Building Your Army List

Boyz before Toyz.

That sentence sums up all that is Ork about an army list. Boyz before Toyz says, “You need a strong presence of troops before you start putting points into more fancy stuff. Ork Boyz are strong infantry, but can be whittled down easily. You need enough of them to not only have an impact late-game, but also to capture objectives.”

That’s a lot of words summed up by Boyz before Toyz.

Army building is one of the most important tasks in the game, and you have to make a load of strategic decisions often before you even know who you’re playing against. As such, a lot of people really stress about their “lists”. Frankly, they’re worried it’s simply not good enough. Players go far and wide to seek approval for their lists. They go to friends, the internet, and tactical articles like this.

What you have to remember first is that no list is perfect. The game is designed and balanced so thoroughly that for every power-list out there, there is at least an equally powerful list somewhere else that also has the added bonus of trouncing the first one.

For example, an army of all tanks with ordnance (like 6 Demolishers in a 1000 point teams match) should be great against another force that takes just a few elite anti-troop killers (like Grey Knights that have eschewed heavy weapons for stronger close combat), but will do very poorly against a huge Ork Troops force backed by some Kustom Force Fields (can’t kill enough boyz, and once they get into close combat, they’re hitting the rear armour).

In my experience, designing an “all-comers” list with some kind of specialization is often the best way to go for a tournament. An all-comers list has a lot of power to it, mostly because so many people undervalue the effectiveness of well-placed Troop choices. The basic troop of almost any force in the game is a powerful unit for very little points – but they simply don’t have the bells and whistles that draw people to the more advanced stuff. As mentioned in a previous article, a Space Marine Tactical Squad is a DEAL for 10 models (offering you 10 tough-as-nails units with a special weapon, heavy weapon, a sergeant for close combat, and the ability to split them into 2 dedicated squads).

However, even with lots of troops, you shouldn’t forget some of those bells and whistles because, in the right environment, they will do amazing stuff. An Assault Squad is useless if it’s engaging a Dreadnaught (assuming the squad has no power fist), but shines brilliantly when assaulting enemy light infantry and ranged specialists. If you take 3 squads of them, you likely won’t see them all performing at their best, since you’ll need them in different spots on the board. If you take just 1 squad, you can set it on a goal right at the start of the game, and it will almost assuredly complete that task. That’s the strength of taking just 1 of something (but you probably want a second one, or another with the same goal that does it a little differently).

If, by some chance, you DO know who you’ll be fighting, or you at least have a good idea of the people/forces that will be playing, don’t be afraid to “meta-game”. Meta-gaming is something I’ll cover in the future. To put it shortly, if you know for a fact that people in your area play with lots of tanks, put in more tank-killers. If you know for a fact that people in your area bring lots of Spearhead units to tournaments in the form of beefed up characters and Monstrous Creatures, bring character and monstrous creature killers.

So, when building an army list, keep in mind each unit’s goal. In general, static units should only ever be given one or two goals, whereas dedicated assault units or very mobile units can be given 3 goals. The only exceptions to this are static units that are truly able to handle 3 different types of goals (an Imperial Guard Leman Russ Battle Tank can contest an objective, and blast light or heavy infantry apart at the same time), or dedicated assault units that are likely to die too swiftly and should never be given more than 1 goal (Tyranid Hormagaunts die too quickly to assign anything other than being disruptive or taking out light infantry, but they do that one task very well).

Here’s a list of goals to consider assigning to your units

• Character & Monstrous Creature Assassination
• CC Anti-Heavy Vehicle (Land Raider, Falcon Grav-Tank, Ork Battlewagon, etc.)
  
• CC Anti-Light Vehicle (Ork Trukk, IG Sentinels, Tau Devilfish, etc.)
  
• Ranged Anti-Heavy Vehicle
• Ranged Anti-Light Vehicle
• CC Anti-Infantry
  
• CC Anti-Heavy Infantry
• Ranged Anti-Infantry
  
• Ranged Anti-Heavy Infantry
  
• Contesting Objectives
  
• Claiming Objectives
  
• Outflanking
  
• Infantry Support
  
• Tank Support
  
• Spearhead (often anti-anything, like a Daemon Prince, but never a Troop)
  
• Disruption

So, for example, consider this small army:

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HQ: Ork Big Mek w/Shokk Attack Gun, Heavy Armour, and Cybork Body

Elites: Kommandos w/ 2 Skorchas

Troops: 2x 20 Ork Boyz, w/Shootas and Nob w/Power Klaw and Boss Pole

Fast Attack: Warbuggie w/Twin-linked Rokkit Launcha

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This small army probably costs around 500 points, and has 5 units. The Big Mek is designed for Anti-Heavy Infantry and Anti-Light Vehicle. He’s a standalone model that is meant to quickly deal with any major threat first-turn. Some people would call this unit a Spearhead unit, as it “can” deal with anything. However, especially in the case of the Shokk Attack Gun, “can” doesn’t necessarily mean “will”. The most common roll is a S7, AP2 large blast – great for dealing with Heavy Infantry, and able to stand up to a light vehicle – but woefully inadequate for heavy tanks. Even at lower strengths it’s good against heavy infantry, and it’s useful against light vehicles a little over 50% of the time.

The Kommandos are Outflankers, Anti-Infantry, and Anti-Heavy Infantry (thanks to the Skorchas that can also act as Power-Weapons).

The Boyz are for Claiming Objectives and CC Anti-Infantry. Their Power Klaw enables them to do more though, as they could run into almost anything as they make their way to the objective. The Bosspoles will help keep the squads in the fight if their numbers get low.

Finally, the Warbuggie is for Anti-Light Vehicle and Outflanking. It does not have the Outflank special rule, but its speed allows it to engage almost any enemy quickly, and the twin-linked Rokkits help it deal with problem enemies with consistency.

Thus, this army has the following capabilities:

Ranged Anti-Heavy Infantry (x1)

Ranged Anti-Light Vehicle (x2)

CC Anti-Infantry (x3)

Outflanking (x2)

CC Anti-Heavy Infantry (x1)

Notice the curve-pattern. The army has a specialty, close-combat anti-infantry. This is what this army is best at (pretty common for Orks). The army is also somewhat adept at dealing with light-vehicles (like enemy transports), and can get into some advantageous positions with its Outflankers. Finally, the army has the ability to deal with Heavy Infantry, both at range, or up close. For 500 points, that’s a really well-rounded army, with a troop-killing specialty.

However, the army lacks the ability to easily deal with Characters/Monstrous Creatures, Heavy Tanks, a Spearhead unit, and has no way of supporting its troops or vehicle to make them better. These flaws could be exploited by any army in the game, from a Tau Hammerhead, to a Tyranid Carnifex, to a Terminator Assault Squad (okay, I don’t know if you’d see that in a 500 point match).

When you design your army, you’ll also have to choose between a top-down and a bottom-up design. Do you design for a specialty first, then build around that, or do you take the cool stuff you want first, then see what needs to be tweaked after? The above list was top-down, starting with wanting a Big Mek with Shokk Attack Gun and Burna Boyz for some Heavy-Infantry killing power, and then putting in the troops and a Warbuggie to round the list out.

Choosing your army is a very difficult strategic decision, and there’s SO much more that we can go into! Hopefully this helpful hint will aid you in designing winning lists in the future!