Codex Orks 10th Edition: The Goonhammer Review

This book rules unbelievably hard.

Normally we do a fun pithy intro here, but in this case we felt we needed to get that out the way up front. Are you one of those Ork players who has a lovingly painted and converted 20,000pts horde with every conceivable unit? This book is all your dreams come true. Are you a competitive player who wants to own exactly the units needed to play every top build? You are never going to financially recover from this.

This book is one of the deepest of 10th Edition so far, and pulls off the impressive feat of adding five new detachments on top of the Index one that all look flavourful, fun and powerful, but also pull in very different directions and incentivise a whole bunch of different units. Tack on a few powerful tweaks to some key datasheets, and you’ve got everything a tenth edition codex should be. To unpack this mighty tome I’ve recruited experienced Warboss Shane Watts and budding Big Mek Lowest of Men, who are ready to call the Waaagh and dive deep into a new contender for best designed Codex of the Edition.

We would like to thank Games Workshop for providing us with a review copy of the Codex.

Army Overview

Orks are a pressure army – they want to get in the opponent’s face and start krumpin’ with overwhelming force. This book provides a plethora of ways to do that, so whether you want to be running foes down with Squighog cavalry, blasting at close range with Buggies or Dreadz, or just throwing endless Boyz at the foe, there’s probably some support for your plan. If you yearn for the days of eighth edition, where Orks temporarily became the best shooting army on accident, there’s also some high-risk potential in the Dread Mob detachment, packing some extremely powerful shooty combos that come at a very Orky price.

We think the following are five standout features of this book:

• Detachments: It cannot be stressed enough that the set of detachments here is probably the best that any book has yet included – great themes that are well supported by the design, and real attractions to all of them.
• Meganobz: A perennial Orky favourite gets fantastic support in a number of different detachments plus a very powerful new Datasheet ability.
• Boyz: A powerful detachment all of their own and a vastly better Datasheet rule that makes taking a few of them in other armies more attractive makes the ‘umble Boyz mob a much better staple.
• Dread Mob: I (Wings) am writing this so I’m going to abuse my power to shout out my favourite of the detachments, combining some eye-popping combo options with a hilariously appropriate drawback to really capture the flavour of Mekz gone wild.
• Depth: There’s so much stuff here, seriously.

In theory we now have to add some criticisms, which is somewhat challenging here. I guess the only one is the departure of Kaptin’ Badruk probably puts Flash Gitz back on the bench, and maybe the two Bomber planes needed a datasheet review, but that’s honestly kind of it.

Army Rule – Waaagh!

Waaagh is the notorious and iconic battle cry of the Orks, and also provides them with their army rule. Once per game, at the start of the Battle Round, you can declare a Waaagh! The furious hunger for combat this unleashes amongst your horde provides a number of benefits to all Ork models, from the mightiest Stompa all the way down to the lowliest Grot, all of which last for the duration of that round. On the offence, your units can all Advance and Charge, and get +1A and +1S on all their melee weapons, while defensively you get a 5+ Invulnerable save. This provides you with your prime opportunity to get stuck in and soak up the counterpunch, or perhaps, depending on who went first, to weather a hail of bullets as panic rises in your opponent’s ranks.

As well as the benefits the rule itself provides, there are plenty of units in the book that get better on your Waaagh turn, making it even more dangerous to the foe, but also more important for you to time it right. Remember that a Warboss needs to be kunnin’ as well as brutal.

This rule hasn’t changed from the Index (though some of the datasheet abilities keying off it have, most notably Meganobz), but that’s fine – this is a very powerful rule that provides you with a window to massively amp up the pressure on your opponent, hopefully so much that they can’t recover.

Detachments

Orks get six detachments in their Codex, and as we alluded to up top it is a premium selection – there are seriously exciting things to try out with all of them. The Index Waaagh! Tribe gets some minor tweaks and is re-named to the War Horde, providing a strong all-rounder choice at the core, then the others you’ve got to play with are as follows:

• Da Big Hunt unleashes the might of the Beast Snaggas.
• The Kult of Speed supports planes, trains and automobiles.
• The Dread Mob unleashes the unstable power of Dreads, Meks and Grot technology.
• The Green Tide is all about hordes of Boyz.
• Finally, and at the other end of the quality spectrum, Bully Boyz focuses on Nobz and Bosses.

We’ve split these up between our team depending on which we’re most excited about, and we’ll say who’s covering each one at the start of the relevant section.

War Horde

War Horde is the returning Index detachment, and like most of these it’s very much an all-rounder. It’s changed very little from the Index, with one welcome buff and one debuff to a particular skew plan, so if you’re already familiar you can just skim this.

Detachment Rule – Get Stuck In!

All your Ork melee weapons have Sustained Hits 1. Good, green fun. Orks do have some shooting tools they can string together, but melee is always going to be a big part of your plans for dealing damage, and this makes you better at it. It also makes your Waaagh turn even deadlier, as it compounds the increased attacks, and is great with Ghazghkull’s new and improved Leader ability (Criticals on 5+ as well as everything he used to do) – anything he and his Meganobz hit is getting hit.

Enhancements

These are uncomplicated but effective buffs for various options. Two of these support your units, either Fall Back and Shoot/Charge from Kunnin’ But Brutal, maybe useful on a Big Mek leading some Mek Gunz, or Follow Me Ladz, providing +2” Movement. The latter has seen use previously on Deffkilla Trikes to create some very speedy threat projection, and also might now show up on Squigosaur bosses to help their hordes of followers hit combat. There’s also one of those combos where I can’t quite decide whether it’s a meme or actually good using the new Big Mek. One of his abilities lets a unit he’s leading move horizontally through terrain, and he can lead Mek Gunz. Normally this isn’t much use to them, as they only move 3”, so it’s not enough to set up behind a wall then zap through. 5” probably is enough to strafe through a standard MDF wall, allowing you to deploy these normally unwieldy tools safely then emerge for some blasting. Smasha Gunz got a bit of an improvement, so I’m at least willing to entertain this being real.

If you like a more personal touch, you instead have some options to buff your models directly. ‘Eadwoppa’s Killchoppa provides Devastating Wounds to non-Extra Attacks melee weapons, while Supa Cybork Body provides an impressive 4+ Feel No Pain. The former used to be popular on Smasha Squig Nobz, and there’s a decent chance it moves over to Squigosaur Bosses in their stead (as the combination with anti-Vehicle/Monster is really good), while the latter is another excellent option on a Deffkilla Trike, creating a very cheap utility/harassment piece that’s annoying to kill.

Essentially, all of these range from decent to great depending on your exact setup – you’ve usually want Follow Me Ladz in there somewhere because extra speed is great, but all of them can be swapped in and out as points dictate.

Stratagems

This detachment kicks off with one of the funniest (albeit most niche) stratagems out there in Careen! This can be used when one of your Vehicles Deadly Demises, and lets you move before the ability triggers (and before any passengers disembark). Obviously you can legitimately go entire games without ever being able to use it, but it can be pretty good when it happens, either moving a big Mortal Wound bomb into the enemy ranks, or neatly parking flush to a wall so your Boyz can get out in a hidden position. Don’t plan around it, but remember you have it and use it when it’s good.

Much more able to be planned around are your two big tools for dominating the Fight Phase – Orks is Never Beaten and Unbridled Carnage. The former costs a steep 2CP, but gives your models guaranteed Fight on Death, which is very powerful with pretty much any melee threat (and can let your cheaper stuff take enemy chaff clearance with them). Unbridled Carnage is for when you need to hit something extremely hard, giving you Critical Hits (and thus triggering Sustained) on a 5+ when you fight. Use this on your biggest and nastiest killers, or at least on high volume units like Boyz.

If you want to stick around longer for some extra krumpin’, ‘Ard as Nails is your friend, giving -1 to wound against incoming attacks for one of your units (excluding Vehicles, Grots and Monsters). Once again you want to be throwing this on your premium stuff, and it’s especially good on Squighog Boyz, who are already a pain to kill. Now that Squigosaur Bosses are Mounted Leaders rather than solo Monsters, and full Squighog squads get two Nobz, this is one of the very nastiest stacks you can throw on the table in the entire game, so being able to make them extra tough is great. Meganobz also get huge benefit from this, as they now have a 4+ Feel No Pain in your Waaagh! turn, so become distressingly hard to clear with this stacked on top. Do note that the removal of Monsters from the list of eligible targets here removes the brutal interaction with Gargantuan Squiggoths – no more -1 to wound on a Titanic monstrosity.

For those that need some urgent krumpin’, ‘Ere We Go helps get it done, activating at the start of your movement phase and giving a unit +2” to Advance and Charge for the turn. Good for counteracting the effects of things like Night Spinners, and useful in general for ensuring combat happens promptly. Could plausibly be interesting if you double stack a Warboss and the new Big Mek with a full Boyz unit too – the built in re-rolls for Advances on the Mek allows you to truly rocket across the table with this.

Last up, the one major functional change here (if you exclude Forge World interactions) is an improvement to Mob Rule. For 1CP this used to let you give one of your 10+ model INFANTRY units an aura letting you still use Stratagems on Battle-shocked units, activated in your Command Phase and (after errata) lasting till your next one.. This was kind of terrible – it did nothing in its own right, so was essentially a surcharge for Stratagems you had to use ages before you might need them, and only really came up if you definitely needed to ‘Ere We Go a shocked unit. Now, you activate this at the end of your Command Phase, and pick a nearby INFANTRY unit to no longer be Battle-shocked. This is still niche but it’s much better, as turning off Battle-shock still accomplishes the main goal of the original version, and can flip objectives in your favour at a key moment. A useful one to keep in mind, and a good reason (on top of their new sticky objective ability) to have at least one unit of basic Boyz kicking around to provide coverage.

Overall, you’re still likely to see plenty of War Hordes out there. It’s an extremely serviceable detachment that’s put up good results with the Index, and some of the units you want to use with it get better in this book, so you can’t go too far wrong!

Da Big Hunt

Beast Snaggas made a splash when they arrived in the 9th Edition Ork Codex, and in 10th they get a whole detachment just for them. As is only proper for Beast Snaggas, it’s focused around taking down the biggest and baddest targets in your opponent’s army, but comes with plenty of other kunnin’ tricks as well.

All of the rules here are for BEAST SNAGGA units only.

Detachment Rule – Da Hunt is On

In each of your command phases, you pick one enemy unit to be your Prey. This must be a MONSTER, VEHICLE or WARLORD unit, unless your opponent has none of those on the table, in which case it can be any CHARACTER.

When a Beast Snagga unit attacks your Prey, you improve the AP of the attack by 1, and you also get to re-roll Charges that include your Prey as a target.

This is a really interesting Detachment ability; it’s very powerful in plenty of matchups, at the price of occasionally being extremely dead. Orks don’t have much in the way of high-AP weaponry, so having the ability to push lots of your units at once from AP-1 to AP-2 as you go through key targets is excellent, especially as Snaggas will often have Anti 4+ against these targets. Re-rolling charges is also never a bad thing for Orks to have access to, but clearly not the main draw here. It’s also notable that this applies to shooting attacks as well, as it makes it great with Kill Rigs, who can enjoy throwing out AP-4 auto-hit shots from the Wurrtower.

The main caveat here is that there are a small number of games where this will do almost nothing for you. Armies that go hard on elite infantry or Mounted stuff that can afford to hold their Warlord back largely no-sell this (the recent version of Stormlance that hides foot Logan behind a wall, for example), while some of the most popular Monsters in the current metagame are C’tan, which are almost always taking their 4+ Invulnerable Save anyway. The good news is that there’s enough other stuff going on in this detachment that you can build a proactive plan even without this, but it does feel like this could have been slightly more generous in your targeting options. On the more positive side mind, because Orks have low AP in general, it’s good that a detachment exists that could be used to counter a metagame where that was a particular problem, and it could be very powerful as an answer to Dreadknight spam in the current environment.

Ultimately I do like this overall, I just wish there was some answer to the case where your opponent was willing and able to hide their WARLORD like a coward – I’d probably have broadened the fallback to CHARACTER to include any situation where the enemy Warlord was either a Lone Operative or not visible to any of your units.

Enhancements

So, proactive plans. This detachment really wants you to smash Squighogs into the foe, which is good because that aligns with your goals perfectly. First on the list in this regard is Glory Hog, giving a Squigosaur boss and unit the Scouts 9” ability, which is brutal. 9” is enough to mess with enemy firing lines quite a bit, and a serious Turn 1 Charge threat even without a Waaagh, so this is obviously great. I think there’s some chance you end up putting this on a smaller unit rather than full stack just for flexibility of hiding, but it’s entirely possible just going full brutality is better.

Where you definitely will want the full stack is with Surly as a Squiggoth, which provides -1 to Wound into the unit if the attacker’s Strength is higher than your Toughness. On models with T7 this is going to end up working like perma-Transhuman a pretty decent chunk of the time, and leaves them extremely painful to clear. I think if you’re running this detachment you’re essentially always starting with a Squigosaur stack each with Glory Hog and Surly.

There’s some further competition on that front from Proper Killy, which gives +1D to melee weapons from the bearer. This lets you basically build your own discount Mozrog on a Squigosaur boss, which can certainly be fun if you need to shave points or want a second Moz, but this is also great on a regular Beastboss, giving you an even better spike of anti-tank brutality that can be staged in a transport. Both options seem plausible, honestly.

Last and probably least is Skrag Every Stash, which provides sticky objectives. It’s cute to put this here to account for this ability normally only being available to regular Boyz rather than Snaggas, but here’s the thing – you can still just take one unit of regular Boyz and not bother with this, especially as it isn’t cheap. Very hard to see any situation where this isn’t chased firmly into fourth place by the other three, which all kick ass.

Stratagems

Some excellent Stratagems here to round out the detachment, and they get something right that some other Codexes (most notably AdMech) have gotten wrong. Two of these provide an extra bonus when you go for your Prey, but it genuinely is a bonus – the Stratagems are good anyway, they’re just great into your priority target. This is way better for you than the AdMech model, where quite a few of their tricks were priced for the “improved” version, leaving the regular one feeling mediocre.

The first of these is Drag It Down, which for 1CP provides Sustained Hits 1 in melee, and also 5+ Criticals if you target your Prey. This is great – it provides you a way of getting the extra oomph that War Horde gives you at a key moment, and is an exceptional bargain if the thing you’re hitting is your Prey. It’s especially great with a Proper Killy Beastboss, who suddenly kills most of a Land Raider all by himself.

The other is yet another example of this detachment wanting you to slam Squighogs into things – Unstoppable Momentum is essentially Tank Shock for them, letting you roll a d6 for each model in a unit that has just charged and deal a Mortal for each 4+ (to a maximum of 6), with three extra dice if the target is your Prey. Your Squighog units go up to 9 models with a Squigosaur now, so this represents a big chunk of attrition damage into anything, and a huge blow into Prey. It’s also worth highlighting that unlike some similar effects, it just keys off the number of models in your unit, not the ones that make Engagement range, so provides a fair bit of flexibility when multi-charging. If your Prey has already been chipped down to a handful of wounds remaining, you can use this to finish them off while pouring all your actual attacks into an alternative target!

There is one final Stratagem that keys off Prey, and it’s the only one that’s Prey only – which it pays for by being very strong. Dat One’s Even Bigger lets one of your units either Advance/Charge or Fall Back/Charge as long as the thing you’re charging is your Prey. Access to Advance/Charge outside your Waaagh turn, even a conditional version, is super strong, and you also don’t have to use this till your Charge phase, so you can conceivably hang fire on using it till you know, for example, how well your Unstoppable Momentum has done at chipping off Wounds.

That’s your killy stuff, but Snaggas are also ded sneaky, and the rest of the suite here leans into that. Your first tool is Where D’ya Fink You’re Going, which you use after an enemy Falls Back. One of your INFANTRY or MOUNTED units that was within Engagement Range of them can then make a 6” Normal Move. This doesn’t let you trap things in combat, but has a few handy applications. Squigosaur bosses now provide a free Heroic Intervention, so one option is to use this to move them nearer where you think the next fight is likely to be, and using it to hide some Infantry behind a wall is also good. Where this is currently really going to shine, however, is that it doesn’t prevent you from Embarking in a Transport at the end of the move, so if you’ve got a Proper Killy Beastboss and his Boyz on a rampage, they can use it to duck back into a Trukk/Battlewagon/Kill Rig to dodge enemy reprisals.That seems pretty great!

Another sneaky mobility tool is Instinctive Hunters, letting an unengaged Beast Snagga unit jump into Strategic Reserves at the end of the Opponent’s Fight Phase. This ability is pretty much always great, and has particularly good synergy with Prey and Squigosaur bosses, as the combination of +1” to Charges and a free re-roll pushes your chance of making combat immediately to a solid 66%. It’s also just generically useful to have available, and hey you can do it with a Kill Rig, why not.

Finally, a bit of durability – Stalkin’ Tactiks gives INFANTRY or MOUNTED cover against Shooting, and adds Stealth as well on INFANTRY (since otherwise you could just use Take Cover). This is entirely fine – Squighogs only have a 4+ save, so can always get some value here, and Infantry can use it in a pinch. It’s particularly good into Tesla Immortals, who are a pretty decent answer to Squighogs in general thanks to killing by volume and re-rolls.

A really nice set of tricks, all told, with the only real gripe being that you’re fairly limited in what you can use them on. To get the full value here, you are going to need to blow 50% plus of your points on big Squighog units, and that’s fine and all, but is definitely going to push this detachment in a very specific and consistent direction – I’d essentially start any build of it with 8/4/4 Squighogs with two Squigbosses and Moz, and even with the (fairly generous) new Codex points for them that would be just shy of 1100pts.

Kult of Speed

Kult of Speed has historically been about going fast, shooting hard, and making a mess. You may remember the Ork Buggy times of yesteryear, or the rise of massed Deffkoptas after that… shudders. This detachment is all about juicing up the mobile terrors of the Ork army to apply unreasonable pressure whilst drowning the weakling foe in high volume shooting, and I think it captures the flavour and feel of Evil Sunz -type Orks perfectly.

Detachment Rule

The Adrenaline Junkies detachment rule is simple, effective, and flavourful, giving you advance / fall back and shoot on your Speed Freeks units. Plenty of potential here for a nasty alpha strike and actually locking up and shutting down your mobile shooting becomes that much harder for the opponent. It isn’t quite as new or intriguing as some of the other detachment rules on display here, but it’s perfectly on point for the Kult of Speed! It also helps the teleporting antics of the Shokkjump Dragsta to function in a more threatening fashion…

Enhancements

There are a bunch of flavourful enhancements here, but several serious restrictions on where they can be applied might constrain which of them we see in practice.

First up, Wazblasta. This gives a DEFKILLA WARTRIKE (and his unit) a fire and fade of 6 after shooting. I’m not entirely sure this will be very workable in practice given the big footprint the Wartrike has (even bigger if leading Bikers), and the space on the board that Ork armies typically occupy. He has mostly been seen up til now running solo as an action monkey, and if he retained that role he wouldn’t really be shooting and scooting anyway…

Fasta Than Yooz takes things up a notch, and is one of the standout reasons to consider this detachment. It allows an ORK INFANTRY CHARACTER (and their unit) to disembark from a transport after it has moved AND charge. Delicious on a big brick of Nobz or Meganobz, but you could also use this to catapult an unreasonable number of Boyz into the fray via a Battlewagon or Hunta Rig. Orks is the name, pressure is the game, and this plays beautifully into an aggressive game plan.

Next up, Squig-hide Tyres. Another WARTRIKE specific one, this allows the bearer (and their unit) to consolidate 6 rather than 3. Again my primary concern here is the actual placement and movement of a big footprint unit in the middle of a ruckus to really make use of this, but you can see a situation where a bikers unit blitzes right through a screen and uses the longer consolidate to tie things up and make havoc behind the line, and additional consolidate also helps get that additional OC where it is needed in a pinch.

The final option is Speed Makes Right. This gives the bearer (an ORK INFANTRY model) 3+ CP generation in your Command Phase whilst they are on the board, including if they are embarked on a transport. This is obviously excellent at first glance, the only question being whether you can get by just fine with Grotz standing about on points to generate for you instead, and probably comes down to how your point spend lines up.

Plenty of sauce overall, and Fasta Than Yooz feels an auto-include, but the rest are going to be quite terrain and build dependant. My instinct at first glance is that restricting two really interesting enhancement plays to the Defkilla Wartrike and his unit options slightly holds the detachment back, but the set of tools here works really well for creating a frontline push to go ahead of the supporting Dakka, and this seems to be the key to utilising Kult of Speed properly.

Stratagems

The stratagems here are primarily about juicing up some mobile shooting units (Deffkoptas and Bikers, with the former offering nasty damage 3 rocket shooting and the latter volume fire at close range), but there are also some nice defensive and reactive tricks. Much like the enhancements I think actually utilising all of these depends a bit on the space your massive bricks of vehicles and bikes can find on the board, but there are combos here to really push through damage when you need it, which will couple well with all the pressure. Did I mention all the pressure yet? There’s a lot of pressure here. Pressure.

Speediest Freekz lets you pop a reactive 5++ on a TRUKK or SPEED FREEKZ unit (or 4++ if your unit is a VEHICLE that is naturally T8 or less) in the shooting or fight phase. Very tasty on Deffkoptas or Trukks for absorbing enemy under commitment, this is a clutch play that will require astute use at the right times, but is extremely handy for creating a sudden bounce in your enemies efforts to push back the tide.

Next up, Squig Flingin’. Applied after a TRUKK or SPEED FREEKS unit moves, falls back or advances, this forces a battle-shock on an enemy unit within 9, at -1 to their leadership. This one requires some unpacking. At surface level 1 CP to MAYBE impact an enemy unit feels a bit meh, but Orks have so much AP 1 and 2 and are themselves relatively fragile, so there are going to be times when being able to shut off an enemy armour of contempt, interrupt, or -1 damage is quite appealing. It can also do away with tedious enemy ‘run-away’ tools that might stand between you and hitting them repeatedly in the head with a bit of metal. This alone makes it a nice sneaky play to have in the locker, but whether you are willing to roll the dice on a Battleshock test will be a question of taste and urgency. I’d say it would help swing objectives for the primary but you play Orks, you know how you swing objectives for the primary, and it ain’t through cute leadership tricks…

Dakkastorm gives a SPEED FREEKZ unit [SUSTAINED HITS 1] in shooting, or [SUSTAINED HITS 2] if they are within 9 of an opponent. This is no joke with the number of shots Koptas and Bikes can be throwing out, and I really like the overall feel encouraged here or the Kult flying in hard and close and unleashing a withering hail of fire.

Blitza Fire works in similar fashion, but instead applies [LETHAL HITS] to your shooting, with critical hits on 5s if you are within 9. A very nice option for punching up into tougher targets that would normally be difficult for S9 or S5 shooting to manage. You are NOT allowed to stack this with Dakkastorm, highlighting an admirable appreciation from G Dubs of just how scary this combo might have been, so typically you are either skewing into volume or lethals depending on the target in question. As long as you have CP, you’re going to have some nice output.

Full Throttle gives a SPEED FREEKZ unit plus 1 to wound if they charged that turn in combat. Very tasty for running things over or helping your smaller units punch up into a wounded vehicle or monster, and it feels like the tool for finishing the job if your bullets or rockets haven’t quite managed it yet…

Finally, More Gitz Over Ere! Gives you a 6 inch reactive move when an enemy unit comes within 9 for a SPEED FREEKZ unit. A bit like the enhancements for the Wartrike, how useful this is is going to be shaped heavily by terrain, but being able to stash some Deffkoptas back behind cover, or push Bikers aggressively to block the space as the opponent comes towards you is definitely going to have application, and it is one of those tools you can always count on the opponent tripping over at some stage.

A really good suite of tools on offer here that turn promising datasheets (Koptas especially, with stretch potential on some of the Ork planes) into much more deadly prospects. That this isn’t even the first shooting or pressure option you might look to is a real reflection on the depth of the book, and I think you can compete and have a LOT of fun with this if you truly do have an itch  that only speed can scratch…

Dread Mob

If you like unstable technology, but want to smash stuff rather than go fast, the Dread Mob is where you want to be. This detachment is all about Mekz, their appallingly dangerous creations, and the hapless grots that crew them, and can unleash some hilarious high-risk combos on the battlefield.

Detachment Rule – Try Dat Button!

This Detachment’s rule (like most of what’s in it) applies to ORKS WALKER, GROTS VEHICLE and MEK units, with the latter encompassing any unit you can Lead with a Mek or Big Mek. That last part is important, as it’s a surprisingly broad list – Big Mekz can lead Boyz, Lootas and Nobz (plus Mek Gunz, who already qualify but can benefit from some Enhancements here), in mega armour they can lead Meganobz, and the regular Mek sneaks in compatibility with Tankbustas as well.

If you are one of these units, then each time you are selected to Shoot or Fight you roll a d6 for one of three random effects to apply to those attacks – either Sustained Hits 1, Lethal Hits or +2AP on a Critical Wound. Alternatively, if you know what you need in the moment you can pick your effect – but at a price of your weapons becoming Hazardous.

“Aha”, I hear you say – lots of Ork weapons are Hazardous anyway, so surely for those I just always pick my option? The designers thought of that – if you are playing this detachment, then if a weapon ever has Hazardous from multiple sources, you fail the test on rolls of 1 or 2, not just 1. Mercifully it doesn’t increase beyond that, because in this detachment you absolutely can get up to triple Hazardous on some units.

This is a pretty strong ability, making all of your on-theme units quite a bit more dangerous, and giving you some adaptability against foes with specific characteristics. It’s also the best straight shooting buff that any of the detachments hand out, so if you like dakka, this is the one for you. It does also create some very Orky trade-offs, because throwing too many Hazardous tests around starts to create a real risk of your army evaporating, but the temptation – oh the temptation (particularly as the AP option is notably less potent than the other two).

Tactics-wise, the fundamentals to remember here are the same as always when working with the choice between Lethal and Sustained, where the short version is:

• Sustained is better when your Wound rolls are easy/re-roll powered, you’re facing a horde, or if you need to fish for a big high variance swing.
• Lethal is better when your Wound rolls are hard, or if you need reliability.
• Hit re-rolls amplify these characteristics, and are great with Critical Hit effects in general.

The AP boost is much less predictable (especially as there are almost no compatible ways to get Wound re-rolls), and there probably aren’t that many situations where it’s the right pick, but if you’re up against something where the target is going to be saving on a 2+ after applying your regular AP (e.g. Lootas shooting at a Land Raider in Cover) it can help chip a bit through. Anywhere other than that it can be enough of a dud compared to the other options that you might choose to take the risk of Hazardous instead.

Finally – while this is clearly “the shooting detachment”, don’t forget this applied to melee as well. This is obviously important for Meganobz and Killa Kanz, but Lethal Hits in particular can really help a unit get some chip damage through in a fight that they don’t really want to be in.

Detachment Rule – Gretchin

Gretchin become Battleline in this detachment. That’s genuinely pretty neat – if you need a lot of bodies to send to their violent deaths, you get them a bit easier here than anywhere else

Enhancements

Two straight buffs and two slightly wackier options here, all restricted to MEK models.

The buffs are good quality and priced to move: You have the Gitfinder Gogglez, providing Ignores Cover for a bargain basement 10pts (fantastic on Lootas) and the Smoky Gubbinz for a still-very-attractive 15pts to provide Stealth, great for either making Meganobz a complete nightmare to shift or protecting your Mek Gunz. It seems very likely you end up taking both of these a lot of the time.

Over on weird and wacky, your first option is Press it Fasta!, which interacts with the Detachment rule and lets you roll 2d6 rather than 1d6 on the table, getting both effects if you roll two different ones (no benefit if you roll a duplicate). Note that you do have to roll for this – you can’t take it and pick two. This is pretty funny, and when you hit Lethal and Sustained you’re going to see some serious shit, but at its fairly hefty 35pts price tag, it should probably let you re-roll a duplicate. The last choice is also a fancy dud – the Supa-Glowy Thing lets you pick a unit within 18” and visible to the bearer at the start of your Command Phase, and apply one of three effects at random, either some Mortal Wounds, a Battle-shock test or -1 to Hit till your next turn. This is just too random to be a serious pick given the positional setup it requires, and needed to let you pick the effect at the cost of taking a Hazardous test.

The overall verdict, then, is that you’re definitely taking the Gogglez (because if you have no use for them at 10pts, why are you taking this detachment?), very probably the Smoky Gubbinz then maybe Press it Fasta! if you like to live explosively.

Stratagems

So you know how we mentioned the option of triple Hazardous earlier? That’s where the Stratagems come in. Most of the offensive buffs here provide you with an option of an extra effect if you choose to Push It, adding Hazardous as the price.

In two of the three cases, you’re going to do that pretty much all the time, as the big payoff is in the Push It part of the equation. Happily for the first of these, Klankin’ Klaws, the risk is fairly minimal (except for Killa Kanz), as it’s a powerful melee buff for Walkers and most are only ever going to swing with a single weapon. The regular mode adds +2 to S, while the pushed mode also adds +1D which uh, yes please. A regular Deff Dread with this is a nightmare to face, and the bigger walkers like Morkanauts and Gorkanauts can access the rare joys of a D3 Sweep attack. It’s also extremely good with the mid-sized Forge World (the Meka and Mega), and in general this detachment is a great place to play with your unusual resin toys. All-claw Deff Dreads as a counter-charge threats seems very plausible thanks to this.

The other two risky tricks apply to shooting, the first being Dakka! Dakka! Dakka! for Walkers or Grot Vehicles. This is good clean fun – re-roll hits of 1, or full hit re-rolls if you push. Fantastic for Mek Gunz, and at least gets you seriously looking at the Morkanaut datasheet, because “full hit re-rolls” was very much the answer to the question of what it needed to be decent.

The final push buff is the exceptional Bigga Shells for Bigga Gitz, which can apply to Walkers, Grot Vehicles or Mek units. That last one there means Lootas and hoo boy – this gives +1 to Wound when Shooting a Vehicle/Monster for the regular effect, and tacks on +1D as well for the push effect. That’s some dakka, right there, especially if you’ve given the unit Ignores Cover and take advantage of their native hit re-rolls. It’s also just fine on a unit of Kanz or a Morkanaut, and in those cases don’t forget you can combo it with the previous – these all cost 1CP, so go wild.

If you need said Morkanaut in prime firing position, or want a Stompa to ominously approach the foe, you can use Superfueled Boiler to provide an Advance re-roll and Assault for a turn to a Walker. Not always what you need, but good to have access to.

The last two choices are more defensively focused, but they’re still goodies. Extra Gubbinz provides the always very good effect of -1D against Shooting for a Walker or Grot Vehicle unit, though sadly excludes TITANIC (so your Morkanaut is still vulnerable). This is ultra strong on Killa Kanz, Grot Tanks or Mek Gunz, making all of them a huge pain to shoot off the table, and is also another reason why I think there’s a possible place for a Meka Dread here, as it’s the biggest Walker that is compatible with this.

Last, but probably not least, you remember all those Gretchin you can take? Conniving Runts gives them a good reactive move with upside, which is wild – for 1CP, when an opponent ends a move within 9”, they can make a full Normal Move and on a 4+ your opponent’s unit suffers d3+1 Mortal Wounds. Absurdly annoying to play into, and very handy for dancing behind a wall while cackling.

Love this overall – big dakka, big clanky Dreads, what’s not to enjoy?

Green Tide

The Green Tide detachment is exactly what is on the box. A detachment focused around bringing a bunch of Boyz. Do you remember fondly the days of bringing 100+ Boyz and pushing them around the table? Then look no further, this detachment is for you.

Detachment Rule – Mob Mentality

The detachment rule MOB MENTALITY is kind of interesting. BOYZ units get a 5+ invulnerable save all the time (sidenote: only the Boyz unit has the BOYZ keyword, sorry Beast Snaggas), and any units with 10 or more models can reroll 1s for saving throws. Having a 5+ invulnerable save all the time, not just on your Waaagh turn is a pretty big boost in durability for Boyz having to face any sort of AP, so while it doesn’t synergize with Waaagh very well, it shores up those other turns.

As far as the rerolling 1s to save is concerned, on face value for the 5+/5++ on Boyz, the overall increase isn’t very big durability wise (1/18 success rate). However there are some interesting applications when you look at units that have a better save.

Like MANZ (Meganobz for those not in the know). A 2+ save, that rerolls 1s, oooooo boy, better hit them with some AP. But wait, you can’t have a unit of MANZ that is 10 or more…. why are we even considering this? Well there is an enhancement that enables this, which we will get into in the next section.

Enhancements

One thing to mention before we delve too deep into these enhancements, is that they all must be on Ork Infantry models, which is appropriate given the detachment concept, but something to keep in mind.

There are 4 enhancements here, which are fairly varied. Ferocious Show Off gives the bearer +1S and jumps to +3S if the unit is 10 models or more (this is gonna be a theme fyi). This does hit some relevant breakpoints on a Warboss – it jumps the claw from S10 to S13 if you get the full bonus, which is a world of difference into plenty of real targets. If you choose to give the Brutal But Kunnin’ enhancement to a character, in the command phase if they are on the table (or in a transport, neat), roll a d6. On a 5+ you get 1CP, if they are in a unit of 10 or more, on a 3+ you get 1CP instead. CP generation can be very impactful, especially if you have designs on playing Fixed Secondaries, though for 25pts it’s a bit rough – you could just take another unit of Grots for not that much more

Bloodthirsty Belligerence gives the unit reroll advances, and reroll charges if the unit has 10 or more models. This is a little middling, I think, but still something. Wings: It’s good to be able to add this for points when Tide of Muscle exists in the detachment.

Now to touch upon what we briefly discussed in the detachment, Raucous Warcaller, makes it so while this model is leading a unit, they count as having 10 or more models for the detachment rule and stratagem use. So slap this on a Big Mek in mega armour or Warboss in mega armour, throw them in a unit of MANZ, and enjoy the absolute hilarity of a unit that’s functionally immune to anything without AP..

Stratagems

Onto Green Tide stratagems, one thing that is kind of weird (but I guess makes sense?) is that all 6 of these stratagems can only target BOYZ units. So as funny as the MANZ unit we talked about before is, you won’t have detachment stratagems to use on it (though you can still use Take Cover to extend your essential invulnerability to stuff with AP-1 as well).

Starting with the detachment stratagems, Competitive Streak looks pretty damn cool. In the fight phase this gives a BOYZ unit reroll 1s to wound for 1CP and if they are 10 or more models they can reroll all wound rolls. Rerolling all wound rolls is pretty cool, especially with a Warboss hanging out in the unit. Love it.

Oh, this next stratagem brings up something I had forgotten even to highlight. So you know how 20+ model melee units have a hard time getting every model in range to swing? Since you need to be within 1″ engagement or base to base with a friendly model that is base to base with an enemy model. Well Bulldover Brutality has you covered. For 1CP on a BOYZ unit, models in that unit that get within 3″ of an enemy model that the unit is already in engagement range with, can make attacks. So it is way easier to get all 20 models within 3″ of enemy models, so way easier to get all those lovely attacks.

So by now you have noticed that most of these bonuses get better when the unit has 10 or more models in it, what if I told you there was a stratagem just to ensure that? For 1CP in the command phase, Braggin’ Rights lets you choose 2 BOYZ units within 6″ of each other, both count as 10 or more models until the start of your next command phase, for the Detachment rule, enhancements and stratagems.

Ok ok, what is better than 100+ Boyz that don’t want to die? How about some of them getting back up? Come On Ladz! makes it so for 1CP in the command phase, you can return D3+2 models (excluding characters) to a BOYZ unit. 3-5 Boyz for 1CP doesn’t seem like much of a gain, except since it happens in the command phase, you can use this to flip objectives before you would score them, and lower potential charge distances (all models have to be placed in coherency with models that were there at the start of the phase, so it is only coherency + a 32mm base, but that is like a 3″ gain.)

Next is a late game hero. Tide Of Muscle for 1CP in the charge phase on a BOYZ unit, gives a bonus to the charge roll equal to the battle round number. So enjoy +5 to charge on turn 5? Hah. Too bad you can still only declare a charge vs enemy units within 12″, but this makes having a Weirdboy unit lurking in your back lines for a key moment very threatening.

Last on the docket for stratagems is Go Get Em!. This is kind of neat, in your opponents shooting phase, for 1CP use this stratagem when a BOYZ unit is selected as a target. After those attacks are resolved, that BOYZ unit can move D6″, or 6″ if that unit has 10 models or more. The unit must end the move as close as possible to the closest enemy unit, and this does let you move into engagement range with that unit. This can be pretty huge if your opponent is unable to stay outside of 7″ from a unit of Boyz after they finish moving, and even if they can, now your opponent has to take that into consideration when positioning their stuff. Orks going Khorne Berzerker mode is big and clever..

This detachment has a lot to offer Ork enjoyers that want to run a ton of Boyz and incentivizing bringing Boyz kind of brings some of the traditional Ork characters back into the spotlight. I think you will definitely want 2 or more Warbosses, plus Painboyz to go with them (Units of 20 Boyz can have a Warboss and another leader), and Weirdboyz are definitely back on the menu. Somehow I missed how scary the Precision shooting attack from a Weirdboy is, like sure it is an Ork shooting attack (at BS4+ though!), but if that attack is from within in a 20 model Boyz unit, that is 5 flat damage, which is enough to handle almost any enemy support character. I think people will really enjoy what this detachment brings to the table and I am really excited to see it in action.

Bully Boyz

Bully Boyz is all about da biggest and da baddest Orks around – Nobz, Meganobz and Warbosses. The Detachment’s stratagems are restricted to the two flavours of Nobz, but it brings a very powerful detachment ability that extends to any unit lead by a Warboss as well, meaning that as long as you’re ready to play bosshammer, there’s lots to like here.

Detachment Rule – Da Boss is Watching

Double Waaagh! That’s right – as long as you have at least one Warboss either on the Battlefield (or in a Transport that’s on the Battlefield) you can call a Waaagh a second time, with the caveat that it only applies to NOBZ, MEGANOBZ and WARBOSS units. If you’re running this detachment you’re likely going to be focusing on Nobz anyway, but it’s worth noting that you can get the Warboss keyword into bricks of Bikers (via a Deffkilla Trike) or (even better) Squighog Boyz, as Squigosaur bosses are now Leaders with this keyword. Including some of those two units can create a pretty nightmarish pressure build, as they’ve got the speed to be in the opponent’s face ASAP, and Squighogs are a nightmare to kill at the best of times. It also means if you want to pack some Beast Snaggas in transports as a value trade piece, you’re good as long as you add a Beastboss.

Enhancements

The Enhancements here are very focused on buffing up your Nobz units, all except one being restricted to INFANTRY WARBOSS units.

The one that isn’t is even further restricted – it’s a Tellyporta, which is for a Mega Armoured Warboss only. As you can probably guess, this gives the bearer’s unit Deep Strike, and yeah that’s incredibly good on Meganobz, especially in this detachment. Meganobz new and improved Waaagh ability is that they get a 4+ Feel No Pain while it’s active, so with this on a unit you can wait till it’s Waaagh time, Rapid Ingress them, and then spend two full turns rampaging around on max power. Great when you do it, and a horrifying threat for opponents to try and play around, really putting the fear of Gork into them, and well worth 25pts.

Next, and extremely uncomplicated, is Da Biggest Boss, giving an INFANTRY WARBOSS an extra 2W for 15pts. Not necessary, but find to use up a few points on, and particularly good on a regular Warboss, as if they can use this to hang on in combat into your second Waaagh turn, they throw out a lot of hurt. You also might consider just taking a regular Warboss with this solo in this detachment, perhaps as an extra passenger in a Trukk, as they’re a fairly nasty missile.

If you want some extra killing power, ‘Eadstompa is your option here, providing the model with re-roll 1s to Wound against targets below Starting Strength, and full wound re-rolls against one that’s below Half Strength. Effects like this always risk being a little underwhelming, as you don’t always have great control over when they’re active, but this is at least very cheap, and combos well with the fact that regular Warbosses have GRENADES. For a regular Warboss going into elite infantry with 9A on a Waaagh turn, this can be very worthwhile to switch on. Beastbosses need to find another way to tee it up (maybe a tank shock from their Trukk), but, it’s handy if they’re charging a Vehicle – you only need to chip one wound off to switch this on, and even at RR1s it’s handy with Anti 4+ and Devastating Wounds, and late game they can become a very effective cleanup tool.

Finally, if you want a scary boss you get Big Gob, which lets you force one enemy unit within Engagement Range of the bearer to take a Battle-shock test at -1 at the start of the Fight Phase. This is swingy but potentially powerful; melee with Orks is exactly when opponents are likely to want to pop some stratagems, and denying this can create a massive swing. It also lines up well with the high-pressure nature of this detachment – when you smash into the enemy on a go turn, this can disrupt their plans to reclaim objectives from you. Do just remember that the Engagement Range happens at the start of the Fight Phase (so before Pile In) and is for the bearer, not the unit, so your boss with this should lead from the front to ensure that you trigger it on your turn, and counter-charging enemies are forced to base them and get yelled at.

Other than Tellyporta these are fine rather than spectacular but they’re also cheap enough that you can use up some floating points with them and be pretty happy.

Stratagems

All of these are for NOBZ and MEGANOBZ only, and all cost 1CP.

First up, some good clean fun from Armed to Da Teef, providing re-roll 1s to hit when shooting or fighting, or full re-rolls if a Waaagh is up. This is obviously fantastic for Meganobz when the Waaagh is up, as it massively mitigates their WS4+, and same goes for klaw Nobz. In theory you could use this to fish for a bit of extra output from guns if you’ve got CP to spare, but you probably don’t.

Next, fighting (or shooting) on death with Too Arrogant to Die, either on a 5+ regularly or 3+ when a Waaagh is active. Not as reliable as Orks is Never Beaten but only being 1CP makes a huge difference, as you will always have the option to threaten it on the opponent’s turn. Fine for keeping the pressure on.

There’s a nasty one-two combo next in Always Lookin’ Fer a Fight and Cut ‘Em Down. The former triggers when you destroy an enemy unit in the Fight Phase, allowing you to consolidate either d3+3” or (if the Waaagh is up) 6”, helping you get into your next combat. Cut ‘Em Down then triggers if an enemy falls back, forcing Desperate Escape tests for the whole unit, at -1 if the Waaagh is up. That is extremely no joke – with the -1 version, that kills half a unit for 1CP, and is going to make falling out of combat a scary choice for valuable single models – even if they CP the test, there’s still a 25% chance they just die. Definitely neat.

Big Orks love charging, as everyone knows, and the next stratagem here lets them brutally headbutt their foes as they come in. Crushing Impact does a Mortal on a 5+ (or 4+ with Waaagh) for each of your models that makes Engagement, and a few extra chip wounds can sometimes be what you need, though it does feel like you’ll sometimes struggle with the positioning to get the maximum value.

Finally, rude opponents love to shoot your valuable Orks, and Hulking Brutes can mitigate that, subtracting 1 from incoming AP. This is obviously at its best on Meganobz, particularly if they’re in cover, as regular Nobz are never going to have fantastic saves even with this.

Taken together, there’s some hilarious pressure combos in this detachment, and it’s potentially very overwhelming to try and deal with. I suspect it’s probably going to end up lower down the tier list just because there are other ways to achieve similar goals, but I’m not completely counting it out either – double Waaagh with max Meganobz, Trukk Nobz and some Squighogs might prove enough of a crushing blow to create something real.

Datasheets

Orks have a lot of datasheets, partially a consequence of them getting decent-sized releases in 8th and 9th. Just one new datasheet this time around, but plenty of other tweaks to dig into alongside it (plus a few tragic departures to the big resin graveyard in the sky).

New Datasheets

Just one entirely new datasheet here – the fancy new Big Mek with his fancy mech suit. This guy has a surprisingly large amount going on, with a couple of different possible use cases. He’s a Leader that can join Boyz, Nobz, Mek Gunz or Lootas, and provides his unit with some good additional dakka and a couple of benefits. The “boring” one is re-roll 1s to hit while shooting, which is fine (but also available from the Shokk Attack Gun Mek, but the more exciting one is his Shokk Boosta. This lets his unit re-roll their Advances, and move through models and terrain features when executing a Normal Move, Advance or Fall Back.

This is genuinely pretty interesting with a mob of Boyz or Nobz, as it can help ensure they hit combat on your Waaagh turn, and it helps here that the Mek is no slouch in combat in his own right, packing either a nasty D3 drilla or a power klaw. In most builds you probably wouldn’t displace a Warboss for this, but you might choose to in Dread Mob, as you get the Mek keyword in addition to the other benefits, and if you’re going for a 20-model Boyz unit then one of these and a Warboss is big money.  It does also have the fairly funny impact of letting Mek Gunz no-clip through a wall, which is held back from being great by them not having Assault, and their 3” regular move not being enough to clear a wall. It does still help a lot if you find yourself with them out of position and want to move to new sight lines. Overall, this datasheet is a lot of fun – there are quite a few places you could imagine slotting him in, without him necessarily being wildly better than any existing options.

Updated Datasheets

Units that you’d expect (Buggies, Bikes and Jets) get the SPEED FREEKS  keyword added, and all flavours of Mek get the MEK keyword.

Bosses

• Ghazghkull gets a very dangerous sweep attack, giving him 12A at S8 AP-2 D2. He also gives the unit he’s leading Critical Hits on a 5+ during the Waaagh! Makes a good model even better!
• The Warboss in Mega Armour gets a change to their Waaagh ability – instead of a 4+ Feel No Pain (which they’ll get from accompanying Meganobz anyway) their axe goes up to D3. Very welcome, and good in Bully Boyz where you’ll want one of these with Tellyporta (elsewhere probably still takes a back seat to either Ghaz or a Big Mek).
• The Big Mek with Shokk Attack Gun can join Nobz now. You won’t, but you could.
• Beastbosses gain a wound, no longer being slightly squishier than their regular counterparts.
• Beastbosses on Squigosaurs get a significant revamp. They’re less turbo durable than they used to be, losing wounds, toughness and going to a 5+ Feel No Pain but they’re now Leaders, able to join Squighog Boyz and handing them a handy +1” to their charges. They’re also as choppy as ever, and their ability to use Heroic Intervention an extra time now makes it completely free as well! Finally, they’re also MOUNTED rather than MONSTERs now, so don’t give up double points on Bring It Down/Assassinate, and are generally less vulnerable to Anti effects.
• Mozrog gets a similar set of changes, but keeps his fairly terrifying output, and now makes his unit Fight On Death on 4+, making them even more of a pain to deal with.
• Zodgrod gets a tiny change to add Anti-Monster 4+ on his pistol. Sure, why not.

• Boss Snikrot gets a very welcome improvement, gaining Lone Operative. This closes a gap in the Ork range, and it’s particularly good on a model that can teleport around the table once per game, and probably beat most enemy Lone Ops in a fight. This won’t apply if he joins a unit, but can occasionally be clutch if he holds on after his Boyz die. He does also gain the Smoke keyword, but uh, it doesn’t really do anything since he already has Stealth and provides Cover to his unit. I guess if he’s on his own and you really want Cover go wild. Anyway, the Lone Op change is huge money here.

As well as changes, some old favourites say goodbye. RIP to some resin ones.

• Kaptin Badruk, probably the most impactful as without him Flash Gitz struggle.
• Boss Zagstruk
• Boss Nob with Waaagh Banner
• Mad Dok Grotsnik
• Nob on Smasha Squig, who now gets folded into Squighogs.

Ladz

• Gretchin get the tiny nerf that their CP generation doesn’t work if they’re Battle-shocked.
• Boyz get sticky objectives instead of their old, mostly irrelevant Breakin’ Headz ability. Hell yeah.
• Nobz get their -1 to Wound normalised so it only works against weapons with higher S than their T.
• Meganobz swap out their Devastating Wounds during the Waaagh for Feel No Pain 4+ in your key turn, which feels way better – they’re already killy, this makes them tough against counter-attacks.
• Burna Boyz and Lootas now cap at 10 models.

• Stormboyz get an improvement to their Full Throttle ability – it no longer risks Mortal Wounds, and lets them Fall Back/Charge as well as Advance/Charge.
• Squighog Boyz get their Smasha Nobz folded into the unit, and you get two if you go full size. The Nobz are also a little less scary than they were, but having four wounds means you can get clever with where you put multi-damage weapons sometimes.
• Kommandos get the SMOKE keyword if you really want cover in the open.
• Tankbustas don’t change, but are surprisingly still here!

Klank

• Battlewagons get a few gun tweaks – the Killcannon is slightly worse, the Kannon is slightly better, and the Zzap gun is a lot funnier, getting more reliable strength, Anti-Vehicle 4+ and flat 5 damage (though no more Devastating Wounds).
• Deff Dreads get S12 on their melee, a very welcome boost that makes them a serious threat to Vehicles and T6 3W Marines/Custodes models alike.
• Killa Kanz get a significant improvement to the grotzooka option (now natively Ignores Cover and AP-1) and see a change to their Shooty Power Trip – it’s now riskier, dealing the unit d6 Mortal Wounds if you roll a 1 or 2, but has spicier upsides – if you roll a 3 or 4 your guns get +1S, while on a 5 or 6 it’s +1A.
• Mek Gunz get one extra shot on the smasha gun option, slightly worse AP on the Kustom Mega Cannon option, and a tweak to their Splat ability so that it keys off a target being at Starting Strength rather than 10+ Models.
• Rukkatrukk Squigbuggies get less effective at killing from behind a wall, losing their +1 to Hit against Infantry, but instead get a useful utility ability, which is that on a 4+ they inflict -2” to Move, Advance and Charge on a target (excluding Monsters & Vehicles).
• The Boomdakka Snazzwagon’s debuff aura no longer applies to VEHICLES and MONSTERS.
• The Kill Rig loses Firing Deck (extremely whatever) and gains a small buff to its harpoon – if it hits an enemy Monster/Vehicle then Charges, it cannot be Overwatched. Not usually a huge deal, but occasionally clutch against something like the Avatar that can spike via an ability.
• The Hunta Rig drops to Firing Deck 11 and loses its old Bail Out Boyz ability, but gains a new one that should really be called Krumpin’ Deck – you can add up to 6A to its Butcha Boyz weapon by having passengers aboard (one per passenger). I fondly look forward to the Discourse about whether this does anything, since Extra Attacks weapons can theoretically never have their number of Attacks modified (to be clear, you should obviously play this as if it works as written).
• The Mekboy Workshop is gone. Tragic.

New Ways to Use Units

As should generally be the way for 10th Edition Codexes, plenty of the detachments here incentivise a bunch of units with the relevant Keywords. Any Speed Freeks, Beast Snagga or Dread Mob-compatible unit needs a second look thanks to the arrival of these detachments, and some particular standouts in that regard appear to be:

• Deffkoptas in Speed Freeks, they’re in the sweet spot for most of the interactions.
• The Wazbom looks like it could just about be OK as fire support in Speed Freeks – it sucks that you can’t get it within 9” the turn it arrives, but it’s pretty threatening nonetheless. (Lowest of Men: when I say Rapid, you say Ingress…)
• Killa Kanz, Mek Gunz and Grot Tanks are buck wild in Dread Mob, just great value for the threat they present.
• Lootas with a Mek in Dread Mob feel like they probably are a real unit.
• Big Hunt may as well be the Squighog detachment.
• Kill Rigs are particularly fun in a Big Hunt, they benefit from quite a few different aspects of it.

There’s honestly more than that out there too – as a rule of thumb, if your favourite unit has been stuck on the shelf, identify the detachment you’re supposed to be taking them in, and give them a try!

More widely:

• Ghaz is grumpier and krumpier than ever. He’s exceptional in War Horde where you’ve always got Sustained, and still scary everywhere else – adding a Sweep makes him so much more flexible.
• Boyz getting sticky objectives means that adding one unit to many builds is a lot more appealing. The new Big Mek is also a pretty potent option to tag team with a Warboss in a big squad. Alternatively, stick a Weirdboy in, lock down your home objective, then teleport somewhere annoying.
• Meganobz are incredible in a number of different builds – adding durability on a krunch turn is exactly what they needed. Meganobz stonks up.
• Zodgrod’s Supa Grots feel like they’ll show up more – their actual rules haven’t changed, but they were already low-key very good, and they’re flexible and powerful unit that doesn’t rely on any particular detachment traits to work, so probably show up as glue in more places.
• Solo Snikrot will show up in a few places now he’s an actual Lone Operative option (though his Codex price isn’t cheap, so it’ll depend where the final points land).
• Stormboyz are even better utility pieces, and can work as forward pressure pieces now too.
• Kommandos offer crucial forward deploy for an army that is definitely vulnerable to being move blocked before it can get going.
• Plenty of detachments incentivise Transports, so Trukks and Battlewagons continue to be very valuable.

How They Will Play

Overwhelmingly – it’s what Orks do. This book gives you a whole tonne of ways to make your opponent very nervous indeed. It could be a wall of Cavalry, a horde of Boyz or loads of clanking Kanz – whatever you’re doing, you can put the opponent under incredible pressure and hopefully give them enough of a kicking that they never recover. That’s not always going to work, but you have plenty of strong scoring pieces as well, which you can use to convert an early lead into a resounding victory. Orks are, after all, never beaten.

Example Army Lists

As is standard, for putting these together we’ve used current MFM points for anything where there aren’t mandatory changes to unit composition, and codex points for anything where there’s been a change (which here is mostly Squighog Boyz and the new Big Mek). It does seem pretty likely that Squigosaur Bosses will change to be closer to the Codex points as well, given their change in role, but we don’t know for sure yet.

Anyway – lists.

Wings’ Big Hunt

Squighogs – Squighogs for days.

Characters

Beastboss on Squigosaur, Glory Hog – 195

Beastboss on Squigosaur, Surly as a Squiggoth – 185

Mozrog – 195

Beastboss, Proper Killy -115

Beastboss – 100

Weirdboy – 55

Battleline

Beast Snaggas – 105

Beast Snaggas – 105

Boyz 85

Other

8 Squighogs 300

4 Squighogs 150

4 Squighogs 150

Stormboyz 65

Stormboyz 65

Trukk 65

Trukk 65

2000pts

I mean look, this is pretty obvious. Smash people with Squighogs. Lots of Squighogs. The Scout unit puts some hefty early pressure on, and the Surly squad is an absolute wall-to-wall nightmare to put down. Supporting them, you get some nice skirmishing pieces, and the set up for flumoxing people with Where D’Ya Fink You’re Going? I really like a unit of Boyz with a Weirdboy to round Ork lists out, stickying your home objective then threatening to Jump to any exposed ones and repeat is a nice headache for the opponent to deal with.

Wings’ Dread Mob

Characters

Big Mek, KMB, Drilla, Smoky Gubbinz – 95

Big Mek, KMB, Drilla, Gitfinda Gogglez – 90

Big Mek in Mega Armour – 85

Weirdboy – 55

Zodgrod -80

Snikrot – 85

Battleline

Boyz – 85

20 Grots – 80

Grots – 40

Grots – 40

Other

Stormboyz 65

10 Lootas 100

5 Meganobz, Custom Shootas, Claws 150

6 Killa Kanz, Rokkits 250

6 Killa Kanz, Rokkits 250

3 Mek Gunz, Smashas 120

Deff Dread, Claws 130

Deff Dread, Claws 130

Trukk 65

1995pts

Now, I will freely admit that, with dreary predictability, the best way to use Dread Mob is probably just to spam as many Kanz and Grot Tanks as possible, but for a review like this I’m always more interested in showing some of the units that get new combo opportunities from a codex, and Forge World isn’t real anyway.

Here, we’ve got two units of Kanz as your solid core, Deff Dreads as a nasty counter-charge piece (remember that they can go Hazardous with minimal risk because they’re only ever using one weapon, even if they get a bunch of bonus attacks from the others being there), and Lootas and Mek Gunz with appropriately tooled big Meks for heftier shooting, one or both of them probably coming out of Strategic Reserves.

Final Thoughts

Lowest of Men: I had a hunch going into the new edition that Orks would really suit the 10th detachment way of doing things, as they have a huge range, a lot of flavour and very distinct themes across the units. This book delivers on that in incredible style, giving a genuine Ork collector with a big shelf of Green lads an almost endless number of combinations to experiment with and try. All of the detachments lean into the true Ork playstyle – dominating space, denying board control and options to the opponent and creating enormous pressure with significant spikes of damage and durability hidden amongst the options available.

Points pending, this book is probably going to land a little bit too good, and will certainly take players time to adapt to playing against. As with Necrons (even more so in fact), there are more builds in here than can be easily countered all at once. The index already had Feel No Pains for days, and those options look even better in some of the builds that are now possible, with a few notable glow ups (MEGANOBZ). Crucially though, the suite of tools across this book should mean Ork players can adapt, change up and find new approaches constantly across the remainder of the edition, and for me this is what a good Codex should be delivering it’s long time playerbase. As for the Battlewagonerz, it’s going to be an expensive and time consuming few months…

Wings: I cannot stress enough how much I love this book. There’s so much cool stuff to do in here, and I’m pretty optimistic that it lands in a sensible-ish place on balance. Dread Mob lists spamming Kanz and Grot Tanks are the only thing that I’m very worried about out of the door, and because there are so many different interesting things going on there’s plenty of ways you can tune the points while still having lots of options for people to play with. Better yet, all of this feels Orky – even those Dread Mob builds are going to have to worry about the small possibility of their army just evaporating itself if they slam the dakka button a bit too hard, and plenty of units get tools that support using them in a way that feels right.

I normally try and compliment sandwich a bit here and talk about things I like less, even when I love a book, but there really not much for me to work with. There’s like, a small number of datasheets that probably needed a little tuning, and I think a couple of detachments could probably have been slightly less tightly coupled to a small subset of units (maybe a thematic stratagem each in Bully Boyz and Green Tide that’s usable more widely?), but these are pretty small gripes.

This book whips – it’s exactly what a 10th Edition Codex should be, Ork players are going to love it, and I hope lots more factions get rules of this quality going forwards.

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