Against the Grain - Orks, Going Green

For the next installment of Against the Grain, I'm going to wade into some strange territory for myself...the Greenskin...Orks! As a T'au player, this army couldn't be more diametrically opposed to my usual playstyle; but, as heard on our most recent podcast, the Warboss wants to crump some T'au. We will attempt to oblige him.

Ah the Ork...the muscle bound, comic relief of the Grimdark. This is a faction that has as much character as the rest of the 40K universe put together. However despite carving out vast empires in the background, they have struggled to perform well at tournaments over the last few editions. While I don't believe that I can change that in one go, we're going to attempt to put the Index to work and build an army that is defiantly Orky and will run roughshod through unprepared armies. 'Ere we go!

Researching the Index

 So I will be the first to admit that Orks are completely foreign to me. I've only ever played a handful of games against them in years of playing 40K, and probably half of those games have been against Warboss Hinkel. With that disclaimer, I enter this article as a largely clean slate on the actual workings of the Greenskin. That means I'm going to have to dive head first into the Index and see what is actually going on and what rules/units we can work to our advantage. What am I looking for? Well the first page is usually a good starting point and conveniently the first page of every Index army contains a good chunk of the army wide rules. This is what I'll call the First Signpost. Two things from this:

1.  Mob Rule: Two pieces of this rule. The first part lets a model use the number of models in their unit as their leadership. This is great in and of itself as Orks can take 30 Boyz to a squad so you're going to have massive units to protect you from morale losses. But the second part allows you to also use the leadership of any friendly unit within 6". Basically what you have here is the rebirth of the Green Tide, so what if one unit loses 10-15 models? Just stick around your other Boyz and the Greenskins will stick around through the Morale Phase.
2. 'Ere We Go!: Orks can reroll their charge distance. Nothing flashy, just a very solid benefit for an army that wants to be in close combat.

With those two rules in mind, the initial impression is that we are going to want to utilize large units of Boyz, and we want those units to get into CC. Now with a direction to travel, we need to start looking at general rules mechanics that are known to be powerful in 8th Edition 40K. Namely Mortal wounds. Every army has a way of generating Mortal Wounds and they have proven to be one of the strongest mechanics in this edition. Orks have two ways of doing this: Weirdboyz with Smite and 'Eadbanger (kind of), Shokk Attack and Zzap Gunz, and Bomms (multiple varieties).

I'll cut through the step by step index search and go straight to the end results.

1. Boyz/Gretchen: These are your Troops and max out at 30 models. Slow moving is their downside but these will still be our bread and butter.
2. Weirdboyz: This is where things get good. These are your Mortal Wound generators. Smite has proven to be an amazing power and these guys will be doing it early and often. Now there is a wonderful caveat to Weirdboyz, "Waaagh! Energy", that adds 1 to the Weirdboy's psychic tests for every 10 friendly Ork models within 10". With squads of 30 surrounding the psykers on all sides, it will be very easy to add 5 or 6 to the 2D6 psychic test. This will get into that sweet D6 mortal wounds more times than not. Yes, this makes Perils of the Warp an issue, but we will address that later.
   Now that's a good start but let's continue. Footslogging Orks have a movement issue. Weirdboyz have Da Jump to let a unit "Deep Strike" 9 inches away from enemy units. See where this is going? Drop 30 Boyz rerolling charge distance right in front of your opponent's lines and go. Wash, Rinse, Repeat as long as you have Boyz.
3. Bomms: much like T'au Seeker Missiles, these are one use only Mortal Wound generators. The variety we're going to look at are the Bigbomms that come on Deff Koptas. After flying over an enemy unit, each model may drop its Bomm. If it does, you roll a dice for each model in the unit (up to 5) for each Bomm. On a 5+, you generate a Mortal Wound. That's pretty handy for hammering medium to heavy infantry. There are some good options among the Flyers as well, particularly the BurnaBommer.
    
4. Zzap and Shokk Gunz: These are the last option for Mortal Wounds and are much more random than the others. Roll 2D6 for Strength and if it's 11+ then you just cause Mortal Wounds instead.

So now that we have our general idea of what we want to build around, let's dive into the list.

The WAAAGH!

Brigade: 9 CP

3x Weirdboyz: Da Jump
1x Weirdboy: 'Eadbanger
1x Weirdboy: Warpath

3x Boyz(30): Slugga and Choppa, Nob with Power Klaw and Slugga
1x Boyz (26): Shoota, Nob with Big Choppa and Slugga
2x Gretchen (20)

3x Painboyz: Power Klaw and Dok's Tools

3x Deff Koptas(2): Kopta Rokkits and Bigbomm

3x Big Gunz: Zzap Gun

How it Works

The idea here is pretty simple, there are over 170 models on the field which equates to just shy of 200 wounds that your opponent will have to chew through. The plan is to move/advance everything up on turn 1 with the exception of one unit of Boyz and the Shootas. Psychic phase will have the Weirdboyz Smiting whatever is within range and since they will be surrounded by Orks, this will almost certainly be getting higher than 10 every time. I went ahead and gave the 4th and 5th Weirdboyz the other powers as they may come in handy, but these guys are largely just there for Smite. The Painboyz will be hanging out nearby to heal back the Mortal Wounds taken from those pesky warp creatures clawing at the Weirdboyz's minds. One of the psykers will also attempt to do the Da Jump, which again will benefit from Waaagh! Energy, and throw the non-advanced Boyz unit across the board into your opponents face. With rerolls to the charge distance and a plethora (that means 'a lot' you filthy Greenskins) of Command Points, there's a good chance this unit will be smashing face on that first turn.

Just some Orky philosophizing...

To fill out the rest of the list, the Big Gunz hang out in the back and take potshots downrange. These guys will be holding your home objectives and just generally denying reserves from coming in, along with the Gretchen. The Deff Koptas are the wild card as they each have the ability to Outflank and come in off a table edge. This allows for them to show up in some unexpected places to perform their bombing runs. Remember your statistics with these guys, 5 rolls each on infantry squads with each roll causing a Mortal Wound 1/3 of the time. Play it right and you should be able to remove a decent sized squad without actually having to shoot or charge it. Add in their 14" movement and the Deff Koptas will be your unit that plans to run roughshod through the enemy DZ and distract them while your Boyz cross the field.

Will it Work?

Well of course it will! You just have to believe it will. At least I think that's how Ork success works...  if anything just paint it red and you probably won't ever have to worry about making that charge!
Honestly, this list would give most of my T'au lists a scare. There isn't one unit that I can focus down to break it and that's A LOT of bodies to chew through, especially if you pull off a successful Jump and Charge. Throwing out buckets of mortal wounds from the Weirdboyz doesn't hurt either.

What you end up with is an army with a lot of bodies, a lot of automatic wounds, and several tricks to get into your face and choppin on Turn 1. Testing will see if this is viable but I don't see why this couldn't be! Bring on the WAAAAAGGGGHHHHH!

Last but not least...the Warboss in all his glory...

So what did you think of this list? Could it work or is it just some wishful thinking and techno-babble from the Blueskin? Let us know in the comments and thanks for reading!