Orks have a lot of great things in their codex: 6-point boyz, cheap effective HQ's, great hard-hitters, and speed all make them into a difficult army to deal with. Today I'll touch on some things that I really like about the Ork Codex.
Just a little background in case you didn't read my last few blog posts: My team for Adepticon is thinking of taking Orks, and they've charged me with making the army lists. I just recently borrowed the codex, since I'd sold it a while ago to someone it would actually be used by. This is just the beginning of my quest to try to discover what a good Ork list looks like.
Good Thing #1: Ghaz-whatever
I don't know how to spell his name. But he's pretty awesome. Just the 6" fleet move for every unit you have is almost enough to make him worth it, but his 7 S10 attacks on the charge are also awesome, and the fact that he lets you take a nob squad as troops is just gravy. If someone doesn't have Ghaz in their army, I wonder how competitive of a game it's really going to be. Not that you need him to be competitive, I just know that I've never seen Ghaz not do something nasty. Then again, I guess it doesn't work on Dread-spam armies, or with bikers. Still, with most 'traditionalish' Ork armies, he's almost an auto-include.
Good Thing #2: KFF Big Meks
Used in conjunction with Battlewagons, these guys are almost too valuable not to take. A lone rhino with 2 melta guns driving up, disembarking, and shooting at a wagon makes their mission sketchy at best. There's no wonderful way of dealing with an AV14 wagon with a 4+ cover save, and I personally hate dealing with ork armies that have them. It all but makes Las Cannons useless.
Good Thing #3: Battlewagons
It's pretty kick-ass to have Deff Rollas on these guys. Not only are Wagons tough to kill, but if you don't kill them, they're going to ruin everything nearby in a matter of turns. They're a dependable way to get your boyz into combat, and are really a steal for the 120 or so points you pay for them. I wish marines had a vehicle this awesome for this cheap. They're also a great way to deal with Thunderwolf Cavalry (in the right situations), Land Raiders, and ... Monoliths? Not that I've even played against Necrons for over a year.
Good Thing #4: Lootas
Lootas make sure that Vendettas and other fast, hard to reach vehicles go away quickly. They also open up Rhinos consistently, and chew up infantry. They even help with Monsterous Creatures, which I'm starting to gather is somewhat difficult for Orks to deal with. All from the safety of 48" away. Nothing bad about Lootas, except potentially their price tag. If you're not careful, you'll end up spending over 600 points on them.
Good Thing #5: Nobs
Heh, whereas the rest of the army relies on having a ton of mediocre-quality attacks, Nobs are the hard-hitters. They're the guys you send in as a counter-charge against the other good units in the game. With the Waaagh! banner, they're all WS5, with either S7 or S9 on the charge, the S9 being the claws. Two wounds, and... I'm sure you're familiar with their good points. FNP is ridiculous on a squad that can be fully complex. I think they can be one of the scariest units in the game, if you play them right. Nob bikers can be good as well, though I'm really not a fan of their pricetag. If Orks as an army didn't have Nobs as an option, it would almost make the codex unplayable. Maybe not entirely unplayable, but still.
Good Thing #6: Gretchin
Heh, these guys really do suck at everything. Except for holding objectives for super cheap. You spend 40-80 points on these guys, reserve them, and you have the perfect unit for holding objectives. In kill points, you still reserve them, then make them come in either in a corner or somewhere nobody will see them. I always wish Marines could take something that can score well for that cheap.
Good Thing #7: Kommandos+Snikrot
Heh, these guys do a lot of good for the Ork army. Even if they *only* create a threat against the opponent's rear, they've done their job. Getting in and killing Longfangs, devastators, Manticores (and other ordinance) makes these guys invaluable, if you use them correctly.
Good Thing #8: Burna Boyz
I'm still not 100% sure these guys are pure win, but I really do like the idea of them. Power weapons on all of them, or a flamer that doesn't require them to roll a hit with is pretty good for orks. I've played a few games where someone's rolled up in a battlewagon, gotten 6 hits on a unit with a template and... it was suddenly 90 S4 hits on the unit. That'll kill every marine in a tactical squad. It'll kill every boy in a 30-boy ork mob. It'll kill just about any unit. And if they don't want to flamer attack, they still get a ton of WS4 S4 power weapon attacks. I'm somewhat excited to see how good they can be.
Good Thing #9: Boyz are cheap
They really are. For a 6-point model, you get T4, and S4 on the charge, and they can have fleet once per game (upgraded fleet with Ghaz). They'll tie up a dreadnought indefinitely, or murder any number of non-combat oriented squads. When the game is over, they can be daisy-chained across objectives. When used correctly, I think Boyz are a great asset. Used incorrectly (as I see done time after time), and they're more of a liability than anything.
Good Thing #10: Deff Koptas?
I'm really not sure if these are worth their points or not. Alpha-strikes against rhinos are nice, but I'm not completely sure they're going to be worth shelling out 120 or so points. As outflankers to take out objective-holders, they can be useful, until they run up against a full tactical squad with powerfist or something. They're one of the few things I have no real opinion of as of yet- I know they're annoying to play against, but looking back, they've never done anything to really really damage me. After all, destroying an opponent's mobility is good, but it's not like you're just going to shoot at them after they're out- you're gonna be coming at them full-bore, cuz you're orks.
What things do you think are the strengths of the Ork Codex? What works especially well against you, when you're up against Orks?
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