd edition
Tau	Tau (8th 7th 6th 5th)
Tyranids	Tyranids (8th 7th 6th 5th) Genestealer Cults (8th 7th)

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