I figured I’d do a bit more comprehensive review of the whole Ork Codex and maybe bat some ideas about how to use some of these units about and share success and fail stories.
Where do you start when you’re reviewing a dex’s force organization chart? HQ of course!
The Ork HQ choices are pretty limited compared to the SM and SW codices with only three generic options and only four special characters. The good news is that each option is decent in its own right and worth consideration, but its going to dictate the rest of your army’s construction.
Warboss:
A solid choice by any stretch of the imagination. At 60 points, he’s very affordable, and his statline is pretty brutal. The best thing about him is T5, which means that most powerfists in the game won’t take him out in one hit, which is great. The Ld 9 is also solid, especially in conjunction with a bosspole.
Warbosses fill a variety of roles, providing leadership, adding close combat killing power, and giving you more variety in your troops choices.
Warbosses invariably have a Power Klaw on them because S10 is so nice, especially for taking down vehicles. I’ve tried running one with a big choppa for a while, and had decent success with it. He’s S8 on the charge which is decent for taking down vehicles, and its nice to strike at I5 on the charge, but there’s just too many enemies with high armor saves; so I eventually upgraded him. However, if you ran dual Warbosses and kept both cheap with just Big Choppa, Bosspole, and eavy armor for a respectable combat character at a bargain of 75 points, it’s not too bad. Putting both in their own unit of nobs (who already should have a few powerklaws) gives you a solid base for troops and isn’t too pricey.
By far, the more common version I see is the warboss in mega armor, attack squig, and cybork body. 125 points of sheer killing power is what you get. 6 S10 attacks on the charge is hard for most things to deal with, especially at WS5. He can reliably handle marine tactical squads on his own. Just goofy in how strong he is in this configuration. Only drawback is slow and purposeful. Pretty much makes putting him in a transport mandatory. Along the lines of the previous idea, running two of these bad boys with two mega-armored nobs squads is a great investment in troops and really scary.
The final way that I’ve run the warboss is on a bike with a power klaw. Very effective at 130 points (I put a boss pole on him). He’s also the lynchpin of the Nob Biker list as you run two of these guys in a unit of nob bikers. I’m sure you’ve heard how effective those can be, but the Warboss biker is good in almost any application. I like having him in my big mobs and being able to break out and go after annoying things, or just being in the unit to give it some combat punch. Another way to use him is put him in a regular mob of bikers. Regular Ork bikers really suffer from lack of leadership, and the re-rollable ld9 the warboss brings really makes them better.
Overall, a warboss is solid choice for most Ork generals and can be really useful.
Big Meks:
The big mek has been my HQ of choice for about 90% of my games with Orks. And that’s almost entirely due to the Kustom Force Field. There are few items in the game that are as useful force multipliers as the KFF. Giving my big units of boyz a 5+ cover save in the open means I don’t have to care about cover as much and can deploy in the open to get to shooting range sooner. It also makes my 6 point shoota boyz much more effective and resilient than they should be. Just an amazing buy, especially when you get a battlewagon for him to ride in to expand the area you are effecting.
The big mek in a battlewagon is also really cool because if the BW is damaged, you can just straight up fix it! Awesome!
I’ve tried using the Shokk Attack Gun many times, but finally just gave up on it. The thing is just too random to be worth the price of it. The AP2 is nice, but cover saves are easy to get, and I have little problems shooting 2+ save models (volume of fire, baby!); so that’s not worth it. The variable strength of the weapon pretty much assures that it can’t be counted on for taking out vehicles as well. Just a subpar option in my book, but very orky.
With that in mind…
Weirdboyz:
You should ALWAYS upgrade to a warphead in order to have a better chance of getting the power you’re looking for.
Weirdboyz can be much more effective than people expect. Despite their random powers, most of them are pretty stinking useful. True you’ll have moments where you get a power that won’t help you in the slightest, but you also get moments like that with melee only characters who can’t charge anything.
I like to get HQs that can effect the game every turn they’re on the board, so these guys don’t hit the table too often for me, but I’ve seen them used to pretty good effect when coupled with one of the other units in the ork dex that is sub par at best: Flash Gitz. Watching those guys deep strike into short-range and unleash shooting death is pretty freaking terrifying. Sure they are exposed for plasma blasts and the like; but it really makes them tough to deal with if you d/s them into good positions. In addition, giving those guys power weapons, or getting any of the shooting powers for the warphead works nicely in conjunction with the flashgitz.
Certainly not the strongest option in the codex, but not unusable either.
Now, on to the special characters.
Ghazghkull Thraka:
Perhaps one of the best Ork sculpts of all time; Ghaz is just a lord of destruction in every sense. In combat, there are few characters or anything really that can stand up to him. If he’s Waaghed that turn, you might as well just give up.
But what makes Ghaz so freaking obnoxiously tough has less to do with him being a freak in combat and more to do with the ability to guarantee that 6″ run move on waagh and the fearless it gives all units that turn. Strangely, his special rules really work best with smaller units instead of those big mobs people usually bring with him. If you run Ghaz’s army in battlewagons for the most part (3 units of 20 slugga boyz in battlewagons, 3 units of nobz in battlewagons) you can move up quickly and then disembark and assault 12″! Yikes.
Probably the only drawback is that he weighs in at 225 points; which is pretty steep in general for me, but not for some.
Mad Dok Grotsnik:
Probably my favorite special character and the one I think is the most powerful. At 160 points, he’s somewhat of a killing machine all on his own, but he makes the unit he’s with fearless as well as giving them FnP. Comboed with a big 30 strong unit of slugga boyz in ‘eavy armor they have a 4+/4+ save against everything and will fight ’til the last one of ’em!
Beyond that, the ability to add cybork bodies to models that normally can’t is a great boon, specifically for units of MegaNobz. Now, for the paltry sum of 45 points, you have super-ultra terminator guys! 6 of them in a trukk is just death on wheels, and for only 310 points! 3 units of them is just 930 points! Keeping within theme you could get some kans, MANz, a big mek with KFF, the big mob of guys for Mad Dok, and then…whatever else! Pretty freaking effective and terrifying!
Wazdakka Gutzmek:
Wazdakka is basically just the Warboss on Bike except he makes Biker units troops and has a crazy gun!
The all-biker Ork list has been around since the Armaggedon campaign in 3rd ed. Speed Freeks is a fun way to go, but never has it been my style. My friend Carl runs a list with Wazdakka and has had fun with it, but it isn’t nearly as competitive as other builds.
Perhaps if you didn’t go all out on the bikers and still had some trukk boyz, boyz in battlewagons, rokkit buggies, deffkoptas and the like mixed in, it would work more effectively. I could see a list like this being very effective.
Old Zogwort:
Old Zogwort is everything a warphead should be! I’d use him pretty much exactly like I mentioned above, in a unit of flashgits. I think the best thing about him is his ability to just insta-kill any opposing IC.
“Is that Njal/Eldrad/The Deciever/Marneus over there?”
“Yeah”
“Ok, he’s a squig now.”
“I has a sad.”
“Muhahahaha!”
In addition to that, his poisoned attacks makes him useful for going after MCs and the like; though a wraithlord can kill him with just one hit.
An entertaining choice for obvious reasons, and one that has a limited amount of tactical usefulness, Zogwart could be a good part of many armies.
I think, in the end, the HQ we choose tends to be more about the rest of the army we want to run and also how we plan on using it. I’m also a sucker for theme, and since I run Blood Axes, I pretty much am stuck taking either the warboss or the big mek.
Waagh On!
- What Bosses do you use and how do you use them?
- How do Ork rate with the other high power HQs?
- What type of HQ are Orks missing?