New Player to Orks

[Naidan7]

I am a new players to Orks and am wanting some assistance in fleshing out some existing models for a small 500-750 point army for local play in my games store. It will be an all comers army as I have recently moved and have no idea what the local players use. Existing units are as follows:

HQ

1 x Garzgul thrakka (old model)

Troops

50 x shoota boyz
30 x slugga boyz
10 x burnaz
25 x gretchin

about 5 nobz fitted out with PK and bosspoles

Some advice would be greatly appreciated as while i love the models and have collected various armies for years, I have never played 40k. I have been collecting for painting / collecting.

Thanks in advance

[Seanchadith]

Hey Naidan,

Welcome! You've actually got a nice little footslogging ork force there- it should work well in game play. I'd recommend this: split the shoota boyz up into two units of 25 and attach a nob to each unit of shootas and the big unit of sluggas. The nob needs to have a powerklaw and bosspole for the most efffective build. As the bulk of your force, the sluggas are a powerful close combat mob that will be hard to take down, while the shoota boyz excell at close-range shooting with still very powerful close combat abilities after shooting.
The burnas can use their template weapons to thin out enemy hordes- big units of weak troops like tyranid gaunts or other orks are ideal targets. Against heavily-armored units like terminators or necrons, they can use their burnas as power weapons, thus denying armor saves of the enemy.
Grots are usually used for two things- holding objectives and creating a living wall to give your others a cover save against shooting. You will need to aquire two runtherd models to use the grots legally, unless you're with friends who don't care.
As for the Ghazgull model, I'd recommend using him as a warboss in megaarmor. The reason is that the points cost of him is astronomical in a small game. Either way, stick him with the sluggas or shootas for a bigger close-combat kick. The problem is that he'll slow the unit down to his slow and purposeful speed, but as long as you run every turn with them, they'll do Ok.
Generally your strategy is simple, run at the enemy, blast them with your short-ranged shooting and charge in!

[greggles]

If you are just playing with friends, you could probably just called the mega armored warboss (ghazkull), a normal warboss for all needs and purposes. Almost nobody will care, and if they do, you probably didn't want to play with them anyway .

[Naidan7]

So I am thinking of the following for my footslogging army:

HQ
- 1 x Warboss (mega-armour maybe)

Elites
- 6-8 x Burna's

Troops
- 20 x Slugga'z, 1 x Nob PK/BP
- 20 x Shoota'z, 1 x Nob PK/BP
- 20 x Shoota'z, 1 x Nob PK/BP
- 10 x Gretchin, 1 x Runtherder

I will modify the list above based on points total.

I was wondering if I should use 2 groups of 10 Gretchin (I will need another runtherder though) to provide cover for my troops. Also what is the optimum size of the burna'z? I could have up to 10 but I am wodering if that is too many.

I am also wondering if I should invest in a Trukk or 2? I have been reading about burna'z in trukk can be very good and am wondering about whether the slugga'z would benefit from a trukk.

Thank you all for your assistance. I am just starting painting my army and will post pictures when complete. I have alot of the old RT ork figures so this should be interesting, I am thinking of a mixed theme with at least 1 group of Evil Moon Boyz as I have some of the old plastics with the Evil Moon symbol on their backs (they and 1 group of gretchin will be my first painting job).

The other questing is regarding BP, the old codex says BP could be on any figure in a unit has that changed to only Nobz? I have some lovely old RT standard bearers with ultramarine heads on sticks and would love to use them in my units. Maybe in a freindly game that would be ok.

[mr.darkness]

For the gretchin then I wpould use one unit of 19 so you can have almost as many gretchin but without wasting many points on runtherders.
Burnas are awesome!!!! However I do find that they are quite ineffective if they are fielded as a unit without any transport. I would try to put them into a looted wagon (easy to convert) or battlewagon, (which everyone loves). As for how many then it depend how many points you have to spare. If you have plenty then put 10 in a deff rolla battlewagon but if not as many points then put five in a looted wagon.
If you are taking burna boys (which need to be in a transport) then you definitely need to field at least a couple of other trukks. Otherwise, the opponent will just target all their weapons at that. I wouild try to get at leasty three trukks in a thousand point force. If you want to adapt the one shown above the you would turn each unit into a trukk unit and merge the 24 left over into 1 bigger unit.
Finally bosspoles are only allowed on the nob so you can only have one, but why would you wanty any more? Also i am sure that the old modles you have would be fine for most tournaments as there is no actual mopdel for a bosspole.

[Naidan7]

Thanks for the feedback MD. I have slightly modified my list and I will be targetting a 750 Green Wall type of army. This will work best with the figures I have plus I don't want a large army at the moment. Final list is as per below.

HQ

Warboss, PK 'eavy armour 90

Elites

7 x burna boys 105

Troops

20 x Shoota Boyz, Nob with PK/BP 166
20 x Shoota Boyz, Nob with PK/BP 166
20 x Slugga Boyz, Nob with PK/BP 166
15 x gretchin, 1 runtherd 55

Total 748

My gretchin are really there to give my burna's and slugga's some cover until they can get close enough for the mayhem to start and if any survive I believe they can take objectives.

If the list works even slightly well. I might think of investing more into trukks, kans etc. but for the moment I have all these models so it will give me somewhere to start from.

Thank you all for your inout and I will post pictures of the painting of the army as it progresses.

[Naidan7]

I know this is an update of an old post but I was just after some advice for 6th edition. I am only using Rogue Trader metal figures except for the IG allies and even then that is only in the PCS and CCS basically comrising of the following:

HQ

1 x Garzgul thrakka (old model)

Troops

45 x shoota boyz
25 x slugga boyz
6 x burnaz
25 x gretchin
9 x Nobs in heavy armor (could be normal nobs in either heavy or cyborg)
1 x painboy
1 x mekboy

There are 3 bosspole guys and a bunch of old power claw figures.

5 x Trukks (gorkamorka versions)
1 x RT Rhino as looted wagon
2 x RT Predator as looted wagons with boomgun and big shootas

I also have a bunch of IG figures that I was going to use as well.
1 x CCS (with 3 grenade launchers) and a figure I was going to use as the Master of Ordinance
1 x PCS (with 3 flamers)
2 x Infantry squad with plasma gun and either autocannon / lascannon / heavy bolter
2 x Infantry squad with grenade launcher and either autocannon / lascannon / heavy bolter
1 x Commisar
1 x Primaris Psycher
and 1 Orc Commando modelled as a Sly Marbo

Can I get some opinions on using IG for allies and ideas for a 1250 and 1500 point list. Anyway your help is appreciated.

[Saunt Alpha]

At 1500 you'll need more than one or two autocannons to deal with flyers.
Remember allies have a small force org chart, when you add to your force.
pick up some flyers of your own. Vendettas are painfully good transports and Dakkajets are the among the best antiaircraft units. period. (use 3 supashootas)

5 Trukks is great is a great Trukk mob, but you have to buy one for a Boyz squad (12 Boyz, no nob = cheap to claim objectives) and then dump the Boyz and put the Burnas in it.
Make sure to have a bosspole and power klaw Nob in all other Boyz squads. A "bosspole" can be any kind of trophy or distinguishing feature, like an irongob (see pg 92 of the Ork codex - description of BOSSPOLE, when playing WYSIWYG people can get their 'umie panties all wadded up)

Consider getting some (or converting) Lootas. OOP Rogue Trader Orks with heavy weapons would be great, if you're only using the super oldskool Orks.
Use Ghaz as a MegaBoss, save your points for other goodies.

[mynameisgrax]

I'd definitely give the warboss mega armor. Yes, it does affect his unit, but a warboss with mega armor is AMAZING in close combat. Few things can deal with it, especially in challenges. It's up to you though.

You might also want to give the nobz in the units 'eavy armor. It helps keep them alive.

As for the 6th edition changes, IG allies are always good. Trukks aren't what they used to be, especially without a battlewagon or two to run in front of them. As the army is now, they're going to absorb most of the high strength shooting, and die really quick. I don't think this is the list for them.