Wanted: Professional Ork Hunter

Hi All,

I played my first game against Orks yesterday. Basically, it was a 2v2 game with--Orks and Tau versus Ultramarines and Dark Eldar at 3,000 per team. It was not a pretty game for the Dark Eldar. The details of the disaster are outlined here on the last page.

The short description is that Tau played as you would expect Tau to play. Not used to playing against a well made Tau list with a good general but that's just complacency. Ork Flashgitz and other units ignore cover, which makes them a huge pain. Orks also don't care about snapfire because they already have BS2.

Thank you in advance.

Splinter guns, splinter guns in raiders, splinter guns in raiders with the duke, splinter guns in raiders with the duke with splinter cannons and splinter racks in rapid fire range.

Bye Bye ork horde.

This will see you through the ork horde, with careful use of pre-measuring and night shields, you should minimise the shots back in your direction. Use venoms as harrassers, with small units of warriors in, or even trueborn w/ shardcarbines and SC. Orks ussally dont have too many mech options, so no need for too much AV, but a flyer could help a lot as most orks like there dakka jets, and N-T-Missiles will severly screw up there plans. Nob bikers go down with simple forced wounds from above mentioned splinter destroyer. when he shoots, his bs of 2 is laughable, i dont even understand why they even try to be a shooting army?

You would think that BS 2 would be a cake walk. Then the Flashgitz take out your RJB and the Lootas score 5 glances and 2 penetrating hits on your Jetfighter.

My first experience with Orks was definitely not a good one but I'm still not sure if it's because Orks are good or if Ork and Tau are good.

I will say that tarpitting a 30 Ork strong mob with 9 Wyches is amusing. Gutting a Warboss with an 85 point Succubus is even funnier.

Keep it coming.

As a shooty ork general in disguise,I would like to rebutt my esteemed Archon Alexwallace. Your points are valid sir,and I salute you, but I have played Orks a longtime, and they are the antithesis of Dark Eldar.

Orks do volume well. Shoota boy squads are horrific to assault; 60 shots for a full squad (sans big shootas etc) so dont get near them until you have too. A battlewagon can move 13" and the boys inside can fire up to 40 times @18" range, thats a massive threat bubble.

alexwellace wrote:

Splinter guns, splinter guns in raiders, splinter guns in raiders with the duke, splinter guns in raiders with the duke with splinter cannons and splinter racks in rapid fire range.

Bye Bye ork horde.

If only. Shoota boy squads with nob/klaw and special weapon troopers cost around 240points. @ 3000point list, 6 troop choices is only half his army, thats 180 models. Rapid firing gunboats cost approx 160ish each, wounding on avg 4.4 models/9 models in rapid fire range. If he has cover we only get 2 or 3 kills per boat Thats assuming stationary gunboats, which can die to his return fire.If we move over 6 we are at BS1 too, so our advantage fizzles somewhat.

alexwellace wrote:

This will see you through the ork horde, with careful use of pre-measuring and night shields, you should minimise the shots back in your direction.

Again, if we are moving more than 6, we shoot at BS 1 as well, so careful maneuvering wont matter as much, we need volume!

alexwellace wrote:

Use venoms as harrassers, with small units of warriors in, or even trueborn w/ shardcarbines and SC.

Great in theory, and a valid tactic, but moving over 12" makes the troopers inside shoot at BS1, we need to maximize our advantages, not come down to their level.

alexwellace wrote:

Orks ussally dont have too many mech options, so no need for too much AV, but a flyer could help a lot as most orks like there dakka jets, and N-T-Missiles will severly screw up there plans.

Ork mech is actually quite effective, Battlewagons are ridiculous, deffrollas are amazing, d6 Str10 hits to everyone from 13" away, and all we have to counter it is a blaster or HWG. If they have a Big Mek in there they are 5+ cover too ( but not against the death or glory, but if you take it you get ANOTHER d6Str10 hits). Not to mention if they are within 2" of one of your vehicles, the nob w/Klaw can assault you @ str9 4 times via boarding plank. Orky flyers are quite effective, but deffkoptas are flying nobs with armour and cover, outflanking and wrecking our vehicles with the standard twinlink bigshoota, note that it is effective at shooting down our flyers too being STR5. Necrotoxin missles arent worth the points IMHO, mobs of 12+ models are immune to pinning due to mob rule.

alexwellace wrote:

Nob bikers go down with simple forced wounds from above mentioned splinter destroyer.

Big but here; The Nobs have, cover, armour, fast moving, they are a ridiculously hard target that a liquifire gun is most effective against.

alexwellace wrote:

when he shoots,his bs of 2 is laughable, i dont even understand why they even try to be a shooting army?

Volume. Simple volume. I have personally shot deathwing termie armies off the board in both 5th and 6th, and they get 2+ saves. Lootas can shoot on the move now, thats 10-30 shots per turn for a 10 man squad, at Str7. We dont get FNP vs that. Put them in a battlewagon and it gets gross.One heck of a mobile fire support platform. Dont forget they are closing every turn, and with 2 base attacks each, CC with a full ork squad is horrifying.

My advice versus Orks, for what its worth, is templates are your friend. Chewing through them with splinter fire is good, but ork (and nid to some degree) hordes are where large blast templates and shredders actually work.

Ravagers are great, but Razorwings are boss. 5" template the mobs to death. If they advance abreast at you, it can be hard to run and hide, so focus fire on one part of their line and punch through it.

Lootas are ridiculously good now, Str7 AP4 and can move and shoot with minimal penalty means squads in the open and our vehicles will go down quickly.In a looted wagon or battlewagon even moreso. Kill them.

Burna boys can deny cover, and have unusual power weapons, but they really arent a threat. We can out range them.

Nobs in CC arent that much of a bother for wyches comparitively but beware Big Choppas, Str6=no FNP.

Flashgitz are expensive Nobs, but are only 24" range. Ignores cover is awesome,(so is having a painboy in there) but outrange them and youll be fine.

Stormboyz are gross, they can assault after deepstrike but are one-hit wonderish, as they lose models for doing so. Zagstrukk is awesome Powerklaw at initiative? yes please. Versus us though its not as effective; just denying FNP on the charge IIRC.

Kommandos are nerfed because of the no assault from reserve, but I expect Snikkrot's ambush rule will allow that soon enough. They are just outflanking boyz.

Deffkoptas, Flying nobs with twinlinlk Heavy 3 STR5 AP5, 2 wounds, New bike upgrades in 6th, yikes. Splinterfire/ Dissies are your friend due to T5.

Kans have only 2 Hullpoints IIRC, so squads of them go down fast to lance fire. 2 or 3 man blasterborn squads in venoms are enough, and can instakill nobs; all but the warboss that is. Deff dreads are dreadnaughts with issues, same rules apply there as for standard dreadnaughts.

Battlewagons with deffrollas are the most vicious ork invention. AV14 front, so we can take it down but 4 hullpoints means it takes some time. D6 Str10 hits, 2D6 Str10 if you death or glory, and with our LD 8/9 on avg we could end up running. Add to the fact that in 2 turns da boyz inside are in your face, and the wagon is running everything and anything over with its Deffrolla, for around 125points.

In reading the disposition of your opponents forces LTKage, I dont see how you could have faired much better; they simply played to their strengths very well. An extra turn would have helped you, but the Dice gods favoured the Greater good WAAAGH it seems. They had decent shooting for first turn nightfight, I'm sure markerkights helped that. Tau make great gunlines and with T4 green meatshield it makes it tough to get at them without deepstriking. Blowing up the truck would have helped,as you are likely to kill at least 3 or 4 boyz (STR4 exploding transports hurts them too) and then they are not fearless anymore, testing for pinning at potentially as low as LD7.) Or blowing up the wagon, as 6 flashgitz are not fearless either IIRC. Parking it in the middle like he did gave the squad inside a great threat range. His Lootas too are vulnerable to LD tests; kill 3 they test @ LD7

Tarpitting 90 slugga boy attacks per phase is funny as heck, but mathematically it cant hold long. Better to get them on his lootas/gitz/ or into the Tau. Zooming around his flank was a great idea but volume of fire defeats cover saves, especially with the flatout/wrecked skimmer rules. Snapfire/overwatch made Ork Shooty very dangerous. I downed a charging sentinel squad with Ork overwatch......

In short Orks are good, Tau are improved, Orks and Tau, played well, compliment each other very well.

Thanks Pirate--that was helpful. I played the against Orks again today. The long and the short of it is that I lost by 1 in a Purge the Alien game. Kill points definitely work for Orks. Deployment wise, I did exactly what I should have done--flank denial. There some unfortunate moments, like failing two charges and having a unit of Wyches gunned down by ork overwatch. Surprisingly, it was still a close game and I had a lot of fun.

Looking back, I think playing against Orks requires much more planning and daring than is required to beat, say, a typical Space Marine army. I will be posting the battlereport later tonight on HO.