[Gearhead]

Well I had a situation, I just got two friends into the hobby, which was great. Unfortunately, they chose the exact two races I play, Tau and Marines. I figured they would tire of the same three fights over and over, and decided a third army was in order. But which one?

For a while, it was a toss up between guard, Eldar, and chaos; then another friend got into the hobby with chaos, eliminating them as a choice. The resident ork player suggested orks(as he does for every problem), and I took his advice.

Said ork player bought all the new ork stuff in the store; all boyz, all lootas, all trukks, all of it. This left me with next to nothing to start with(I didn't mind too much, he's played them since second edition the dedicated man), so I bought a blister form the wall.

After that long introduction, I'm asking for your help. I've been playing long enough to know there's many different ways to play orks; Speed Freeks, Deffwing, and Green Tide to name a few. The blister I bought was a Kannon, which I would assume could fit in anywhere(if not in a gunz battery than on a Battlewagon). I've had many good, hard looks at the codex, and was thinking of a mek army(fits the screen name, eh?).

Any advice or suggestions are welcome, help me to help you help us all to smash some beakies.

[Nightmare]

Well. Unfortunately Ive still gotta get my grubby little hands on that damned new 'dex. So all that I can say is general advice. Which is good - cause im telling you how to start, not designing your entire army list.

Just sit back, trust me, and let da big mekk make summat big!

Well - general advice would be to grab as many boyz as possible, add some tank busting elements into the mix, stick some wheels in there and get down to some hard fighting. And Im being dead serious about that - theres nothing better than just nicking the guards mehod of fighting.

No - not siting in the bushes and making use of their nappies as a big thing of green comes towards them. But the hammer and anvil taktiks that they seem so readily to apply to everything.

Now, I av no idea wot an anvil iz. But I can tell ya that the tactics are something that works rather well. However, in our case the anvil is green, mean, and usually scream. A solid core of ladz getting their choppas dirty and their sluggas hot in the face of the enemy. Just pick a spot in the enemy line and plow into it and over run it with ludicrous amounts of boyz.

Then. It's time fer da 'ammah! The hammer is simple - whilst the boyz are tying up everything, send in the gear that hits the hardest - be it trakks, battle wagons, nob sqauds, deffkoptas. Whatever. as long as you can get it to where it is needed and then take out the said taget then everything is rosey. Try and get a good amount of mounted or wheeled gear though - you want to be able to have that extra agility in order to shift your battle plan if things go change for better or worse.

However, thats about the best advice I can give you (ive had 3 pints ;D) so expect some better stuff when I get the 'dex (tommorow?) hell - if ya lucky, I'll give ya na army list.

[Gearhead]

I wrote a quick Combat Patrol List, the mobsaren't that big but it's what comes in the boxes. We got six boxes of boyz, two lootas boxes, and a box of tank bustas. By the time I got there only the tank bustas were left, so I picked them up along with a second kannon. The more static posed Bustas don't like to glue together, I'll just pin them.

400pts list

20 Slugga Boyz, Nob, Power Klaw-155pts

Killa Kan, Grotzooka-45pts

5 Kommandos, Nob, Power Klaw-85pts

Big Gunz battery, Kannon-20pts

5 Lootas-75pts

That laves me with 20pts for either a second kannon, a pair of rokkits for the Boyz, or a pair of big shootas for the boyz and armour plates on the Kan.

Suggestions?

[sneroplex]

I can't picture your kommandos going very far, the mob size is much too small and the nob just makes for a juicy target. That said you really don't need two power klaws in a combat patrol, just one is already overkill.

I would either buff up the kommandos or take them out completely and replace them with a regular mob of boyz. If you can you should work a warbuggy into this list, they're really good in combat patrols - especially the skorcha kind.

[Hyena031]

KILLA KAN: Drop the grotzooka for a BigShoota since its 5pts cheaper, has double the range, and still has the abilit to take out all 99% of all vehicles front on.
SLUGGA BOYZ: Bang on unit, nice size as well.
KOMMANDOS: 1. Either drop them completely 2. drop the nob and power and buy them 2 rokkits.
LOOTAS: these guys rock nough said on them.
BIG GUNS: You have the unit so keep it.

If you drop the kommandos and the Grotzooka that gives you 110pts hmmm what to buy? A mek boy with a KFF for 85pts which will give your boyz a 5 plus save and the ability to fix the killa kan. With the remaining 25pts I would buy the boyz one bigshootas, since you have plenty of high strength wpns, for the boyz and buy one more Kannon.

[Gearhead]

The list is meant to fight the Marines and Tau my friends have now, I thought the extra klaw could have its uses. Really I wasn't sure what to do with the points and the kommandos models looked quite cool.

With them gone I can Take a Big Mek(mekboyz are the weedier version) with the KFF(Nice Idea, Gives me an HQ as well).

The grotzooka was more for a modeling exercise than for practical reasons(I also might not get a big shoota in the blister), I thought I'd make it a four bareled missile launcher from drinking straws.

The second kannon would help in the antitank department, but I worry about the kan without armour plates, I'd like to keep him moving with the boyz. I would've included a buggy if a) they were available in the store and b) if the models were a tad better. I like the rules well enough, but the model leaves much do be desired. I'll probably end up scratchbuilding it.

I do have tankbustas, however they seem too expensive, fragile, and specialized for points this low.

[sneroplex]

I hear ya about the warbuggy models. I got a few of them secondhand on ebay and converted them by replacing some of the parts on the driver and gunner with bitz from the regular boyz sprue. It's easy to convert up some cool looking guns too.

All in all they're a great unit and the skorcha buggy can be a game winner in combat patrol, and costs very little points to boot.

[Hyena031]

To make buggies look at other armies, more specifically their smaller vehicles.* You say you play Tau and Marines alot so how about using land speeders, assualt bikes (the one with the side car), and phiranas.*
I used an assualt bike and put a grot on it as the driver and in the side car I have a havoc launcher mounted on a pole.
Oh and if you like the kommando models buy them and just use them as a slugga boy for now.