Oi! Listen up, you Gitz! Time for Da Mad Mek to give you a propa Ork list. Super killy. Lots of Dakka. Pay attention, Ladz, no muckin’ about! Get ready for WAAAGH! A guest article from Justin Del Valle.
Greetings, all! Justin “The Mad Mek” Del Valle here to go over my newest Ork list.
For those of you who don’t know me (which is probably a lot of you), I am a blogger and I open submissioned my way onto the Frontline Gaming site. So for installment number one I want to break open the new “Orkurion” from the updated WAAAGH! Ghazghkull supplement. I will give you fair warning, I am not a top tier tournament player. My goal for LVO last year was not to come in last (mission accomplished!) and I am still relatively new to 40k. I am like many of you, excited by the game, and I want to take my play to the next level. I watch the battle reports, read the strategy articles, and analyze tournament reports. I check out the latest “net-list” and try to figure out how to beat it. I have the desire to do better and learn all of the ins and outs of 40k. Join me on this journey!
The Ork book is largely considered by the 40k community to be a weak codex. Orks lack survivability, have low leadership, and Mob Rule can be a kick in the jumblies. These weaknesses tend to pigeon-hole “competitive” Ork lists to Big-Mek Stompa lists, lists that run Zhadsnark Da’Rippa, or combinations of the two. I ran Big-Mek Stompa Orks at LVO this year and had to play the mirror-match once. The reason these builds are popular is that the Big-Mek Stompa is very efficient for its points giving a much needed power to cost ratio that Orks lack in their regular book. Zhadsnark is popular for fueling the “Bike-Star,” allowing a large unit of bikes to end up with a 2+ cover save most of the time. Our mission is to find something new. Something that can attack the meta from a different angle. Enter WAAAGH! Ghazghkull.
A quick moment of silence for The Green Tide….
The new Ghazz book gives us the “Orkurion” detachment. This new detachment allows us to take multiple formations as one detachment. The requirements are one of two Core choices and one Auxiliary choice. From there we can add up to 9 more Auxiliary slots and/or a Command choice. The benefits of this detachment are being able to re-roll your Warlord Trait, all units of 10+ models get Hammer of Wrath on a successful charge, and the big benefit, being able to WAAAGH! Every turn including the FIRST! There is an obvious build here. The Council of WAAAGH! as your Command and the WAAAGH!-Band as your core. With Ghazghkull as your warlord when you WAAAGH! Your entire army becomes fearless and Ghazzy ends up with a 2++. The problem that I had with this list is how many points that need to be put into both the Core and the Council to make them functional. You have very little room to add units that help shore up weaknesses. Basically, the list writes itself based on points limits. Totally ignoring the problem of Mob Rule and low leadership is very attractive, but I feel like there is another build hiding in here. My idea is to totally abuse the amount of Auxiliary slots that are available to run the ultimate MSU list. Wont you come WAAAGH! With me?
Deffkopta – the Musical
GREAT WAAAGH!-BAND
Core: Waaagh!-Band
Mega-Boss with the Lucky Stikk
10x Gretchin w/Runtherd
Mek
3x Nobz – Warbikes, Big Choppas
9x Boyz + Nob w/Klaw – Trukk w/Ram, Rokkit
10x Boyz + Nob w/Klaw – Trukk w/Ram, Rokkit
11x Boyz + Nob w/Klaw – Trukk w/Ram, Rokkit
11x Boyz + Nob w/Klaw – Trukk w/Ram, Rokkit
11x Boyz + Nob w/Klaw – Trukk w/Ram, Rokkit
11x Boyz + Nob w/Klaw – Trukk w/Ram, Rokkit
Auxiliary
2x Deffkoptas – Rokkit
2x Deffkoptas – Rokkit
2x Deffkoptas – Rokkit
2x Deffkoptas – Rokkit
2x Deffkoptas – Rokkit
2x Deffkoptas – Rokkit
3x Mek Gunz – 1 Traktor Kannon, 2 Kustom Mega-Kannon 2x Ammo Runt
3x Warbuggies – Rokkit
3x Warbuggies – Rokkit
3x Warbuggies – Rokkit
Why did I decide to go MSU? Other than my love of carrying super heavy transport cases, I feel like the ITC missions are really well suited for a bunch of small units with mobility. Obviously the kill point mission is very difficult with 25 kill points up for grabs, but all of the other missions are very winnable. Lets dig into some of the choices here.
The Lucky Mega-Boss is very hard to kill with a 2+/4+. This allows you to get serious threat range from the Trukk squads by calling the WAAAGH! Every turn. You can take his Warlord Trait from Codex: Orks and hope to roll a 1 with your re-roll. The Mega-Boss rides in the Trukk with 9 Boyz and the Nob since he is bulky and takes up two slots.
The Grots are a tax along with the Mek. The Grots will stay in the back camping an objective or will be held in reserve. The Mek rides in the Trukk that has 10 Boyz, basically just filling that slot. The rest of the Trukk squads are maxed with a Power Klaw Nob. The three man Nob squad all have Warbikes and Big Choppas. I see the Nobz protecting the backfield waiting to go for a counter charge, or rushing an objective late in the game. The Core has an immense threat range from calling the WAAAGH! 15”- 30” with being able to re-roll one of the charge dice from ‘Ere We Go.
For the Auxiliary I chose to spam Deffkoptas. I love twin-linked Rokkits! STR 8 AP 3 is one of my favorite things. Deffkoptas have a few other things going for them as well. They are jet-bikes so they can cross the board very quickly to grab objectives or move to the weak side of armored vehicles. Deffkoptas have Scout (Outflank). The deployment versatility is my favorite. I can hold them in reserve, use them to screen Trukks, or scout them up to grab the relic. They have armor and can jink. Saves of any kind are hard to come by in the Ork book so having a choice is nice. 5 Toughness and 2 wounds.
The Warbuggy Squadrons are a nice way to mix Armor and Toughness throughout the army. I feel like there should be a mix of the two so you have your bases covered against weapons that are good against one but not the other. Warbuggies have Scout (Outflank) and are fast which gives them a great threat range when coming in from reserves. Did I mention I love twin-linked Rokkits?
Finally the Mek Gunz add some support in the form of STR 8 AP 2 blasts. They have Gretchin crews so their BS is 3. The Traktor Kannon is a nod to Death from the Skies (which based on the new ITC poll is not as big a deal), but it could easily be replaced with another Kustom Mega-Kannon.
So why would you take this list over a more established one? Deployment versatility is huge. A wise player once told me that most games are won or lost during the Deployment Phase (it might have been a fortune cookie actually). This list allows you to deploy based on mission and opposing army (which you should be doing anyway). You have the option to hold most of your units in reserve or to scout them up. Options! The Warbuggies are in squadrons so you can abuse the 4” coherency rules and easily set up an armor screen for your Trukks by going Buggy, Trukk, Buggy, Trukk, Buggy. This list is also really mobile and can move to key points on the board quickly. All of the vehicles are Fast, Deffkoptas are jet-bikes, and even the Nobz are on Warbikes. In addition, AP 3 on most of your shooting is huge. It forces your opponent to feel like they’re the ones playing with Orks by not getting an armor save. STR 8 doubles out all but the hardiest of units, say buh-bye to those Flesh-hounds! Another important benefit of this list is target saturation. Redundancy is key for MSU strategies because it forces strong units to waste firepower on units that are worth minimal points. The only high priority target in the list is the Warboss.
There are some weaknesses. I have played two games with this list and I have noticed some things. Unless you get the Warlord Trait that grants Fearless, Mob Rule is still a big issue. Especially in the Ghazghkull supplement that gives +2 on the result of the Mob Rule roll thanks to Da Boss iz Watchin’ rule. I still think that is a typo of some sort, it should be -2! This rule is why we don’t run Bosspoles on the Nobz since the re-roll is pointless. Also, low leadership still hurts. I chose to put the Deffkoptas in units of two instead of three to help this problem by lessening the impact of a failed Ld roll. Did I mention that the kill-point mission is very hard impossible? This list also has a low volume of shots. Twin-linked helps deal with that, but the weight of dice thing that defines most Ork shooting is not present in this list.
The “Orkurion” definitely gives us plenty of new options for Orks. Deffkopta Spam might not be the flavor you like, but it is a new way of looking at things. Warbuggy Spam? Loota Spam? Kommando Spam? Mmmmm… Spam. Just like every Battlewagon is different, every Ork list does not need to be the same. I look forward to ideas on this list. This journey is all about evolving as a player and I am sure this list will evolve as well. Nothing is set in stone. Feel free to make suggestions, this journey is yours as well.
Thanks for checking it out and don’t forget to swing by my blog for some more Orky goodness.