Campaigning Vs. Orks - Advice?

[ElectricPaladin]

Some of my first wins with the Blood Angels codex, back before I converted them into Knights of Blood were against Orks, so I'm feeling pretty confident about the narrative campaign I'm beginning against Orks next week. Nevertheless, I haven't faced Orks since before their current codex, so I'm eager to hear any advice my more senior brothers have to offer about how to best remove these green scum from the Emperor's galaxy. What units in our arsenal are best against Orks? What Ork models do I need to be looking out for?

 

The plot, by the way, is that a Knights of Blood strikeforce attempting to recover a fallen titan from an interdicted zone - a radical inquisitor is using my loyal renegades to get around the fact that ancient laws from immediately following the Heresy have prohibited Imperial forces from entering this area of space - will encounter a rogue Big Mek and his army. Ridiculous Orky tech will clash with the fury of Sanguinius's sons, and a Warlord titan awaits the winner... but then there is the matter of the Imperium's interdiction and the ancient secrets of these forbidden stars.

 

Ork on Blood Angel battles, escalating from Zone Mortalis to Apocalypse, with all sorts of weird battles in-between. Spearhead? City Fighting? Kill Team? Unique missions? DON'T MIND IF WE DO!!!

 

I'll be sure to post battle reports... but in the meantime, what do I need to know about the green tide to stand against it?

[TheSauce]

I love playing against orks. The models are fun and diverse, the rules are crazy, and they *usually* try to get up in your face in CC, which makes it all that much easier to get stuck into combat with them!

 

The new codex didn't stir too much up with the Orks, but there are definitely a few things to look out for.

 

Warbosses - tough mudders with S5 T5 base. Usually see them on a bike or in mega armor with a claw for 5 S10 attacks.

Nob Bikers - not as good as before, but still 2W T5 models with decent shooting and assault.

Lootas - tons of S7 shooting to glance down tanks, fliers, and put wounds on our troops.

Meganobs - 2+ save, 2W models with lots and lots of S8 attacks.

Tankbustas - boys with rocket lauchers and tank hunters special rule, they can lay out a ton of fire even with only bs2.

Painboys - independent character that gives feel no pain to the whole unit.

The Lucky Stick - crazy artifact that gives rerolls to a HQ (hits, wounds, saves) - the only restriction is that you can't fail 3 in a turn (or maybe phase?). One of these on a mega armour warboss is crazy good.

Battle wagons - Av 14/12/10 and can increase the range of charges for units inside by 2". with The Waagh orks can charge out of vehicles 6"+6"+d6"+2d6"+2" = 32" on perfect dice!

 

I think good anti-ork tactics revolve around volume of fire - baal predators, stormravens with hurricane bolters, dakka predators, etc. You also need a way to throw of S10 and or Ap2 attacks to take care of battle wagons, meganobs, and bikers.

 

Good luck!

[sockwithaticket]

I suppose one thing is, will it actually be green tide? i.e. is he bringing as many bodies as he can or is he going to wargear up?  What's the first battle going to be? No point suggesting tanks if you're going to be doing Zone Mortalis.
 

As BA being outnumbered is far from unusual, but against Orks you can be seriously outnumbered and until you thin them out the sheer number of dice they can throw means that you can be seriously outgunned, too. Unit to watch: Lootas. I've read a lot of battle reports where they can seriously put a dent in your plans, glancing armour to death with relative ease and forcing too many saves on your infantry for all of them to be successful.


If you want to keep that arms length then Dakka Baals, Destructor Preds, Missile devs are probably the most efficient killers as they can take out boyz and any accompanying armour with relative ease.

Of course the humble heavy bolter is pretty damned effective at wiping out boyz. A twin linked heavy bolter + missile launcher dread would be an interesting unit to try out.

If you want to thin the numbers from up close then assault squads with flamers + power maul sergeants should be a good bet alongside a LR Crusader or Redeemer full of DC + Chaplain. Fragioso with Heavy Flamer should be able to have some real fun.

The Tac squad can have a pretty effective anti-Ork load-out as bolters aren't exactly an Ork's best friend. Stick a flamer with them + a heavy bolter or missile launcher and that's going to have decent damage output. Fragioso with Heavy Flamer should be able to have some real fun.


TL:DR? Template and/or high rate of fire weapons with AP 4 - 5. Taking them out from afar is best as their numbers can be problematic in assault.

[walpurgisnacht]

Tycho?

[Shaezus]

Dreadnoughts. Frag cannons.

 

Expect to be scarily outnumbered, it's part of the unique fun of playing orks. Have always found dreads in pods work well against them, no matter what I support the dreads with.

 

The new rule on targeting passengers in transports means we can cause a right load of carnage if we catch them before they disembark.

[ElectricPaladin]

Tycho?

 

My counts-as-Tycho conversion is almost complete...

[Praefectus Invictus]

consider a imperial knight paladin after the zone mortalis. 2 strength 8 ordnance large blast shots is nothing to laugh at, plus stomp in close combat!

[ElectricPaladin]

consider a imperial knight paladin after the zone mortalis. 2 strength 8 ordnance large blast shots is nothing to laugh at, plus stomp in close combat!

Another model I've got to finish painting...

[ElectricPaladin]

What about the psychic phase? Are Orks the kind of army that I could easily dominate, and is it worth it? For example, I could bring an ML 2 librarian and a librarian dreadnought (also ML 2) in a 750 ZM game. Is that worth it? Or would I be better off with an ML 1 librarian and a furioso dreadnought?

 

Also, which psychic disciplines are best? Presumably Telepathy is worthless, with all their Fearlessness and pseudo-fearlessness. What's good?

[CaptainHelion]

If you're running a Witch-In-A-Box, I'd recommend Telekinesis. I find it gives Dreads the most possible punch of the options we have. Divination isn't so useful on a model that can't hide in units, Pyromancy is generally a bit mediocre, Telepathy is so-so for much the same reason as Divination, and Daemonology is something you need to build a list around entirely.

Telekinesis has pretty much all alright powers for  a Dread. Assail has strikedown, which is great to combo with Force to take on MC and other gribbly types, and is the primaris, so guaranteed if you want it to be. There's something to be said for a power you can rely on getting.

Crush is similarly useful, given the not unreasonable possibility of a high str and low ap hit. Average is s7, ap3/4, which is basically another autocannon shot. Not AMAZING, but good for plinking wounds and hull points off of MCs, gribblies, low AV vehicles like rhinos, and HQs.

Objuration Mechanicum. One warp charge to give an entire unit "Gets hot"? Yes please. Suddenly that mass squad of boyz is looking a lot less worrying, as they kill themselves half the time they manage to hit anything. The fact it gives ALL target vehicles in the unit a haywire hit is just gravy.

Shockwave. Hits every unit within 9" of the Dread 2d6 times. Even at s4 ap-, that's the possibility of a LOT of hits. And that's a 9" radius from a DREADNOUGHT base. That's a BIG circle you're hitting with. Also, pinning can be nice when it happens, of course.

Levitation. Basically Wings of Sanguinius reborn. Reborn and not as awesome. But a 12" move is nice for something that lacks mobility, whenever it happens.

Telekine Dome. 5+ Invuln for the psyker and unitls within 12". See Shockwave. 12" around a dread base is a LOT of coverage. And for a vehicle, a 5+ save of any sort is worth jumping at.

Psychic Malestrom. This is the only one that really makes me go 'eeeeh'. s10, ap1, large blast, barrage is AWESOME of course, but three warp charges and 12" range makes this a little too much 'eggs in a basket', if you know what I mean. Hard to get going, stats like that are gonna scare anyone into trying to deny is asap, and 12" range means you're basically throwing a nuke as a grenade. On the other hand, those stats are NASTY, and you have a reasonable chance at penning anything you do manage to hit, and it'll instagib anything T5 or less, which is nice.

[Demoulius]

One of my main opponents for a long while has been Orks :) I have however not played him yet with the new dex

Some things in general....

*Assault in Orks if you are in danger of beeing assaulted. While they have many attacks S3 is only so-so a danger against marines. Theyre dangerous on the charge and not very much while in extended combat.

*Nobs make the majority of kills in a combat. Try to challenge them and kill them before they cause to many wounds.

*Shoota boyz are probably more dangerous then slugga boyz. This is because their assault weapons have multiple attacks and theres alot of them. Sure theyre only BS2 but youd be suprised how many shots actually hit in combat they only have 1 attack less which is more then made up with the extra shooting that they did in the meantime.

*Gretchin holding an objective. This was my opponents favorite way of holding an obbjective. Have a unit of 10 gretchin with a runtherd stay out of sight and not move for the entire game. They might not kill anything but in any of the missions where objkectives were 3 points they basicly won him the game or forced draws as they dont move you quikly forget about them.

*Kans. Basicly cheap dreadnoughts. While underarmoured compared to dreads you shouldnt underrestimate them as they will kill marines just as easily in combat as normal dreadnoughts will. And units of up to 3 are nothing to sniff at. THeyre actually also a threat in the shooting phase....

*nobs. My opponent dident use them very much, but these can be very powerfull. Thing is though that it also makes them expensive very fast.... If you see a big mob of nobs be thankfull that it probably cost him 1 or 2 mobs of normal guys to be able to wield them. Nothing a little focus firing and a well aimed charge cant fix. I wouldnt fix them completly in combat though as theyre tough. T5, 4+ (possible also an invul save) and FnP. A banner used to give them WS5 and each could have either a big choppa or a powerklaw.

Buttomline: against Orks is that their numbers most defenitly count. The normal ork boy isent a major threat against a marine but they never come alone now do they? Dont let it discourage you however. Nobs aside an Ork army is quantity over quality. Dont let yourself be overrun and counter threats as they roll in and you should be alirght :tu:

[Leonaides]

Stop as many transports as you can if he uses any. A coherent charge from 2 or 3 truk mobs is a bad bad thing but if you can immob one or 2 then you can deal with them separately.