Warhammer 40,000/6th Edition Tactics/Orks

This is an old Edition's Ork "tactics". The 7th Edition Tactics are here while the 5th Edition Tactics are here.

Why Play Orks

WAAAAGGGHHH!!!

Because you want to be a British football hooligan with a machine gun and you like spending your time beating people up while shouting at the top of your lungs. joking aside 'da'Orks are one of the easiest armies to learn Warhammer 40k with. Between dirt-cheap, durable infantry, ease of acquiring Fearless, and exceptionally point-efficient anti-infantry shooting and melee, Orks are initially very forgiving of tactical errors. However, the codex has aged bizarrely, with vehicles becoming less of a threat and newer rules phasing out old standards in the recent 6th Edition. They lack anti-tank firepower, however they aren't as boned as Necrons WERE in this regard, but Ork armies are increasingly becoming dated. It isn't entirely hopeless though; they excel at lower-point games and still are amazing at volumetricly shooting infantry and light vehicles dead, allowing some degree of protection against spam armies. But in all seriousness, these guys should be placing blades through brains in close combat. The only army to be better than Orks at swamping enemies in dozens of models and hundreds of attacks are the Tyranids. And they don't have worthwhile ranged support.

Keep in mind that you will be playing a 4th edition army in a 6th edition game. You will not be steamrolling any tournaments. Then again, being a horde army with cheap troops has some major upsides in the current edition. In a meta where cheap fliers are giving some people difficulties, orks can afford to not give a single fuck: Orks will have upwards of 120 boyz on the table, fliers get to shoot 5-10 boyz per turn at best, and if their flying circus even enters from reserves orks can throw tons of dice upward that even on a snap shot is mathematically guaranteed to hit something. Orks' metric tonne of attacks also means that 2+ toting terminators are not much of a concern either, as your average boy mob can force the enemy to throw so many armorsaves, he'll throw a 1 eventually. Coincidentally, orks are kings of taking and holding objectives, nobody likes trying to remove 30 angry shoota boyz from a ruin. In short you will be having boatloads of fun by burying your enemies in the best point-for-point troop choice in the game. Be sure to bring a bucket full of dice.

Additionally, you are just about tied with Chaos as the army that gets the most loving from Forgeworld and Apocalypse. In Apocalypse your army transforms from a rather mediocre force when pitted against Matt Ward codices into a God Tier rape machine that can vomit out more dice than a D&D convention every turn. Up yours, Tau.

General Advice

6th Edition brings some real changes in, but the ones you should be most mindful of are Snap Firing, Overwatch, Night Fighting and Character abilities. Snap Firing lets you fire under special conditions, and it makes you Ballistic Skill 1. Orks are BS2 naturally, and their guns account for that by upping the volume of shot, giving you an advantage to Snap Firing like no other army. Overwatch is a special kind of Snap Firing that lets you shoot at BS1 into oncoming enemies charging into assault with you. Again, you are Orks, and ought to be charging, but you also have that absurd shot-density that can end an assault before it begins. Half the games you play will now start out with Night Fighting in effect. This is a huge boost for orks, as it saves the boyz a turn of getting shot to shit from half way across the table, as you get some nifty boosts; you can't be targeted from more than 36 inches away, and you get a +2 or +1 to your coversave depending on how far away you are from thine enemy. A 50% chance of your 30 boy mobs not getting blown up in turn one? Yes please. (Note of warning. The new Tau suits ALL have Night-Vision built in, so they can still put some hurt, even with night fighting on. And Night Fighting is useless against Dark Eldar. Make use of cover.) Remember to bring your KFF and always remember to roll for night fighting when allowed. Finally, Characters, a term that was once only a clarification, now gives Squad Leaders and Independent Characters special abilities. Look Out, Sir! is a import from the Imperial Guard codex Warhammer Fantasy, and lets "Characters" use other models in their unit like meat shields. Also important is the rule that gives you characters the ability to, if they roll a six to hit, single out a model in the unit they are firing at to take the shot they fired. This means that all Nobz which lead a mob (!), Mekz, Painboyz, and other Bossez, because of wonderful BS2, all suddenly become Neo half the time they hit anything with a gunshot.

• Mob Rule - Try to have as many Boys as possible in a squad with Mob Rule, since a mob substitutes the number of boys in it for their LD. 11 or more and they're fearless. The exception is Deffkoptas, who can't get enough models in their squads to actually use the rule.
  • Fearless - When a Mob is fearless that means that they cannot retreat, go to ground, or retreat from combat that cannot be won. However, they will not have to make any morale tests. So they cannot be pinned or retreat. Note that you can exchange the head count for LD, but don't have to. In other words, if you decide not to, your boyz aren't fearless and can go to ground. Next round they will use Mob Rule to become fearless and press on. Just make sure to search for cover when doing this, because your enemy will most certainly rip you a new one for fucking with the rules.
• Furious Charge - Weaker than its previous incarnation, +1 Strength will help on your first strike, especially with Power Klaw attacks.
• Bosspoles - If a squad can take a Bosspole take it, however Independent Characters do not need Bosspoles. The exception is if you group does not have access to one. Example, Warboss should have one if he groups with Mega-Nobs.
• Purpose - Figure out what the unit is supposed to do and when it should do it. Choppa Boyz Squads are excellent close combat squads, but don't have good shooting. So you could run with them during the shooting phase or you could shoot rokkits at that nice Rhino you're too far away to assault. However, a Shoota Boy squad that will be shooting at infantry might want to take Big Shootas instead, because they can shoot more shots than a Rokkit Launcha, also they won't be able to even Glance most vehicles with normal Shootas. Keep this in mind so you don't have to decide between two very different targets.
• Cover - Most Ork Boyz have piss poor armor saves, as such keep them near cover as much as possible. Mysterious Objectives and Terrain are your friends in this case, Scatterfield could get you a nice 3+ save if you're lucky.

Lots of good stuff can be found at http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/16877022/ .

Warlord Traits

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.

Bellowing Tyrant: The Warlord, and all friendly units with the Orks Faction within 12″ of him, re-roll failed Morale checks and Pinning tests.

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.

Brutal but Kunnin’: The Warlord can re-roll one failed To Hit or To Wound roll each turn.

Kunnin’ but Brutal: The Warlord can re-roll one failed armour or invulnerable saving throw each turn.

Might is Right: The Warlord receives +1 to the Strength characteristic on his profile.

Unit Analysis

HQ

• Ghazhgkull Mag Uruk Thraka: A relatively popular HQ for many Ork armies in 5th edition. He costs a metric shitload, is immune to Instant Death and is a close combat monster on his Waaagh!, which was horribly nerfed to remove Fleet and Fearless in exchange for a 6" Run move that you can't assault after. Fun fact: with his sheer amount of power and beef, Ghazzy can take on almost every HQ in the game in a 1-on-1. Take him when you absolutely positively need to kill anything or anyone in a challenge. Just be mindful of Mindshackle Scarabs and incredibly lucky rolls. Or, give him a Nob guard to Look Out Sir! his phenomenal number of Power Klaw attacks into whatever you want to die. Prophet of the Waaagh! is now not as shitty, as it makes Mega-nobz and Ghazzy relentless for the turn and makes the packs of boyz that have been chewed up into fearless boyz for the turn, plus, it turns his 2+ armor save into a 2+ invul save. Ghazghkull can kill a Baneblade in one turn by himself without too much trouble. I've seen this happen, and it was great.

• Mad Dok Grotsnik: Grotsnik is an interesting character. On one hand, he makes a unit Fearless, and grants it Feel No Pain, provided he remains a part of that unit (he's not allowed to leave units by default). On the other hand, his One Scalpel Short of a Medpack rule makes the unit he's with prone to being led about in circles, meaning mobile opponents can throw speedy units to divert Grotsnik's mob from the main battleline. This said and done, he does have his other uses. The ability for any other Ork unit to take Cybork bodies is useful, and can do a lot to lengthen the lifespan of other Ork units; however, in practice this becomes mostly useful for upgrading Meganobz, on account of their normal inability to acquire Cybork Bodies, and the fixed price for the upgrade making it prohibitively expensive to upgrade regular Orks in this manner.

• Old Zogwort: Not too AT ALL tactically sound, compared to the less costly Weirdboy with Warphead, but the look on your opponent's face as you turn his expensive hero unit into a squig is usually worth it. Otherwise same as a Weirdboy with Warphead. Added benefit is the random number of attacks. However, in most cases Zogwort won't be able to utilize them.
  • Psychic Shooting Rule - To fire Psychic Shooting attacks you now need a BS score. Zogwort's is BS0 so he cannot fire any shooting Psychic attack. This is most likely a mistake, wait for Errata. Errata is up and Zogwart's two psychic shooting attacks are now considered detriments. They will cost warp charges and waste your turn. Zogwort will never see the light of day now, except in that one time you think to yourself, "Why does no one field Zogwart anymore?" and then you'll remember... and cry. On the bright side, he can't frazzle himself.

• Wazdakka Gutsmek: At first glance, Wazdakka doesn't seem too spectacular. He's a more expensive Biker WarbossBig Mek who loses out on base Strength of 5 and the ability to take an Attack Squig or Cybork Body, all in exchange for having four Strength 8 shots (or 1 S8 AP2 shot) which can be fired after Turbo-Boosting. These drawbacks matter little, however, for he has four Strength 8 shots which can be fired after Turbo-boosting, providing an additional threat to enemy armor. Better still, he can choose who to allocate the wounds to on sixes, giving him a reason to fire into enemy squads with Heroes or whatnot to try to get Neo-style Instant Deaths. However, the main reason you wish to take this character is should you wish to field Warbikers as troops, meaning they no longer compete with other Fast Attack choices. He works even better if surrounded by Biker Nobs, who can use "Look Out, Sir!" to take dangerous hits for him on their Cybork Bodies. Taking him, of course, comes with the opportunity cost of having one less Kustom Forcefield, or Shokk Attack Gun in your army. For some, this is no big loss.

• Zhadznark 'Da Rippa' (Forge World):

Many people call this guy the better Wazdakka, No they don't, he ain't shooty enough. 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. He also gets to take warbikers as troops, no surprise. But, he comes with a catch: No Deff Dreads, Kans, or Big Gunz. This means he must be used as a close combat shock unit, and needs a warbiker or nob-biker retinue. His lack of an invulnerable save and Eternal Warrior makes him too risky for competitive play.

• Mek Boss Buzgob (Forge World): Hoo boy, its Buzzgob. The poster boy of the entire IA volume, this dude is full of win. He is dirt cheap, first off. 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. This makes him a close combat monster against hordes and unarmored units. But, he lacks Cybork Body and Eternal Warrior, which means he dies to railguns very quickly. Put him in a transport with retinue to ensure his success. Oh wait, did I forget to mention he takes his Dreads with him? That's right, he must take a 1-3 Deff Dread squadron, as a troops choice.

• 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's also a solid choice for being able to fill just about any role in your army thanks to his sizable wargear selection.
  • Weapon Upgrades - The boss has two options for weapon upgrades: The Power Klaw and the Big Choppa. 9 times out of ten you want to 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 cheap alternative, as S8 attacks on the charge is nothing to scoff at, but apparently a gigantic chainsaw axe being swung by a very pissed-off hulking green brute can't go through armor. If the Big Choppa had any sort of AP, it would be a fine alternative for the points. But for now, take the Klaw.
  • Shoota Upgrades - I wouldn't bother, as it's 5 points better spent elsewhere. The only time your boss should ever be shooting is when he's just about to charge. If you must, the kombi-skorcha has some potential to soften up the squad before the charge. Don't take the Ammo Runt if you're not going to upgrade your Shoota.
  • Warbike - As if the Warboss wasn't enough of a beast, the Warbike gives him a 4+ cover save at all times with the Exhaust Cloud special rule, Twin-Linked Dakkaguns, a 4+ Armor Save and +1 Toughness just for being a biker unit, and lets him move up the board at a very scary speed for your opponent. Add him with a unit of 5 or so Nob Bikers that you can Look Out Sir! to, a Painboy, give him Cybork Body, and you got yourself one hell of a boss. The only downside is that a biker boss/nob unit can become very expensive, and if your opponent gets lucky, a huge chunk of you army in points could be gone all at once.
  • Mega Armor - Grants a 2+ armor save to the boss and gives him a Klaw, TL Shoota, and Slow and Purposeful. Stick him with some Mega Armored Nobz in a Battlewagon and roll him up the board.
  • Attack Squig - +1 Attack. An extra attack is always welcome, especially for a close combat monster like the Warboss.
  • Cybork Body - A 5+ Inv Save. Always good to have just in case your other saves are negated, but the points can be better spent elsewhere. It's pretty much personal choice if you want to take this or not.
  • Bosspole - Inflicts a saveable wound to your unit to reroll a morale test. Definitely take a bosspole, especially if the unit he's in doesn't have access to one. Chances are that the reroll will be well worth it at LD 9.
  • 'Eavy Armor - A cheap 4+ armor save. Take this if your boss isn't on a Warbike or in Mega Armor. Your boss is going to need all the protection he can get if he's going to make it anywhere near close combat.

• 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 and 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 CCW, and can't take the rather cheap Big Choppa. On the other hand, he can take a Burna, which counts as a Power Weapon in close combat for what it's worth, and can still take Power Klaws.
  • Shokk Attack Gun - Good for Long Range Ordinance attacks. The Table is fun to use as well. AP2 and S 2D6. Rolling doubles can spell disaster, though it has an equal chance of removing your Big Mek as well as removing the target from play. You might want to keep him away from anything valuable because rolling double ones vaporizes him and d6" nearby, but if you want him in a unit suggest placing in a squad of Lootas because they both have similar ranges, though you might have to chose between shooting a tank or a squad of infantry. You can also stick him in a group of gretchin for a cheap bullet shield that can also capture objectives.
  • Kustom Force Field -Practically a required choice throughout 5th, the KFF has taken a nerf in 6th but is still totally viable. Fantastic for vehicles, as the cover save counts for all units. Even though a 5+ cover save isn't really the best, remember that you're going to get shot at (a lot!) as orks so any save is welcomed. The crazy part about this upgrade is that it doesn't protect every model within 6 inches; it's every unit. That means if one little ork out of a 30 man mob is within 6 inches of the KFF, all 30 get the save. Your opponent WILL cry about this, so be prepared. The best place for him is in a vehicle, preferably a Battlewagon, surrounded by other vehicles. He also works very well footslogging with mobs and mobs of boyz.
  • Warbike - Way too expensive and a poor choice compared to the Shokk Attack or the KFF. The only way this could even be an option is if you had your Mek zip around the field on his bike repairing vehicles, but he would be killed very quickly and be much more better off in a Trukk or Wagon.
  • Mega Armor - Don't. The Big Mek belongs behind the scenes, not on the front lines charging into combat. Also, way too expensive. Though this option does allow for one interesting thing- Because of the way the Big Mek gets his upgrades, you can take Mega Armour and a Power Klaw, making him the only unit in the whole Kodex that can get Two Power Klaws. This is because the Mega Armour comes with its own, and you can still buy him the other one.

• Weirdboy: Ork psyker. Different from regular Psykers, in that instead of choosing specific powers to use beforehand, he's forced to use one of his powers randomly every turn. Upgrading him to a Warphead lets him re-roll the random power one time, if he doesn't like his first choice. Might be fun to use in a friendly game, but if you're looking for something more reliable, look elsewhere. Take him in a squad of Boyz as his leadership is affected by Mob Rules, however as such it can only cap out at 11.
  • Psychic Powers: Being a 5th Edition Psyker, the Weirdboy has written-in powers which cannot be exchanged, not even for the new ones in the main rulebook. Can randomly fire off any of the following, love Ork randomness tables.
    • Headbanger - Center's blast template over Weirdboy.
    • Frazzle - a Marine-killing Str 6 Ap 3 Blast
    • Zzap - an auto-hit, 36" range, Str 10 Multimelta
    • Warpath - Attached unit gets +1 Attack for the turn.
    • 'Ere We Go - Deep strikes Weirdboy and unit, even out of combat and trukks. Happens instantly. With the new Deep Strike rules being called upon, a horde of Orks can appear anywhere on the table! This works best with smaller squads, and Meganobz tend to be the best choice due to their Armor protecting them from getting Warp-fried by bad rolling. Deepstriking 30 boys, while not practical, is worth it to see the look on your opponent's face.
    • Extra Waaagh! - With Waaagh! Planes this allows for more shooting on their part. The Weirdboy becomes a lot more useful now. Even if the Waaagh ability only gets use once it still means firing more shots with your Planes.

Elites

• Burna Boyz: Many Ork players either love or are neutral towards Burnaboyz. That they compete with Lootas and Nobz means they aren't used as frequently in many armies. But for those armies revolving around the use of a Battlewagon convoy, taking a unit of them is a fairly popular choice. The primary reason for this is because every Burnaboy is armed with a Flamer which alternatively doubles as a Power Weapon (though not both on the same turn). Through judicious use of mass tank-shocking, enemy infantry units can be pushed into compacted formation, rendering them prime targets for being torched. The ability to roll 30, 40, even 60 strength 4 attacks which automatically hit is frightening, don't be surprised if your opponent just removes the squad and skips saves. On the flip-side, they're providing anti-infantry in an army that already has excellent anti-infantry, and they cannot fire from transports if you move the vehicle any great distance. They were much better offensively last Edition, but alongside the Power and Template Weapons nerf came a serous defensive buff, in the form of D3 Overwatch hits per Burna. And, since assaulting is an uncertain prospect nowadays, you might get a proper round of firing into the advancing enemy unit. -NOTE, I used 5 burna boyz to take out a squad of 30 genestealers that were going to eat my army away. Burnas. Are. Awesome. 2 Burna squads on both sides of your main force will stop any genestealer/hormagaunt horde. Just remember not to take a mekboy, as that's one less flamer template. Take 3 squads of 15 vs tyranids. WATCH THE FUCKERS BURN.
  • Versatile Burna - Burnas can be used as either a flamer or Power Weapon, which means they can attempt to cut down MEQ units or Monstrous Creatures. However, the choice must be made whether to use them as such during overwatch, if attacked first. If you use the d3 auto-hits that means you cannot use them as power weapons.
  • Mekboyz - The Burna Boy Mob has the option to swap out up to three models for Mekboyz for free. A Mek may be equipped with a Slugga, Big Shoota, or Kustom Mega-blasta for free, or may opt to take a Rokkit Launcha for a slight point-increase. Mek's maintain the repair capabilities of their Big Mek counterparts for a fraction of the cost, and a minimal-strength Burnaboy unit is the most point-efficient way to repair vehicles in the game. On the other hand, given the Open-topped nature of most Ork vehicles, more often than not the jalopies are prone to outright destruction, and the removal of Burnas from the unit reduces its ability to kill things. However, the repair roll is made at end of a Movement phase, so in many cases you can actually do something with the useless Burna unit, or just get out and assault. Taking Mekboyz in a Burnaboy unit is mostly a judgment call on the player's part.
    • Kustom Mega-blasta - Equivalent of a plasma gun. AP2, but gets hot. Take if Burnas are burning MEQs or Terminators.
    • Choppa and Slugga - No reason to take. Unless your expecting to charge.
    • Big Shoota - Gives long range, but not necessary.
    • Rokkit Launcha - Not good when Burnas need to target Hordes. Unless Burnas are burning MEQs.
    • Grot Oiler - Give a nice bonus to repair checks. Can be taken once per Mek.

• Kommandos: They're basically 10-point Slugga Boyz with Stikkbombs, Infiltrate, Move Through Cover, and access to Burnas. A mixed bag previously, they benefit from 6th edition Assault Grenades without wasting points on too many bodies.
  • Burnas - Able to Overwatch with D3 auto-hits. Useful for clearing out clumped long range enemies in cover. Though AP5 doesn't help against a lot.
  • Big Shootas - Adds some ranged shooting to them, not needed.
  • Rokkit Launchas - With Snikrot, can target back armor of almost all enemy vehicles.
  • Boss Snikrot - Pretty expensive, but having him and his entire squad attacking the enemy from their rear is always great fun but heavily nerfed in 6th ed since you can no longer assault out of reserves. For extra hilarity, add Mad Dok Grotsnik to them.

• Lootas One of the main issues Orks have with a lot of armies 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 Elite 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 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 (and you're fielding less than 10 of them, obviously.): 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.
  • Mekboyz: Not effective for most Loota squads, however a free Kustom Mega Blasta is useful against any vehicles and terminators that get the bright idea to get within charge range. Even if it is at the cost of range and extra hits the upgrade is for free.

• Meganobz: 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 Hero 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 Fire at an enemy vehicle, possibly wrecking or crippling it prior to assaulting, or they can utterly torch light infantry. But if you look closer, problems begin to surface. They lack any Invulnerable Save unless you pay to get Grotsnik, and cannot take a Waaagh! Banner or Bosspole. Slow and Purposeful means that they can't overwatch, run, or sweep; which means that they need to charge the enemy. Too bad they don't have heavy weapons. They are still Orky Terminators, though, and naturally their Transport will be a high-priority target. While they're great for providing a combat anvil for defensive armies (Ork Gunlines, etc), or cheap support for Wartrukk-based lists, they are generally considered average units overall. 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 shots start flying. Yes they can be taken in units of ten at best, but at their points cost, in most situations you will be taking maybe five, so you won't be benefitting from the Mob rule (unless you start to take 8, or 7 and a character, but if you are doing that you will be more than likely to be benefitting from their leadership). They've gotten better in 6e now that the only things that can hurt them are powerfists/power axes/force axes. Unless you fight one of the assholes with ignore everything weapons, like Straken or Yriel.

• Nobz: Ork Cheeze; wonderful Cheeze. Screw you Angry Marines, we bring the pain. Since the loss of wound allocation Nobs have become fragile. In a relative sense, at least. Nearly three times more expensive than a normal Ork Boy, but with +1 Wound and +1 Strength. However, like the Warboss, they get access to the shiniest wargear available to the Ork army, from Power Klaws to Combi-shootas to 'Eavy Armor to Cybork Bodies. Great in both close combat AND shooting, these guys are what Flash Gitz wish they were. Best used as bodyguards for your Warboss. The only problem is that 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 and Bikes and opponents will bitch and moan.
  • Bosspole - Necessary to take with any unit, especially since Nobs can only number 10 at max, negating Mob Rule.
  • 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.
  • Painboy - Probably the cheapest way of getting Feel No Pain for an entire unit. Especially good in combination with the Warboss.
    • Cybork Bodies - Only Invul save an Ork ever gets, 5+. Useful especially when you know the army your going up against has a lot of AP4.
  • Biker Gangs: Even worse is the notorious "Nob Biker" unit, a tactic that has somewhat survived the update and caused historic amounts of rage in other armies. Toughness 5 warbikers with an Armor, Cover, and an Invulnerable save with Feel No Pain they are close to invincible, even if lessened by 6th Ed wound allocation. In return for the lessened survivability, you get the Impact Hits of 6th Ed bikes 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.

• Tankbustas: Your primary anti-tank infantry unit. Take a Tankhammer, you can't go wrong with two S10 melee attacks per turn. But you can go wrong using them; you can go oh so wrong.
  • Glory Hogs: Remember that Glory Hogs doesn't affect them during the movement phase at all, and they do not have to shoot or attempt to assault the *nearest* vehicle - they have to shoot at and try to assault one in LOS. Unless every vehicle the enemy fields is within 12", you will almost never be forced to leave cover or move anywhere you don't already want to. Don't be afraid to fire at a vehicle out of range if it keeps you from getting shot to death. Congrats, in the Errata it now says, "If there is no enemy vehicle within range, can shoot as normal." Hazzah, finally something good for the unit. Also a god tier rape machine vs nids, as glory hogs doesn't apply since nids have no vehicles, and you can oneshot the doom and zoanthropes with one rokkit.
  • Bomb-Squigs - If within close range can sick a squig kamakazi with a 5 out of 6 chance to cause a S8 hit. On a 1, it will blow up on your own vehicles, unless you can keep them 18 inches away.

• Grot Tanks (Forge World): An odd unit. You get another vehicle squadron of Armor 10 all-around Methul Bohkes, seemingly the Orky specialty. They get 5+ invo. saves from all shooting attacks that aren't Ordinance, which gives them surprisingly uncharacteristic durability. They also count as Tanks, so you can Tank Shock things, too. However, what makes them really fun is their Ballistic Skill. Its 3. BS 3. For ORKS. This tends to make them work like Killa-Kans as far as shooting goes, but you don't feel that weird need to throw them into close combat or anything. Their stat-lines give them an advantage to using Orky weapons, but the Big Shoota and Skorcha feel like a waste of opportunity. Pretty much see the Killa Kans entry for how weapons go. The Grot Tank's only real caveat is their unreliable 2D6" movement. This could give them anywhere from Fast vehicle status to a horrific 2" movement. Plus, if you roll double-ones, one of them takes a Penetrating Hit, which really bites in 6th Editon. 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. Still no word on when Imperial Armour will send out 6th Edition FAQs for them.
  • 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.

Modeling note: Don't bother with forgeworld. Easy to build and make look better than forgeworld for MUCH cheaper.

• • 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 (Forge World): This thing cannot decide what it is. On its face it looks like another Looted Wagon, until you look at it a little harder. Grot Riggers and 3 Big Shootas base, Turbo-Charga making it fast and Looted-Wagony, BUT WAIT. What's that... Supa-skorcha? Big-Zzappa? Kustom Force Field?! TURRET-MOUNTED SHOKK ATTACK GUN!?! Yep, this monster can pack some pretty heavy ordinance, and it uses an Elites slot to do it. Junkas eat up points, so they are best kept as ordinance platforms, dumping Shokk Attack goodness onto enemy gits. With it's Deff-Rolla potential and Force Field, a Junka could make a good transport for Slashas (which tard out) or other heavy infantry. Just watch this thing, because it could go Looted Wagon any second...

Troops

• Boyz: Basic unit and right proppa. Boyz are the core of your army, no matter what kind of list you run. Remember this, Boyz before Toyz. You can swamp armies with them and remember: Run until you Waaagh!(it's usually how it works). No Retreat! is gone, thank fuck, so big mobs are even better. Weak point is a 6+ armor save but who gives a fuck, you brought at least 60 Boyz, right? Flamers will ruin your Boyz' day, though. So will Overwatch, to a much lesser extent than a flamer. Don't worry too much about overwatch, though. At best, you'll lose a boy or three to a full squad of muhreens overwatching. The only overwatch you should truly be afraid of is that of other shoota boyz muckin' about and flamers. It is very highly recommended you take Shoota Boyz over Slugga Boyz in 6th edition, as this edition is dakka edition. Shoota mobs are far more versatile and can still beat the everloving shit out of the majority of whatever they face in close combat, by sheer weight of numbers. 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. Awesome in the Assault phase, especially if they get 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 Powerish Weapons. Also, the world's greatest tarpit. Place in a Trukk to get them in the thick of enemy territory. Open-topped vehicles are automatically assault and the ramshackle table downgrades explosion damage to S3. Meaning even if you opponent wrecks your Trukk your boys won't be losing too many boys, unless they decide to waste shots into them.
  • Shoota Boyz: 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.
  • Upgrades - Quit mucking' about. You gitz is always muckin' about.
    • Nobs - If you bring a Nob, give him a Bosspole and a Power Klaw. Or lose. Horribly. In fact, go and get your Codex right now and cross out all of the Nob mob leader upgrades except for the PK and Bosspole. Never, ever, have your nobs leave home without Bosspoles and PK's. However, 6th edition severely gimped the good old PK Nob with the introduction of challenges. 90% of the time, your expensive PK Nob will get challenged by some limpdicked 'umie sergeant you'll be forced to krump before you can start drinking delicious space marine tears. That is to say, if your Nob even survives the challenge as he strikes at I1. A footslogging, fully decked out mob of 30 shoota boyz doesn't absolutely need a PK or a Bosspole. They'd have to lose at least 21 boyz before they'd stop being fearless, the Nob does nothing for their Leadership, and depending on circumstances, you might not even want the mob anywhere near close combat. Decide what your mob is going to be doing, then consider that a kitted out Nob with a PK and a Bosspole will cost you 40 points. When you run a 30 boy strong shoota mob you're not planning on getting into close combat, just acquire more dakka instead. Alternatively, if you absolutely feel you must field a nob, you could just get a budget Nob with just a Bosspole. PK Nobs are still recommended when facing lots of heavy armor and TEQ, and mandatory when running trukkboyz.
    • Mob size - Always, always, always run a mob at the full 30 boyz strong. Not doing so is severely gimping the raping potential of your boyz. You're playing orks, more orks is always more better. The only reason you ever take less than the full 30 boyz is because 30 don't fit in a battlewagon or a trukk.
    • 'Ard Boyz: A 4+ armour save upgrade, making your boyz much more durable. Can get expensive, however, especially in high numbers. Also, you can only take one 'Ard Boyz mob in your army, so don't waste them. 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 even Khorne Berzerkers, Genestealers, and Lychguards. With luck, it is possible for them to take out a full squad of assault terminators. 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 fair just as well. 'Ard Shootas are better for use at holding objectives since they have that extra +4 and can keep the enmy away/at bay for a bit. Especially useful with objectives that have little to no cover around them, and if your running Orks your opponent is gonna NOT want your ladz to have any cover when holding.
    • Never use Rokkits - There are far, far better 10 pt upgrades in this army for your vehicles, HQ's, and elite choices. If you have to fire your Rokkit Launcha's in a mob at a vehicle you are doing something oh so wrong. Loota's are your light AT, don't waste points on these in boys squads ever. At best, you're getting one or two MEQ kills a turn with 3, and that is 30 points. If you have to, put them in a Slugga Boy squad since they won't be in range of shooting anything anyway, exception for shootas if your going up against Space Marines since AP3.
    • Never use Big Shootas - 9 shots at BS2 is 3 hits, and about 2-3 wounds. Against MEQ, the odds of killing one Space Marine aren't even likely. Against GEQ, you're killing on two's and possibly get 2-3 kills not counting cover saves. But when was the last time you saw tasty Guardsmen that weren't hiding in fear behind fortifications? And killing GEQ isn't a big deal if you've got 60 S4 shots. If you have to, put them in a Shoota Boy squad since they will be shooting at infantry anyway.

• 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. Tot 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.

Fast Attack

• Dakkajet: AV10 flier with two S6. assault 3 supa-shootas attached. Spend 10 points on a third supa-shoota and 10 on a fighta-ace and you've got more dakka than 3 big shoota kans at the same BS whilst being harder to hit for all those non-skyfire units currently out there. Declare a Waaagh! and you go from 9 to 18 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 and light vehicles. Only downside is starting in reserve. Contrary to popular belief, they are excellent at shooting down enemy flyers. Just let your opponent take the first turn, or pray to the dice gods he fails his first reserve roll for it, and subsequently when his flyer arrives, use your Waaaagh!, bring in the Dakka Jet right up against its face and open fire on his Flyer. With Fighta Ace you'll get roughly 14 or more hits. On average that's about 2 sixes and room to spare, destroying 2/3 hull points, or if its one of those broken-as-fuck Necron flyers your opponent can't stop bragging about, you've got two penetrating hits. Fighta Ace gives BS3 on Flyers too now. Contrary to popular rage against fliers, 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.
  • Unit Synergy - Take a Weirdboy. Or if you feel like always Waaagh!'ing take two and watch as your Dakkajet never has a turn where he is not firing 18 shots and your opponent cry.

• Burna-Bomma: A somewhat unique flyer in the 40K universe, this is what happens when Burnaboy meks take inspirayshun from Flyboyz. Another piece of anti-infantry that the Orks don't necessarily need, but love to take anyways.

• Blitza-Bomma: A main-table variant of the Forge World Bomma, the Blitza-Bomma works best as anti-tank with a large, LARGE margin of error. Also, it can kamikaze. "Good ol' Killboy, attit agin!" Like any good Ork unit you have to roll a table to see the result, all of them are good even "Faster! Waaagh! Uh oh..." could be argued as pretty good. Funny, but impractical. If you don't like that, why are you playing Orks? Great for crashing into termies.

• Deff Koptas: 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. 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. Being Jetbikes they will get 5+ Jink Saves every time they move, 4+ if they Turbo Boost. 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, no option for a bosspole, and their maximum unit size of 5 means you can't take advantage of Mob Rule! Coupling that with a rather high point costs means that they should be fielded in small units of 1-2 outside of Apocalypse games.

Alternative take A single basic Deff Kopta is a great upgrade for a squad that doesn't want to take it's overwatch.

• Warkoptas (Forge World): BAAWWW!! I play everything but Spees Mahreens and I don't get Land Speeders in any of my armies! Well, SUCK IT beakies, da Orks now have Lend Speedaz. These things are just goofy. You get 1-3 in a squad, and being Skimmers they are more durable than a 10-all-around open-topped thing should be, but this isn't Dark Elfdar time. The basic guns on these guys are a Big Shoota and a Twin-linked Deffgun. It can swap its Big Shoota out with other basic heavy weapons. That's okay for infantry popping, but you want moar. GIVE THIS SUCKER A TWIN-LINKED RATTLER CANNON. It shoots 2D6 AP6 Bolter madness, but it done goofs on a double-1. But that's okay, because you just ate that Guardian squad for breakfast. Give it Red Paint Job to make it go FASTER! Give it Big Bomms to nuke crap in its spair time! You want a Storm? HAVE A STORM. You want a Tempest? HAVE A TEMPEST! There you go, Friggin Orky Lend Speedaz.

• Stormboyz: Slugga Boyz with Stikkbombs and Jump Packs. Fast (their jump packs get to move an extra D6 in addition to the normal 12") but fragile (6+ armor save, and rolling a 1 on your extra D6 movement means a Stormboy crashes into the ground and explodes).
  • Boss Zagstruk is fairly expensive, but solves any Morale problems with the mob (*BLAM!*) and also gets a Power Klaw that strikes at Initiative 3 since the Furious Charge nerf--still good on tau, sisters, and IG. Can Deep Strike and chuck those grenades to make for surprise assaults and distractions. Can assault same turn he deep strikes at the cost of some boys. Generally considered too points-heavy for much else.

• Warbikers: Really. Really. FUN. These guys are the core of any mobile Ork army. This can only be made better by using Wazdakka to take these guys as Troops. They are surprisingly durable when compared to a lot of other units; Toughness 5 for the bikes, 4+ Armor Save base, and the hilarious 4+ smoke cloud cover save you always get, always. Your opponent will have a fun time trying to take them out with pretty much any gun, and you will have a fun time as you watch your opponent whine and do double-takes when none of your bikers die. Bikers are also great because they have their hilarious Dakkagunz, which although only adding more anti-infantry onto an already infantry-slaughterfest army, are perfect for the bikers. 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 spendy, at over 4 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 constant 4+ cover save, they're a lot more survivable out in the open than your Boyz are.

• Warbuggies/Wartrakks: The Warbuggy was the common Fast Attack selection for Ork armies back in 4th Edition. Today, these Buggies are too fragile to do anything, being Armor 10 all-around and only having two Hull Points. Its speed and ability to provide support weapons are very useful to the Ork advance, but Deffkoptas do it better. Although the Big Shoota is cheap, barring range it adds little beyond normal Ork shooting; the Skorcha or Rokkit Launcha remain the primary reasons to take these vehicles (though the weapons still feel underpowered). 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 though, since terrain is actually a problem for them, but few things are funnier than the look on your opponents face when you blow up his Baneblade by rearshotting it with rokkit launcha Warbuggies.
  • Role: Aside from providing fast-moving specialist weapons, Warbuggies are cheap and similarly worthless. As vehicles, Warbuggies are made of glass, but move quicker than most Ork vehicles can afford. This means, even should no appropriate targets exist, the Warbuggies remain expendable for movement-blocking, and objective-contesting.
  • 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. This becomes especially true should one of the Wagons have a Mek; A unit of three Buggies, stretched out with maximum coherency between them, can cover a lot of area, while proving annoyingly tough to truly kill. Inversely, Warbuggies provide much-needed anti-tank firepower for Wazzdakka 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 Reinforced Ram, allows re-rolls on difficult terrain.

• Grot Bomm Launcha (Forgeworld): Buggy squadron with grot bomms: R24-72 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 to hell near any vehicle. Once they launch all bomms, you can flat-out buggies into the middle of battleground, blocking enemy path and LoS like those pesky land speeders.

• Grot Mega Tank (Forge World): This is an interesting vehicle. The Mega tank has the same 5+ invo as its smaller brethren, but is still too fragile. It mounts 5 Killa Kan weapons, 2 of which are Twin-linked, and it had 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!). Still no translation into 6th Edition Hull Points, guesses are probably 3-4 Hull Points.
  • 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 loose 5 of 'em when your Mega Tank gets shook.

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

• Big Gunz: A decent wonderful unit in lower-level games. When you're playing below 1000 points, just shut up and field a battery of these guys. No, shut up, just do it. Get the full number of of cheap ass grot bodies for absorbing wounds, and cheap Ammo Runts to help offset average Ballistic Skill, all 3 points a pop. Then again, "average" is a relative term; BS 3 means it might as well be a giant sniper rifle in an army book of BS 2 blunderbusses. To make it even better the new artillery rules state that crew now use guns' toughness. T7 grots? Yes, please! Want to be a jerk with these guys? Put grots in front for that nice cover save. As a final note, the other two Big Gunz are generally not worth it, barring the odd exceptions. The main problem with fielding Big Gunz is that they take up a Heavy Support slot, which may or may not pose a problem for your list.
  • Kannon - For 20 points, you get a 36" Missile Launcher(Shells) unit with BS 3 for about a third the cost of the Imperial Guard Heavy Weapon squad. Can switch to Frag rounds that are Str 4 AP 5 small blast, good in case you go up against horde armies. Best at being Space Marine bane. Buy three of the buggers, add some ammo runts and crew. 80 points for a fully manned twinlinked Str 8 artillery battery is peanuts.
  • Lobba - The Lobba provides nice anti-infantry, yet is in an army that doesn't lack for anti-infantry shooting. It does have 48 inch range and Barrage though, so it does not require line of sight. Str 5 small blasts are fun to drop around, park your lobbas behind a building and start sniping sergeants. Less utility than kannons, but greater range and much easier to keep alive.
  • Zzap Gun - Likewise, the Zzap Gun's variable strength (averaging at 6.889) and potential to kill its own crew makes it too unreliable for tank-hunting as you roll to hit and then roll for strength. However, Zzap Guns only kill one crew member, even when there are three of them. Since they all roll for Strength together, when you do roll a 10, you get Railguns for a third of the body count (on your side!). Keep in mind though that this is the only reliable (And I use that term loosely) ranged AP2 this codex has other than the Shokk Attack Gun. When you're absolutely certain you will face heavy infantry, these guys are still reasonably cheap. Then again, the ork answer to terminators is generally to simply drown said models in dice.
    • Zzap Guns are also pretty much an Ork player's only answer to Riptides/Dreadknights/Tyrannofexes (or whatever monster with a 2+ save GW comes up with next), since the aforementioned tactic of drowning them in dice doesn't really work if your dice don't have enough strength. Lootas come to mind, but even though they roll a buttload of dice, it's usually not enough to reliably kill one of those monsters fast enough to prevent the damage it'll likely cause. Not that a single battery of Zzap guns will do that either, mind you, but their (hopefully) high strength, comparatively good BS and DS 2 go a long way.

• 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 Dred, but with thicker armor than other squadded Walkers, lacking extra guns, but packing a Dreadnought Close 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.
  • Grotzooka - Good for mowing down infantry at amazing rates (a squad of 3 Grotzooka Kans throws out 6 S6 blasts a turn!).
  • Big Shoota - Keeping them cheap and able to threaten light vehicles at range.
  • Skorcha - Good for taking out entrenched infantry and horde armies. Does not fully utilize the BS3 that Killa Kans though. Take a Deffdread with double skorchas instead.
  • Mega-Blasta - Provide risky AP 2. With "Gets Hot" the Kans are more likely to hurt themselves.
  • Rokkit Launcha - Provide anti-vehicle firepower. Deffkoptas could be used instead.
  • Dreadnought Close Combat Weapon - WS2 means that almost anything would hit them on 3+, which his bad due to AV11, meaning Kans are quite easily could be krak-rgenaded to death. With low attack number and hitting most things on 4+ (5+ for WS5+) in most cases the Kans will be locked in combat for 3-4 close combat phases until they die, but at least they'd stop some elite infantrymen for a few turns, especially if they are fearless, and even better if they have no grenades or S6+ weapons. Of course, cutting tanks open with claws is always a good idea.

• 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 it's Shooting phase running at whatever needs to be krumped. Be careful, having only 3 Hull Points and Armor 12 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, but fielding a Big Mek HQ allows a Dread to be fielded as a Troop choice, making it a decent option if you've got the room. Get him stuck in the assault an' keep 'im dere.
  • Big Shoota - No reason to take unless you want to waste shots in the shooting phase
  • Rokkit Launcha - Cheaper and less hazardous than Kustom Megablasta.
  • Kustom Mega-blasta - Gets Hot is dangerous, especially when Rokkit Launcha could do same amount of damage.
  • Skorcha - Rip throughs horde armies and allows for effective overwatch. Don't take two or being immobilized will suck.
  • Dreadnought Close Combat Weapon - Comes with two stock. Take one, helps with assault. Take two, your Deff Dread will become a statue if immobilized.

• Mega-Dread (Forge World): 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 (unimportant). 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 having base strength 8 (handy when your klaw is busted). Careful around prolonged Termie throwdowns, you never know what they wield. This guy can also get a Twin-linked Supa-Skorcha that will shoarmify MEQs 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 (Forge World): a more badass cousin of the Mega-Dread. It can take a Kustom Force Field, allow your Big Mek to take Shokk Attack Gun and still able to provide protection for your force. Remember only take KFF. Mega Charga allows you to have Fleet, which is nice, because the Meka Dread should be in close combat most of the time, but rolling an 1 really suck. Rokkit-Bomb Rack counts as Lobba that can fire D3 shot, but it has 1/3 chance of running out of ammo in battle, so ignore. It can also replace one of its Rippa Klaw with 1 heavy weapon (Rattler Kannon recommended). And holy shit they have Fixin'Klaw ! It adds 2 attack on the charge, and the Mega Dread can even attempt to repair itself. An AV 13, 3 HP, 5 S10 AP1, self-repair 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 Mega-Dread in your army to be taken.

• Flash Gitz: Easily one of the worst choices in the Ork army. They really are that bad. Their main problem lies in them being very expensive, for minimal damage output. For one point more than 4 Ork Boyz, a Flash Git has a 4+ armor save and a 24" S5 shoota with a single shot, and random AP value. They can shoot through cover, which negates one of the many negatives against them. Their shooting is abysmal, and for the investment involved in making them decent at shooting, you could easily get the far-superior Killa Kanz, or a Battlewagon. Lootas have more range, Warbikes have Assault 3 twin-linked, Nobs are cheaper with same number of shots and twinlinked, and Flash Gits get Shoot through cover with AP random. Essentially long range Burnas with better range and strength, but lacking the hits. If you really do take them, go ahead and take Badrukk as well, he can screw over just about anything he rolls a 5 against and looks like an awesome Ork pirate to boot. These guys are strictly for the kitbashers.
  • More Dakka - Can upgrade their Assault 1 guns to Assault 2, considering their shooting it is very necessary.
  • Shootier - +1 Str to gun. Not necessary except against T4 enemies or light vehicles.
  • Blasta - +1 to AP, but causes "Gets Hot". Necessary, but can make Space Marines tremble in fear.
    • They're about to get a huge buff in 7th edition, with their snazguns moving up to Assault 3 all the time and Ballistic Skill +1 if they didn't move, all at 15 points less.

• Looted Wagon: They've got spotty armor, are unreliable (rolling a 1 really sucks), compete with Deffrolla-equipped Battlewagons (see below) and Killa Kans, and taking a Boomgun ups it considerably as a target while doing little to hide that it's a generally-weaker Vindicator-equivalent. But with the fragility of vehicles in 6th Edition, it is important to remember that a Boomgun is worthy artillery to be mounted on a Vehicle with an AV 11 front, and Big Shootas are welcome for Snap Firing.
  • An alternate take: I once tabled a CSM army by Turn 2 with two Looted Wagons with Boomguns. So they can be quite good, devastating even in some cases, but are not too reliable. Remember, like Vindicators, never take just one. These things could be used for an Orky Artillery list where you attempt to imitate the Tau.

• Big Trakks (Forge World): This is the variable-use workhorse of the Vehicle list. This thing can take EVERY big gun the orks have in this list, INCLUDING the Flakka-Dakka Guns AND Supa-Kannon. The Big Trakk can also take Deff Rollas (win), and 'ard Case, which doesn't change anything in respect towards transported unit effectiveness. 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 (which you do). Remember that you can only have three, and they will probably be dead by endgame, so try not to deck them out too bad.
  • Transport There is a rather odd thing you can do with this unit. 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 up, Deff Rolla some point-guarders, and drop out 12 Spannas with Mek to point-guard while the Trakk deals metric tons of lighter Snap Firepower. This strategy is untested, and could just be a waste of a Heavy Support slot.
  • Wait what's this?: It says in the entry for Big Trakks that you can take squads of 1-3 as a single Heavy Support choice. That means a potential for nine Deff-rollas. Or, wait a minute, NINE SUPA-KANNONS!!!
  • 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, all spelling doom for enemy armour, so a single Big Trakk with this setup basically is the equivalent of two full squads of Big Gunz, all in one vehicle (of which you can, as pointed out above, take three for a single HS slot).
    • However, this strategy also has it's disadvantages. While a Big Trakk with just the Big Zzappa is actually cheaper than an unupgraded 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.

• Flakka-Dakka Gun (Forge World): This is the primary orkish ground based anti-aircraft unit, 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.

• Guntrukks (Forge World): These are trukks with even bigger big 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. Important to note that these trukks can be squadded up to 5 for one slot.

• Lifta Wagon (Forge World): ) It's a wagon with motherfucking - JURY-NERFED lifta-droppa , which gently moves vehicles a few inches. It always hit on 5+ (but gork save you, if you roll one), and dealS D3 glances or a single explodes result regardless what you roll on scatter dice. They can take cover saves against it so be wary of terrain, smoke, sneaky eldar fields and jink saves. it can target Flyers now. 6-th edition glance rules boost lifta-droppa a lot, so now in can wreck near any vehicle up to and including monoliths and land raiders. Drawback is, that Lifta-wagon absolutely useless against non-vehicles, and in 6-th edition you actually can face armies with no vehicles other then nids.

Transports

• Trukks: Available to Dedicated Transport either to Ork Boy mobs numbering at most 12, Nob squads, or Meganob squads numbering at most 6, the Wartrukk is a mixed bag.
  • On one hand, it's a Fast, open-topped vehicle, and can provide your Orks with an amazing assault range. However, the Trukk is very fragile (AV 10, Open-topped, 3 HP), and regular Ork Boyz in Wartrukks 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. Finally, because of the Ramshackle Rule, should your vehicle be destroyed, there's a very high chance that the Trukk would not become cover for your Orks, leaving them bunched up and vulnerable to anti-infantry templates. Thus, if one were to take Trukk Mobs, they would have to act in support of heavier units.
  • When running them, the closest thing to a mandatory upgrade for them would be the Reinforced Ram. The insurance against being bogged down in difficult terrain, as well as the ability to alternatively use your Trukk as a Fast tank-shocker. It is highly recommended you do not try ramming other vehicles, you're going to get S8 at the max distance (18") and the recoil damage is likely to cause the Trukk to crumple like a tin-can. Depending on the point-level, you may be able to take a Rokkit Launcha for your Trukk; while unlikely to make much difference, Orks need all the anti-tank they can get. Armor Plates prevent the terrible fate of the Trukk not moving Boyz forward. Aside from this, upgrade at your own risk. Grot Riggers are not too useful as vehicle repair is done in the shooting phase, an Immobilized Trukk might as well be a dead Trukk, unless it has 2 HP left or you like bunkers. When choosing upgrades, it's often better to get more vanilla Trukks than a few "super"-Trukks.

• Battlewagons: One thing most armies should have is some way to reliably deal with heavy armor, especially of the Land Raider variety. Marines and Guard get Meltaguns and Lascannons. Eldar get Lances. Tau get Meltaguns and Railguns. Tyranids get Zoanthroapes (and the Tyrannofex to a lesser extent). Orks get the Battlewagon. Costing 90 points, you start off with a chassis, and no gun. From there, you have several options:
  • Weapons: You can purchase quite a few guns to place on your Wagon, with most of them being partially overcosted; taking the full compliment of Rokkits and a Kannon for example would leave you with an open-topped transport which cost 140 points, yet would require Combat Speed to Snap Fire it all. Considering the role of a Battlewagon is either to transport units into melee, or serve as a Deffrolla, having to go slow is counterproductive. A general rule of thumb is to take two Big Shootas, if only to prevent Weapon Destroyed results from becoming Immobilized results. Should you wish to do a shootier wagon, it doesn't hurt to add a Kannon though; the Frag Round provides Small Blast goodness, and Kraks can be Snap Fired. The Zzap Gun is potentially the most powerful weapon available, but is also the most unreliable. Still, it can be Snap Fired and rolling a 10 or higher for its Strength is surprisingly easy. The Lobba is useless; the Barrage feature won't help unless you park it in cover, and in that case you may as well buy some Big Gunz instead. The Killkannon doesn't take up a Big Gunz slot (so you can take a Kannon/Zzap Gunin addition to it) and provides a nasty S7 AP3 Large Blast, but it is very expensive (60 points?!), short-ranged at 24", and reduces the Battlewagon's transport capacity from 20 to 12 (it's also Ordnance and Wagons are not Russes). It's a pretty big drawback if you want to get a lot of Boyz from Point A to Point B, and few people take it unless they like their Battlewagons mimicking Vindicators.
  • Demolition Equipment: The Deffrolla is effectively mandatory for a Wagon, as the amount of damage it can inflict on a vehicle (or even multiple vehicles should they be next to each other) will do a lot to dictate the enemy deployment and movement. Is the Battlewagon transporting a unit with a hidden Power Klaw? If so, the Boarding Plank is a bargain item; even should a Deffrolla-equipped Battlewagon fail to neutralize a vehicle, chances are high it will Penetrate, and being able to send additional Strength 9 hits from the comfort of a wagon is rather handy. The Grabbin' Klaw is nice but unnecessary, while the Wreckin' Ball is a bit overcosted, especially if you took a Deffrolla, though due to their rules wording, they provide a surprising source of semi-reliable anti-air in the new edition (according to the latest errata, wreckin balls, grabbin klaws, and boarding planks can't affect zooming fliers). In short, Battlewagons can chew up fiddly gits right 'n proppa, but do dere best when krumpin' 'ard targits.
  • Mobility: Both the Red Paint Job and Grot Riggers are nice, assuming you can squeeze the points in. The Red Paint Job is especially handy for Wagons transporting Shoota or Burna Boyz, for by moving 7", (the Wagon still counts as moving at Combat Speed), while still allowing the passengers to fire at full effect.
  • Other stuff: Stikkbomb Chukkas are amazing as of 6th Edition, giving Orks assaulting out of the Wagon Frag Grenades, which now go boom. The Reinforced Ram prevents one from taking a Deffrolla. The 'Ard Case is a hit-or-miss item; for ones carrying Grots/a KFF Mek as a cheap scoring upgrade, it's handy to have; for ones carrying large assault units, it's counterproductive.

Super Heavy

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

• Stompa (not Forgeworld anymore): Your main Titan. Unlike Imperial and Eldar Titans, it carries a huge variety of weapons for dealing with any target, and has a Titan CCW and the ability to make a Stomp attack against anything that gets too close. Has a drawback in that its main anti-infantry gun fires random shots and can only be fired once per-game, but it throws out so many dice that it can take hours to resolve one usage of it. Generally, the best way to resolve the dice roll of the Supa-gatler is to just buy a lot of d6s, stuff them in a bucket, then dump them on the board. A bonus for the Supa-gatler is that it DOESN'T take up a Titan weapon slot, which is pretty nice.

• Super Stompa (You wish Forgeworld made these): Otherwise known as Gargants. Your big battle Titan. No rules, no models, just scratch-builders hopes and dreams. It should be noted that current-edition Stompas are closer to the Supa-Stompas of yore in size, but almost live up to the classic Gargant in terms of firepower. A Super Stompa today would be in-between a Gargant and a Great Gargant in terms of size, shielding, and firepower. A Stompa used to be the squadded-up go-between from a Deff Dred to a proper titan. And no, Mega Deff Dreds are NOT the Old Stompa, they are a literal analogue for the (very lame) Digga Stompa. Go read the Ork entry for why, an' don't let me catch ya finkin' uverwise!

• Big Mek Stompa (Forgeworld): 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.

• Goff Klawstompa (Scratch-built, like a real Ork titan): A cheap (points-wise) and fun titan. Mostly close-combat oriented, but also has a S6 AP3 Hellstorm-template weapon. Who doesn't want automatic S6 hits? The thing can also chuck tanks halfway across the battlefield at other Titans (just like your little brother).

• Stompa (Imperial Armour 8's Kustom Rules): An interesting and varied titan choice. This is a fully-customizable Stompa-maker for kitbashers and kustomizers, set up so that you can build goofy Stompas and make them game-legal (with fair price tags). Anybody who made a kustom Stompa out of cardboard and duct-tape MASTERCRAFTED PLASTICARD AND SECOND-HAND GUARD TANKS can now field their Stompa. These guys can do anything you want, including bullet-spamming, pie-plate dropping, rip-and-tearing, and double Lifta-dropping. 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. That and 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 CCW's at your enemy, or stand back and watch 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.

• Kill Tanks (Forgeworld, but scratch-building is WAY better and cheaper):

These come in three flavors, the Kill Krusha, the Kill Blasta and the Kill Bursta. Creative, yes.

• • 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, but random almost always means terrible when it really matters. A Megabolter beats it every time IMHO. DEM IMPERIAL GITZ IZ ON DA PAGE AGAIN!! 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.
  • The Bursta is where the real class is , although for some (complete bullshit) reason it comes with the terrible Belly Gun as standard and you need to buy the fucking 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 fucking gun), then even getting them Laser-Destroyered 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.

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.

Forge World Flyers

• Fighta-Bommer : Your Focke-Wulf. The FOUR TWIN-LINKED big shootas are kind of dinky defensive weapons good for hammerin' out dice at everything, but as most flyers tend to have AV 10 somewhere, they'll still ward off most fliers with the defensive weapons rules by making them smoking craters. 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 new, in-codex options for fliers 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.

• Fighta : Your Messerschmitt. Like the Fighta-bommer but with a smaller ordinance capacity. Faster and cheaper but less useful since Big Shootas can't do shit against AV 12, forcing them to rely on supa rokkits to deal with things like Thunderhawks. However, you can get a lot of the fuckers and bring infantry grief with three twin linked big shootas on an ridiculously fast and impossible to hit platform. Pretty useless now since the Dakkajet does everything it did better, can be upgraded to BS3, and isn't forgeworld. Great for suddenly popping in and dropping ordinance to blow stuff up, but leave that to the bommers.

• Bomma : 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 : Much like the Marauder variant, though 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.

Lord of War

• Stompa: With the new Escalation book, the Stompa can now be taken in normal games of Warhammer 40k. It comes equipped at with a Supa Gatlin, 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. Hopefully in the future, the Kustom Stompa, or IA 8's Buzzgob stompas will be fieldable. Oh, and the Supa Gatlin cannot pump out infinite shots in a single phase anymore. It's 3 shots at S7 AP3 Assualt 2d6. Doubles forces the gun to run out of ammo.
  • Forge World have since released a list of Units they make that can also be used as Lords of War. The Kustom Stompa is one of them. If you have access to IA8, always go with the Kustom Stompa. even if you made the exact same Stompa for around 170 pts less.
  • One of the nastiest things you can do is put several 5-man squads of Burna Boys with 3 Meks in the Stompa. Depending on the Stompa loadout, 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 kompleinin' ennewayz). Warning: This tactic is about as dick as it gets, so use at your own discretion. Also this tactic is breaking the rules for transports, you can only have one unit embarked upon a transport unless otherwise specified. The current rules for a stompa in Escalation do not have any special exceptions to the transport rules.
• Kill Tanks:(Forge World) Same as listed above. Latest rules found in IA:Apocalypse (2013)
• Kustom Battlefortress:(Forge World) the battlewagon's super heavy big brother. 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 these big guns 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 also available, just in case you want to add more dakka. Found in IA:Apocalypse (2013)

Other

• Gargantuan Squiggoth (Forge World): A fun but strange 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, but Grotsnik can give it a 5+ invo save, making this guy super-goofy. The only big downside 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 though. Fuck, Autocannons will ruin your day. Three Defilers, Ironclad Dreadnoughts, or enemy Deff Dreads will butcher you.

• Big Squiggoth (Forge World): Dirt cheap transport MOST EXPENSIVE TRANSPORT FOR ORKS IN 40K, it's a Monstrous Creature. Dark Eldar will love you for fielding it. Carries a small artillery piece and is a good wall of meat, but it's vulnerable to Instant Death and sports crappy armor it has dead space marine barding. Take Grotsnik to give it the 5+ invun save it desperately needs. As a non-Apocalypse unit, Squiggoths will be the biggest fire magnet on the table, and at WS 2 they can't defend themselves in close combat (despite their high strength), where they really ought to be. Put the full ten Boyz inside, send the Squiggoth towards the enemy, and assault out when near any enemy squad.

Building Your Army

In this edition, there are only two really viable builds available to orks. The first is a footslogging, shooty horde that has a fuckton of models to overwhelm the enemy and take and hold objectives, and the second is the old fashioned speed freaks list: go balls out and reach combat in turn two, or die, horribly. The builds listed below are not definitive, merely guidelines to what units work well together in a list. Warning: fun may be had when playing with or against either one of these, as cheese is quite rare in the ork codex nowadays.

Horde of Boyz

BOYZ. What did you expect? Buttloads of Boyz everywhere, in thirty-man squads, charging across the battlefield. This should be your only tactic in 1000-500 point games, seeing as you don't really have any singuar pivotal unit in your army besides massive amounts of troops.

Place 19-man squads of Gretchin in front of the boyz to give cover, wounds, and distractions. Stick a Warboss with Power Klaw (really, would you do anything else?) in one of your identical Boyz squads. Beware AP anything, Blast Templates, and Vindicators.

The green tide tactic works because relative to the other horde armies (Tyranids and Guard) Ork boyz are significantly tougher at toughness four while costing roughly the same. And unlike the Tyranids and the Guard, most of your other slots can be filled with large hordes rather than small squads or broods.

The reasoning behind this is that you can throw forth so many units at the enemy that they simply won't be able to gun down enough of them to not get fucked by the time you're in charging distance, and even other assault armies wither when hundreds of boyz charge into them.

And unlike the Tyranids you get grenades which is vital for assaulting into cover without losing shit tons of models (alternatively, some units don't need grenades because they have low initiative anyway). Not as useful in 6th, because most armies have basic troops at I3, meaning an Ork Boy squad is still going last.

Spamming every slot you can have:

• HQ: Gazghkull and Mad Dok Grotsnik (STFU YOU WANT THEM)

• Elites: 3 mobz of 15 burna boyz each (or 3 mobz of 10 nobz, tank bustaz, or 15 lootaz each)

• Troops: 6 mobz of 30 boyz each (yes you could get gretchin for MOAR models, see below)

• Fast attack: 3 mobz of 20 stormboyz each

• Heavy support: 3 Killa kan mobz of 3 each.

This adds up to 290 models that can dish out nearly two thousand attacks on a charge, not much is going to survive that, but of course, no normal 40k game has a points limit that high, and in apocalypse games, THERE ARE NO SLOTS SO YOU CAN FULFILL YOUR DREAM OF A NOB ONLY GREENTIDE.

Shooty Green Tide: AKA the viable footslog

• HQ: A Big Mek with KFF. For your second HQ choice, a Big Mek with a SAG and an ammo runt or a Warboss with a PK are also solid options. Or, whatever the fuck, take another KFF. You always take atleast one KFF with you when footslogging. Always.

• Elites: Lootas. If you even think of running anything other than lootas in your elite slot, punch yourself in the dick. Run them at 5 boy squads when strapped for points, 9 orks strong if you want them to go to ground, or run full 15 boy mobs. Do not ever skimp on the lootas. Use them at all times. If you want to use nobs, take a warboss so you can field them as troops. Gork only knows why you'd want them in a footslog list, though.

• Troops: Tons of 30 boy shoota mobs + nob with PK and BP. Heavy weapons not required; save the points and buy more Boyz. Field at least one grot screen unit of 19 grots and a runtherd. Use them to cover your mobs or cover your lootas, both work.

• Fast attack: Optional. Your best bet is Dakkajets. Pray for erratas soon, but use them anyway. You want their delicious dakka. If you're strapped for cash or points, run some lone deffkoptas with TL rokkits instead.

• Heavy support: Big Gunz batteries, always with 3 guns, some extra Grot Crewmen and a max of 3 Ammo Runts. Kannons strongly recommended. Possible to replace a battery with either lobbas or zzap guns, depending on your opponent. All variants are dirt cheap, no brainer fire support. Other heavy support choices are too pricey. The point of Green Tide is to dump more shoota boyz on the table.

Footslog forward, shoot at things. The KFF will give some mobs cover while they advance. Lootas, Dakkajets and Big Gunz can and will crap out an absurd amount of dakka while your boyz move forward towards objectives or targets. Once your shoota boyz get in shooting range too, holy mother of fuck, you will finally achieve enough dakka wrong you can never achieve enough dakka! These dice of yours are burning red. Also, if your opponent wants to waste shots on 60 point backline artillery units while your fuckhuge blobs of rape are breathing down his neck, more power to him. Smile and advance. Remember the most important combat rule when playing orks: Chop the shooty and shoot the choppy. Boyz are exceptional at both for their point cost, but will get tabled by dedicated units of either when fighting on their terms.

MAXIMUM MODELS, quantity is a quality all of its own. Not when 90% of your models are grots.

• HQ: 2 Big Meks with 6 Oiler Grots

• Elites: 3 mobz of 15 Mek Boyz and 15 oiler grots each (Not possible) 3 Mobz of 15 Lootas, stack on the DAKKA. Replace 3 with Mek boys and then add up to 3 oiler Grots for 9 grots and 45 boys in total.

• Troops: 6 mobz of 30 Gretchin and 3 Runtherds each (GREEN-TIDE, MOTHERFUCKER)

• Fast attack: 3 mobz of 20 Stormboyz each, with Zagstruck tossed in on top

• Heavy support: 3 Big Gunz batteriez with 3 Kannons, 12 Grot Crewmen, 6 Ammo Runtz, and a Runtherd each

This adds up to 413 models that can dish out exactly nine-hundred and twenty-nine attacks on a charge, that's still a fucking lot considering your table is going to be swimming with models.

• Trivia: Do you like Power Klaws? Within the limitations of the Force Organization slot you can have 292 Power Klaw attacks on the charge. All ignoring armour saves; all at S7, S9, or S10. All for only 3965 points. Now THIS is powergaming.

This tactic works up until about 1500 points, when counter-horde weapons and vehicles are assured.

Tyranids will beat you out at this 1000+ points. Tau at 500-1250 points can actually be beaten by a well-practiced mob tactic, seeing as they can only fire so much per turn.

• Trivia:, 3,872 Orks would cost 23,000+ points and hours to deploy. Sorry for ruining your dream. Which is an unimportant inconvenience, next to how awesome that would be.

Speed Freeks

If speed is your need. Yes, this is the Kult of Speed (Evil Sunz is similar) and a tactic. Otherwise known as Mobile Orks, Motorized Orks, Mounted Orks, and The Orky Vehicle List. Mount 12-man Boyz, Burnas Nobs, and whoever else in Trukks, and Nobz with a Warboss in a Battlewagon with a Deffrolla.

Bikes are encouraged, but not fully mandatory. Paint them and every vehicle Red, because "Red Ones go Fasta!".

The goal is to get up to enemy lines as fast as possible; ram, slam, and crush infantry with vehicles; and assault with the transported Orks. Vehicles can be used as walls afterwards, or to ram more infantry. Boyz with Shootas in Trukks can go speeding around and dumping 22 shots per turn plus a Big Shoota into whatever assault troops the enemy charges with (at a relatively safe 24"). This tactic is great against infantry-spam Guard and 'Nid lists. It also spreads out rapidly to take points.

Beware though, Ork vehicles fall apart at the mention of anti-tank, and the relatively low numbers of Ork troops make it loose staying power after its first punch, so make every die roll count. Throw a Big Mek with a Kustom Force Field in a Battlewagon to increase the odds of your Wagons and Trukks making it to the front lines intact.

Target saturation is one of the few ways to run trukk boys, outside of using a Kustom Force Field. On turn 1 your opponent will target the highest risk, top of the list are vehicles transporting anything that does well in close combat. Its better to have 6 chances to get to the front lines and few failing than one chance that is destroyed before your turn.

It is possible to take up to 68 Battlewagons, though only Nobs and Meganobs can take them as dedicated transport, meaning it will cost you three very useful elite choice spots, both HQs (Since Warbosses can take a single unit of Nobs and Meganobs as Troops, per Boss) and all three of your Heavy Support choices. Still, that's 8 Deffrollas and trimming, filled with pissed off Nobs.

Example list building:

List setup:

• HQ: A Warboss on a warbike. Holy shit this guy is a one man, three wound, T6, permanent 4+ cover and armorsave rape train. Expensive as fuck and dead 'ard. Take him with you always unless you want to run Battlewagon nobs. Makes Nobs (and thus Nob Bikers) troops. Also worth considering are Wazdakka to make regular bikers troops or a Big Mek with KFF to keep your vehicles alive for a fraction of a second longer or to repair your Battlewagons.

• Elites: Nobs. We don't do lootas, we need to go fast, motherfucker. Two options: The Nob Biker route or the Battlewagon route. Both are expensive as fuck, but Emperor help whatever stands in their way. Both versions serve as your Warboss' bodyguard.
  • Nob Bikers: Don't run Nob Bikers with less than 5 Nobs. Give them a Painboy and Cybork Bodies and buy a Bosspole and a Waaaaaaagh! Banner. One PK minimum, two max. One unit will cost you upwards of 350 points and the soul of your first unborn child.
  • Battlewagon Nobs: The advantage of running Battlewagon Nobs is that you can run the unit with more T4, FNP, 2 wound, 5++ bodies: One cybork Nob without other upgrades is only 25 points. Recommended loadout: One BP, one Waaaagh! Banner, a Painboy, one or two PKs and Cybork for everyone.

• Troops: Trukk boyz, your bread and butter. Only time sluggas really shine in 6th. Consider running one trukk filled with 'Ard Boy sluggas: a mob of only 12 boyz is quite weak, but with a 4+ save they will rip and tear like no tomorrow. Also entirely possible and viable to run trukks with shoota boyz to create dakka trukks. As said before, run at least 3 or 4 trukks. Recommended loadout: Reinforced Ram. Red Paint Job optional if you've got the points, but handy.

• Fast attack: Fucking everything. Buggies are absolute shit, but also cheap as hell anti tank spam screens for your trukks and battlewagons: Your opponent can never stop all of your crappy AV10 scrapheaps before you crash into him when you run a squadron or two of these guys. Deffkoptas get two TL rokkits and scout, meaning they're extra fast, get a jink save, and can hopefully hit side and rear armor. Dakkajets are awesome too as fire support and anti air, but can get expensive if you go overboard. Warbikers are your other, other bread and butter: when running Wazdakka, these guys will be your troops instead of weedy trukk boyz. Damn shooty and tough as nails. Can't climb ruins, but fuck you, ruins. When not running Wazdakka, these guys are not as mandatory, but still good to field one unit of to screen your crappy vehicles or crashing through enemy lines.

• Heavy support: Battlewagons. Load em up with Shoota Boyz or Nobs and a KFF. Point at the general direction of the enemy. 20 boyz and some Big Shootas shooting from a Battlewagon is glorious. These guys are your anti tank, by crashing into enemy armor. Recommended loadout: A deffrolla, Red Paint Job, and Big Shootas. Keep your transports cheap and minimal, more barebones transports is better than a few shiny ones, as vehicles die fast in 6th.

Tactics/Stupid Tricks

Stupid tricks may catch your opponent off-guard the first time. They aren't a sure-fire path to victory by any stretch but are worth mentioning due to the relative surprise they can pull.

• The Slingshot: Say you want your Warboss to get into 'da fight faster. This trick requires a unit of 2 Deffkoptas, and that your Boss be bike-mounted. The Warboss starts deployed centrally in another unit (for example, Lootas) while the Deffkoptas scout forward. The Kopta unit shall spread out to max coherency, and a single line can be drawn between both Koptas and the Warboss. On turn 1, the Warboss moves 12" to within 2" of the rearmost Kopta and is now part of the unit. This gives the boss the ability to be pulled into an assault (except not, because you can't scout and assault anymore....) up to 12+2+2+2+2+6=26" away from him on the first turn, if done correctly.
  • Note: This trick is completely useless against Grey Knights, for they can bring Servo-Skulls. Likewise, the trick is better for gaining the initiative rather than causing damage; against heavy MSU armies, the disruption from this trick is relatively negligible.
• Meat Grinder Assault Phase: This works best on a small table, preferably so you won't have to put up points for trukks and battlewagons. Take Ghazghkull, another WB and then fill up your troops and elites with full mobs of boyz and nobz. If your enemy is built for slaughtering hordes this isn't quite so effective but when you get the charge mother of god you will need at least two extra pairs of hands to roll all those dice.
• Artillery Is My Shield: The purpose here is to soften your opponent as you proceed to close in. Loota Squads and Big Guns are used to bust open Transports and create clean firing lanes for you to march, WALK(er), or drive through reaching the softer side of the enemy. Allies that bolster this method greatly are Havocs, Missile Sides, Heavy Weapons Teams, and Night Scythes/Annihilation Barges. Remember, Allies for Orks should be kept cheap and efficient. So use Ally HQs and Troops to supplemnt the force you've mobilized.
• Psykik Hazzmat Teem: This is a tactic that makes playing your army fun. Take a squad of Meganobz, preferably with a Grotsnik somewhere giving them Cybork Bodies, and put a Warp'ead Weirdboy in the squad. The Mega Armor will soak up bad rolls on the Weirdboy Psychic powers roll, and act like a buffer for damage coming the Weirdboy's way. Start the game with them embarked in a Transport, and move the whole crew towards something hard to kill, like a Land Raider or angry Character and retinue. Blast away with the Weirdboy every turn, at anything that you can, and prepare for fun. Once the Weirdboy rolls an "'ere we go!" result, warp out of the transport and directly into an enemy squad or behind enemy armor. Wreck everybody's day. Be warned, this is an expensive tactic points-wise, so make sure to protect the transport while moving into position, and try to account for the random Weirdboy rolls.
• Dread Mob Lite: Not recommended for competitive play, but very funny. Every Big Mek you take can take a Deff Dread as a troop choice. Two Big Meks with two Deff Dread troops, then a few Killa Kan squads as fire support. If you want to achieve maximum shits and giggles, 10 Deff Dreadz and 4 Big Meks in a 2000 point game. Bring your riggers though. For the love of Gork (AND MORK) bring your riggers.
• Speshul Forces: Douchebaggery ahoy. Warbosses can take Nobz as troop choices and Nobz can take battle wagons as dedicated transports. Disregard everything you learned about boys before toys! Take two warbosses, two squads of four nobz. Throw in Klaws, Choppaz, twin linked shootaz, Pain Boyz... FUCKING EVERYTHING. Put them in similarly kitted out battle wagons and pretend you're the Gey Knights. Or, using the warbosses and troopnobs to fill up your battlewagon potential to the max, it's possible to have a total of 8 battlewagons WITH deff rollas in under 1500 points!
• Invisible War Prophet: Probably the most douchbaggery thing you can do. Take Ghaszskull Thraka and a troop of Kommandos and give two kommandos burnas. This tactic works best against vehicle driven shooty lists like Tau and IG. Especially if they have troops near vehicles. Snikrot's tactic to come in from any board edge and bring his troop with him is quite nice. However if an HQ is with them, since ambush is not a universal special rule and because the very specific wording of ambush is, it is entirely possible to do so. So when they come in on the board edge. Lets say there is two troops of Tau on each side of a Hammer head near the back edge of your opponents board edge. The kommandos come out and flamer one of the troops and assault them. The Ghazskull thraka then comes after the hammer head and totals it from behind. the other squad cannot possible run away and dies next turn. Its not quite competitive but it can be if you roll lucky and your opponent does not know about this. I surprised an entire Ard boys semi finals along with the judges with this. Sorry son, no more assaulting after coming from a table's edge in 6th edition.
• Waaaghplane Air Force: Take two Weirdboys in your HQ section (and Gazzie in 2000+ games) and 3/6 dakkajets with fighta aces and 3 twin linked supashootas each. Every turn, reroll any psychic power result that isn't Waaagh, allowing you to double up your dakkajets' shooting for horrifying amounts of strength 6 dakka.
• What The Fuck Do I Shoot: Might not work as well with very experienced players, but may be hilariously effective at your FLGS (at least at mine it was). Take a biker group of a Warboss and 5 Nobs with a Painboy and all those other delicious upgrades. Also take three (yes, THREE) Battlewagons filled with Boyz and a Big Mek with KFF in one. Throw in at least one Dakkajet and 10+ Lootas for supporting fire and if you want, a very small IG attachment to bring along Lascannons and to hold back objectives. All of this is possible at 2000pts. Now, the fun part. Pay attention to your opponent's deployment and/or army list, and put your bikers at either the left or right flank, and the three Battlewagons on the other. When the game starts, run both up the board as fast as you can. You are giving your opponent two very scary and very hard to kill groups that are moving towards him at an alarming rate. Unless your opponent gets really lucky, at least one of your flanks will reach your opponent's deployment zone at roughly the same time as your Dakkajet(s). Call a WAAAGH! and watch the beautiful carnage you are about to create. Your Lootas and IG allies will, on average, take care of any threats headed towards your side of the table. BONUS POINTS: Ask your opponent, "Are you sure you want to do that?" after move or attack he makes, good or bad.
• Zog Yer Tank Git. Take a Battle Wagon, with a Deff Rolla, Wrecking Ball, and 4 Rokkit Launchers. Fill it with the Killiest Mob you can. 20 'ard Slugga Boyz, a pack of 10 Nobs, Meganobs, whatever, just make it killy. Then, Disembark when you're near an Enemy Vehicle. Afterwards, Ram the vehicle you want dead. This works, because vehicles can move Six Inches after a Disembark, and a Ram takes a minimum of Six Inches. Sorry mate, 6th Ed. rules make it so you can't Ram/Tank Shock after disembarking. Once you (Hopefully) pop it, charge whatever was inside the METAL BAWKS, and mop up. I've used this to destroy expensive units, like Deathwing Termis, and Abbadon and his Friends. This tatic can work, with a mob of Burnaboyz, by ramming the vehicle, then dumping 15 Burna templates on the squad that it was carrying, and if the vehicle explodes, you don't have to care, because of AV14.

Allies

Allies of Convenience: Tau, Necrons, Imperial Guard, Chaos Space Marines.

Desperate Allies: Dark Eldar, Eldar, Dark Angels, Grey Knights, Space Marines, Space Wolves, Chaos Daemons.

Come the Apocalypse: Black Templars, Sisters of Battle, Tyranids, Blood Angels.

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:

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: - Note: Railguns are no longer Str 10, your mileage may vary. Railguns are still Str 10. They just changed Broadsides from using Railguns to using a "Heavy Rail Rifle" which are Str 8, AP 1, and 60" range.

• HQ: Generic Battlesuit Commander. Keep him cheap. The mandatory HQ choice.

• Heavy Support: The XV-88 Broadside Battlesuit. Railguns, holy mother of fuck, railguns. Seriously, this guy right here fixes our entire codex singlehandedly. Take three. They might not be quite so helpful to a Speed Freek list, in which case take hammerheads.

• 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. Other wise outflank to control space.

Green Imperial Tide:

• HQ: Lord Comissar (either power weapon/fist or Gunslinger Plasma/Bolt Pistols)
• Troops: Captain Al Rahiem and an Infantry Platoon. Load out as desired, using Comissars to improve leadership. Al Raheim outflanks the eniter platoon putting a blob on your opponent's field. Appear and PUSH from two directions.

Necron Nightfighting:

• HQ: A Generic Overlord with Warscythe and possibly a ressurection 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 nightfighting. Yes, this means your giant fucking hordeblobs 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.
• Fast Attack: A fuckload of Canoptek Scarabs. Landraiders giving you asspain? Not anymore.

Invincible Boyz

• HQ: Deff Dreads Painboss - as an Ork Ally IC, he's a Battle Brother and can join any other Ork unit you can field. Stick him in a 30-strong group of Boyz that's under protection of a KFF, or 'Ard Boyz (or both for point-inefficient hilarity) and this basic mob becomes a threshing machine due to cover/armor saves and Feel No Pain. Since the Painboss is only there to provide FNP he can be stuck in the back of the mob with no upgrades, or he can be used as a great Nob replacement with a PK/BP. Also synergizes well if the Boyz blob is led with a Warboss in Mega Armor to soak up excess fire.

• Troops: Spanna Boyz might not be able to have more than 20 in a mob, but you can ALWAYS use more Boyz, and gives you a dirt-cheap Mek in the bargain. Taking the minimum amount makes then a great meat shield, objective holder or Trukk Mob, and having a Painboss lets you give them cybork bodies at 3 points a pop without needing him in the mob itself.
• Fast Attack: The Deff Dreads list lets you take Deffkoptas with buzzsaws that cost 10 points rather than the usual 25. Since you should only really be running koptas in units of single models, swap one out for an Allied model and get a few more Boyz or some cheap upgrades.

Sixth Seventh? Edition Rumors

Note: Orks are rumored for a June release, plenty of places are citing it. Also there are rumors that a new edition is going to drop in May either 6.5e or 7e, but its looking like the rumor mill is pointing at new number with errata and minor rules changes.

What they need:

• The ability to charge on a Waagggh! even if they have done something that normally prohibits charging (such as running, arriving from reserve)

What they may get:

• Staying the Same - Orks stay the same with furious charge and mob rules but all orks (not grots or squigs)

• New Racial Ability - get FnP 6+ as a race because they are basically tough and it takes a lot to kill and stop an ork.

• Conditional AP - Most weapons will stay the same except choppas are ap6 but gain ap5 on charge and big choppers will be +2S and ap4 and ap3 on charge.

• New Nob Upgrades - Nobz stay the same but are getting more characterful upgrades available to them, new kinds or grot assistants such as suicide grots (act a lot like bomb squigs but prone to blowing up in unit) and ammo runts and attack squigs also more weapon options like Big shootas and such.

• New Meganob Upgrades - new nob mega armour unit with teleporting abilities but its teleporting works differently from conventional deepstrike bit more random.

• New Mek/BigMek(?) Ability - There is a special mek character that can bestow teleportation on D3 units.

• New Bloodaxe Special Character - Special bloodaxe character with rules that can bring back boyz units once they are destroyed, much like an imperial guard special character.

• Clanz - Death Skulls, Blood Axes, Goffs, Evil Suns, Snakebites, and Bad Moons. Rumor did not go into specific, but we could possibly see Lootas, Kommandos, Nobs/Skarboys, Bikers, ???, and Flashgits.

• New Monsterous Creature - A large multi wound squiggoth type creature, not ForgeWorld, it is always hungry and uses a hunger points system. If it doesn't fulfill the hunger points with enemies it will rampage nearest unit friend or foe in order to eat. While not in the rumors, possibility for a Deff Knight is possible(albeit at 4% chance of happening).

• Psychic Power Tables - Two new ork psychic lists for weirdboys, Mork more offensive and Gork more strategic. Many powers in the lists get more powerful the more orks are around the weirdboy, although the more powerful they are the more dangerous they are if they are miscast as they will often misdirect or hit the weirdboy and unit.

• Fortifications - New Ork Only Fortifications (including an ork rock)

• Warlord Chart - Ork only warlord chart.

• Matt Ward - Rumours of Matt Ward writing them have begun to circulate as well. Though you aren't an upcoming 6th edition codex until he is rumored as your author.

• Flashgits - Their Snazz guns roll for random range each turn (12+3d6). On a triple 1 they overheat like Gets Hot. The unit may purchase upgrades like +1 BS, +1A, blast, rapid fire, skyfire, ans others, several are mutually exclusive.

• Boys - cheaper! (Why would they get cheaper with the addition of FnP?). Number of boys in a mob will affect more than just Mob Rule, a debunked rumor pointed at .

• Bomber boys - Essentially bomb squig squad but the boys are the bombs. Note: This rumor has been criticized by another source.

• "Da Crew" - An HQ unit of even bigger Nobs. They have odd LoS modifications, One Nob must be nominated as "Da Boss", and if Da Boss is killed, one of Da Crew is promoted. This interacts in some new way with "Kill the Warlord" victory conditions, and is effectively an entire "warlord unit".

• Meks - Look for ability to field an increased number of Deffdreads and Kanns than currently.

• Stormboyz - Gain a "Rocket boost" attack that can target flyers. They must move 18” and if they pass a flyer they each get 2 attacks on it as if assaulting a vehicle. Move as infantry during their next turn. Looks like the designers played a lot of THQ's Space Marine! Stormboyz will also may become troops or another part of the Force Org as per Clanz being implemented

into the rules again.

• Mek Tank – Sporting a giant Shokk Attack Gun, firing Bomb Squigs. Tank can purchase a KFF.

• Deff Dred - 50pts, armor 11/11/10, S6, A4, extra attacks on charge, and a random table for failing a charge which would either explode or immobilize the Kan if it failed. Note: This rumor has been criticized by another source, but rumors are rumors. Considering this would make Deff Dreds unfieldable for an already rarely seen model most likely a fake rumor.

• Buggys / Trakks - May tank shock if they are upgraded with spiked plates/wheels.

• "Grot Boss" - Grot HQ with a stateline of a Ork Boy, but higher BS. Equipped with a nice kustom-mega-shoota as an option. Can also get a Buggy or take a Killa-kan as a transport/upgrade

• Gretchin Weirdling - grot psyker. Lvl1. Upgrade to lvl 2. Access to divination, gork, and mork lists

• Gretchin - can take control collars no ork herder like in ork list. 5-20 unit. Cheaper than ork codex gretchin by a pt. Can take whirlybird or looted wagon as dt

• Grot Whirlybird - Rotored transport: Capacity 20 Grots. They get dumped on the battlefield roughly from the Whirlybird taking a mandatory DT test, and cause mayhem if they fall atop another unit.
  • Whirlybird – looks like a Huey hit with ork hammer, bomb doors underneath to drop gretchin.

• Grots Buggys - Similar to Nob Bikers, but are buggies with Grots on the back and Orks behind the wheel! Drive-by attacks. Highly likely this will be an "alternate unit" for a buggy combo-unit box.

• Killa Kan change - Killa kans in elite.

• Killa Kan debunked - Rumor was that their BS was going to fall to BS2, their armor would be 10 all around. 30pts, an extra attack on a charge because of "stomp & squish", and a random table for failing a charge which would either explode or immobilize the Kan if it failed. Note: This rumor has been criticized by another source, but rumors are rumors.

• Big Guns – control collar option again, the ones from ork codex, plus a flakk gun with skyfire

• Grot scootas - rocket propelled skateboarders? Squad of 5-10. Hvy bolter profile weapon.

• Grot buggies - drive by assault 8 grot blastas

Grot rocket - single shot rocket with large range and big blast.

• Squig runts - sounds like 40k equivalent of squig hoppers

Supplements

• Goffs Codex Supplement - Most likely not going to be a full Goffs supplement, instead focusing on Ghaz's boyz from the Armageddon wars. If true expect Nobs as troops and Skar Boyz as elites, though this is conjecture from what happened with Farsight's codex.

• Blood Axes Supplement - Kommandos as troop choices, and allies with Imperial Guard is likely(probably Battle Brothers).

• Kult of Speed - Most likely bikes as troop choices. Maybe some additional red paint job rule shenanigans.

• Freebooterz Codex Supplement - With the Tau getting a Fire Enclave supplement and the Eldar getting a craftworld Iyaden one, it seems that faction-oriented rules aren't just for the beakie boyz anymore. Thus, it is not entirely out of the realm of possibility that a Freebooters codex supplement could be released shortly after the new ork one, a callback to the old rogue trader book of the same name in a way. such things could have a "Kaptin" HQ, being a warboss with more shootier upgrades, like a twin-linked snazzgun or some new kind of shooty wargear like a targeting squig, the long-requested Madboy rules, Flash Gitz (hopefully improved ones) as troops if taken with a kaptin, and mabye even some new special characters mentioned in old fluff like "kaptin blacksquig", or, if we get really lucky, "Kaptin Bluddflagg"!

Other Articles

• Dreadnaught List

<tabs> <tab name="10th">

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

</tab>

<tab name="9th">

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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<tab name="8th">

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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<tab name="6th">

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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<tab name="All">

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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