WAAARRRGGHHH!!!!!

I’ve said my primary focus is based around the Ultramarines, and that is perfectly true; I reckon I’ve probably got twice as many points of Ultramarines than I have Orks. My Ork army was in one sense a bit of a lucky shot; the bulk of it was from a single eBay auction that was a bucket of Boyz, Nobz, Warbosses and Deffkoptas, with some more supplemental bits and pieces added on since then to give a bit of flavour/survivability. I think the standard for this force is realistically something along the lines of 1,500 points as I have it now, and at the moment it is far from optimised; it’s based around the simple, traditional Orky taktik of charging hell-for-leather towards the enemy and hoping to survive the process! I had a small Ork force the first time around, led by old Thraka himself. (Everyone did. For years that was the only Ork Warboss figure that was readily available, it seemed…)

After some experimentation, the core of my army is three big mobs of Slugga Boyz, each naturally led by a Nob, with between twenty and thirty in each mob. I’ve experimented with Big Shootas, and had rather leaned towards taking them out…but then when I did, I found that I really missed them, so I think I’m going to take the maximum allotment in future, just for the sound of the dakka. An Ork Warband wouldn’t be a Warband without some Grots, so I have a squad of twenty-five Gretchin with a trio of Runtherdz – nice figures, I really like them, and they’ve done some fun things in combat. Not particularly useful things, but definitely fun, even if I can just use them as a screen for my Boyz. Might get a few more at some point.

For heavier support, I have a pair of Looted Wagons. Now – I know that they aren’t optimal, but I love the models, and…hell, its Orks, they don’t have to make sense, do they? One of them is a modified Leman Russ, the other a modified open-topped Rhino. Both of them look great on the battlefield. The latter is the transport for a squad I have yet to deploy; a ten-strong Nobz mob that includes a Painboy. Wouldn’t be a warband without a Painboy, Runtherd and Mekboy…so naturally I have a Mekboy as well. A nice one equipped with a Burna – the idea is basically to shove him in with the Nobz…who of course will ultimately be led by the Warboss, old Warboss ‘Aig himself (with the ‘march into fire across the battlefield strategy, who else could I use). Hopefully this will tear the enemy into nice pieces.

For mobility, I have eschewed the traditional stand-by of the Orks, the Warbike, and instead have three units – two squadrons of Deffkoptas which I have found excellent in battle, even if my accuracy with the Rokkits is legendarily poor, and another unit of Warbuggies to race alongside the Looted Rhino. (Not used these in battle yet – they were a Christmas present, and my battles since then have been with the Ultramarines.) Heavy support is provided by a Deff Dread – big shoota and burna, walking behind one of the Mobz, and a Killa Kan – I rather have the idea that that might hang around with a Grot Mob if I find myself holding an objective, though as yet I haven’t used it as such.

Thus far…this army doesn’t have a great win/loss record. In fact, it’s only victory was against Grey Knights! The highlight there was a Strike Squad being scared off the battlefield by a mob of Orks that didn’t even have to charge them – their pre-attack volley of popgun shots did the job! Almost managed a tabling in that battle, though to be fair there weren’t many Orks left on the table at the end of the battle either. The thing is this – my instinct is that the Ork Codex for 6^th, which looks as if it is coming sometime this year, will bring back what makes the Orks truly great, the close-combat effectiveness. It really feels odd that the best way to take them is as a ‘shooty’ army. Not when they ought to be charging the enemy! WAAARRRGGGHHHHH!!!!