Orks are warlike aliens whose societies reward strength and whose expanding campaigns are known as Waaaghs! A powerful boss draws fighters into a growing force, but rivalry within the horde remains a constant part of Ork life. Their armies combine large mobs, specialist warriors and vehicles built by Meks.[1]
Bosses, mobs and the Waaagh![edit]
A Warboss holds authority through the ability to defeat rivals and drive other Orks into battle. Warfare also keeps a growing mob occupied: without outside opponents, Orks readily fight one another. The same enthusiasm that brings them together can undermine a leader's control.[1]
A Waaagh! is therefore more than the name of a single regiment. It can gather different leaders and followers into a campaign. Mike Brooks's Brutal Kunnin’ supplies a concrete example: the published opening chapter depicts Da Meklord's fleet assembling bosses from several clans, while Ufthak assesses rival fighters and the opportunity represented by the Freebooter Badrukk.[2]
Clans and coalitions[edit]
Goffs, Evil Sunz, Deathskulls, Bad Moons, Snakebites and Blood Axes are distinct clan identities. All six appear in the official description of the forces covered by the 2026 Operation Imperator background book, alongside the Space Marine Chapters fighting on Armageddon.[3]
Clan identity and campaign allegiance answer different questions. The Brutal Kunnin’ excerpt shows several clans present under one campaign leader, with differences in dress and equipment still visible. Ufthak's pride in the Bad Moons also gives the scene a partisan viewpoint. His opinion of his own clan is characterization, rather than an objective ranking of every Ork army.[2]
Meks and machinery[edit]
Mekboyz possess an instinctive aptitude for engineering and experimentation. Their creations range from transport vehicles to aircraft, walkers and enormous Stompas. Malfunctions belong to this technology's depiction alongside its destructive power. A crude exterior does not mean a machine has no engineering behind it.[1]
For a modelling project, these contrasts offer useful choices: a vehicle workshop, a mixed mob or a force built around a particular boss. A repeated colour, emblem or basing scheme can make varied models read as one collection without making every fighter identical. The army-planning guide provides a way to keep that first project manageable.
Following an Ork story[edit]
Brutal Kunnin’ offers an Ork viewpoint on a raid against a forge world, with an official sample available in the sources below.[2] Operation Imperator is a separate Armageddon campaign publication.[3] Keeping the title and publication context with a claim helps distinguish a particular boss's experience from a statement about the entire species.
Units
- Beast Snagga BoyzTroops · InfantryScarred, muscle-bound and dead 'ard, the Beast Snagga Boyz are throwbacks to a wilder kind of Ork, hunters who bring down the galaxy's biggest monsters with harpoon, choppa and sheer bloody-minded grit.
- Burna BoyzElites · InfantryCackling pyromaniacs armed with roaring burnas, the Burna Boyz drench trenches, tanks and each other in flame, a mob of fire-worshipping would-be meks who would rather torch a problem than think about it.
- Deff DreadHeavy Support · WalkerA towering armored walker built to let the meanest Orks keep fighting long after a normal body would have given out.
- DeffkoptasFast Attack · VehicleRickety rotor-driven scout vehicles that scream across the battlefield, held aloft by little more than speed and stubbornness.
- Flash GitzElites · InfantryOstentatious Nobz obsessed with lavishly customised snazzguns, spendthrift show-offs whose ranged firepower and swagger mark them as Freebooterz-in-waiting.
- GorkanautLords of War · WalkerA towering Ork walker of solid scrap and spite, wading into battle with a colossal Klaw of Gork and a storm of shells from its Deffstorm mega-shoota.
- GretchinTroops · InfantrySmall, cowardly greenskin underlings who exist to absorb punishment, carry gear, and occasionally shoot something by accident.
- Grot Mega-TankHeavy Support · VehicleBuilt and crewed by grots with something to prove, the Grot Mega-Tank bristles with far too many guns, a rattling deathtrap that spits an absurd volume of fire in every direction at once.
- Kill RigHeavy Support · VehicleHalf war-altar and half rolling abattoir, the Kill Rig grinds forward on great iron wheels dragged by a monstrous squig, carrying a Wurrboy who hurls raw Waaagh! energy into the foe.
- Killa KansHeavy Support · WalkerSquat, boxy walkers built around a single armed Grot pilot, waddling into battle with more enthusiasm than coordination.
- MeganobzElites · InfantryThe richest and toughest Nobz sealed in crude mega armour, walking tanks that shrug off cannon fire and rip vehicles apart with their power klaws.
- Mek GunzHeavy Support · ArtilleryEnormous scrap-built cannons dragged into place by teams of cursing grots, the Mek Gunz belch out devastating and wildly unpredictable firepower, from crushing gravity blasts to sky-tearing traktor beams.
Characters
- Boss SnikrotDa StalkerA legendary Blood Axe Kommando whose supernatural stealth makes him the one Ork the famed Armageddon Ork Hunters truly fear, stalking the jungles like a ghost.
- Ghazghkull ThrakaMankind's BaneThe most feared Ork Warlord in the galaxy, whose Waaagh!s have leveled Imperial worlds and who claims the Ork gods speak through him.
- Kaptin BadrukkThe Ork With the Silver SquigA flamboyant Freebooterz pirate captain whose custom silver-plated gun and love of easy plunder make him a legend among raiding Orks.
- Mad Dok GrotsnikThe Ork Who Loves Surgery Too MuchAn Ork Painboy whose enthusiasm for battlefield surgery on himself and others has produced some of the strangest survivors in Ork history.
- MakariThe Luckiest Grot in the GalaxyGhazghkull Thraka's personal grot banner-waver, famed as the luckiest grot alive, and in truth a succession of grots who inherit the name at each death.
- Nazdreg Ug UrdgrubDa Kunnin' WarlordA rich, cunning, and unusually patient Bad Moons Warlord whose genius for battlefield strategy and love of tellyporta trickery make him a rival to Ghazghkull himself.
- Old ZogwortMaker of SquigsPerhaps the most powerful Weirdboy ever to live, a snake-bitten, Catachan-born curmudgeon feared across the galaxy for the curse that mutates his enemies into bewildered squigs.
- Wazdakka GutsmekDa Fastest Ork AliveA legendary Ork biker and Mek who slew a Warlord Titan from the saddle and dreams of uniting every Speed Freek in the galaxy into one endless, roaring Waaagh!.
Subfactions
- Bad MoonsThe wealthiest Ork clan, whose mastery of trade and gaudy yellow gear keeps every other clan's war machine running.
- Blood AxesThe most cunning and least trusted Ork clan, mercenaries who trade with the Imperium, wear camouflage, and will actually retreat to fight another day.
- DeathskullsThe Ork clan of incorrigible looters and scroungers, who daub themselves in lucky blue and pilfer anything not bolted down, friend or foe alike.
- Evil SunzSpeed-obsessed Orks who believe painting a vehicle red makes it faster and would rather crash into the enemy than shoot them.
- FreebooterzPiratical Orks who have cut ties with any single clan to roam the stars for plunder, decked in gaudy finery beneath the dreaded Jolly Ork flag.
- GoffsThe biggest, meanest, most traditionalist Ork clan, who settle every argument about tactics with a straightforward brawl.
- SnakebitesThe most traditionalist Ork clan, feral throwbacks who scorn fancy tech for war paint, poison-proof hide, and the fierce beasts they breed for war.
Sources & further reading
- Starting an Ork Army in Warhammer 40,000. Warhammer Community, , Orks Explained: Waaaghs!, Warbosses, Mekboyz and vehicles. Accessed .Official source checked during the 2026-09-29 assisted audit; whole-page human review pending.
- The official opening chapter of Brutal Kunnin’. Warhammer Community, , Mike Brooks excerpt: Da Meklord's fleet, Ufthak and the mixed-clan meeting. Accessed .Official source checked during the 2026-09-29 assisted audit; whole-page human review pending.
- Warhammer 40,000: Armageddon: The Operation Imperator book. Warhammer Community, , Campaign context and six participating Ork clans. Accessed .Official source checked during the 2026-09-29 assisted audit; whole-page human review pending.
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Units
Beast Snagga BoyzBurna BoyzDeff DreadDeffkoptasFlash GitzGorkanautGretchinGrot Mega-TankKill RigKilla KansMeganobzMek GunzMorkanautNobzOrk BattlewagonOrk Big MekOrk BoyzOrk KommandosOrk LootasOrk PainboyOrk StormboyzOrk TankbustasOrk TrukkOrk WarbossOrk WeirdboyRukkatrukk SquigbuggySquighog BoyzWarbikersWartrakks