Hey everyone, Reecius here from Frontline Gaming to discuss the new Ork Great WAAAGH!-Band detachment after having played it. Be sure to check out our Tactics Corner for more great articles!
The Orks got some love from GW in the updated WAAGH! Ghazghkull supplement. In addition to some new formations, they got a brand spankin new “Decurion” style detachment. These are all the rage in 7th ed, and I must admit, I am a big fan of them as in general, they provide an effective and characterful way to play a faction. So, when I saw that the Orks got one I was pretty pumped as my Greenskins are certainly one of my favorite armies to play and they definitely need all the help they can get! And caveat, this was our first play through so please forgive any rules gaffs.
Some Decurion style detachments are amazingly good, good to the point where you rarely see their corresponding army played any other way such as with the namesake Necron Decurion. Others though, are not so hot such as the unfortunately bloated Astra Militarum Cadian Battle Group, and are rarely ever seen.
Where does the Ork version fall in that spectrum? At first glance I got really excited for this. Their command benefit is the ability to call a WAAGH every turn, including the first! Wow, that is great! It makes Orks incredibly fast which is awesome, and with transports, if your opponent deploys poorly, you can snag a first turn charge or two. While that will only happen rarely and almost never twice with the same opponent, it is quite good. Better though, is how reliable it makes Orks at getting into the thick of things when they want to. For an assault army of largely very fragile models, that is really useful.
However, morale is the real Achilles’ Heel of the Ork army. Mob Rule hurts as much as it helps and what keeps the poor Orks from being truly competitive is their proclivity for failing morale checks at the wrong time.
The solution to this presented itself in the Great WAAGH!-Band with the possibility of getting Ghaz in there and making him the Warlord which grants the army Fearless when he calls his WAAGH! Amazing, right?! You bet…but there’s a catch. To get Ghaz, you have to the the Council of WAAGH! formation (unless I have missed a way to get him, otherwise which if so, please correct my mistake in the comments section!) as a command section, which is a REALLY expensive formation. 600pts with no upgrades at all, and it dictates how you play Ghaz as he must be in that unit and cannot leave. So, you’re stuck with a psuedo Deathstar, even if you don’t like playing that way, and an expensive one, too. With just some basic upgrades and a mandatory transport vehicle, you’re looking at an 800pt investment. Ouch. Luckily though, you can take a Battlewagon as the mandatory Auxiliary section to complete the detachment, which helps a bit.
Add to this the pricey Core choices and your army has no room for anything else in it. So, if you want to go this route, your army pretty much writes itself, as you have no room for much customization in an army at 1850pts or less.
All that said, it does give you a fun army. I love running Speed Freak style Trukk Boyz and you can certainly do that in this army. Here’s the list that I took:
Orks 1850 Pts
WAAGH!-Band
Warboss Big Choppa, Eavy Armor 1
Mek – 1
Grots – 11
Boyz Nob, Klaw 10
Trukk Ram 1
Boyz Nob, Klaw 10
Trukk Ram 1
Boyz Nob, Klaw 10
Trukk Ram 1
Boyz Nob, Klaw 10
Trukk Ram 1
Boyz Nob, Klaw 10
Trukk Ram 1
Boyz Nob, Klaw 10
Trukk Ram 1
Mega Nobz – 3
Trukk Ram 1
Mek Stuff
Battlewagon Ram, Boarding Plank 1
Council of WAAGH!
Ghaz – 1
Mad Dok – 1
Big Mek KFF, Eavy Armor 1
Warboss Big Choppa, Eavy Armor 1
Warboss Big Choppa, Eavy Armor 1
Nobs – 3
Totals 92
My opponent played a very solid White Scars Battle Company (are there any other Chapters out there this edition?! lol). Tons of transports, ObSec (which the Ork list lacks, unfortunately), multiple turns of rerolls to hit, mobility and firepower. Oh yeah, and army wide Hit and Run…brutal! Now those are some serious detachment benefits, haha.
I got first turn and set up on the line, going hell-bent for leather! My opponent also deployed aggressively, looking to possibly seize on me and ensure that his Grav weapons were in range to strike as my potential assault range was actually greater than his shooting range! He wisely deployed his Scouts in a line at midfield to gum up my plans for first turn charges.
The game was brutal, right from the start! I managed to shoot the gaps between some Scouts and get into melee top of turn 1 with some Boyz, popping transports and taking out a number of units. Battle Company struck back though and those twin linked Bolters were MURDER on the poor Orks. I lost more than half my Boyz bottom of turn 1! lol.
The game was just savage thereafter, with both armies creaming each other. I have to say, being Fearless every turn was absolutely game changing for the Orks. Exploding Trukks causing pin checks, avoiding Mob Rule, not getting run down in melee, etc. all helped tremendously to keep my Boyz in the fight. Being able to run and charge every turn also made my Boyz lethal to a huge chunk of the table.
While I would prefer not to take Ghaz in a big unit of characters as you do in the Council of WAAGH, I must say, they hit like a brick shit-house. They walked through unit after MSU Marine unit and collapsed a Space Marine flank almost by themselves. They barely survived the fight, but I must say that that is a powerful unit (as it should be for the points) but, wouldn’t cut the mustard against a true deathstar. While Ghaz goes 2++ for pretty much the entire game (only being vulnerable top of turn 1 if you go second as he hasn’t called WAAAGH! yet), he doesn’t serve as the super tank we’d all love him to be as he must issue and accept any challenges. And I mean he, Ghaz, must do so; no throwing in a Nob to take his place. Le Sigh. What this means is a smart player challenges Ghaz out of the way with a chump character, and then murders the rest of the Boyz in the unit who are sadly invulnerable save lacking.
In this game though, they wrecked face. Even cheapo Warbosses with just a Big Choppa are no joke, and can do a lot of damage. Against opponents who lack an uber melee unit, you will do just fine with these lads and in most games, I would bet they are the MVP.
As the game wound down, the problem of Battle Company having just too many ObSec units reared its ugly head and my opponent got me in the end. However, it was very close and had it gone one more round, all I had to do was take out an Attack Bike to likely win! Orks vs. White Scars Battle Company is a rough game, one I really struggle with and this felt like an uphill battle, but a winnable one. That is cool, and really helps out the Poor Orks who often feel like they only have one or two good builds.
The downside to this army though, is that it struggles with armor. You have pretty much no ranged weapons to crack transports. While Klaws certainly do the trick, you have to get out of your Trukks to use them (I miss you old Boarding Planks and Deff Rollas!). That means that while yes, you do pop the tank in most cases, you then get shot to ribbons right after! Tankbustas are the gem of the Ork dex and if you could sub them in for some of the units of Boyz in the core formation, you’d have yourself a stew, baby!
The other issue is things like Wraithknights and Imperial Knights. A single Nob in a unit of Boyz isn’t going to get it done and Ghaz’ unit can only be in so many places at once. Again, Tankbusta Boyz are the answer here as they wreck MCs and Vehicles, but, you simply can’t fit them in the detachment as the Core and Ghaz eat up all the points. If you had old style Deff Rollas you’d be able to handle a lot of these things, but alas, you do not.
If you had access to Ghaz in a detachment other than the Council of WAAGH!, as an upgrade to the Warboss in the Core formation, or just by himself as a command choice, it would make all the difference in the world (and again, if you can and I missed it, please don’t be shy about sharing your knowledge!). You’d then have the points for a few other choices (Tankbustas!) to really round the army out and give it the tools it needs.
The fact that the core choice has pretty much the exact same benefits as the Decurion is pretty disappointing. I think GW missed an opportunity to bump this Decurion just a little further into the realm of really competitive that it needed. WS5 on the Boyz for example, would have been incredible, or free Trukks, to get just that one or two extra units the list needs (Tankbustas!!) to make it well rounded.
As is, it is certainly good and certainly MUCH better than running Trukk Boyz in a CAD. While ObSec is awesome, WAAGH! every turn and Fearless are simply amazing for Orks. And while it may fall shy of top tier, or most efficient Ork build status, it is not at all bad. I feel that you could take that army out against most opponents and have not only a very good chance of victory, but a super fun game, too! This list will absolutely rock some armies, too, as the crazy speed and Fearlessness will simply be more than some lists will be able to handle.
Everyone loves playing Orks, and as stuff is blowing up and going nuts all over the table, it makes for a super fun game. You get the tools you need to be a real threat, but fall just short in a few too many categories to be a real heavyweight contender. For my money, I will certainly continue to experiment with it, but, when taking my Boyz to a tournament, it will still be Bikers and Tankbustas for me!
How are all of you enjoying the Great WAAGH!-Band detachment?
I don’t have the Ghaz supplement so forgive me if this question is way off base, but can’t you just take a CAD along with the Waaaagh! band to get Ghaz in? HQ, 2 troops, and LoW…. or do Ghaz’s rules prohibit this in some way. Seems like a much cheaper approach.
Oh, and “(are there any other Chapters out there this edition?! lol). ” SALAMANDERS! 🙂
You could do that, technically, yes, but because of the way the detachment is worded you wouldn’t then get the waaagh every turn benefit if you made Ghaz warlord. And you don’t get the buffed waaagh that grants fearless unless Ghaz is warlord. So it basically doesn’t work.
Well, there ya go. I figured there had to be a reason. Just silly
I salute you for playing salamanders, sir!
Ugh GW what are you doing to us poor Orks man… I can’t see how I would use this detachment in any real competetive scene. The only real reason I took the waaagh detachment from the previous supplement is because of the relics (mega forcefield and big bosspole). In my mind these relics were vital to a competetive ork list. Now, you are forced to take a bunch of stuff you don’t really want. It’s fun for a casual game, but I am initially very disapointed…
However! I am going to think long and hard about this and when I find a way to make this work I’ll be sure to write an article and let you know!
Write up a report after giving it a try! I’d love to see your thoughts.
Reecius, if you don’t mind me asking, what is the bike and tankbusta list you run? Everyone loves orks!
I’m betting it’s Zhadsnark and a load of bikes as troops meaning super fast obsec and 2 or 3 tankbusta mobs to take on Wraithknights etc
Nailed it 😛
No buzzgob?
No buzzgob? Also, if you are running MSU ObjSec warbikers, do you include nobs?
Reece’s most recent bat rep with that is found here:
https://frontlinegaming.org/2015/12/31/full-length-40k-battle-report-big-mech-stompa-in-the-house/
Great game by the way!
I sometimes run buzzgob. It helps to have the Stompa to deal with deathstars.
I’m very disappointed in this updated supplement. Mainly because it’s such a lazy effort put into it. It’s basically the same supplement with the formations from Red waagh, Hour of the wolf and Codex orks copy pasted into it. The new detachments gives you less options than the previous one and the Council of waagh almost seem mandatory to deal with the worse version of mob rule that’s in this book. You can’t even afford to upgrade the units as you seem fit. This Great waaagh band detachment seems to be suited better for games at 2500-3000 points.
Why not say that the core formations consists of 2-6 boyz or if you look at the Goff killmob 0-2 Deffdreds and 0-1 Gorkanaut. The secondary command choice is pretty awful as well as you can only take one extra HQ choice.
As it is now you either play Council of waagh + waaagh band or you don’t use this book at all. Unless you want to add Blitz brigade or Dakkajet skwadron alongside a CAD detachment. Maybe in a fun +2500p game you want to bring the Goff Killmob and a Dread mob for 3 Gorkanauts, 5 deff dreads and twelve killa kans.
Sorry for the rant. Need to control my frustrations. I’m happy that you did write an battle report! The most important part, did you have fun when you played the ork army this way? And do you think this kind of army can survive without any sort of shooty units in the long run?
I had blast! Orks are so fun to play. I did get demoralized when the battle company just pasted my orks with twin linked Bolters turn 1 & 2, but the army itself was fun. No real shooting stunk, though, I must admit. The Detachment is just a little too rigid.
The Decurion style detachments seem to be pushing more and more into large numbers of models, the Cadian, daemon, Ork, Space Wolf (to a lesser extent) ones all seem very high in model count and overall points. Could be just an attempt to push towards larger games to get people to expand their armies?
I like the Decurion style quite a bit, but hopefully that isn’t too much the case, Fantasy 8th surely shows that pushing for large games at the expense of small does not work at GW’s price range.
I’m quite sure it is, I imagine GW would very much like us to abandon 2k as the traditional upper limit for normal games of 40k. Sure, it would be bad for tournaments, but according to them we’re supposed to be forging narratives.
I am hoping we stay at 1850, because that list probably won’t work at lower 1650 or 1500.
I do appreciate that orks have a new way to build armies, but it is frustrating that we lost so many options in the process.
Yeah, this Detachment wouldn’t fit under 1850, it barely fits at 1850, lol
I played the same list concept at 1650 and had great success with it. You can’t get as many Klaws or Trukks but the core is the same and my results showed the Ghazstar just going up in value with the reduced threat from opposing armies. Against an artillery-heavy marine list I weathered the blasts thanks to fearless and once Ghaz made it to his lines it was a wash. He walked through everything almost alone; the other Klaws and Rampage from Grotsnik were so much Overkill it was nuts. I’d go so far as to say it’s better at a lower points level where opposing lists don’t have answers to every situation. The speed and aggression amplifies when your skew can really flip lists over faster than they can react
All that said, it was a blast to see a sea of green once again (reminded me of my 5th and 6th Ork lists), but if I’m paying money to play 40k the pointy ears in my army will be much more slender and fairer of skin.
Yeah, good points. For me though, I’d rather just stick with Bikes, Tankbustas in Trukks and maybe a Stompa, or some Mega Nobz. I feel that they function in the same way with more flexibility and hitting power, but, that’s just me.
Ghaz is a beast though, with these rules, I agree. I never got Ramage off due to playing vs. MSU, but yeah, when it kicks in it is absolutely savage!
Let’s be fair here- you can fit the Orkcurion in a 1000pt game in reality. _This specific build_, on the other hand, barely fits into 1850. Those are two very different things.
True,, lol, but a min detachment of Orks with no upgrades is pretty worthless, haha.
Sure, that’s just getting into the difference between “can I bring this army” and “should I bring this army.”
Having run big mobz of Orks for a while now, I really don’t hate Mob Rule like how Speed Freeks players seem to do, but, as I mentioned in the other thread, I think the way to run this is just spam MSU tank bustas in trukks.
At 1850 you can have 6 units of 10 boyz with nobz with no klaw but a boss pole, a Megaarmor Warboss with 3 Meganobz in a trukk, the gretchin on foot, and then 8 units of 5 tankbustas in trukks (all trucks with reinforced rams).
It’s not a game changer for the meta, but that’s a pretty savage alpha strike potentially with 40 rokkits with Tank Hunter (albeit BS2) giving you a good chance of opening up some vehicles. Those rokkits have a legit chance of one-shotting a knight (they should scrape off 3-4 HPs in one volley assuming the knight has a 4++) especially since you can maybe play the angles and not have to get through a shield. And then you can assault with tons of melta bombs if needed.
If you could fit some mobs of foot orks I bet it would be good. That is what it feels like it was written for, honestly, and fits the Goff fluff. But, you’d need a lot of points to really make it work.
I think 15 trukks barrelling at the enemy could do some work. Those little boyz units are fiddly, but they are cheap and can beat quite a few things in combat or at least hold them up while the tankbustas do work.
Big mobz of boyz are great against wide swathes of things but are absolute liabilities against scat bikes. Outside of time limits, my Orks have done pretty well against good lists with the exception of Eldar due almost exclusively to how hard a counter scatbikes are to mobz.
Yeah, and Trukk Boyz with WAAGH are actually great against Scat Packs because of the huge range.
ayup
The tankbustas actually are ace against Wraithknights, Knights, and Rhino spam. Meltabombs PLUS tank hunters is ludicrous.
6″+6″+d6+2d6″ is obviously pretty far, but nowhere near 36″ and they have the firepower to easily disable your units really early (especially since the chances of losing additional models to explosions/pinning on some of the Boyz are quite high.) Especially with their 2d6″ Thrust move and a Wraithknight to block the easy movement lanes and/or closest unit, I wouldn’t rate it.
The waaagh band is a copy of the codex: orks formation “Ork Warband”. I tried two games with that formation at 1000p the way you described it, with the exception that I took nobs in most of the boy units. When I met a sisters player he killed of everything except the meganobz, boss and grots at the end of turn 2 if i remember correctly. I tried the same against the old necron codex as well. That went a little better because he had so few models so he didn’t kill off everything so fast, but we didn’t have time to end the game though. I would prefer to either have trukkboyz with eavy armour or larger squads of boyz 15-20 at least.
This supplement just completely destroyed my original list by losing the Great WAAGH! Detachment. Looks like I’ll just have to do a double CAD and suck up with only having a 5++ on the Stompa. Plus that new box set formation would’ve been amazing had it no of been for that Deff Dread because if you could slap Zhadsnark in a unit of biker Nobz that would’ve been so much fun. Oh well back to the drawing board.
Same for me, buddy =(
In my opinion the Stompa doesn’t really need the 4++. Heck without a kff save it’s still resillient if you put enough meks in it.
GW isn’t designing for 1850. They’re designing for more like 2500.
I keep seeing lists for Orks following this update and, forgive me if I am wrong, but I believe that if you’re slow and purposeful (from mega-armor) you can’t run. So, unless there is a rule that fixes that somewhere, you aren’t getting any use from the Waaagh! rule with MANs (or any unit you stick Ghaz in).
I recall there used to be a rule somewhere that let you ignore SaP if you were in Mega Armor, but I don’t know if that is built in to a character or something…
Ghazkull and all other models in his unit can run on a turn he calls Waaagh! despite having the Slow and Purposeful rule.
I think you can even make a half decent footslogging list with ghazzy included as well. Sadly I wanted more toys so the goff killmob doesnt fit but with the council of WAAAGH, the WAAAGH-band and a deffkopta for the aux you can get 90 boyz and the council in there. Not the most boyz for 1850 but enough to deal with some stuff at least and Ghazzy gets a trukk for turn 1 to turboboost him and his warbosses and company up. If I ditched da supa cybork and da lucky stikk I could get a few more pks for the boys or just more boys but I think it would be fun to keep those. I cant wait for next weekend when I can test it.
I just wish there was a way to take my squiggoths with this. Maybe in larger games I ditch Ghazzy’s trukk and give him a gargantuan squiggoth instead lol.
Nevermind I did it. If I take a CAD as well with barebones big mek and gretchin and make the WAAAGH-band bare in addition to making the warbosses and nobz with ghazzy bare and downgrading the MFF to a KFF then I can fit in a gargantuan squiggoth for them to ride. It will probably be awful at 1850 but I think it will be funny if nothing else.
I find this list works best like this. The battlewagon is useless especially without killkannon.
Take trukks with rokkits and spam them as such.
Orks 1850 Pts
WAAGH!-Band
Warboss, Mega armour and Lukky stick 1
Mek – 1
Nobs, big choppa 3
Trukk 1
Boyz Nob, Klaw 10
Trukk 1
Boyz Nob, Klaw 10
Trukk 1
Boyz Nob, Klaw 10
Trukk 1
Boyz Nob, Klaw 10
Trukk 1
Boyz Nob, Klaw 10
Trukk 1
Boyz Nob, Klaw 10
Trukk 1
Gretchin w runt herder 11
Speshulists
Tankbustas 5
Trukk 1
Tankbustas 5
Trukk 1
Council of WAAGH!
Ghaz – 1
Mad Dok – 1
Big Mek Big Choppa, Eavy Armor 1
Warboss Big Choppa, Eavy Armor 1
Warboss Big Choppa, Eavy Armor 1
Nobs w Waaagh banner– 3
Totals 103
That’s a lot of rokkits and powerklaws and two decent beatstick units.
I forgot to mention ghaz doesn’t need a trukk he has 2 rerollable warlord traits that he needs to take from the waaagh warlord trait list 2 of which are useless for him. I other words just roll for the outflanking trait. And he can still call waaagh from reserves according to the rules which also protects him from being sniped turn 1. Unless I’m mistaken somewhere.
I have played Orks for a good long while, first army and all. When the new book dropped a while back I was happy with it, all the right things got cheaper, all the new stuff was sweet (Mek Gunz, Gork/Mork-naught, etc…
The problem wasn’t the book, it was with what surrounded the book (Space Wolves and Blood Angels got a similar deal), the codex power level shot up incredibly after those releases: Necrons, Space Marines, Eldar, etc… So, there are some golden things in the codex and in the faction as a whole. All-in-all, I think this book is a good deal. Testing has been limited on it, so far, but I imagine there being some unlocked potential in this Multi-Formation Detachment that needs some time to surface. What I like about it is the ability to get a ton of Mek Gun Batteries and special units, without the cost of slots in a CAD. Tell me what you think of this Reece:
1850
Waaagh
Orks 1850 Pts
WAAGH!-Band (1085)
Warboss, Mega armour
Mek – 1
Mega Nobs 3
Trukk 1
Boyz Nob, Klaw, 10
Trukk 1- ram
Boyz Nob, Klaw,10
Trukk 1- ram
Boyz Nob, Klaw, 10
Trukk 1-ram
Boyz Nob, Klaw, 10
Trukk 1- ram
Boyz Nob, Klaw, 10
Trukk 1 – ram
Boyz Nob, Klaw, 10
Trukk 1- ram
Gretchin- 11
Big Stuff
3x Kustom Mega Kannons – 3
3x Kustom Mega Kannons – 3
3x Kustom Mega Kannons – 3
3x Traktor Cannons 3
Speed Freeks
Deffkopta
Deffkopta
Deffkopta
Deffkopta
CAD
Big Mek- Mega Armor
Big Mek- Mega Armor
Gretchin 11
Gretchin 11
Void Shield Gen. 3 Shields
Or something to this effect, points may be a little off, I’m writing this on the fly, but something like this I really want to test, I think it’ll be mighty scary.
You did not pay for the waaagh banner that is mandatory for ghazkulls group. So thats even less points left over. That being said I thought about running this with 3 of the mek guns that have skyfire, and some grots. Giving all the warbosses megaarmor, the lone warboss attached to the mek guns to give them slow and purposeful, and just going across the board and slapping people at 2k points, our standard games. I really feel like this army desperatley needs eavy armor for the boyz to really take advantage of the rules, but I cannot find 240 points for the armor.