With constant reveals for the Greenskins, here are all the new 40k Orks rules that have been revealed and rumored for their new codex!
The new 40k Orks are here – from Stratagems, Traits, Datasheets, and army-wide rules, check out our review on what the army can do!
All the New 40k Orks Rules: Revealed & Rumored
Similar to the Sisters of Battle and Lumineth Realmlords rollout, this codex will first be available inside a new Army Box. In the future, it will be available separately. While the box is already sold out at GW, if you are curious, you can check the contents here.
Tons of rule previews have been coming out for a while over on Warhammer Community, but it looks like all the weapons profiles and points rules can be found online over on Imgur.
- New Orks & Beast Snagga 40k Rules: Stratagems
- All The New Orks 40k Rules: Traits, Psychics, & Relics
- Specialist Mobs & Detachment Rules
- Points & Wargear
If you missed any of our previous posts, can check out all the new Ork rules from our articles below. Additionally this week, the crew at the Long War talked about Orks, so check that out if you are interested!
Our Favorite & Most Powerful 40k Orks Units: Episode 301
Podcast Table of Contents:
- 00:00 Opening Jokes
- 02:22 Wyatt’s Cave Of Wonders
- 6:28 Rob Baer Memorial News Desk
- 33:03 Orks
New Weapons
The squad Nobs have the option of swapping their choppa for a power snappa, a lighter variant of power klaw that doesn’t weigh down the user, ensuring that they’ll have no problems hitting their targets. Meanwhile, the rare Beast Snagga that’s content to stow away their choppa in favour of increased firepower can carry a thump gun – large-bore handheld cannons that fire huge explosive shells.
At +2 Strength, -2 AP, and D2, the Power Snappa can really be a Space Marine killing machine! The Thump Gun can pump out some serious damage against big units with Blast and D3 damage!
Orks WAAAGH! 40k Rules
For your Warlord’s galvanising warcry to be heard, they need to be on the battlefield during the Command phase – or at the very least, embarked on a Transport that’s on the battlefield. In the latter case, we assume he shoves his head out of a window before starting the shouting.
A Waaagh! or Speedwaaagh! can be called once per battle, and they both work in two stages. Stage 1 lasts until the start of your next Command phase. Then Stage 2 kicks in, which lasts until the beginning of your subsequent Command phase.
There will be three in the book, but they only previewed two today. Only Ghazghkull Thraka can call the third one, called the Great WAAAGH!, so we’ll have to wait to see what that one does.
Still, when they first call the WAAAGH! your Orks will be more enraged, then as the second turn rolls around, they are still better, just not quite as intense. This one is really sweet and will get you a ton of extra attacks and let you advance and charge, which is just super strong.
Orks SPEEDWAAAGH! 40k Rules
This one is all about shooting, and man it really gives you a ton of extra power. With extra attacks and AP!
Dakka
Dakka weapons generate solid damage output overall, but particularly reward Orks that gamble and get in real close before pulling the trigger – even Orks with guns want to get as close to a good scrap as they possibly can. Dakka gets even scarier when you look at really big guns.
This is kind of like Rapid Fire, but most times the attacks don’t double, just go up by a different ratio.
Mork’s Roar
For instance, Ghazghkull’s already-spectacular Mork’s Roar goes from Assault 12 to Dakka 16/12 – a significant uptick. Likewise, the Gorkanaut’s deffstorm mega-shoota moves from a Heavy 18 to a frankly alarming Dakka 30/20. Yes, that’s 30 Strength-6 shots within 18” – considerably more than most Orks can be bothered to count.
Getting 16 shots is nice, but the Gorkanaut getting 30 shots is really insane!
New Weapon Profiles
Even the humble Boyz get a considerable boost, with big shootaz moving from a perfectly decent Assault 3 to Dakka 5/3, and regular shootaz switching from Assault 2 to Dakka 3/2, making them significantly more lethal at close range.
The Big Shootaz going up to 5 shots at 18″ will give a unit with a few of them some crazy number of shots, as we said, you’ll have to have a ton of dice to play with these new rules!
Buy one get one Free! Choose from hundreds of minis now!
The weapon upgrades don’t end there – Ork ranged weaponry has improved almost across the board, but new-style rokkits really shine. Rokkit launchas, rokkit kannons and kustom mega-blastas get more shots and that all-important Blast keyword.
You will be getting more shots on these, but moving them all to heavy basically guarantees you’ll be hitting on 6’s most of the time. Still, you could get lucky and get way more shots when standing still.
Kustom Mega Blasta and Bubblechukka
This is just a straight upgrade to get more shots, meaning you’ll actually be able to hit more with this super powerful weapon!
So now instead of rolling a D6 for shots, Strength, AP, and damage and hoping for the best, you simply roll a D3 to get one of three intensely painful weapon profiles. Our tactical recommendation is this: do everything in your power to stay out of the way of the dense bubble.
This really simplifies the gun, instead of rolling everything random, you just roll one die. To us, rolling the 2 seems like the most consistent way to deal heavy damage, but if you get lucky with the 3, it deals insane single target damage.
Boyz Rules
That’s right, Toughness 5. In fact, many varieties of Ork throughout the codex are seeing an extra point of Toughness added to their profile (yes, even Gretchin). It looks like the greenskins are finally living up to the terrifying reputation they have for charging headlong into clouds of gunfire and coming hollering out the other side.
That is a nice change for the Boyz, considering their awful save, this may help them survive that small arms fire all the better. They also mention everything will be getting an additional toughness, so that’s honestly huge! Looks like that Gretchin army is looking better and better…
The dream of Primaris Orks is dead in a sense. But the Beast Snagga version will have strength 5, meaning their efficiency against the always common T4 will be way higher.
All of the scar tissue and crude bioniks an average Beast Snagga accumulates over the course of their (usually quite short) life have their upsides too, as the chances of an incoming bullet or chainsword hitting something the Ork needs to function are even lower than usual.
Not only will they be stronger, but they will also be hitting vehicles or monsters on a 2+ in CC and 4+ in the shooting phase. On top of that, they will all have a 6+ invuln, meaning you will have a chance to save them even from pesky weapons with AP.
Regular Choppas will have an AP which is pretty sweet, and the bigger you go, the more effective they get! You may even be able to mob some vehicles now effectively with just the Best Snagga Boyz as they will be hitting on 2’s and wounding most things, even T8 on 5’s base with -1 AP.
Ork Boyz Points Rumors
These are rumors so we aren’t a hundred percent but look pretty legit, so we wanted to include them.
The rumor puts the Beast Snagga boyz at 11 points, you’ll have to decide if the extra Strength, +1 to hit vehicles and the 6+ Invuln is worth the points.
Lootas look like they will have at most 3 shots each and will basically have the Autocannon profile on their guns. They were taken in a ton of armies before, so we’ll have to see if people keep playing them or drop them for all of the new stuff. According to this though, they aren’t really top tier…
New Kulturs
If your army is Battle-forged, it can take advantage of this updated Snakebites Clan Kultur. Da Old Ways will dial that already ’ard-as-nails Beast Snagga survivability up to 11, while also lending further credibility to that most ancient Orkish adage, ‘squigs iz good for bitin’ fings’. Though, as we’ve already learned, squigs can also do so much more.
Basically, this makes your Orks much harder to wound, which is a good thing considering their save! Especially because it says irrespective of any ability, meaning if something isn’t S8, it’s never wounding on better than a 4. On top of that adding one to all the Squig wound rolls is really sweet as well.
Zodgrod Wortsnagga
Through a combination of shiny objects, enticing fungal treats, and a few vials of the Painboys’ ‘special brew’, Zodgrod succeeded in creating a new breed of ‘super runt’, possessed of greater strength, intelligence, and frankly alarming levels of problem-solving ability.
Adding one to all attack rolls is pretty cool, but being able to perform actions and still shoot is really a great rule! Just sit your super runts where you need them, have them do actions all game, and bam! You’ve won the game… Not really, but still, it’s fun.
The Squigstoppa can hopefully let you kill the monster you are fighting before it gets to strike back. This is actually really powerful and can basically spell doom for most monsters in combat with your big units. Da Grabzappa is a decent weapon with +2 S, -3 AP, and D2. He will be able to dish out some serious punishment on his own.
Squighog Boyz
Tough, determined, and armed to the teef, these living battering rams comprise a fast-moving cavalry unit designed to get up close and personal. Armed with an arsenal of weaponry, including stikkas, Bomb Squigs, and their mounts themselves, Squighog Boyz and their red friends are unleashing relentless flurries of attacks, and they’re perfect for dealing with light Vehicles.
On the topic of Squighog Boyz, the Army Set includes three of these mounted warriors, who race across the battlefield and pin down their prey with crude rocket-propelled spears they call ‘stikkas’. Each model is packed with character and detail, from the motorcycle wheels attached in place of one squighog’s legs to the unusually brave Gretchin hitching a ride.
With a 10″ move, 5 Strength, 6 Toughness, 3 Wounds, and a 4+ save, these are going to hit hard and be very hard to kill! Small arms fire will have a very hard time taking them out, hopefully letting you get off a serious charge with them before they meet their end!
New Stratagem
Power them up with the Monster Hunterz Stratagem, and for 2 Command points, these lumbering symbiotes can take down far larger prey.
This is pretty sweet, considering you get to affect 3 of your units for only 2 CP! While you have to select a single enemy, this will really let you bring down whatever big target you’re going after, and bringing down a big monster or vehicle for 2 CP is almost always worth it.
Bomb Squig and Smasha ‘Ead
On paper this seems great, although we don’t know how targeting will work, opponents might be able to just kill the Bomb Squigs first, which might be good or bad for the Ork player. Assuming you get to use the ability, these look a little like a non-psychic power smite with a 12″ range and a bonus to hit against vehicles. A 2+ to deal d3 mortals to a vehicle is pretty good.
That is, assuming it’s not at a high price during list construction.
Their thick skulls (and remarkable resistance to concussions) make them excellent candidates for smashing headlong into enemy troops, augmented by the thick sheets of metal that are often crudely bolted to their heads.
This is pretty similar to some of the AoS mortals on charge rules, although these guys also get it on heroic interventions which seems great! Not only can you protect your characters behind a wall of bodies, but with careful layouts, you can also more or less guarantee to set off this ability for a chance at some extra mortal wounds!
It almost looks like the squig has been left to aim and fire the gun itself, doesn’t it? It must take a particularly important kind of Beast Snagga to secure such a complex device, and you’ll find out exactly who they are very soon.
While they don’t outright say it, this strongly suggests he might just be the head Ork of the Beast Snaggas. If he is, we sure won’t complain!.
Ramshackle Rules
First up, the Ramshackle rule is changing. Under the previous rules, it allowed Trukks to shrug off a bit of damage every so often as shots ricochet off useless bits the Orks bolted to make the rig look more killy – a handy rule in a pinch. Now pretty much every Ork vehicle now counts as Ramshackle, which means that any shot of Strength 7 or less does one less damage. That’s a major boost to survivability all around, and it even applies to Killa Kans and Mek Gunz.
This helps a lot with D2 weaponry and other smaller arms fire that isn’t S8 because statistically before you only saved 1 in 6 damage, where this just reduces every time. It is worse obviously against things like Lascannons and Dark Lances, but overall a really nice buff to keep your vehicles alive. For Killa Kans and Mek Gunz, this is also pretty awesome, because more often than not, they can be taken out by S7 guns or less.
Stompa, Gorkanauts, & Morkanauts Rules
It’s now much easier to fit a mighty Stompa into your force thanks to their new Power rating, which drops from 46 to 34 (a drop of 175 in points terms, to 675). That cost is even more efficient when you factor in the new Dakka weapons rules, which boost the Stompa’s killing power.
Gorkanauts and Morkanauts have meanwhile bulked up, moving from 18 Wounds to a much more appropriate 24, while their Klaw of Gork (or possibly Mork) now does a full 6 Damage in close combat rather than D6. But all these improvements have pushed them up a weight category, and they’ve both now become Lords of War instead of Heavy Support.
The Stompa is going way down in points! A Full 175, plus with more shooting than before (up to 30 shots), maybe people will actually take them, but we’ll have to see on that. The other big boys have moved to Lords of war, but their wounds and damage output have flown through the roof!
Killa Rig Rules
Effectively Wurrboy pulpits bristling with heavy weaponry and able to transport a mob of ornery boyz, Rigs pulled by gigantic, slavering Tramplasquigs are the Beast Snaggas’ preferred runaround – even though there are clearly bits falling off all the time.
With 16 wounds, 8 toughness, and a 3+ save, this thing should be pretty hard to kill! If they also get the Rmashackle rule, they will be even tougher. It has plenty of weaponry on it as well with a bunch of guns, a decent amount of CC, and whatever the Wurrtower does. We imagine it will just make the psychic power that much more potent, so maybe it will just turn everyone in the enemy army into squigs!
Faction & Kultur Rumors
Blood Axes Clan: First off Blood Axes are of course sneaky, and their rules seem to really reflect that. Their trait allows 3 of them to redeploy without restrictions or CP costs, making it an extremely good strategic tool.
Their Stratagem is similarly as valuable, allowing a unit to redeploy if they are near the table edge. Lastly, the Relic is just a nice CP battery throughout the game.
Blood Axe Clan Kultur: Same as before. If being shot at from more than 18″ away, count as having cover. Units can fall back and charge or fall back and shoot.
Goff Clan:
This faction sticks to its roots and commits to the melee plan. First off it looks like the trait gets an extra attack and AP in melee, which can be a nice bonus for some of the melee-focused models.
Their relic is essentially free Mortal wounds in melee, which is a nice bonus assuming they can stick around. The Carnage stratagem on the other hand looks a little murky until we see the faction rules, but triggering their Kultur (mukkin’ about) on a 5+ to explode hits could be super good with stacking other benefits.
Goff Clan Kultur: Natural 6s to hit gain an extra hit. Also, gain +1 Strength on Charges and Heroic Interventions.
Snakebite Clan:
The interesting part about this has GW just gave us some of the faction rules for Snakebites. If you are interested in GW official reveals from Thursday the 15th, you can check here.
Surly as a Squiggoth looks ok with a 50% chance to revive at the end of the phase, if this can happen more than once, it might be very annoying to deal with, and a 1CP deny psychic power strat is poised to see a lot of use if true.
Buzz bomb looks pretty good with a decent amount of hits and pumping out mortal wounds on chaff.
Snakebite Clan Kultur: When attacked with S7 or less, only wounded on 4+. Squig units get +1 to wound on charges and interventions. (Matches the confirmed rules from GW!)
Bad Moons Clan:
The Warlord trait seems fantastic, +1 to their save and a 4+ invulvn is hard to pass up, especially if the warlord wouldn’t otherwise have an invuln at all. The Stratagem seems ok, but nothing special, we’ve seen this mechanic plenty of times before. The relic is essentially an amped-up flamer with 18″ range, which can be nice in the right situation.
Badmoons Clan Kultur: Heavy and Dakka Weapons get +6″ range. Also, 6s to wound get an additional AP.
Deathskulls Clan:
The Warlord trait looks decent if your opponent is playing with tons of auras and tries to protect them. They also gain CP when destroying nearby vehicles which can be a nice bonus.
The stratagem is expensive at 2 CP but can come in clutch if you really need to destroy a specific vehicle. Lastly, the relic and the end of the last sentence should read “when being repaired. Select enemy vehicles within 12″ it suffers D3 mortal wounds.”
This looks decent, especially if you are running lots of vehicles to have options for mortal wounds placement.
Deathskulls Clan Kultur: You can reroll one hit and wound rolls per unit. They also get a 5+ Mortal Wound save.
Evil Sunz Clan:
The stratagem seems decent, gaining a free move at the end of shooting could make some shooty vehicles very hard to deal with, being essentially immune to short-range weapons. Or bounce back behind/ into cover.
The relic looks ok with a simple +2″ movement. This last section is a little confusing though. Is this the warlord trait, faction rule, or even part of the relic? In any case, it is an extremely powerful bonus to have in a list, allowing for you to save some models by getting attacks in at full strength first.
Evil Sunz Clan Kultur: +1″ to movement, Speed Freaks get +2″ instead. +1″ to advances. Units can Advance and shoot Assault Weapons without penalty.
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About the Author: Travis Pasch
Travis Pasch
Job Title: Head Writer & Editor
Socials: @paschbass
About Travis Pasch: Travis has been a Warhammer 40k hobbyist since the 1990s, playing the game since Third Edition. Through extensive traveling, he’s seen a lot of the miniatures hobby from across the world, giving him a unique perspective on the latest gaming topics and trends.
Travis’s brother even owns a commission painting studio, where he’s picked up a lot of good advice and techniques for painting Warhammer and tabletop miniatures over the years, as well. Travis joined the Spikey Bits team in 2019 and has been the lead writer since 2020.
Currently, he’s working on converting all his 40k Adeptus Mechanicus models and becoming a true tech enjoyer, complete with both sad and happy robot noises!
