1) Go totally CC and try to overrun his shooty - Sounds great in theory, but his Boyz are better point for point than any unit I can toss at them, especially since they're in cover and will go simultaneously with anything that charges them. Also, my weak saves will mean model shedding on the way in. Genestealers would be wasted on 6 point boyz, Hormies are more fragile and more expensive than boyz, same with Gaunts who are also way less effective than boyz.

Go for it. He has crap saves, and you go first. If he's hiding in cover, he's not charging, which is a big no-no for Orks. So go ahead and get your charges. Run in on him, shoot him on the way, then maul him.

Don't completely split up your units. Focus on one side of his lines and roll right on across. That'll teach him to hide Orks.

 

I play orks frequently, though the ones im up agianst are CC based. I hate to turn this into a list review since you just want strategy, but it might help.

You're somewhere in between Nidzilla and swarm, i find that it doesn't work well, but you might do well with it normaly. The first thing i notice is that you have a large swarm of rippers. I'd split them up into two broods of 4, that way you can limit the ammount of squads he can fire with.

Don't be afraid to sacrifice those spinegaunts in CC, it'll prevent 25 of his boys from firing and you'll only use a few models.

EC on your genestealers will really help against a shooty army. Its costly, but it dramaticaly increases your chances of getting into CC safely.

Other than that i don't see any major problems. What you need to do is tie up everything in CC. As you've probably learned, he can and will outshoot you. By using those spinegaunts and rippers, you can potentialy prevent 65 shots against you on a lucky turn. Keep firing blast weapons against those large squads, three Warp Blasts and two BS should make short work of those boyz. Have your sniperfexes fire at any tough to kill targets once the boys are taken care of (Or if out of range). Your Dakkafexes (And Tyrant) should be able to tear right through those Meganobz with a bit of lucky rerolling.

Just remember, if your brood is gonna die either way, assault. Not only will it take longer, but while hes trying to kill you in CC he can't be shooting anything.

 

Both are good suggestions, I would combine the two and try some clever strategizing to boot. Firstly, I'm going to strongly suggest you take a big squad of hormagaunts (or spinegaunts at the least). Charge them into close combat with a Zoanthrope with Catalyst backing them up; even if they charge into cover, with catalyst you'll get all of your attacks.

Focusing on an individual flank is very important, thanks for bringing it up psichotykwyrm. Even if your opponent knows that your entire army is set up on one small portion of the board, there isn't much he can do about it. If he sets up his entire army on the same section, both of your armies will get caught in CC in the middle and will deny shooting, I'm hoping that your list is stronger than his in CC since I don't play Orks very often. If he sets up his entire force along the board and you set up on the one corner, you can take apart his army piece by piece. I strongly suggest you saturate each enemy squad that can draw a bead on your charging element, ordnance templates work better when there are more models to hit and if you're lucky you can force a pinning result or a fall back move.

 

Zygh, you're right, I'm between Zilla and swarm which is probably hurting me. I see a bunch of suggestions to go more CC (i.e., more swarm), but I'm very skeptical about that working and thinking more about heading towards more MCs and Stranglers.

My biggest issue is really the Lootas that are at the back of the board in (usually) 2 story buildings. The only issue with the Boyz is that they are about 12" in front of the Lootas and so I can't get to the Lootas without taking 50+ shots in the face per Shoota Boyz squad, or charging the Boyz in cover. Also, the high terrain in the rear means that the Lootas can continue to shoot an average of 60 STR7 shots per turn while I endlessly fight with 25 boyz.

Using my Math-hammer skills :sidefrown:, it would seem that hitting the Boyz in CC costs me a lot more than it does him:

16 Hormagaunts = 208 pts (must have FH and TS to make them worthwhile when charging into cover against Boyz). Let's say all 16 Hormies get in and 16 Orks get to strike as well since they'll be pretty well packed into the terrain:

Hormagaunts = 48 attacks, 24 hits, 12 wounds = 10 dead Orks.
Orks = 32 attacks, 16 hits, 8 wounds = 7 dead Hormagaunts.

Right there I've lost 91 pts and he's lost 60 pts. Next round:

Hormaguants = 18 attacks, 9 hits, 4.5 wounds = ~4 dead Orks.
10 Orks/1 Nob = 20 attacks + 3 Klaw, ~6 wounds, ~5 dead Hormies

Again, I've lost 65 pts to his 24 and it doesn't get better as this continues.

Obviously, this one example taken in isolation. But, I'm trying to illustrate how I will be breaking expensive units against his 6pt Boyz while his Lootas continue to rain fire down on me. The numbers only look worse if I do this with Guants or pricey Stealers. My flying MC can help move this along more quickly, but then I'm also staring at what is essentially a 25 wound powerKlaw with 3 attacks per turn.

So, my thought was actually to go even more ranged to avoid the problem of getting through the Boyz all together by staying out of their range until I deal with the Lootas, Megas, and WarBoss. Something like this:

HQ - Hive Tyrant - TS, ES, FH, WF, Wings, Barbed Strangler, Talons
HQ - Hive Tyrant - TS, ES, EC, Barbed Strangler, TL Dev
Heavy - Sniperfex - ES, EC, Barbed Strangler, Venom Cannon
Heavy - Sniperfex - ES, EC, Barbed Strangler, Venom Cannon
Heavy - Sniperfex - ES, EC, Barbed Strangler, Venom Cannon
Elite - Dakkafex - ES, 2 TL Devourers
Elite - Dakkafex - ES, 2 TL Devourers
Troop - 16x Spinegaunts
Troop - 16x Spinegaunts
Troop - 6x Genestealers - Implant Attack
Troop - 6x Genestealers - Implant Attack

The strategy here would be:

Setup: Guants in front as a shield against Meganobz or Warboss attack. Stealers hidden waiting for Megas or Boss with their implant attack. Rest of army sits in firing lanes to drop Barbed Strangler plates. 5 of the MCs have 2+ save to help neutralize the effect of the Lootas until they can be destroyed.

Turn 1: Focus 2 Sniperfexes on the Wagon to destroy/immobilize it. Drop the other 3 Barbed Strangler templates and the Venom Cannon shots on a single squad of Lootas - should kill a bunch and maybe pin them.

Turn 2: Megas/Boss should be engaged with Gaunts unless I got lucky with first turn and his Megas have to drudge across the entire board. Genestealers wait for an opening to do their job. 5 BS templates and 6 VC shots unload on the other unit of Lootas - they should be destroyed, pinned, or running.

Turn 3: Megas/Boss and Genestealers/Guants should be going at it or have pretty much killed each other by now, which works out better for me in points. Focus a couple of BS shots on the remaining Loota squad and the rest on the Zzap guns.

If things go well, by the end of turn 3 I could have all Lootas, Megas, Wagon, and Boss neutralized. That's about 1K points for him and it would pretty much seal the deal for me.

The 2 Dakkafexes actually seem out of place in the list. They could be replaced by Warriors w/heavy Barbed Strangler to add even more 36" blast power, but they'd be the easiest thing to kill and so would be an automatic target. I'm thinking the Dakkas give me more resilience and versatility since synapse is nearly useless in my list.

I'd love to hear some thoughts on this idea?

 

Play on a different table. From your definition the board is set up in a manner that favors him considerably. Play a game on a 4'x6' board using pieces of cloth as markers for areas of forest (it works great, trust me). Set up a reasonable amount of terrain evenly distributed across the board, each of you taking turns setting up a piece of cloth. Roll dice for deployment zones, and so forth.

By using a random board your opponent won't have a ridiculous advantage, and it'll be more down to the strategic abilities of both players.

 

Well, we play up at the GW store and they have mostly city pieces of terrain. They also only have room for 4x4 games. We grab enough for ~25% terrain (as per the rulebook's suggestion), then take turns placing and then scattering each piece. We also roll for sides.

So, really it's a fair way to do it. He simply places his terrain pieces at each deployment side to give him cover to set up in, while I try to place them in the middle to deny him deployment zone cover.