Culler's How to Build an Ork Army 2: Da Bosses

Here is the second article in the How to Build an Ork Army tactica by Culler from Heresy Online. This article explains his thoughts on the HQ choices available to the Green Skins. Enjoy,

.

Culler said - HQ choices:-Every HQ in the Ork codex has a role to play except for one.

Weirdboyz are unreliable and almost as much a threat to the mob they’re in as a boon if you’re playing an opponent with blast weapons (due to deepstriking). If you use one I recommend the warphead upgrade to prevent as much poor rolling as possible.

.

-Warbosses are solid CC monsters. I always recommend power klaw because the rest of the Orks can handle things with poor saves so the army needs all the power klaws it can get. Using a big choppa to strike before marines is all well and good but it only nets you a third as many dead marines as a power klaw and against things like carnifexes and hive tyrants the big choppa gets you almost nowhere. Most importantly the power klaw gives you a strength 10 weapon to employ against vehicles like monoliths and land raiders, which gives you an effective way to kill them since the Orks typically have trouble with those kinds of targets because they get no other strength 10 or Melta weaponry. If you have a warboss and you take nobs or meganobz, always take them as a troops choice so they can capture objectives. -The kombi-weapon options are pretty good for the warboss. The skorcha is excellent and the rokkit is alright if you give him an ammo runt to reroll his inevitable miss. The problem with the rokkit is that the unit he’s with is rarely going to want to shoot at a tank. The twin-linked shoota is decent if he’s on foot, but hardly necessary.

.

-Cybork body is pretty much a necessary for the warboss. He often runs into power weapons and the save is very helpful to keep him surviving until he can use his power klaw.-There are basically 3 versions of the warboss: bike, ‘eavy armour, and mega armour. The ‘eavy armour warboss is cheap and you can basically put him anywhere. The bike warboss is more expensive but is basically a carnifex on wheels. Don’t worry about putting him in a regular walking boyz mob to have him shoot out to engage vulnerable targets once the mob gets within 18”.

.

-Big Meks are useful in 2 ways: kustom force field and shokk attack gun. If you use a KFF make sure that it’s worth the cost. Keep in mind that it only gives a 5+ cover save, so for it to pay for the whole mek in casualties prevented it generally has to be prevent wounds to 14 boyz which means granting a cover save that wouldn’t otherwise be granted to 42 wounds from shooting to boyz. It’s tough to adjudicate if that’s going to happen, so just go be the rule that you want him protecting at least 60 boyz, several vehicles, or a combination of the two. Big Meks with shokk attack guns are fantastic at engaging targets with good armor saves which the rest of the list traditionally does poorly but you never want to leave him alone. They’re incredibly pricey and fragile. There’s a good tactica for where to put them here: http://www.heresy-online.net/forums/showthread.php?t=34858 but basically you always want to put them in some other unit.

.

-Wazdakka Gutsmek is pretty much there just to allow you to field a warbikers as troops. If you’re fielding warbikers he’s worth considering, but otherwise not all that great.

.

-Mad Dok Grotsnik is very solid if you combine him with a full mob of slugga boyz (or a full transport of them), but that’s the only thing worth using him for. Meganobz shrug off regular attacks plenty well and Grotsnik helps them none against the AP1 or 2 or power weapons they’ll usually have to worry about. 4 more meganobz is much better. Though giving the meganobz cybork bodies if you have Grotsnik in your army is worth it.

.

-Ghazghkull Thraka is pretty solid if he’s riding in a transport. His ability to automatically get a 6 for his WAAAGH! is pretty good combined with charging out of an open-topped transport. Don’t make the mistake of joining him to a unit of regular boyz and slowing them down.

.

-Old Zogwort is pretty much there for fun. He’s rarely effective for his points but turning your opponent’s super incredible HQ choice into an irate squig is worth more than mere points can ever represent. Some opponents don’t even have independent characters though, some independent characters can just stay out of his range, and his other psychic powers are unreliable and have great possibility for harming your own troops.

To view the whole article, check out this link http://www.heresy-online.net/forums/showthread.php?t=39703