How differently do the Ork Kultures really play?

[TheNewman]

This came up in another thread, the long and the short of it is that since Marines are the only army I own with a 9th ed codex I don't have much of a handle on how differently the other 9th ed codexes play if you change sub-factions.

 

I don't want to get off into the weeds of the comparative volume of rules-differences, I'm more interested in the impact of the differences on the table.

 

(I'm finding that despite the many pages of strats/relics/etc difference between the various SM chapters, I can't lean very hard into those differences before it hurts how well the army plays. Yes, I posted the same thread in the Necron forum.)

[toaae]

I think almost clan can play almost other clan's list with the same strategy, just at reduced efficacy. Goffs will punch harder, but any clan could take a goff list and still want to run into the enemy and bunch them to death. On the other hand, you could have a heavily shooting-based list designed for Badmoons, switch the clan to Goff, and watch it still do a bunch of shooting.

Almost every Ork unit is a mixture of melee, shooting, and toughness. Most clans just enhance one of those strengths, but almost none of them do something that can't be replicated.

 

The exceptions here are Blood Axes and Freebootas. The re-deploy warlord trait and go-into-reserves stratagem for Blood Axes unlocks strategies the other clans simply cannot do. Not as major is the Freeboota's army wide buff, as well as the warlord trait and stratagem, which probably lean towards making an army list other clans would really not be able to do the same things with.

[tentagil]

I think it really depends how much you lean into the clan. As toaae said, you could take the same exact list with most clans and other then seeing a shift in which weapons are more effect the play style wouldn't change much. But if you lean into the clan and choose units based on the clan you can see a distinct difference. In that way they are sort of like Marines.

Goffs get a bonus to Str and extra melee hits on 6s or 5s with the strat. So you want a lot of bodies that you want to get into melee range. So an army with tons of boyz and walkers that can survive the attrition of marching across the board and then hit really hard. This is your classic green tide Kulture.

 

With Badmoons its all about dakka. They get a range boost, and extra ap on 6s. Then their stras gives extra hits on 6s. So you want lots of units with Dakka and Heavy weapons. You are more likley going to be running more vehicles with these guys and less boyz, which fits with the kultures lore of being the rich kids on the block with the best toyz. Sending hails of dakka down field to blast away the enemy.

 

Snakebites are all about squigs and the new Beast Snaggas. Shaking off damage and tearing apart monsters and vehicles. They are probably the least well rounded kulture at the moment, but they also have some of the most overpowered units thanks to the new Beast Snagga Squigboss and the Kill Rig. 

Blood Axes are essentially Orks answer to the Raven Guard, and arguably do it better in my opinion. They are all about deployment and redeployment tricks and cover save boosts with ways to strip their opponents of cover and then shoot and chop them into pieces. Popping up on objectives when the enemy least expects it. Hitting them from odd angles and then disappearing back off the board. Definitely, the finesse army for the Orks.

 

Evil Sunz is all about vehicles and movement bonuses. Speed Freak specific vehicles are what you want to bring. Meaning a force of fast, hard to damage, hard hitting units. The lack of objective secured can be a problem, but you really shouldn't be sitting still with Evil Sunz anyways. You should be constantly harassing every flank of the enemy to prevent them from holding anything.

Freebooterz are a strange one with their whole thing really being about an accuracy buff that comes from destroying enemy units. So its all about momentum and the need to destroy an enemy unit each turn to keep that momentum going. 

 

Then you have Deathskulls which are sort of your all rounders with the bonuses being in the form of some rerolls and a boosted save against mortal wounds. Their relic also leans towards you wanting more vehicles, walkers are particularly good with them I feel.

[tentagil]

All that being said, some kultures are much more competitive right now because how well specific units faired rules wise with 9th. Ramshackle has made vehicles much better this edition, and both walkers and buggies got some nice buffs. Ork ranged has never been great, probably making Badmoons the weakest of our cultures since boosted range doesn't help if you still can't hit.

I run an Evil Sunz force that is heavy on walkers, buggies, and bikes. Its probably not the most competitive list, but its a ton of fun. Lots of fast moving, hard to kill, units moving around the board blasting things. Then when I've corralled my opponent where I want them I drop in a trio of dreads with the Teleporta strat and hammer and anvil then between buggies and Dreads.

[Gloomfoe]

I think you want to mix/match as Orks. For one, you need multiple detachments if you want multiple warbosses, which you do. Sadly, Orks have a new limitation on such things, you can only use the strat, WL trait/relic from the detachment your warlord is from. But even still, the clan bonuses are good enough that you will still want to mix it up.

 

For instance, most of my army I run as freebooterz cuz it's a very shooty speed freeks themed force. But for my choppy boys, I run Goff's, cuz the benefits boost them through the roof.

 

I've even thought about sticking my wartrike in a small evil sunz patrol and making him my warlord to give me access to their redonkulous relic. Buuuut that will limit the effectiveness of my freebooterz as they have a good relic/stratagem.