Why da Orks?

It doesn't show from my posts so far on this blog but I am, I must confess, a massive fan of Orks. With a K. Always have been. They were my first army when I was a callow pre-teen and they were my first army when I re connected with the hobby nearly 10 years ago.

So what is it about the mean, green smashing machine that I like so much? Well, that's not an easy question to answer. I reckon Orks are a far more successful invention than their fantasy counterparts and are really the true heart of 40k.

Reason I like da Orks.
1. You don't have to think about it too much.
Let's face it, Orks will fight anybody, anywhere, for any reason, just for the sheer hell of it. The idea that a race just loves a good rumble has always appealed to me. Like an army of drunken, surly teenagers 'Oi, what you looking at?'

2. They are the perfect antidote to the neckbeard
When I returned to the hobby, 40k was in it's 4th edition and I was unaware of everything that had happened since Rogue trader. I built up an Ork army and learned how to play again. At the time the Ork Codex (what are these codex things? I asked, they don't just publish lists in white dwarf anymore?) was one of the oldest ones around, I think it was a 3rd edition one. This meant that few people played orks, meaning that very few people had ever played against them. There is nothing sweeter than the look on the face of the marine player as he realises what choppers do to terminators, or  how quickly 3 mobs of trukk boys can roll up your battle line or how a battlewagon can make your berzerkers hide behind a pub. My favourite was a burnaboy taking down a Eldar tank with a single desperate attack and my squiggoth charging a monolith and making it explode!

3. Gw wrote 3 books about them - take that chaos!
Orks were so great that Games Workshop published 3 books to cover their rules and background. Chaos only got Slaves to Darkness and Lost and the Damned where as Orks got 3!

And one of them didn't even have any rules in it!

So much goodness in these books that it is almost unfair to all the other races in the 40k universe, you can't imagine them doing this for eldar can you ?

4. They make 40k entertaining

Let's face it, without Orks, the 40k universe would be incredibly dull. The green tide adds a whole pile if fun and proper 'chaos' to futuristic warfare. Even with the recent efforts to streamline them into a easier to use army there is still a huge amount of scope for random madness on the battlefield. In their Rogue Trader prime an Ork army was a thing of maddening beauty. From Kustom weapons to madboyz, from the piles of cards that your opponent could play to the hop splat field gun, playing a game with orks dragged on for days but where never, ever dull shoot em ups. Most of the time you had no idea what some of your army would do!

5. Orks have the best weapons. 

Traktor Kannon

Lifta Droppa

Bubble Chukka

Hop-splat field gun

Shokk-attack gun

Zapp gun

Need I say more? 

6. Orks is da best

At the end of the day, Orks are far more of a danger to the imperium than any if the other races in the 40k universe. Chaos is not the ultimate arbiter of the fate of the galaxy, it's Orks. If they ever get it together to actually cooperate for long enough they could defeat every other race in the galaxy in fairly short period of time. They just like fighting each other too much to bother! 

Orks first appeared at the very start of 40k, in fact in the very first scenario, 'battle at the farm', they are the enemy. This being part of one of the foundation stones of 40k lore, the crimson fists blowing themselves up while being attacked by orks! They've been a fixture of 40k ever since. In fact I'd go as far as to say that Orks are as important to the 40k universe as Space Marines and are certainly more fun. 

Of course all this means that gw have produced a lot of Orky figures and I've bought a load in my time. I even scratch built a Stompa (6 months before they brought out the kit! Poo!)

So how come I've not used any orks in my recent games and how come I've not shown any on the blog yet? Well I've got enough rogue trader figures (mostly pre placcy arm) for a decent sized ork army, if I go for bloodaxes (I've never been much of a clan fan) I could have some oomies as well as some Ogryns. 6 dreadnoughts, nobs, madboyz, weirdboyz, runtherdz, pain boyz, mekboyz, tinboyz and, of course, boyz! 

Well. I'll tell you. If I start now. That's all i'll want to paint. Everything else will be ignored. What else could I do? 

I luv da orks!