Games Workshop guide explains how to start an Ork army

Games Workshop’s 2024 Codex: Orks is 152 pages long and presents Orks as endless hordes of warlike greenskins: brutal, violent aliens who love nothing more than to fight, then erupt into even greater ferocity when gathered in a noisy, death-filled crush that fuels the Waaagh! For a new collector, that means you are not just buying units. You are choosing a force with a clear personality, a strong visual identity, and a tabletop style that tells you what kind of army you are building before the first box is even opened.

Why Orks work as a first collection

The Codex: Orks is built as more than a rules packet. It includes background information, artwork, galleries of painted miniatures, and the army rules needed to play. That combination is useful for a first-time buyer because it points you toward the whole project at once: how the army looks, what it means in the setting, and how it functions on the table.

Orks also have one of the clearest visual languages in the game. Scrap-built guns, patched armor, ramshackle vehicles, oversized weapons, and bright clan markings all give you permission to make the army look rough, inconsistent, and characterful. That matters when you are starting out, because Orks reward personality more than surgical perfection. If you want a faction that looks loud even before it is painted well, Orks give you that from the first unit onward.

Start with a playstyle, not a shopping list

The smartest first decision is not which box looks coolest, but which kind of Ork force you want to field. In 2024, the old Waaagh! Tribe became the War Horde, and Orks could lean in different directions, from Beast Snagga hunting parties to Deff Dread-heavy Mek mobs. That is the real starting point: decide whether your army should feel like a mass of footslogging brutality or a scrapyard full of loud machines.

If you want a force that reads as Orky from across the table, a Beast Snagga hunting party gives you a very direct theme. If you are drawn to big engines, build-around-centerpiece models, and the joy of brutal machinery, the Deff Dread-heavy Mek mob is the cleaner lane. Both sit inside the same faction identity, but they ask different things from your hobby time, your storage space, and your patience at the painting desk.

The current edition’s detachment system makes that choice easier to live with. In 2026, where armies once had to commit to a single detachment, you will often be able to choose several. For a new Ork collector, that is a practical relief: you can start with one strong theme and still keep room to expand into another later without tearing up the whole army plan.

How to think about model count and hobby effort

Orks have always carried a reputation for resilience and numbers, and the faction’s rules history supports that image. In 2020, many Ork profiles were pushed to Toughness 5, including Gretchin, which reinforced the idea that the army is built to take punishment and keep moving. That is useful for a beginner because Orks tend to forgive the kind of mistakes that can punish a more finesse-driven army.

That does not mean the army is low effort. It means the effort is different. A larger Ork force can demand more bodies, more repetition, and more time at the desk, while a Mek-heavy collection asks for more attention to individual models and centerpiece kits. The first collection decision, then, is whether you want volume or spectacle to do most of the work for you.

• If you want the simplest visual identity, start with a theme and repeat it across the force.

• If you want the fastest route to a table-ready army, keep the first collection focused and avoid too many side directions.

• If you want the most character per model, lean into the Orks’ built-in scrap aesthetic and let the army look cobbled together on purpose.

Use the current rules support to anchor the project

The faction has strong official support in the current edition of Warhammer 40,000. The current codex detachments remain usable at launch, and the official downloads page listed the Orks faction pack as last updated on 09/06/2026.

For a new buyer, that changes the order of operations. You are not just choosing the models that look best in the store. You are choosing the detachment idea you want to live with first, then building a collection that matches it. The War Horde gives you a solid baseline from the old Waaagh! Tribe identity, while Beast Snagga and Deff Dread paths make it easy to see where the army can branch next.