Part one of this article can be found Here.
Welcome back to my brief survey of 40k in the 5th edition of the grim dark far future. I think I got a little long in the tooth last time, since Space Marines are so fundamental to the setting. It was also pretty boring for anyone that isn’t totally in <3 ruv wif spaze mareenz <3 <3
So WIFOUT FURVHER ADO, here be da Orkz!!!
Orkz are built for two things: rolling lots of dice and doing random-ass crazy bullshit. Both of these fit in great with 5th edition, making Orks fairly strong regardless of army composition type (mechanized or footslogging). Remember last time when I said that it’s often best to just flood the opponent with wounds and let probability sort things out? There is nothing quite like seeing a half-blind Ork, with a rusty gun held together by chewing gum and twine, mowing down the Emperor’s Finest. With only a few truly terrible choices in their army book, you can see why they say green is best.
In general, Orks have terrible ballistic skill (but can assault after shooting with almost every gun they have) and have a high number of basic attacks. They are weak against AV14, have no psyker defense, and their individual leadership is pretty shitty. This is mitigated by the Mob Rule ability which allows them to substitute the number of models in a squad for their LD value and makes them fearless if they have 11 or more models.
They have one of the most efficient basic infantry units in the game. Ork Boyz are tough, cheap, and have a lot of basic attacks. They can only do one thing but they damn do it well: make you roll lots of dice. With furious charge, Mob Rule, and the option to take slugga/choppa for EVEN MORE ATTACKS or Shoota for a decent number of Str 4 shots, the Ork Boy is a pretty sweet deal.
Nobz deserve special mention because they are a particularly feared sight on the battlefield, and rightly so. They’re stronger, faster, and with 2 wounds even tougher than the average Boy, and can take a frightening range of wargear options. Aside from the usual bosspole, klaws and ‘eavy armor, they can get a warbanner for higher WS, an invulnerable save, feel no pain, or even Warbikes for increased movement and the constant 4+ cover save. The number of options means a Nob Mob has an easy time making unique models, which means that spreading wounds around is cake.
Recalling back to the previous article and the changes to wound allocation, this means that your Nobs can take a SHITLOAD of abuse before giving up the ghost. Each Nob has two wounds, you can easily give them unique wargear, and thus you can often allocate a separate wound to every Nob before you have to take a casualty. They are vulnerable to instant-death from Str 8, attacks that bypass Feel No Pain, pieplates, and abilities that target morale, because the Mob is capped at 10 Nobz max (although HQs can bring this to 11 and Fearless, at least until the first casualty. Bosspoles help!). They excel at krumping just about EVERYTHING.
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