Speed Freaks: Trukk Boyz

So today I will do a post on the values of Speed Freaks.

Speed Freaks are a very popular tournament army. They are fast, relatively cheap, and can kill pretty easily.

Pros:

Really Fast

Cheap amounts of troops

Even in small numbers, boyz can rip through most units, (except uber-units such as MC’s and terminators.)

Cons:

Kill-points are very easy to get, due to more units of troops, (also, a single unit in a trukk gives two kill-points, because there is both the boyz and the trukk,)

If the trukk is destroyed, the boyz are no faster than normal boyz, and smaller in number

Eats up troop choices really quickly

Not very good against MC’s and 2+ saves, because of to few attacks

So, there are many pros and cons. They are much better in apocalypse, because kill-points aren’t an issue, and there are no ‘troop choices.’ And in normal games, there is a 2/3 chance that you don’t need to worry about kill-points. However, in the rare chance that you do play for kill-points, you will be at a supreme disadvantage against a unit with fewer ‘units.’ Or, lets say you have six units of boys in trukks, (around 600 points,) you get 70 boyz. However, you also have 12 killpoints within a 600 point margin. In a normal boyz horde, it would only be 3-4 killpoints. Now, the boyz in the trukks will usually get the assault, unless of course someone takes several anti-tank weapons. For instance, (i am going to compare orks to orks, because that is what I know best,) lets say you had 6 units of trukk boyz, which is 12 killpoints. (650 points or so, if units have maximum number of boyz available.) Your opponent, with that same number of points, takes 3 hordes of boyz and 2 units of 5 lootas (5 killpoints,). Each turn you will get an average of 2 penetrating hits and one glancing on the trukks, which means there is a very high chance of destruction, (2 rolls of 4+ for destruction, 1 roll of a 6 for destruction. The trukk is open-topped.) Almost definitely will the trukk be immobilized. So every turn, 2 more trukks will be taken out of action. By the times the remaining ‘trukk’ boyz are within assaulting range, there will be 2 units, (24 boyz,) left. they will get the assault on one unit of boyz, killing it completely. Or maybe they will just kill all of the lootas. If they do that, then the kill-point score would (on average,) be 2-3, in the horde players favor. Then one or two hordes of boyz could take out the two units of trukk boyz, making the score 2-5, in the horde players favor. Not good odds. However, if the same armies were played in objective style, the results would be different.  4 of the trukks would go for objectives, (probably getting 2-3 of them.) and the remaining two probably will go for the lootas. The lootas will be destroyed, then the boyz will be destroyed, but this time, the trukkers will be winning, because they have several more objectives. The boy hordes now have 2 turns or so to hunt down all of the trukkers, or at least beat them with objectives, (which would be very difficult.)

So, it all depends. In many ways, it is the pre-game that matters most. If you know which style you will be playing, take the appropriate army style. If you don’t it is your choice, I suggest you play the style that you prefer. Both options are good, so in many cases it depends on which style you prefer. I am partial to hordes, but I know several players who prefer trukks. (and note, this goes for other armies too. Though the tactics are not a perfect mold, much of this can be applied to other armies.)

Warhammer 40K: The Psychological Aspect

Note: Before you start reading, I want you to understand a couple of things. First off, these tactics are not intended for friendly games. That is because friendly games are not all about annihilating your opponent. These are only for serious tournament players. Secondly, this is not foolproof. It will not work as well against some players in comparison to others. (More precisely, players who act instinctively will be more effected, players who follow a detailed plan/think their moves out very well, will not be as influenced.) Lastly, this is not the easiest strategy to use. It will take a little time before you can master it. With that in mind…

A lot of players in Warhammer 40k ignore the psychological aspect of the game. However, the ability to ‘psych out’ your opponent can be very helpful. If you make him think that he cannot win, he won’t try as hard. This works on both single combat scales, as well as the entire game in general. This has been done in real wars, as well as occasionally in nature. For instance, if you make your army look HUGE then your opponent will get nervous easily. Now, with orks a large army will be expected, but make it look even bigger by spreading out your boyz. This is smart anyways, to help keep blast templates from hurting you as much. However, if you spread out your boyz the maximum distance, then your unit will look 3 times as large. In the same aspect, your entire army will appear 3 times as large. This can also be used to make a powerful unit look weaker, if you keep them packed tight so they look smaller. If your enemy thinks that your horde of boyz is so massive that killing them is futile, he will not try as hard to shoot them, and will never even think about assaulting them. So, make your hordes look huge, and they will flee.

Another idea is to bring up games that you got lucky playing in the past. For instance, once my warboss killed 4 space marines on his own in CC. He had a power klaw, but still. Or if I was playing against nidz, I could bring up the time I nearly annihilated a unit of 3 tyranid warriors with 4 meganobz, in the shooting phase! If you bring up things like that, they will avoid the mentioned units like plague. Even better, if you could bring up one of the more ‘random’ units in the ork army, they will be even more fearful, because it might not be just luck. You could bring up the time your SAG destroyed an entire unit of terminators when you rolled double 6’s. If your opponent thinks that a unit is more powerful than it is, he will either avoid it, or attack it with way more force than necessary, wasting some of their firepower.

One last idea, you could have different dice for different tests. For instance, you have two dice that you always use for leadership tests, and you always use the same dice for armor saves, and you use a different set of dice for hits/wounds. That may not actually do anything, but your opponent will remember your exceptional rolls. Lets say that you keep rolling average for the first 3 turns, then your ‘attack dice’ get 15 hits and only 1 miss. Your opponent might attribute it to the dice, and he will then think that your dice are actually doing something. And then, when your ‘armor’ dice get 4 of the 5 cover saves, he will be sure of that. It might not be true, but it works sometimes.

And, on a different note, I have been working on the ‘Ultimate Painting Challenge.’ For those of you who don’t remember, the ‘Ultimate Painting Challenge‘ means that I have to paint my entire army, (or at least, what it was when I started the ‘Ultimate Painting Challenge‘) by this date:

10/15/10

If I do not paint all of the models for the ‘Ultimate Painting Challenge‘ by that date, then I will give away one item from my store, to one of my readers, for FREE! yes, for FREE! you heard me right, I said for FREE! even the shipping is FREE! and the handling is FREE! that means that the item, the shipping (within the continental United States,) and the handling will be FREE! I need to stop typing FREE!

Here is what is finished:

41 boyz

Warboss w/PK attack squig

4 deffkoptas

4 nobz

And here is what is not finished:

19 ork boys

10 grots

1 slaver

1 trukk

1 battlewagon (for an added challenge, it is not fully assembled

8 deffkoptas

10 lootas (one fell apart)

6 meganobs

3 burnas

1 mek

8 nobz

1 painboy

1 big mek with SAG

1 megaboss

1 wierdboy

Ghazkull Thraka

Mad Dok Grotsnik

So, I better get painting.

Anti-Tau

It has been a while since I did a post on killing Tau, so here goes:

In general, Tau models are relatively fragile and weak. There are many easy ways to kill them. However, they also pump out large amounts of long range firepower, meaning that you will have to survive if you want to kill them. There are several units I have used to combat this:

Deffkoptas: I LOVE Deffkoptas. They won me several games in a tournament at Tabletop Game and Hobby, and made several others very close. One army I played happened to be tau, and these guys were my shining stars. They blew up his HQ (instant death and penetration of armor,) and caused huge amounts of damage on his tanks, saving me from those deadly railgun submunitions. Of course, four deffkoptas cost me a pretty penny, (210 pretty pennies, actually,) but they saved me the game, because before they were blown up, I killed a tank, made another tank completely worthless, (all it had was it’s burst cannons,) and blew up his HQ. But against troops, these guys are a little overkill. (And bigbomms/big shootas don’t penetrate armor,)

Lootas: These guys are a nice choice, they penetrate armor, and can in a pinch take down the tanks. Plant them in cover, keep them away from the enemies railguns, and you will be just fine. They have low BS though, and it will take 1.5 kills each to pay for them self, so you need a cheaper alternative.

Stormboyz: These guys make excellent warriors for taking down Tau Fire Warriors. Get them a looted wagon or hi-jack a trukk, and you can assault anywhere from 28″ (Minimum, only if you take looted wagon,) to 45″ (maximum, only if you take a trukk and call a waaagh! and get double sixes.) On average, you will be getting 36″, though that will fluctuate depending on whether or not you call a waaagh!, (assuming turn 2,) what kind of vehicle you take, ETC. You will obviously assault them, and here is what the average result will be:

(assuming both units have 12 men, orks have PK nob, Tau have Sha’sui)

Orks cause 9.8 wounds

Tau cause .6 wounds

Nob causes 2.2 wounds

So, the entire unit should be precisely annihilated at this point, (exactly 12 wounds on average) and you take MAYBE 1 casualty. Another nice thing about the PK nob configuration is that it can take down takes or HQ units relatively easily, meaning these guys can do everything to damage Tau except maybe hold objectives.

There you have it! Three more ways to kill Tau. (Note: I only have tested Deffkoptas in battle. Lootas I have used in other similar cases, and they performed admirably. Stormboyz, on the other hand, I only just bought, so it is completely math hammer on their respect.)

HQ’s: Warboss Wargear

Warbosses are the most common ork HQ. They are T5, which is practically immune to instant death, (except S10 or force weapons,) WS 5, and they can take almost every ork weapon in the game as wargear. (The only ones he can’t take? Shokk Attack Gun, Kustom Force Field, Waaagh! banner, big shoota, rokkit launcha, burna, kustom mega blasta, and weapons unique to specific units, [lootas, flash gitz, ETC.]) Okay, maybe there are a few weapons he can’t take. Anyways:

(The following items are listed on a scale of ‘never take (NT),’ ‘sometimes take (ST),’ and ‘always take (AT).’) (They are listed in the order found in the codex.)

First off, CC weapons:

Big Choppa: +2 strength and no disadvantages. You don’t get the extra attack, but S7 can kill most tanks, and wounds almost everything with ease. I would normally give this a ST, but I will have to abstain on that because of the next option. NT

Power Klaw: S10 hits that ignore armor! Sign me up! the only disadvantage is, you lose the initiative advantage. You could always chose to forgo using the power klaw and fight without wargear for a turn, but you would not get the extra attack normally allotted at normal strength and initiative. However, I can’t see the reason not to use this. And at I4, most units who threaten the Warboss are going to either beat that hugely or have I1 anyways (which ties the power klaw), so there is really no problem. AT

Now onto the guns:

Shoota/Rokkit: I consider this like I consider the nob version of it. With BS 2, you won’t be hitting much. And even if you do, what on earth would you be shooting at?!?! If it is a MC that you are going to assault soon, a single shot won’t hurt him very much at all. If it is a vehicle, who do you think your warboss is, Luke Skywalker? There is no way he will blow up a decently armed vehicle in one shot. And if you are aiming at a squad unit, (say, space marines,) there is a much more practical way to waste your points than trying to destroy a full squad of marines in one shot. NT

Shoota/Skorcha: This one is a little better, but if your warboss is within burning range, he is probably still will be out of assaulting range. Now, sometimes you will have already used your waaagh! and you want to just weaken the unit, other times you will still be within both assaulting and burning range, but other times you will not. A decent upgrade, worth the points but not necessarily a game saver. ST

Twin-linked shoota: Another mediocre gun upgrade, while it could cause a little more damage, chances are that if you are within gun range, you will have about one turn to shoot. And while in that one turn you can cause damage, you are still looking at a maximum of two kills, and that is assuming both shots hit, wound, and penetrate armor. against most units you won’t get any wounds. Also, if your opponent has fleet then you will be in assault range, losing those precious extra attacks. Not bad, though, if your opponent has a lot of slow and purposeful units that you can shoot at a lot before you assault. ST

Now on to the Mega Armor section: (does anyone else wonder why the mega armor is in a section of it’s own, but the warbike isn’t?)

Mega armor: This is an upgrade that I would only take if he was leading a unit of Meganobs. Of course, I am personally partial to meganobs, so I take mine all the time, but if you intend to have him leading a unit of boys, or flying solo, you will want to avoid this. ST

Miscellaneous:

Warbike: Just like mega armor, only take this to have him lead bikers/biker nobs. Otherwise he becomes a juicy 100 pt. target that can be killed in one turn of shooting easily. ST

Ammo runt: The only reason I can think of taking this is to turn an awful upgrade (Rokkit) into a more expensive awful upgrade. (rokkit with ammo runt.) NT

Attack Squig: Giving your PK warboss an extra attack is rather handy, and can get you those extra kills. Or, if you have the points, three or four of them! You could have around 600 attacks, if you spent the points. However, most games only call for 1, occasionally 2. Handy, but not always necessary. ST

Cybork Body: A 5+ invulnerable save may not be much, but will on average allow you 1 extra wound, assuming all of the enemies attacks penetrate armor but don’t cause instant death. Because if you have three wounds, and 1/3 of the time you save one of them, that averages to 4 1/3 wounds. However, 10 points is a bit much, and if you intend  on throwing him in a horde to act as a body shield, this may not work so well. That is, until you get into close combat. ST-AT

Bosspole: If you are taking meganobs, this is a MUST! doubling the odds of passing a leadership test when your unit costs 400 points can be very important.  However, with a unit of ork boyz, you will want one on your nob because he can’t be singled out in close combat. So it really depends on who you are facing, and who you are putting in the unit. ST

‘Eavy armor: if you are having your warboss lead smaller units, such as nobs (or possibly hiding him in a unit of kommandos with Snikrot!) you will want this. However, if you are already including body shields and/or a cybork body, this can get a little redundant. It is all up to taste. ST

So there you have it! A complete review on all warboss upgrades! If anyone has any other comments or ideas about the weapons, feel free to comment! Kill you later!

Anti-ork tactics

Gee, it has been a while since my last post. Anyways, I decided to do a post on countering the models we all know and love, Orks. Yep, fighting fire with fire.

First off, lets get something straight. Just because some ‘getting started’ articles on games workshop say that there are two basic types of ork army, (Footsloggers and Mechanized,) does NOT mean it is true and does NOT mean you should always do one of them and does NOT mean that every other ork player you fight will be either hordes and hordes of orks or orks in vehicles charging forward. Orks are NOT that single minded. (Okay, they are, but there are still more options then that.) However, I can boil down the most common and most basic army types into three groups. (Note that this does NOT mean that they are the only three groups, they are just three more common groups that you will be facing.)

Also, remember that these may not work against somebody with similar ideas, (for instance, if they also read this blog.)

First off, the footsloggers: Yep, it is still a viable option. You will face it more commonly then most of the other ork armies, though you should still be prepared for other types. The obvious choice for countering this configuration is blast templates and guns. Use looted wagons with boomguns, deffguns, deffkoptas with biggboms, and SAG meks. You can also take shoota boys as troops, but still try and get the assault in to close combat, because then you will get the initiative bonus and strength, and kill quite a large amount of enemy orks. However, you will need something to kill this option.

The BIG GUNS: this is the option for killing footsloggers. It is quite a good option, I like it a lot,  but you can not use footslogging against it. So how do you kill it? Speed freaks. Put them in cheap vehicles, (or stronger battlewagons,) take a few bikers, use stormboys, and kommandos. Assault on turn two and cause mayhem. This will work even better if you are playing on corners. However, how do you best kill this option?

Speed freeks: this is the gun killing option. Another good choice, there is really only one sure-fire way to kill it. And that is: (drum roll please,) foot-sloggers. While the speed freaks will always get the assault, they are ussually pretty low in numbers, and cannot stand up to hordes. Against vehicle-based speed freaks, you might want to take a few tank-killing units as well, perhaps a few deffkoptas with rokkits, to take out the trukks and weaken them all the further.

There you have it. This will not cover all options for ork armies, and are in no way fool-proof, but should help for the start of an army. Watch out if your enemy does a hybrid choice, say, guns AND hordes, or speed freaks and guns, because mixing two smaller armie types will make both options stronger, and you will have to do the same to kill them. And watch out for the units that didn’t fit in the cattegories, you will want to take options for that. (for instance, you are facing a mob, so you chose guns, but they throw in just one unit of kommandos. You will have to take a whole nother unit of ork boys to protect against that, so it works in a similar way to a hybrid army.)

Avatar

I figured, since the oh-so-popular movie Avatar cam out recently, I might as well post about how to kill the Eldar Avatars.

They are very similar to greater deamons, because they have WAY high WS, invulnerable saves, and low shooting capacity. It is immune to melta and flamers, has a 3+/4+ save (4+ invulnerable,) WS 10, BS 5, and T6. Not only that, it is a monstrous creature. Obviously, the normal tactic wont work here. if you were to take a mob of boys and attack, armed with slugga/choppa combo, he would strike first, causing 4 attacks, 3 hits, probably 3 wounds. That means you get 108 attacks, 18 hits,  three wounds, maybe one will pass the save. And that is ON THE CHARGE. Normally, you would only get maybe 2 wounds, of which usually .5 would pass the save. He is inflicting more wounds then thirty guys! obviously, the ork-swarm will not work here. What we need is something cheap. Something with high strength guns. It doesn’t need to penetrate armor, because of the invulnerable save, but it does need to have enough strength to wound and enough shots to hit. I am thinking: lootas! they are the perfect choice! on average you will probably get at least three turns of firing, because of the range, before the Avatar can get in close combat, by which time it will be to late. Use three warbuggies in a protective wall around them for even more time and shots. On average in a unit of 15 you will get thirty shots, ten hit, at worst three wound, (it is 3.5 wounds, if you do the math,) that is at least one wound. It may not sound to great, but you haven’t lost a single guy! do this two more times, he will be almost dead! take two units, and he wont stand a chance, plus you will have a big firing line to take on the eldar. However, this strategy may not work, especially if your enemy can infiltrate or deep strike to take them out. Another strategy is deffkoptas with big shootas, or you could use warbikes with dakkaguns, maybe flash gits, a ‘gunbeast’ style battlewagon with a deff rolla, (that word work well, you roll even just 6″ into him, and then blast away with your big shootas. Take a red paint job, and if he stays to whack the vehicle with his sword, you may just survive and have him right were he was. Simply lurch 1″ and then fire ALL your weapons! you still get the D6 S10 attacks, but now you get them with 4 big shootas! (maybe less, if you took several ‘weapon destroyed’ results.)

One question about the red paint job, can you move the 1″ if you get a vehicle immobilized result? i mean, you would still register as not moving, so…

Bikers: Why they rock when they roll

Warbikers can be some of the most awesome units in the ork world. They are fast, they have two 4+ saves, they have an awesome gun, they have four attacks on the charge, and they can fire both of their guns when they move 12″ (sluggas are classified as defensive weapons.) The warboss can take a warbike, and nobs can take a warbike. (did you know?: the most expensive single ork unit is biker nobs with all the trimmings, it would cost exactly  1087points.) The nobs on warbikes are probably the most awesome and well rounded units in the game, (if they have several power klaws.) With the two seperate 4+ saves, the 5+ invulnerable saves, and the 4+ feel no pain save, I can only think of one weapon that denies all defenses, and it is a space marine gray knight CC weapon that costs TONS of points. So lets look at the pros of warbikes:

super high movement: The additional movement is invaluable for an ork army. Orks have several strengths, and normally mobility is not one of them. The fact that they can move 24″ per turn, and have an assault threat of 18″ is invaluable for orks, and probably the greatest advantage for bikers.

Dakkaguns: Simply put, these are half range big shootas. They have pretty good strength, decent AP, a high fire rate, and are twin linked. This means that bikers can put out serous firepower before assaulting.

Additional toughness: While it doesn’t hold against instant death (S8 or higher) the additional toughness means that small arms will be even less effective. (the standard S3-4 anti troop weaponry will be powerless to stop them.) Combined with an orks naturally high resilience, this helps a lot for absorbing firepower, especially combined with:

AV 4 and exhaust cloud: These two 4+ saves mean that almost nothing will be penetrating the ork armor. Half the time it may slip past the armor, but it won’t be penetrated.

Now lets look at the cons:

25 pts: While in comparison to other bikers, this may not be a huge amount, it still costs 19 points more than a normal ork boy. For the cost of one biker, you could get 4 1/6 ork boys, or a nob with ‘eavy armor. Nobs cost even more, but then again, they are nobs.

Maximum unit size: the maximum unit size is ten with these guys, so you will lose mob rule very quickly. This can be sated by a bosspole, but mob rule is normally one of the orks greatest strengths, so you are giving up one strength to benefit from others. This also applies to:

No WAAAGH!: Being on bikes, they cannot run. They have the additional movement anyways, but I think that wastes a great ork special if you take a all-biker army.

All in all, the warbikers have pros and cons. They are harder and shootier than most orks, but they also waste two of the orks greatest bonuses. I personally think you would be better off to put a unit of twenty ‘ard boys in a battlewagon with armor plates (300 points) than to take ten warbikers with a nob and bosspole (two hundred and sixty five points.) Yes, the boys are one lower on the toughness scale, yes, the guns are weaker, yes, the unit costs more, yes, they don’t get the cover save, but they have a greater assault when the waaagh!, there is enough of them to keep the casualties ineffective, with the battlewagon they can take up to six big shootas, (which have double range) and the battlewagon can operate as an independent gun/ramming base once they get out. I personally think that, while warbikers rock, (and they roll,) they simply aren’t worth their teef.

Footslogging VS. Speed freeks VS. Dakka

In essence, there are three basic types of ork army: the footsloggers, the speed freeks, and the dakka army. They each have their good application and there bad application. But when to use which? and how to use which?

Footsloggers: This particular army takes advantage of the fact that ork boys are cheap. Thus, you can field a bunch of them. If fact, a six-hundred point army can have up to 94 ork boys in it, if you take the cheapest HQ possible, (a big mek) and you don’t upgrade them at all. There are other variations of this (nob footsloggers, grot shield footsloggers,) but that is the basic idea. If you give them ‘eavy armor, then they are the CC version of tau fire warriors, being nearly exact opposites. They would even have the same save! The only problem with this army is that they get blown to pieces before you get them to the field. This can be sedated somewhat by ‘eavy armor, but then there are less boys on the field, and they still don’t do much better. I think that there are two basic super-warriors that you must give at least one of to footsloggers to make them effective. (preferably both.) One is the warp-head. He can teleport the boys across the board 1/3 of the time, and rocks in CC. (especially old zogwort.) The other is mad dok grotsnik. I have told you about these before, so if you want to learn more, then read the corresponding article.

Best against: imperial guard, maybe tau, good against light-strength ranged armies.

Speed freeks: These guys are good against units that would normally blow them to pieces before they got to the front line. They are better against blast weapons then foot sloggers, but they cost more. They are more expensive then ork boys, especially if you give them bikes, but I find that several trukks work for getting large amounts of boys to the fight really fast. (if you could meld them into one huge unit once they got their, they would be even better!)

Good against: Tau, maybe tyranids, Blast weapon armies.

Dakka: This army usually consists of lots of high-power gun units, such as lootas and gun battery’s. It costs as much as speed freeks, maybe even more, but it can blast the opponents to pieces.

Best against: Tyranids, Deamons, CC armies

The Rokkitkopta and the way things are

You will notice on a lot of my posts about strategy, I will say ‘I like to take, I like to use’ Etc. A lot of times when I say this, I do not technically own that figure, and have never used it in battle because I can’t afford it. What I mean when I say that is that I think it would be good to field that model in that application.

I do this because I don’t have the money to actually buy that figure, and so I can’t field it. That is part of why I have a store. But it also spurs me to make awesome custom figures. Thus: The Rokkitkopta.

I got the idea off of irondog’s incredibly awesome Vomit Kommits. I altered it to have one turbine. 1/20 of a dowel rod, a cap for a glue bottle, an ork boy, a big shoota off of a trukk, a whole lot of plasticard, and the finest in squigskin seats:

From the side:

The co-axial big shoota

The turbine:

All painted:

The painted turbine: (notice the bad gash in the leg. That’s because I ran out of green stuff when I was changing the leg position)

The co-axial gun:

I decided to give it a chain weapon from the warbike sprue.

What do you think?

Speed Freeks

Today I decided to post an article about my favorite style of a Speed Freek army. For the most part, it is pretty common, but there are still some good ideas in there.  (I think)

Wazdakka gutzmek: I find that, though he has slightly better statistics then a normal biker boss, this guy isn’t worth his points. The dakka kannons look impressive, but though they have the high strength, they hit half as often as a dakkagun, and that ends up as one hit less in the end, when the teef are down. The fact that he is a mek with a Warbosses statistics is handy, but since he cannot get inside of a vehicle, and you probably don’t want him to simply loiter around your tanks, so that is pretty much a wash. I only suggest him if you want to take warbikers as a troop choice. overall: a 4 out of 10

Biker boss: Must have for any speed freak army. though he technically could be simply thrown in a trukk with boys 0r nobs, I think that the bike is a far better choice. As always, give him a power klaw, or his great stats will go to waste. also, you can still have a group of biker nobs count as a troops choice, so that rocks too. And if you put him in with the biker nobs, then he can absorb the stronger shots to prevent instant death. overall: a 9 1/2 out of 10

Big mek on bike: Like wazdakka when it comes to the fact that he is a mek, but the big mek has far better equipment. Not much else to say here. Overall: 5 1/2 out of 10

Biker nobs: These guys are, in my opinion, the most important part of a speed freek army. They are three times faster than normal nobs, the have a four plus armor and cover save, and toughness five! what isn’t to love about them? I also suggest giving them a painboy and at least two, preferably more, power klaws. Watch out for blast weapons and high powered shots, the bane of orks. overall: 8 1/2 out of 10

Kommandos: I know that these technically are not speed freeks, but in my opinion, they deserve a place. They aren’t near as fast as other speed freeks, but they can infiltrate, which means they still can get close sooner then most of your other units. I like to use them to sneak around and take out the big guns with a power klawed nob, (tanks, blast weapons, anything heavy support) that would normally blow your freeks to ashes. That leaves the playing field open for any other units. however, I dont suggest you use boss snikrot. overall: 7 out of 10

Trukker boys: The backbone of any speed freek army. They get in fast and they do good once they are in. I suggest throwing in a PK nob whenever possible, so that you can take out harder units. (especially good against tau and space marine.) send two or three trukker mobs out, and even with the low armor, the enemy will have trouble stopping them all, and even if they do, most of the boys will be fine, and then they can charge into battle on foot. overall: 8 out of 10

storm boys: they are fast and tough. the ability to move more than twenty inches is always a great thing. they have the highest close combat threat range out of all orks infantry in the game. I personally would simply use kommandos, as they can start only a foot away from the opponent, and they don’t have their jump packs explode on them. however, if it is a relatively open field, then you could employ zagstrug and deep strike, though that can still take longer than infiltrate if they have bad luck on the reserves table. overall: 6 out of 10

Warbuggies: These guys are fast and cheap, good in large units, (say two squads of three.) They have low armor, only ten, (which is the equivalent of toughness three or four.) Not good against ranged units, but against a CC army like tyranids or daemons, they are still pretty good. I suggest rokkits and big shootas, if you get close enough to need the flamer, you are pretty much doomed. Also, they are twin linked, so they hit twice as often. Overall: 6 1/2 out of 10

Warbikes: Fast, relatively cheap, and good guns, these are the most common picture when people think speed freeks. They are a bit weedy, I find that strength three usually isn’t enough when facing strong opponents, (say, space marines or tyranids.) I personally prefer nob bikers, they cost a few more teef, but they can be equipped incredibly well, and they are much better in CC. On the other hand, they last annoyingly well against range, with two 4+ saves (3+ if the go fast enough.) overall: 6 1/2 out of 10

deffkoptas: these are guys I like to field when I have the spare points. They cost only five points more than warbuggies, but they are faster, they are tougher, and all in all, they are round about better. Unlike the warbikes they don’t have the dust cloud, but they still have the 4+ save, which gives them good durability, and their speed allows them to cross the board in a matter of turns. When I have all my other areas covered, I like to throw these guys in as filler, since they are good against both tanks and troops, depending on their gun. Well rounded units, but not nescessary. overall: 7 1/2 out of 10