Detachment Focus: War Horde (Updated August 3, 2024)

In this series of articles we take a deep dive into a specific detachment for a faction, covering the faction’s rules and upgrades and talking about how to build around that faction for competitive play. In this article, we’re covering the War Horde Detachment from Codex: Orks.

The Tenth Edition release of Codex: Orks gave the faction six Detachments to work with and while some of the other option were newer and flashier, there’s still a lot to be said for the updated version of the Index Detachment, War Horde. Its versatile army rule and Stratagems make it worth consideration, even with newer options available. Once again we’d like to thank “Warboss” Ben Jurek for stopping by to help write this and provide guidance.

Changelog

• Update: 2024-08-03 for the Q2 Balance updates and a new list
• Published: 2024-05-11

Detachment Overview

The War Horde Detachment was originally the Waaagh! Tribe in the Tenth Edition Index, and received a small update when it was ported to the Codex as the War Horde, with one solid buff and a slight debuff. When the faction caught some nerfs in the June 2024 balance updates, War Horde armies got hit, but mostly with glancing blows by things intended for the Bully Boyz and Green Tide detachments. War Horde armies don’t love the nerf to Meganobz, but they’re in roughly the same place they were before the nerfs as they weren’t really depending on Meganobz for their offensive output.

Detachment Rule: Get Stuck In!

Melee weapons equipped by ORKS models from your army have the [SUSTAINED HITS 1] ability.

This is as simple as rules get but it’s more powerful than it looks at first glance. Sure it’s not as flashy as the Bully Boyz or Green Tide abilities, but it’s plenty powerful in an army with a lot of attacks and unlike those abilities it’s both always on and applicable to any Ork unit. In general, that’s a big advantage of the War Horde – you have a lot of flexibility, with rules and Stratagems which work on nearly any model in the army. And there are a few areas where the ability combos nicely with specific units, most notably Ghazghkull. A War Horde answers many of the questions posed to an Ork army with the obvious answer of “just do more damage.”

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.

• Follow Me Ladz (25 points) – While the bearer is leading a unit, they get +2″ to their Move characteristic. Simple, but effective and great on Nobz to make them extra fast or something like a unit of Meganobz who otherwise move pretty slowly. Putting this on a disembarking boss or a Boss on a Squigosaur can mean they can close the distance pretty quickly.
• Headwoppa’s Killchoppa (20 points) – Melee weapons equipped by the bearer (excluding Extra Attacks weapons) have the [DEVASTATING WOUNDS] ability. This is neat but without a reliable way to re-roll wounds it’s pretty limited and variable in its output. Unlike the Beastboss’ datasheet ability (which requires a charge), you can rely on this any time you’re stuck in combat. This can be useful on Squigosaur bosses when you combine it with their ANTI-VEHICLE 4+ and ANTI-MONSTER 4+ melee attacks.
• Kunnin’ But Brutal (15 points) – While the bearer is leading a unit that unit is eligible to shoot and charge in a turn in which it Fell Back. Obviously doing a Fall Back and Shoot isn’t high on your list of priorities, but falling back and charging is, and that’s great for re-activating abilities like the Beastboss’ Devastating Wounds or just getting to fight first against a unit you’ve been stuck in combat with. A relatively tempting play is to pair this with the Big Mek’s Shokk-Boosta ability to move through models and terrain.
• Supa-Cybork Body (15 points) – The bearer has the Feel No Pain 4+ ability. Another simple one but often worth it at 15 points. Statistically doubles your wounds total – very solid on something like a Deffkilla Wartrike.

These are all more nice-to-haves than build-arounds, save maybe Follow Me Ladz, which does lend itself to creating one particularly nasty unit of fast killers.

Stratagems

The War Horde Stratagems offer support for a mix of different units, from Vehicles to Mobs, giving you a little bit of support for most of the units you’d want to bring.

• Careen! (Epic Dead, 1 CP) – Used in any phase on an Orks Vehicle with the Deadly Demise rule that was just destroyed and rolled a 6 for its ability. Your unit can make a Normal or Fall Back move before its Deadly Demise ability is resolved, and before any embarked units perform an Emergency Disembarkation. While you make that move you can move over enemy units (except MONSTERS and VEHICLES) as though they weren’t there. This is a fun little way to punish your opponents when they blow up one of your vehicles and while it’s waaaay too random to count on, it’s a good way to do some one-sided mortal wounds to the opponent when you can suddenly move 12″+ to crash into their lines. In the roughly 1 in 6 games where your Battlewagon dies you’ll have a chance at a very big swing.
• Orks is Never Beaten (Epic Deed, 2 CP) – Used in the Fight phase on an Ork unit picked as the target of an attack. Until the end of the phase, models in the destroyed unit can fight on death. It’s rare you see an ability that gives you a straight-up automatic fight on death, making it more powerful than most… but that power comes with an additional CP cost. This is great on Nobz and Meganobz as a way to really punish an opponent for trying to take the fight to you. In addition to the built-in army rule this makes it punishing to engage the army’s heavier-hitting units.
• Unbridled Carnage (Battle Tactic, 1 CP) – Used in the Fight phase to give an Orks unit Critical Hits on 5+. This is very good for triggering your War Horde Sustained Hits, and combos nicely with Makari’s [LETHAL HITS] aura during a Waaagh! When you pair this with any re-roll abilities such as the Monster Hunters ability on the Beast Snagga boyz you can produce some crazy results.
• ‘Ard as Nails (Battle Tactic, 1 CP) – Used in your opponent’s Shooting phase or the Fight phase on an Orks unit (but not a GROTS, MONSTER, or VEHICLE unit) that was selected as a target of an attack. Until the end of the phase, the attacking unit subtracts one from its wound rolls. This is just solid protection, and it’s great for keeping your more durable units on the table so they can krump. Note that this no longer works on MONSTERS so you can’t drop it on a Gargantuan Squiggoth. Meganobz and Squighot Riders are the preferred targets here, but this is generally useful overall.
• Mob Rule (Battle Tactic, 1 CP) – Used at the end of your Command phase on a MOB unit that has 10+ models and isn’t below Half-Strength. Pick a friendly Battle-shocked INFANTRY unit within 6″ of them and it’s no longer Battle-shocked. 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 favor at a key moment. A useful one to keep in mind, and another good reason to have at least one unit of basic Boyz kicking around to provide coverage.
• ‘Ere We Go (Battle Tactic, 1 CP) – Used at the start of your Movement phase to give an INFANTRY unit +2 to Advance and Charge rolls until the end of the turn. This is just solid fun and can combine with a Big Mek’s re-rolls to let you rocket across the table. The only downside is that it has to be used before Reinforcements arrive, so you can’t use it on a unit arriving from Reserves.

These are pretty solid, and they give you some good tools for getting the most out of your units. They don’t have the raw power some of the other Detachments’ Stratagems have, but they’re much more generally good. And unlike other Detachments these work on most units and don’t rely on the Army rule.

Playing This Detachment

The plan here is pretty simple: Krump your opponents in melee by burying them in attacks, facilitated in part by SUSTAINED HITS 1. In order to get the most out of this, you need Ghazghkull, who, during a Waaagh! gives his unit Crits on a 5+ and through Makari gives Ork units within 12″ [LETHAL HITS]. This creates a situation where, during your Waaagh! turn, your Nobz are putting out 4 attacks each and, with the help of Unbridled Carnage, delivering Sustained and Lethal hits on rolls of 5+. Ghaz will want company, and that usually means putting him with a unit of Meganobz. Currently lists run 5-6, but thanks to the Ork FAQ changing the capacity on Battlewagons, there’s a spot now to consider Ghaz with three Meganobz in a Battlewagon instead.

As for the rest of the army well, having a unit of Boyz or Beast Snagga Boyz is a good dea – you need some cheaper OC 2 holders, and the latter tend to be a better option since you can pair them with a Beastboss while you’re likely going to be taking three Warbosses and putting them elsewhere. And that elsewhere is specifically Nobz, who you’ll deck out with Power Klaws, attach to a Warboss, and put in Trukks. Nobz hit like a freight train in War Horde, and you can get a lot of value out of them without having to take a hundred models. This of course frees you up to spend points on other things like Stormboyz who can move around the table and do actions, or Flash Kitz, who can give you actual ranged firepower while not being bad in melee.

John Henry’s List – 2nd, TGX Warhammer 40,000 Event

John took this list to a 5-1, 2nd place finish at the 98-player TGX event in mid July. The list runs Ghaz and makes heavy use of Beast Snagga Boyz.

”The

This isn’t terribly different from the War Horde lists we were seeing before the balance update – in part because Snikrot was the only real change to the list, going up 10 points. This list runs Ghaz with a pair of Meganobz, two units of Nobz with Warbosses, and a third unit of Boyz with a Warboss, all embarked in Trukks (along with the unit of Flash Gitz for good measure). There are three units of Stormboyz to range around the table and either score secondary objectives or harass enemy units, and the Beast Snagga Boyz can do likewise, moving between objective holding and combat support as needed.

Final Thoughts

The War Horde may be older than these new upstart Ork Detachments, but it still has plenty of power for brutal yet kunnin’ warlords looking to run it. It’s the only Detachment where Ghazghkull is a must-take, and one of the most flexible when it comes to running whatever units you want to run. We expected to see the War Horde make a more powerful comeback after the balance updates and while that hasn’t happened – Bully Boyz still seem to have enough power to get there – it still packs just as hard a punch as it did before.

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