10th Edition Competitive Faction Focus: Orks

With the release of 10th edition now firmly behind us and more than a month of competitive games in the books it’s time to start taking a deeper look at each of the game’s factions. In this series we’ll talk about each faction, what they have to offer, how they play, and talk about a few list concepts to consider.

You can find all the Faction Focuses that we’ve published here.

Today, Wings dehumanises himself and faces to krumpin’ – it’s the Orks.

Why Should You Play This Faction?

Because you want to go fast and krump things. Orks encourage a very aggressive playstyle in 10th Edition, combining fast units, cheap transports and some serious melee power to bowl opponents over. Herohammer also forms a big part of this, so if you want your bosses to run rampant Orks have got you covered, and there’s a decent suite of dakka tools to play support, particularly Flash Gitz. You’re definitely relying on your big Waaagh turn landing to get over the line against tougher armies, but in an edition where melee is mostly mediocre, you’re well set to absolutely dominate almost anyone that isn’t Custodes if you can make it to combat intact.

Five Things You Need to Know

• Waaagh-Powered Melee is Real: All your melee units hit like a truck when Waaagh is up. Bonus attacks, Sustained Hits and extra strength means you’re throwing buckets of wounds into your targets, and will clear out almost anything that isn’t Custodes, Lychguard and some flavours of Terminators. You can still bully many armies on other turns, but against the big targets you need to make sure you’re hitting when the Waaagh has been called. Also, remember that Waaaagh is called at the start of the Battle Round. Don’t get to your turn and realise, too late, that you need it.
• Herohammer (Bosshammer?) Whips: Your characters are extremely strong, and help get a lot of units over the line in terms of killing power, especially against hull-heavy or monster-mash lists. A bunch of the Beast Snagga characters have Anti-Monster/Vehicle 4+ (and you have several ways of activating Devastating Wounds on them), so they help mitigate the increased toughness across the game. Squigosaur bosses (especially Mozrog) are also absurdly tough and potent, while Kaptin’ Badruk turns one unit of Flash Gitz into a serious force. Finally, Ghaz is still pretty great, adding a huge amount of heft to a Meganobz unit.
• Cheap Transports are Great: Trukks cost 50pts. You’d be mad not to take some. Big Trakks are also priced to move.
• Keep an Eye on Your (Kunnin’) Plan B: When you launch your Waaagh turn you need to commit hard enough that you have a shot at clearing the opponent’s key stuff, but if you try and fail there’s a good chance that you’ll still tangle them up for a while, pulling ahead on Primary in the mid game. That means that even when things fall apart gradually, if you’ve planned ahead and have good tools for playing Secondaries, you can still get a kunnin’ win. That means…
• Utility Units are a Must: You want the flexibility to score whatever Tactical Objectives you draw, so make sure to bring cheap Grots to hold home objectives and go in Strategic Reserves, and Stormboyz or Bikers for some adaptable scoring.

What Are the Must-Have Units to Start This Faction?

Orks have a reasonable variety of units seeing play, and there’s a few different ways you can take them, but there are a few things you’re seeing in most lists. First up, Beast Snaggas in Trukks. Beast Snaggas are your bread and butter infantry unit, capable of hitting pretty hard in combat and soaking up at least some counterpunch thanks to T5 and a 6+ Feel No Pain. Trukks help them get where they need to be, and once they’ve been dropped off, can go be annoying and score Secondaries. You can optionally add a Beastboss to this unit to add some extra heft, as unlike in 9th Edition he’s seriously worth it. Because he gets Devastating Wounds on the charge, the Anti-Monster/Vehicle 4+ on his 6A Beastchoppa means that he’ll take a real chunk out of a large target, especially in a Waaaagh turn. Not mandatory, but if you’re going heavy on mechanised infantry they’re a great way of getting some extra punch in.

Next up, Grots. Gotta have ‘em. You can’t argue with 45pts for 10 OC2 models (and bonus Runtherd), and the fact that they sometimes give you bonus CP just for existing on an objective is a superb additional upside, and on your Waaagh turn opponents can end up underestimating their durability when the 5+ invulnerable save is up. Get several units.

At the opposite end of the quality spectrum is Mozrog Skragbad. T10, 9W and a 4+ Invulnerable into a 4+ Feel No Pain is an extreme level of durability, and he’s great at killing almost anything – small stuff gets easily chomped, and for bigger targets he has Anti on his main weapons and gets boosted damage. You fully cannot go wrong taking this model, and are leaving value on the table if you don’t. The regular Beastboss on Squigosaur is also pretty good, but pales in comparison to Moz.

Finally for must haves, and after an entire Edition where they pretty much never got there, Flash Gitz are a staple of pretty much every successful Ork list. This is 100% because of the extreme buff that Kaptin’ Badruk provides to their output – full hit re-rolls stacks extremely well with both their innate Sustained HIts and their once-per-game Lethal Hits to unleash catastrophic quantities of damage into anything that isn’t on a 2+ and in cover, and they’re also pleasingly durable against the counterpunch, as their 4+ saves go a lot further in an edition with generally lower AP. Similar to Mozrog, these are strong enough that you’re essentially leaving value on the table if you don’t take them. Delivery via both Trukk and Strategic Reserves is feasible.

Those are the must haves, but there’s a distinct tier of additional units where most lists are running them. Squighog Boyz are the closest to breaking into the must-have tier, and you basically can’t go wrong with them, but a list without them went X-1 and rules are rules. These are fast, tough and deadly, especially when you combine their 5+ Feel No Pain with ‘Ard as Nails for -1 to wound. I can tell you from personal experience facing these that sometimes they just will. Not. Die. You should also consider augmenting them with the Nob on Smasha Squig, who is a fantastic wielder of Headwoppa’s Killchoppa. He gets Anti-Vehicle/Monster 3+ on the charge, and sticking Devastating Wounds on that (and maybe using Unbridled Carnage for Sustained on a 5+) can result in your opponent suddenly finding they’re missing a Knight that they could have sworn was there a second ago. This unit is also great with Orks is Never Beaten, as they can extremely take something with them.

After that? Stormboyz are cheap, fast objective tools, can’t go wrong with adding a squad, Meganobz provide some hefty melee crunch (especially with Ghaz) or alternatively can be very sticky and hard to shift if you put a Big Mek with them, Battlewagons are still decent if you want a huge transport and regular Nobz with a Warboss are the nastiest thing you can fill a Trukk with, and reasonably durable once you stack all their defences.

How Does This Faction Secure Objectives?

Aggro! Your opponent can’t hold objectives if there are a whole bunch of Boyz on them, and sometimes you might get to hold them too! Orks apply pressure very effectively, which tends to help deny the opponent’s Primary, and the fact that a lot of the units you’re throwing around are OC2 helps a bunch. Grots provide cheap models to hold a home or well-hidden objective, and again OC2 does a lot for you here – it means that a lone op isn’t going to be able to seize it from them.

If you need to stick around on an objective, you’ve got a few ways to try and lock it in. Mozrog is super tough to kill, so can comfortably squat on an objective for a turn when required, and a full squad of Squighog Boyz popping ‘Ard as Nails is also extremely hard to move. Meganobz with a Big Mek for the invulnerable save are another great option here, and if all else fails you’re going to have a bunch of Trukks kicking around, which are absurdly hard to kill for a 50pt model. Don’t forget too that while you get Battle Shocked when you emergency disembark, you un-shock by the time it comes to count your own objectives, so it only stops you denying the enemy’s end-of-turn scoring.

For positional Secondaries, Stormboyz are your main tool, as they’re cheap, fast and Deep Strike. A notable weakness of Orks is that they have no “true” Lone Operatives, so you need to invest in a few extra “glue” units like Stormboyz and Grots to cover your bases.

How Does This Faction Handle Enemy Hordes?

Krumpin’. Pretty much all your must-have units will absolutely flatten enemy hordes, mostly in melee, but in the case of Flash Gitz also at range. If you somehow find yourself really needing even more of this, Burna Boyz out of Strategic Reserves or doing drive-bys are fine, and a full Warbiker unit with a Deffkilla Trike is another flexible tool that’s pretty strong.

How Does This Faction Handle Enemy Tanks and Monsters?

This is where all your Beast Snagga Characters come in – your opponent has to start trying to plan around a bunch of your units having a Devastating Wounds surprise laced among them. Squighog Boyz are also pretty scary for big targets even before you go for the Killchoppa on the Nob, and once that gets involved they’re terrifying. Meganobz are also, as ever, pretty good at ripping stuff apart (another source of Devastating Wounds). Finally from the Index, if you want to add some additional anti-tank dakka, the Kustom Mega Cannon on Mek Gunz.

This is also a place you can dip into Forge World – Grot Tanks are surprisingly great, throwing out plenty of Rokkit shots and being hard to pin down thanks to their Scatter! Ability, while the Kill Tank gets to enjoy another edition of being fairly aggressively priced, and the bursta’ cannon here is decent into enemy armour.

What Combos Should You Build Around?

At the core of playing Orks in general is using your Waaagh turn in combination with other buffs to absolutely annihilate the enemy. Giving your units an extra attack means that if you then pop Unbridled Carnage you get spectacular numbers of hits in. Combine that with sources of Devastating Wounds and suddenly it doesn’t matter what you’re in the process of krumpin’ – they’re getting krumped. The Waaagh turn also gives you access to a powerful movement combo via ‘Ere We Go, because +2” to Advance/Charge matters a hell of a lot more when you can, you know, Advance and Charge. This is particularly great for Meganobz, as it overcomes their normal ponderous movement to slam into the opponent at rocket speed.

As well as those core considerations, there are a couple of notable unit setups it’s worth digging into further.

Squighog Stack

A full unit of Squighog Boyz with a Smasha Nob wielding Headwoppa’s Killchoppa is an incredible engine of destruction, and very challenging to deal with. Because they’re T7, popping ‘Ard as Nails on them means that a bunch of the weapons that used to mow them down in 9th Edition are suddenly wounding on 6s, and having a 5+ Feel No Pain means that flat damage 3 weaponry (another bane last time around) is fairly mediocre into them – each unsaved wound now only kills one from full health just under a third of the time. This is a premium alpha bully unit, and it doesn’t really need any external support to do its thing.

Crunchy Meganobz

Obviously if you want ultimate killing power from Meganobz you take Ghaz or a Warboss, but they’re pretty killy anyway, so what if you want another unit that’s dead ‘ard? This is where the Big Mek in Mega Armour comes in – taking a Kustom Force Field on him stops the unit getting sniped at a distance, and the ability to revive a dead model in your Command Phase means that unless the opponent really commits to clearing them, they’re not going to stay down. Getting to revive a large-based model also gives you some considerable extra charge reach that the opponent might not see coming, great for this kind of unit. You can double down on that reach with the Follow Me Ladz enhancement, or instead add some Precision protection with the Super Cybork Body.

Bike Block

A full squad of Warbikers lead by a Deffkilla Wartrike has a gigantic footprint, and if you give the leader Follow Me Ladz becomes an excellent tool for early harassment or move blocking. Extra move and auto-advancing 6” means they can rocket 20” across the table, either to get stuck in on a Waaagh turn or to completely lock up the opponent’s early movement plans. As discussed earlier, Orks are the kind of army that wants to deny Primary scoring early so that if they run out of steam later on, the opponent has a hard time catching up. This unit supports that very effectively, and is another mobile, fairly tough threat if the blocking isn’t required in a given game.

Army Lists

As always, time to take a quick tour of what players of this faction have been getting up to on tournament tables.

Scott de Wynter-Wilkie – 3rd Place – Board Room Brawl 2023

Army List - Click to Expand

Scott’s list leans towards the speedy – lots of Squighogs, Warbikers with Follow Me Ladz, and some transport-riding Flash Gitz to finish. This list gets in the opponent’s face and stays there while sneaky grots hoover up objective points.

Joseph Bommarito – 5th Place – North Star Open

Army List - Click to Expand

Another speedy build, but this time going for a few more nasty Infantry units instead of purely mounted forces.

Tarzan – 2nd Place (Undefeated) – The Pecking Order: Rise of Kings GT

Army List - Click to Expand

Last up, we always like to showcase a build that’s doing something a bit different if we can, and while this list uses a lot of the same units as others, it’s got a far more dakka-focused plan, using the strong shooting of Kustom Mega Cannons plus the ability of Grot Tanks to play close support firepower (using Scatter! to avoid reprisals) to blast the enemy as well as punching them.

Final Thoughts

That’s it for today. Our team are now very busy with the NOVA Open and GHO UK for a few days, so this series may go on hiatus for a week, but we’ll be back to look at the remaining Marine Chapters, Adepta Sororitas and the two meta monsters Aeldari and GSC soon!