Life is a precious thing, especially in the 41st millennium. Our game is based on death and destruction; violence and hatred; satire and epic storytelling. To be an Ork is to embrace all facets of 40k in equal measure. Imagine Ghazkull Maga Uruk Thraka as a spore. Now see witness him encased in badass armor waving the Gork’s Klaw in a figure eight as he lunges towards Ragnar Blackmane. I played my first RTT as an Ork player a few weeks ago, and I felt as mighty as the prophet of Gork and Mork. Today, I’m going to recap my tournament experience.
My list
Detachments:
- Dread Mobb
- Runt Swarm
- Da Big Hunt
- I picked the Purge the Foe disposition.
Units:
- Characters
- Ghazkull Thraka
- Big Mek Dakkarig with Dread Herder enhancement
- Warboss
- Beast Boss (attached to 10 Beast Snagga Boyz)
- Painboss (attached to 4 Squighog Boyz)
- Runtherd (attached to 20 Gretchin)
- Units
- 10 Beast Snagga Boyz
- 2×4 Squighog Boyz
- 20 Gretchin
- 2×10 Gretchin
- 3 Deff Dreads with Extra Klaws
- 2×3 Deff Koptas
- Kill Rig
Game 1: The Ork Mirror (Purge the Foe)
I played into a local buddy running 12 Meganobz with Nazdreg and a Mega Armoured Warboss, 20 Boyz and a Warboss, and 10 Nobz with a Warboss. He filled out the rest of the list with some Gretchin and Stormboyz. Those big bricks were hard to shift, but my Dakkarig put in some serious work in this game, blasting away at his bricks to soften them up for close combat.
It was quite fun mixing it up in prolonged melee conflicts, which I’m not at all used to as an Eldar lifer. My MVPS in this game were the Dakkarig and my Deff Dreads. Ghazkull was solid as well, and I learned that I need to use his +1 to hit and wound aura effectively to make the most of my biggest boy. We didn’t keep a proper score in this one, because he was the ringer, but it ended up at a 5ish point victory one way or the other. He ran up his primary score, as I had a difficult time killing his units fully, but I outscored him on secondary cards.
Game 2: Blood Angels (Priority Assets)
This list was centered on two bricks of Feel No Pain having Bladeguard, who were incredibly hard to shift. I don’t think I killed either squad all the way down in this game. I had a big swing early, trying to bait out some Bladeguard to charge Ghazkull in the midboard. Unfortunately for me, I learned how hard those guys hit, even after losing two of their number from a Dakkarig overwatch. Ghaz went down without a fight (it made me wish I was playing Brute Bosses).
The rest of the game was a slog in the middle between his bricks and my Dreads and Beast Boyz, while I picked at the side with rapid-ingressing Squig Boyz and teleporting Deff Koptas. I lost this game on primary. I chewed my way through most of his units, but never completely killed most of them — so while we maxed his Priority Assets score, I only managed 28 points. The game looked close on the table, but he won by about 20 points.
Game 3: Emperors Children (Purge the Foe)
My second Purge mirror of the day! This list had Fulgrim, a Defiler, and a mix of Noise Marines, Flawless Blades, and Infractor/Lord units. I won this game pretty handily, after going first and staging aggressively. My opponet got too close, and suffered bad losses on an Infractor squad from a Dakkarig overwatch (the Dakkarig overperformed every time it activated, which is likely news to no one). The single Infractor/Lord charge he made whiffed into my Kill Rig, and I was able to slam most of his army off the table in my following two turns.
Final Thoughts
I’m thoroughly enjoying Orks so far. I bathed in the light and pleasure of close combat kills, and laughed like a powermad Warboss when my Dakkarig blew away infantry in my turn, and my opponent’s. I did not like Purge the Foe too much, because I didn’t have enough shooting in this list to score it reliably. Ork combat is good, but not as vicious as I was expecting. I didn’t put Ghaz in the right position to utilize his buff aura, which didn’t help.
I didn’t love the Kill Rig/Snagga Boyz combo, and really disliked the Squig Boyz. Without vehicles to hunt, they are underwhelming. Probably more of a meta choice than a solid all-around unit. Next, I want to bust out Nazdreg and his MegaNob squad, and lay the pain on my foes while wearing chunky army.
