Who Are The Orks?
Mean, green, Waaagh loving machines. Orks are Warhammer 40k’s equivalent to Mad Max, arguably so is Necromunda, but we’ll ignore that for now. Orks love violence and live for battle, so much so that when they enter combat they release pheromones that attract more Orks to the fight. The bigger the Waaagh (the Ork word for ‘war’), the more pheromones that are spread. And more pheromones attracts more Orks (and reinforcements) to join in. Mix this with the fact that the entire Ork ecosystem is created through a release of spores from the Oaks themselves. Means Orks are extremely difficult to get rid of - much like the in-laws at Christmas.
They charge into battle with makeshift weapons and vehicles they’ve cobbled together with anything they find... or anything they’ve stolen from previous victories. Most of the time nothing they use looks like it should work but, through an Orks sheer belief that it will work, means it works.
They’re also a superstitious bunch, with clans painting themselves in various colours. For example, the Evil Suns paint their vehicles red as they believe it makes them faster. The strangest thing is these beliefs manifest themselves into reality - red Ork vehicles will actually go faster. There’s even a story of legendary Ork Ghazghkull Thraka making a tear in space and time close by headbutting it, simply because he believed it would work. Yeah, the Orks are great.
What’s In The Box?
Leading the charge you’ll get a Warboss in Mega Armour (with a Gretchen slave manning a machine gun on top). 20 Ork Boyz to dish out (and soak up) damage with a nice mix of ranged and close combat options. Three Deffkoptas for aerial combat and a Deff Dread vehicle, which is ideal for causing decent ranged damage and maximum damage in close combat. All-in-all this is a great box, you get a real flavour for the army with a nice selection of units that you’ll use regularly, even as your army grows.
Are They Difficult To Paint?
No. Ork are possibly the most fun and easiest to paint. You can certainly go for extremely detailed painting and create a gorgeous green army. But you cans also embrace the madness and carnage of the Ork life and do whatever you want. Nothing has to be uniformed or neat like those Space Marine nerds. You can go wild with these guys, throw some battle damage on there, get some nice checkerboard detailing or simply just chuck some random colours on your models and you’re good to go. If it’s not clear by now - I’m an Ork guy - and try as I might to branch out into different factions the call of Waaagh always brings me home to the boyz.