Fight like a Ork, 'cuz Ork like a Fight!

A long time ago, though the galaxy was perhaps not so far away, I decided that I would do a number of Tacticas. That is, a series of tactics articles, each devoted to a specific army in 40k. That plan fell by the wayside due to a number of concerns and I had largely forgotten about it. Generally, when I've written tactics articles, I've made them somewhat generic, to keep people from saying, "Well, I don't play Tyranids, how can this article about them help me?" While I still feel that this is a good way to write tactical advice, I feel that something is still missing from those, and I plan to rectify that with this series. Each of these articles will be devoted to a specific army, using it's strengths and weaknesses and specific examples. Tacticas such as these are more easily understood by those that play or play against the specific army. They can also provide insights for similar armies or similar situations, but, as they must be "translated" from one army to another, it makes gleaning the information from them much harder. That all said, let me introduce the army that needs no introduction...Orks!

'Ere We Go!!!

Many tacticas focus on explaining the details of every unit available to you, but don't give you much in the way of advice on how to use the units effectively or how to use them together to shatter the enemy. I will discuss just a few units, the best ones, in my opinion. This doesn't mean that the other ones aren't useful, just that you should focus on these initially, then you can always experiment with the other ones later. Many tacticas also suggest various tricks and loopholes and fancy things that you can do with your army, if you've got a particular combination of units and wargear and the like. The only problem with this, is that not all of these are actually realistic, even in the exact circumstances they are supposed to work in, and without those specific circumstances, you've just paid a lot of points for a combination that may be useless. I will be sticking to smashmouth tactics. I'll detail smashmouth tactics later in another article, but it's very basic, simple stuff, essentially lining up and smashing the enemy army right in the mouth, no fancy tricks.

The Boyz

The Slugga Boy is the best bet you've got as an Ork player. T4, S3 and a choppa that limits armor saves to a 4+. Oh, did I mention 4 attacks on the charge? Did I mention that a successful Waagh! Test lets them be I4 as well? Slugga boyz are also inexpensive, take lots of them. Let me restate that for emphasis: take lots of them! The more boyz you have in the mob, the better chance that they'll make their Waagh tests when they need to, which will make them much more effective. Slugga Boyz also have some options in their mobz. Slugga Boyz can take Nobz, which are bigger, badder Orks, and you can give them wargear. They have 2 Wounds and are I3, meaning that when they pass a waagh test, they can be I6 on the Charge. They can do quite well with just a choppa, and can be very effective with a Power Claw as Well. On the other hand, the points start adding up and it might be more useful to have a few more Slugga boyz instead. You may want to take them, just keep in mind how many Slugga boyz you are giving up for that Nob. The tradeoff may or may not be worth it. Slugga Boyz can also take Weapon Upgrades. Rokkit Launchas can be useful for anti-vehicle work. Burnaz can also be quite good, both for washing the enemy with flames and for ripping apart power armor. The Big Shootas, I'd leave at home. Remember, every Nob or weapon upgrade you take means fewer boyz in the mob.

The Other Orks

Burna Boyz are quite handy as well. Think of them as Slugga Boyz with power weapons and flamers! They are more expensive, however, so you should use them as your shock assault troops to spearhead a combat against the toughest part of the enemy line, with your Slugga boyz as your main power.

The Warboss: Power Claw is good. (S10 is a very nice thing under some circumstances!) A choppa lets him use his good initiative (you did have him join a large mob of Boyz so he can Waagh!, right?) He will likely be fighting enemy characters, which means power weapons, so an invulnerable save would probably be more useful than a normal save.

Screens

Slugga Boyz are great for Ork armies. Boyz are slow, however, so they will likely die on the walk to the fight unless you do something to prevent that from happening. Screens are what you keep between your boyz and the enemy, to keep the boyz alive. There are several kinds of screen.

Grot Screen: Slow, Cheap, they get shot so your boyz don't have to. On the other hand, this can be the least effective kind of screen, and it means that you will have a lot more models on the board, as Grots are cheap.

Fast Assault Screen: Fast moving units that can assault the enemy front line units quickly, allowing them to be tied up so that other enemy units cannot shoot past the combat. Trukk Boyz, Warbikes, Stormboyz are all examples of these. The fast assault screen will likely die in the first several turns, but they only need to live long enough to get the bulk of your boyz into contact with the enemy.

Vehicle Screen: Cheap, Fast vehicles with little or no upgrades. Move up 24 inches in the first turn, then turn sideways to block as much Line Of Sight as possible. Remember that destroyed vehicles are only removed from the table on an Ordnance Penetrating roll of 6, so your vehicles are, effectively, terrain. A word of warning here. Some groups count vehicles as cover and difficult terrain, whereas most groups count them as impassable terrain that blocks LOS. Make sure that you know how it is treated. If it counts as impassable terrain, you'll need to leave a few spots where you can actually get through to assault the enemy, keeping in mind that they'll be able to shoot you through these holes, but the fire will be pretty limited.

Other Stuff You Will Want

Mobility: In most games, you will need to claim an objective of some sort. Most of the Ork army moves at a speed of 6" per turn. If you want to be able to claim those objectives, or just react to a changing battlefield (My right side assault is going really smoothly, but the left side is collapsing, I need reinforcements!) you'll need some mobility. The same units that can give you fast screens (Vehicles or Fast Assault screens) can give you that mobility, just make sure you still have enough for your screen.

Anti-Vehicle stuff: Quite simply, your army needs to have something to pop open vehicles. Sure, Dreadnoughts and Warbosses or Nobz with Power Claws can do this, as can Tankbustaz and the like, but relying on hand to hand attacks to take out vehicles can be a bad situation if your opponent moves his vehicles quickly or has a lot of skimmers. I've found time and again that my Tyranids need ranged weapons to take out vehicles more reliably, and it is also true for Orks. Zzap guns are great at this, and Rokkit Launchas, either in your squads or on vehicles can be quite handy as well.

Putting it all together

So, now you have an army that consists primarily of large mobz of Slugga Boyz, perhaps with some Nobz and Rokkit Launchaz, but mostly lots of Boyz. You might also have a mob of Burna Boyz somewhere to spearhead your toughest assaults, giving you that extra punch where you need it. Your Warboss probably has both a Choppa and a Power Claw, so he can pick which one would work best in each combat. He also has something to give him an invulnerable save, and is part of a big mob of Slugga boyz. Somewhere in your lines, you might have a couple of Zzap gunz to take out enemy vehicles, unless you've given most of your mobz Rokkit Launchaz to accomplish the same thing. Finally, in front of your mobz, you've got some sort of screen to keep your boyz from dying too soon. This could be Wartraks and Warbuggies to zip up 24" then turn sideways and block LOS, it could be Trukk boyz that drive up quick and jump into assault, or it could be Warbikes or Stormboyz, using their fast movement to get into assault quickly and tie up the enemy front lines. There are two things to remember here. One is that you will have a very large army, but try to resist the temptation to take on the entire enemy army at once. Pick one side and smash it first, then you can work on the other side. The other thing to remember is to have fun. Orks are a fun army, and if a bunch of them die, more of them will grow from the fungus back home, so just laugh when your enemy shoots a bunch of them, take them off the back of the mob and let out a great big, "WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!!"

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