The Space Orks
The Power of the Waaagh!


Orky Overview Waaagh? Mob Bonus Tier 0 Tier 1 Tier 1.5 Tier 2 Boyz Tier 2 Vehicles Tier 3 Tier 4 Top

Waaagh! Banner Big Gunz Add-On Bigger Gunz Add-On Top of page

Ork armies are created when a powerful War Boss rallies the local free range Boyz into a large roving war band called a Waaagh! (pronounced "Waarrr!!!") It is to Orks what "Praise the Lord!" is to God botherers. Waaagh!'s have the same sort of philosophical cohesion and long term ambitions of a football riot. Mob rule drives the Orks.

The Waaagh! represents the current size and power of your Ork army in the game at any point in the game. Its measured in Ork's very own unique resource: Ork Resource. To build up Waaagh!, you attract Orks to the cause by building Waaagh! Banners. This is an armed wooden tripod that is a combination of resource generator, unit cap booster and armed defensive turret. The more Banners you build, the more Waaagh! you generate; the more Waaagh! you generate, the more Orks and juicy toys you can crash around with.

There's a very close relationship between your current tech level and the number of Orks you have (or can have) on the field. Ork uses a Population Cap that counts individuals instead of squads. While the other armies unlock techs with buildings and upgrades, most Ork techs and units are unlocked by how much Ork Resource you have.

Ork Resource appears as a third resource in your game GUI (pictured right). However, you never see a grand total of how much you actually have. The interface only shows you how much you have available to spend, just like Requisition or Power, You can see how much Ork Resource you have stored, plus its income (pictured right as 15/+16). In the example pic (right), we have 30 pop's worth of Orks on the field, with 15 Ork Rez available for us to spend. Add the two together and you have your Waaagh!'s actual worth: 45.

Its this number that unlocks your techs and units - NOT your pop cap. Many players confuse the two. Again, Ork Resource measures the size of your Waaagh, which is how big and powerful your Mob can become. Ork Resource is capped to the current Pop Cap. To have a big mob with lots of end level weapons, you need to grow the Mob's pop cap via the Banners. You can store more than your current pop cap, but you won't earn any more past it.

Here's a small - but vital - little tidbit you really should memorize:

Ork Resource = available Ork Resource + the number of Orks you have on field.

Back to our example: since Orks are counted as part of your Waaagh!, if somehow all those 30 pop's worth of Orks should suddenly die, then you lose 30 Ork Rez. Your Waaagh! is now dramatically smaller - worth 15 Ork Rez + no living Orks (0/45 pop's worth). All the techs and units that need more than 15 Ork Rez suddenly become unavailable. You have to wait until you've earnt enough Ork Resource before you can buy more Orks or see those techs reappear. In our example, it would take about 20 seconds for that +16 income to fully replenish your Waaagh! This is how Ork can seem so gimped for so many people; how techs and unit buttons can mysteriously switch off, even though your pop cap may not have changed.

Ork Resource is still a resource, however. It only disappears from the bank when you spend it or the Orks get killed on the field. If, instead of Orks, you lost all your Banners, then your available Ork Resource remains unchanged. Only your Ork Rez income might drop (and probably not by much), showing at worst, 15/+13 instead of 15/+16. Your Pop cap, though, would drop from 30/45 to 30/15. Since you still have some 30 Ork Resource saved up, you can still add an extra 15 Orks to your forces in spite of the reduced pop cap! You can have potentially 45/15 worth of Orks on the field without rebuilding a single Banner! As you use that excess resource, it won't be replaced since your pop cap is gone, unless you shell out the 165 Req per Banner to built it up again. So you might still be a force to be reckoned with - provided you don't start taking losses, ha ha!

So, as your Waaagh! expands, more techs, upgrades and units start to unlock. As your Waaagh! contracts from heavy losses and/or the destruction of Banners, then the more techs and upgrades that will lock. Be warned: no other race in the game can be catastrophically "de-teched" into the Stone Age like Orks can. Its also what makes them so much fun to play: playing an Ork mirror game is not an inevitable, one way slide towards an end game spam fest. Unfortunately, in Dark Crusade, Orks can sometimes lag behind the other races when it comes to rapid teching. While most races can opt for either an Amoury or a Barracks for their fast track to Tier 2, Orks still have to invest heavily in lots of Banners, even though they may skip the Boyz Hut or the Pile'O'Gunz.

Income can seem a bit weird for people too, although most of the time you won't need to worry about it. Ork Resource income starts off at a basic +12 (it never gets lower than this, regardless of what state your army or base is in) and maxes out at +21. Each Waaagh! Banner you initially build increases your Ork Resource income by +1. But its important to note that your actual Ork income its based on how big your current store of Ork Resource is. You can delete all your Banners, and not see your income drop until you use up your Ork Resource and lose a lot of Orks. The Waaagh! icon (I think) displays your current Waaagh income and size. It generally lights up a new letter when you build your Banners, but I think it really only tracks the relative size of your Waaagh!, not the actual number of Banners you've built.

Waaagh! Banner Big Gunz Add-On Bigger Gunz Add-On Top of page
Waaagh! Banner
Ork Resource Generator and defensive tower
Structure Details
Cost 165 base structure
+50/50 Big Gunz Add-On
+50/50 Bigger Gunz Add-On
Build times 37 seconds to build
+30 seconds Big Gunz Add-On
+30 seconds Bigger Gunz Add-On
Armour class 1250hp building_low
1925hp (Big Gunz Add-On: +675 hp)
2600hp (Bigger Gunz Add-On: +675 hp)
Self repair 5hp/sec (only outside of combat)
Viewing & Spotting Range 35
Waaagh! Banners are both the strong points and the Achilles Heels of your base and economy. When it provides covering fire for your Boyz, it'll easily help turn the tide, especially if you cluster them defensively with other Banners or buildings. The twin Big Shoota version has particularly good range and killing power, and works quite nicely both on those nasty old Marines and any troublesome Bosses that happen to be demolishing your Boyz. Make good use for the Banner's Attack button for best results.

On its own, however, its like any turret - easily overpowered (except at the very early stages of the game) and destroyed, especially by AV or vehicles. You should think of a Banner as another type of resource building and protect it accordingly. Like a Listening Post, it can be upgraded twice to provide improved anti-infantry weapons and anti-vehicle weaponry respectively (a job it does rather well). The Rokkit version can be wildly inaccurate, but several Rokkit Banners working in tandem can take a serious bite out of most attacking walkers and vehicles.

Each Banner increases your Population Cap by 10 and your Vehicle Cap by 2. Chances are, if you've lost all your Banners, you probably lost all your Boyz trying to defend them... being de-popped and de-teched is a common occupational hazard of playing Orks.Back

Big Gunz Add-On
Big Gunz Add-On: right from the start, you can upgrade your Waaagh! Banners (assuming you have sufficient power, which you almost certainly don't early on) right up to maximum. The first of two upgrades, the Big Gunz Add-On turns the Banner's single Big Shoota into a twin-linked double Big Shoota, increasing firepower and range substantially. Banner health is also upgraded from 1250 to 1925.Back
Bigger Gunz Add-On
Bigger Gunz Add-On: the second Waaagh! Banner add-on changes its role from an anti-infantry tower to an anti-vehicle tower. The twin Big Shoota is substituted by a wobbly Rokkit turret. While not entirely accurate, it still dents tanks and in numbers, even cripple God units with some finesse. An Ork base surrounded by these things can almost defend itself against deep struck vehicles and even God units. Its Rokkits still disrupt infantry quite nicely, and I believe (reading from the fora) that does similar DPS to infantry as the twin Big Shoota version. Banner health is upgraded from 1925 to 2600.Back
Prerequisites Pros Cons Perks

none

Excellent defence against infantry, Bosses and later on, vehicles

Increases Pop Cap by 10

Increases Vehicle Cap by 2.

Regenerates 5hp a sec when left alone.

You won't lose any stored Ork Resource earned with the loss of a Banner.

Expensive, especially when you're forced to replace them.

Losing one takes down your Pop Cap by 10, and your Vehicle Cap by 2.

Tends to completely fall apart to any AV units.

Regeneration ceases in battle or under fire.

Big Gunz Add-On: 50% health bonus, double the firepower and longer range

Bigger Gunz Add-On: additional +33% health bonus; Big Shootas replaced by Rokkit for anti-Vehicle and anti-God defence

Blastier Research: 15% ranged bonus for Big Shootas.


Waaagh! Banner Weaponry
Single Big Shoota
Fab Ranged anti-infantry turret
A great early defensive structure. It does a fair whack of damage, halved against infantry armour, reduced to a third by Terminators and Heroes, a smidge left over for low buildings, and nothing else.
DAMAGE
per burst
62-78/4
Min Damage 3.5
Range 25
Rate 1 burst every 0.7 sec
  Accuracy base DPS
stationary 50% 50/2.8
Armour piercing (approx) against...
42% builders
55% inf_med
46% inf_high
48% marines
35%
terminators
30% commanders
46% daemon
0% God monsters
7% light vehicles
0% vehicles
0% God vehicles
36% building_low
10%
buildings
0% HQ's
Double Big Shoota
Better Ranged anti-infantry turret
The Big Gunz Add-On increases the damage, range and morale hit of your basic Banner, mowing down Marines and light infantry in equal measure, and taking on Heroes quite well.
DAMAGE
per burst
43-53/12
Min Damage 1.5
Range 30
Rate 1 burst every 0.3 sec
  Accuracy base DPS
stationary 50% 80/20
Armour piercing (approx) against...
47% builders
62% inf_med
52% inf_high
53% marines
52%
terminators
26% commanders
52% daemon
2% God monsters
10% light vehicles
5% vehicles
2% God vehicles
25% building_low
20% buildings
10% HQ's
 
Rokkit Launcha
Not half bad anti-vehicle turret
A solid mid to end game anti-vehicle and anti-God defence. Fires slowly, and misses a bit, but its good against vehicles and buildings, and does about the same damage as the twin Big Shoota version against troops. An Ork base surrounded by over half a dozen Rokkit Banners will bring down a God unit on its own.
DAMAGE
per burst
550-925/45 disruptive
Min Damage 12.5
Range 40
Rate 1 rokkit every 2.5 sec
  Accuracy base DPS
stationary 65% 192/11.7
Armour piercing (approx) against...
10% builders
0% inf_med
0% inf_high
0% marines
0%
terminators
0% commanders
0% daemon
30% God monsters
36% light vehicles
36% vehicles
30% God vehicles
36% building_low
0%
buildings
0% HQ's

Waaagh! Banner Big Gunz Add-On Bigger Gunz Add-On Top of page

Orky Overview Waaagh? Mob Bonus Tier 0 Tier 1 Tier 1.5 Tier 2 Boyz Tier 2 Vehicles Tier 3 Tier 4 Top


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Last modified sUN, Dec 2 2006 by Lindsay Fleay