Number 1 ranked Ork player in the ITC, Mason Moore brings us the tactics he uses: Orks for me have always been my “fun army” but never the one I had ever thought of as a tournament winning army…until recently! Check the Tactics Corner for more great tournament report!
I started playing competitively in tournaments about a year ago. Having my own paint service (Hobby hawk studio) has awarded me a lot of time in my local game store to go over lists/strategies. After the current ork codex came out all I heard was “bah Orks are just so-so” or “Orks are not a good army, now” I took it as a personal mission to prove those statements wrong, and when I came back home to Washington state I met Chuck Arnett at Mugu games, who felt exactly the same way I did. It took some polishing with a lot of advice from fellow Mugu Legion members, but I think I finally have the secret sauce.
Here is my list of tournament placings/history looks like so far this ITC season
- *Best overall @ harvester of souls/Spokane Washington
- *1st place local 22 player RTT @ Mugu games Everett ,Washington
- *1st Place local 16 player RTT @Bluesky hobbies, Bremerton WA
- *Best overall @ Da Momas Boyz Brawl, Pulman WA
- *2nd place (undefeated) 60 players@ TSHFT Bellevue, WA.
I’m finding the list to be very enjoyable in the current meta, being highly mobile and hard hitting with a strong back line. The longest part of games for me is setup, but after that I find myself and my opponents having a good time playing the game. Playing orks you always expect casualties, don’t sweat the small stuff, as a matter of fact don’t sweat the major swings either, a lot of the games I’ve won this season came down to the last turn of the game when I may have only a few models left on the table. Keeping your eye on the objectives is what will get you wins. MY WAAAAGHGGHS are always loud and proud-I defenitely contribute my success to that 😀
EREz Whotz I RUnz
Combined arms detachment-Primary detatchment
HQ
Warboss Zhadsnark [150 pts]
Warboss “Goremeck” (Luckystick, Powerclaw, Bosspole, Warbike )[140 pts]
Troops
Warbikers x(13) (Nob/Power claw/Bosspole)[274 pts]
Boyz x(10) (nob/Powerclaw/Bosspole/Trukk with rokkit launcher/Reinforced ram)[140pts]
Boyz x(10) (nob/Powerclaw/Bosspole/Trukk with rokkit launcher/Reinforced ram)[140pts]
Fast
Deffkopta x(1) (twin linked rokkit L.) [30 pts]
Deffkopta x(1) (twin linked rokkit L.) [30 pts]
Deffkopta x(1) (twin linked rokkit L.) [30 pts]
Heavy
Lootas x(5)[70 pts]
Lootas x(5)[70 pts]
Combined arms detachment-Secondary
(no force org)
Mek (Rokkit L) [20pts]
HQ
Big mek(warbike/Bosspole/Kustom Force field/Killsaw)[145pts]
Painboy(warbike/grot orderly x1)[80pts]
Elites
Tankbustas x(7)[91 pts]
Troops
Gretchin x(10) runtherd x(1)[35pts]
Gretchin x(10) runtherd x(1)[35pts]
Fast
Deffkopta x(1) (twin linked rokkit L.) [30 pts]
Deffkopta x(1) (twin linked rokkit L.) [30 pts]
Heavy
Lootas x(5)[70 pts]
Lootas x(5)[70 pts]
Gun Wagon(FW) (lobba) [70pts]
Fortification
Void shield generator x(3) shields [100pts]
Total [1850 pts]
Deployment
This army is great for being reactive if it needs be, or being the main driving force behind every one of your opponent’s decisions. If you rolled night fight you can confidently feel safe taking 2nd turn (even against an alpha strike army). Depending on what you’re playing against you can bubble wrap your entire army around the void shield generator with enough bodies to make sure your opponent can’t get within 12 inches of the generator to really hurt you. And if they do manage to kill the void shields you’ll still have a 2+ cover save on the biker blob. If your opponent is ignoring cover saves you’ll still at worst be getting 5+ invul saves with FNP (feel no pain). Another thing to think about is if you don’t roll night fight and have to go first you’ll probably want to get as close to your deployment line with everything you have and scout/turbo boost right in front of your opponent turn one with your entire army (depending on what your playing against) it automatically puts your opponent on the back foot and makes him have to react to you.
ITC Missions
Each of the ITC missions has one thing in common: the player that controls the objectives will win the game. This Ork list achieves this by pushing its opponents into as small of a place as possible with the biker blob and then spreading out Boyz, Trukks and Deffkopta squads, commonly double or triple covering an objective.
Depending on how the biker blob is doing it can also split up and send its characters out to hold objectives at the end of the game as well. Or even annihilating a unit themselves.
Army weaknesses
Horde armies and/or super resilient armies. The blob itself doesn’t have hit and run so it can get bogged down especially against fearless units that may not kill the blob but keep it locked in a spot and not running around causing pressure. Against these you’ll actually wanna rely on your shooting to weaken those units before they get into melee with you.
Flyers and Flying monstrous creatures can cause you some headaches but thats a job for LOOTAZ 😀
generally if you focus down one at a time or just make flyers jink then you can mitigate their damage.
General gameplay
Use your single man deffkoptas to harass/grab objectives/eat overwatch/kill light armor tanks
Pressure the biker blob in your opponents face to keep them from moving up the table and or killing most other deathstars/big monsters/Gargantuan/Super heavies.
Lootaz utilize these against small units against the board edges (especially eldar jetbikes/tau units ect.) They will usually cause enough damage here and there to make your opponent take moral checks and if they can make a few units fall off the table your points will often be well spent killing units that cost 2-3x their own.
Tankbustas are great at dealing with the big problems. I use them as backup for the biker blob often taking on gargantuan/superheavies with melta bombs and coming out on top- they’re also a great answer for any vehicle (even flyers) with tank hunters they cause at least 2-3 hull points on average.
Void shield I actually use this as bait against alpha strike armies to bring the enemy in close to try and kill the generator itself then charge them in return with the boys/bikers and even tankbustas, getting into melee turn 1-2
Gretchin (my mvps a lot of the games) very often you’ll find them wandering up the table being ignored or sitting on an objective. Simply because they’re not worth shooting at… I find that if my enemy is shooting my (35pt) gretchin units or (30pt) deffkoptas usually they’re doing it with units that cost 3-4x their own worth (which in my book is a win). Which in turn keeps pressure off the boyz/bikers.
Meta changes
As we all know there’s a new tau codex, I will be tweaking my list slightly and losing one deffkopta and taking the 2nd cad from waggh ghazgul to have the deepstrike option and the Mega Force field (4+ invul save). Hopefully this will be enough to deal with having no cover saves…..ever.
Warboss Madmace (aka Mason )
Hobbyhawkstudios.com
WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGhhhhHHHHHH!!!!!!!!
Thanks for posting your list, Reece. I’ve been considering pulling my Deffkoptas out of mothballs for the reasons you mention. We also play Maelstrom equivalents in every game and I think they’d be great for that purpose. Do you put the Tankbustas in the Gunwagon?
I mean, Mason. LOL
Yup tank busts in the gunwagon usually see them live long enough to make an impact.
Solo Deffkoptas is how Orks win Games. They are so good at that. I love my Deffkoptas, and every Ork list I run depends on them to win me the game.
Personally with this list, I think 2 groups of Lootas could be swapped for a unit of 5 Lobbas. They are so useful.
Unfortunately, you are not allowed to take units of Mek Gunz with Zaggstruck- it’s basically his only disadvantage.
Good point. I think with this list’s mobility, the lobbas are less important anyways. But I agree, they are great.
I was thinking ITC ruled the other way on that. Since the restriction is on “Big Gunz” instead of “Mek Gunz”.
I’m not 100% positive, but I thought they had ruled the same way on that they had on stuff like the Marine requirement to take a “Master of the Forge” or “Reclusiarch” for the Relic of the Armory rule- the names of such units have shifted slightly, but it’s still obvious which ones they are referring to.
As I said, could be wrong, though.
solo spawn are similarly great for CSM.
awesome list.. I think this is one of the best ways to run orks.
whoa whoa whoa what about Reece’s Orks??
Mason’s list shares a lot of similarities to mine, actually.
Probably wise to run the koptas independently. I do it rarely, but I think I will give it a shot.
I like your list overall. What’s the mek for? Gunwagoning with the tankbustas?
Also, do you feel like your mob needs to be 12 or could it be smaller?
Good job bro!!!!
Been a blast throwing my bugs against you and Chuck’s Orks. Our game in Bremerton sold me on the VSG.
Stoked to have finally made the team. See you on the 5th I’m sure.
Mugu legion, the land of the ork… It’s fun having to build armies with the idea that I will have to kill an ork army in order to win any events up here…. Silly greenskins
Congrats on your performance. I am happy someone is winning with Orks. Here on the East Coast (Ohio actually), people avoid the ITC and play a lot of the rules as written. I actually took Orks to a local tournament this past weekend and went 0-3. I had to concede 2 of the games before getting tabled with my Green Tide; the tabling was inevitable vs Tau or Eldar builds. I have shelved my Orks cause I am tired of playing the game on super hard mode. i have played the Orks in every edition since second and I am done with them until they get a new book or some sort of update.
With the new Tau book in place…how do you see this build performing?
So, why have to droped most of the tankbusta units for lootas? better against flyers, truks/mob rule killing too many of the tank bustas?
VSG is a no-no here so I guess this build doesn’t fly.
“here” as in his list is illegal or “here” as in where you play?
He means in Sweden, where he plays.
It’s funny how Europe considers the Void Shield to be game-breakingly powerful, but 2+ rerolls are totally kosher.
I know, the differences in perspective are interesting. Casting multiple iterations of the same psychic power from the same unit is cool…but Imperial Knights are not? Just really illustrates how these things depend on your local meta as much as anything else.
“My fun army” AND he wins with it! I don’t spend much time at tournies these days but orks have always been my fun army despite all the nay sayers. You have to build with a funny bone but think with ded ‘ard kunnin’. Great list and I plan to have some fun with it (or something like it) very soon. Thanks for the article!
Would you please explain how the KFF interacts with the Void Shields.
It pretty much doesn’t? The Projected Void Shield is not a model (nor a unit) and cannot benefit from an invulnerable save. The Generator itself (i.e. the building model) could do so, but that typically would only be applicable after all of the Projected Shields had already been dropped.
That would be my thought too. Thanks for the reply; however I was hoping the author would answer the question.
I gotta get up to Mugu or get you guys to come down for WarPorch. Well done fellow Ork player!
I think I need to scratch build a VSG!
i just don’t find VSG is that useful for his army
I would tend to agree- the VSG is most useful for either armies that are critically weak to Grav and/or those that want to hold back in a more defensive pose, neither of which really apply to Orks. I think those 100pts would be better spent taking some more threats.
Ork Bikes and Vehicles get WRECKED by Grav though, that’s the problem. If you play Ork infantry, totally agree, you don’t need it so much. I think in that case it is more for defense from things like Wyverns and templates and such.
I am just speaking more from personal experience, maybe only to Mason and Fluger. ps. I did play against Mason at Harvest. I just find Mason can better spend that 100 pts somewhere else. Knowing Fluger, i think it is the same case for him also.
Fair enough.
Interesting. I’m spending points on the WoM Bunker, so I was thinking of switching it up.
I think WoM is more useful in your case.
With Ignores Cover is can kill Bikers, sure, but any kind of Ignores Cover weapon will shred that bike squad- they rely HEAVILY on their cover save. Ork vehicles are no more vulnerable to grav than any vehicle is, and more resistant than most in the sense that it means their Open-Topped nature is irrelevant and their relative cheapness is an advantage.
The VSG is great when it can protect you from Wyverns/etc, but typically you lose the shields in the first turn, so they get to bomb you anyways.
I love orks! Play them in the right mind set and wreck your opponents!
Orks have the advantage of faring well in a meta of ceturionstars and melee deathstars. They become very rock, paper, scissors (as all of 40k is becoming I’m sad to say).
I really do like the single deffkopta angle though. Nicely done. I remember facing this at LVO last year. Unfortunately… it was on relic mission vs a damn green tide list so the deffkoptas really didn’t matter as this mission played so perfectly into my opponent’s list. I could, however, see the huge utility. I love the underdog army. Keep it up!!!
I had some luck in a tourney here in Ohio running Snikrot’s formation with a smaller mob of bikes and Mogrok’s formation (for outflank) in the same list an ending up with 4 units of 10 grots. It was very effective against Marine lists (snuffed a DA list with a knight and a space wolf army) but it was crushed against Eldar, he was using a battle focus army and not biker spam. I do like the void shield generator idea though although defensive is not usually an ork game plan but nowadays guerilla warfare seems to be the only way orks win.
Hey there,
Just came from a tournament with a very similar list. So similar it’s scary :O There was no forgeworld stuff allowed so no zhadsnark, sadly. But here is what I had:
1850 on the nose:
Primary CAD (whaagh ghazkull)
HQ1: Warboss, big bosspole, bike, powerklaw
HQ2: Big Mek, mega forcefield, bike, killsaw
TP1: 10x gretchins, runtherd
TP2: 10x gretchins, runtherd
FA1: deffkopta, tw rokkitl
FA2: deffkopta, tw rokkit
FA3: deffkopta tw rokkit
HS1:5x lootas
HS2:5x lootas
Secondary CAD (codex orks)
HQ1: warboss, bike, Lucky stick, powerklaw
HQ2: painboy, bike
EL1: tankbustas, trukk /w reinforced ram
TP1: 11 boyz, nob /w PK&bosspole, trukk /w reinforced ram
TP2: 11 boyz, nob /w PK&bosspole, trukk /w reinforced ram
FA1: deffkopta, tw rokkit
FA2: deffkopta, tw rokkit
HS1: 5x lootas
HS2: 5x lobbas, 5x ammo runt
Fortification Detachment:
void shield generator
2x extra shield
So this army is basicly MSU orks. It sits on objectives while it pressures the opponents army with the bikerblob. Works just like mason moore’s list in every aspect with a few key differences. Instead of zhadsnark sadly no OBS bikers, but instead a warboss that makes them fearless which is crucial. Without fearless the blob gets broken and overrun very easily. Mason’s list had a warboss with Lucky stick, which I would swap out for the big bosspole everytime.The big mek has the 4++ forcefield which provides crucial protection vs heavy shooting that ignores cover.
Considering this was my first real tournament in a long long time I did pretty well. I ended up 8th out of 17. If I had scored all my painting points I would have made 6th. First game was vs nasty eldar bike list with 2 wraitknights. My opponent rolled invisibily two times, which my army does nothing against. I pushed him back into a corner with the biker blob and was able to fend off 2 invisible wraithknights for 2 turns. On the fourth turn the Knights destroyed the blob and the bikes moved further upfield to take objectives. Not a total loss tho 7-14 for Eldar. Second game was versus Necrons and KDK. He had no real answer to my bikerblob and had terrible luck with his dice. I pretty much controlled the game although he beat me in Maelstrom because of hardy necron units camping objectives. Final score 16-4 for me. Third and last game was versus MSU Space marines with Gladius strike force. Mission was 3 relics and killpoints. He had a nasty first strike, were it not for the fact I had first turn, grabbed all 3 objectives and spread around my void shield generator so he couldn’t land within 12”. All that grav and flamers stuff does nothing against voidshields. He did eventualy win killpoints by one, but I had 2 out of 3 relics which won me the game with a total score of 11-9.
Very pleased with this result, knowing I fought some nasty lists against smart players. With forgeworld allowed this list would be better. The shield generator works wonders if you deploy it smartly and the bikerblob is scary (opponents were more scared of it than necesary though, which suited me fine). I think i would do better next time now I know better what my army is capable off and what not. I played progressively faster each game as I learned about it as I went. I definetaly feel I am a stronger player now.
Hey, so ive been running an ork list just like this. WTF do you do against wraithknights? They seem to be able to take out the whole list single handed, even when i just try to stay away from them.