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Da Art of Waaagh! 2022 Part I: Orks in the Nachmund GT Era

May 6th, 2022

It's been over four months since Da Ironbullz have had a good scrap (i.e., since I've last played a game of 40k), which means it's high time to review where Codex: Orks stands in the 40k universe about ~halfway through 2022.

This will be part one of a four-part series where I share some thoughts and comments on the state of Codex: Orks in 40k. I hope to evaluate all of the (many!) changes to the 40k landscape since Codex: Orks dropped just before our October 2021 friendly tournament.

The four installments to Da Art of Waaagh! 2022 will be organized as follows:

1. Orks in the Nachmund GT Era
2. Chapter Approved 2022, Balance Dataslates, and their implications within Codex: Orks
3. Changes to the 40k-wide metagame and their impact on Codex: Orks
4. Synthesis, summary, and example army lists

Introduction

Before diving into Part I, I want to share some brief context to explain the purpose of these posts:

I do not intend for this to be an authoritative, expert review of Codex: Orks and how to lead your Waaagh! to the top tables at a super-major GT. I am not a hyer-competitive player. I'm not even a good player by most standards! However, I do love writing army lists, theoryhammer, and try to keep my fingers on the pulse of the international 40k competitive gaming scene by following groups like Tabletop Titans, Auspex Tactics, and The Art of War 40k.

In these posts, I will try to summarize all of the changes to the Ork faction since their codex debut and will attempt to weigh up the pros and cons from the perspective of a casual, middle-of-the-road 40k player. In general, these views and opinions will be based on a holistic, take-all-comers approach to gaming rather than tailoring an Ork list to topple the factions at the top of the metagame at the moment.

Put simply, these four posts aim to answer the question: if I were to rack up a 2,000 point game against a completely random casual opponent tomorrow, how would I be viewing Codex: Orks differently now than when it first dropped last year?

Part I: Orks in the Nachmund GT Era

The Nachmund GT pack dropped in early 2022, injecting a slew of new dynamics into 40k.

I am a big fan of the Nachmund GT pack, as it made each mission more distict than previous GT packs by giving mission-specific primary objectives and special rules.

I've summarized the changes from the Nachmund GT pack into four topics:

1. Restrictions on mixing subfactions
2. New mission layouts
3. Mission-specific primary objectives & special rules
4. Revised secondary objectives

1. Restrictions on mixing subfactions

The Nachmund GT pack states:

All of the units in a player's army that have selectable Faction keywords -- that is Faction keywords presented in angular brackets that a player selects when they add those units to their army -- must all have the same selectable keywords.

For Orks, this refers to the <CLAN> keyword, meaning you can no longer field multiple detachments that benefit from different Clan Kulturs (e.g., no more pairing a Goffs Patrol with an Evil Sunz Outrider detachment in the same list).

My impression is that this didn't move the needle much at the highest levels of competitive play since the three most viable top-tier Ork lists were all mono-Clan builds: Freebootaz Speedwaaagh, pure Goffs melee, and the Speed Freeks Speed Mob Army of Renown (which effectively doesn't benefit from the <CLAN> tag).

On the other hand, this limitation seems like a big loss for most other casual Ork lists, as well as the universe of possible combos Ork players could explore in two-detachment configurations with mixed Clans. The six Orky Clan Kulturs are all remarkably different in their benefits, many of which complemented each other. For example, Deffskullz granting ObSec to all infantry paired great with nearly any other Clan, especially those Clans that eschewed Boyz and Grots in favor of specialist units or vehicles.

To me, this new restriction seems to hurt Clans proportionally to their synergy when "soup"-ing with other Clans in the same army list. Phrased another way, I think the Clans that benefit (comparatively) the most from this new restriction are the Clans whose Kulturs are well-rounded instead of being hyper-specialized, apply to many or most units in the book, and provide a general starting point for winning games. To summarize:

The Winners

In my estimation, three Clans haven't suffered as much as other four Clans from to the restriction on <CLAN> keywords, largely due to their Clan Kultur and other benefits being self-sufficient for building take-all-comers lists and winning games:

• Deffskullz: Deffskullz are a clear winner from this new restriction on army comp because they don't need other Clan perks to win games. Their Kultur provides three small but broadly useful perks: (1) ObSec to all infantry (including infantry characters!), (2) one reroll to hit or wound per unit per shoot or fight phase, and (3) a 5++ vs. mortal wounds. Effectively every Ork list will have at least some infantry, which will now become ObSec as Deffskullz. Every datasheet in the Codex will benefit from more reliable offensive output and better protection against mortal wounds. You could probably take most Ork army lists and switch them to Deffskullz with no other changes and not even break a sweat. The one small downside of this new restriction is that souping a Deffskullz patrol in with another Clan for ObSec Stormboyz and Kommandoz is no longer an option, but that is more of a loss for all other Clans than for Deffskullz themselves. Mono-Deffskullz lists still should do just fine in my opinion.
• Blood Axes: Similar to Deffskullz, the Blood Axe Clan is a well-rounded starting point for general-purpose Ork lists. The Blood Axes Kultur provides some modest but generic benefits that can support most Ork lists, granting light cover versus enemy shooting at >18" range and the option to fall back and shoot or charge (however niche this may be). Blood Axes shine beyond their Kultur rules, too: their Warlord Trait (pregame redeploy up to three units), Stratagem (move one infantry unit off a board edge into Strategic Reserves), and Relic (gain an extra CP on a 4+ each turn) are all generally useful tools in most games of 40k. Their Codex Supplement in Warzone Octarius: Critical Mass is even more icing on the cake, although there's not a ton in the suplement that is hugely impactful.
• Freebooterz: Freebooterz are the one promiinent exception to the overall trend among the Ork Clans faring the best in the "no-soup" Nachmund era. As I found out in our October 2021 tournament, Freebooterz actively do not want to soup with other Clans since they get progressively stronger when concentrating all of their units into the Freebooterz Kultur, as it increases the likelihood of activating their army-wide +1 to hit by destroying an enemy unit. Their Clan Kultur is also flexible as it can be activated equally by both shooting and melee builds. While shooty Freebooterz builds are more popular at the highest levels of competitive play, I think the metagame could be sleeping on the devastating effects of army-wide +1 to hit in melee in the same turn as mass coordinated charges and an army-wide +1A from Waaagh!. Finally, their strategem, Get Da Loot, allows one infantry unit to become ObSec for a battle round, effectively granting them the best part of the Deffskullz Kultur for a single unit for a turn, which opens up some flexibility in list composition by not relying on Boyz or Grots for ObSec.

The Mixed Bags

Another two of the seven Clans seem like they should fare about the same as they did before the <CLAN>-tag restriction, albeit with slightly less flexibility due to being railroaded into a single strategy of melee (Goffs) or speed/vehicle spam (Evil Sunz):

• Goffs: The Goffs would be losers if not for the fact that effectively every unit in the Orks Codex is at least somewhat competent in melee. While the Goffs Kultur is all-in on buffing melee, most datasheets in the Codex stand to benefit from their exploding 6's in melee and +1 strength on the charge. Goffs are hurt somewhat by not being able to soup with Evil Sunz or Blood Axes for improved mobility or Deffskullz for ObSec, but mono-Clan Goffs lists packing Ghazkhull, Beast Snagga Boyz, Meganobz, and other heavy hitters are still just as dangerous as they have been since Codex: Orks dropped last year.
• Evil Sunz: More movement is never a bad thing, and the Evil Sunz are the fastest Clan out there! Their Kultur gives +1" to move, +1 to advance rolls, and waives the penalty for advancing and firing Assault weapons. While Orks don't have nearly as many Assault weapons as in previous editions due to a slew of their guns becoming Dakka weapons in the 9^th edition Codex, the Evil Sunz' blanket boost to mobility for all units is a flexible boon to Ork datasheets of all varieties. Their Warlord Trait (one unit can advance & charge per turn) and Relic (+2" movement & enemies fight last in melee) are generally useful, too. Even despite these nice perks, Evil Sunz are hurt by the soup restrictions in three ways. First, Evil Sunz have no mechanics to boost their damage output, and can no longer soup with Clans like Goffs, Bad Moons, or Freebooterz, all of whom have nice synergy with a fast Evil Sunz Outrider detachment. Second, the Evil Sunz' Stratagem and one aspect of their Kultur require the SPEED FREEKS keyword, which only shows up on buggies, bikes, and the like. Third, some of the Evil Sunz' advantages when advancing (advance & charge and no penalties when firing Assault weapons) are accessible through other parts of the Codex (by Waaagh! or Speedwaaagh!, respectively). In summary: Evil Sunz certainly have enough going for them to work without any soup support, but like the Goffs are a bit more limited in their universe of effective list compositions.

The Losers

The final two Clans clearly suffer quite a lot from being unable to soup with detachments from other Clans, as what these two Clans offer in terms of upside is restricted to too few units to outweigh the massive opportunity cost of passing up the other five Clans with greater flexibility:

• Bad Moons: Talk about kicking a Clan while they're down! Bad Moons were already one of the worst Clans but were clinging to borderline-relevance in soup lists as a secondary detachment stacked with units that benefit most from their Clan Kultur; namely, shooting-focused units with Dakka or Heavy weapons. The Bad Moons Kultur and Stratagem have virtually no upside in melee-focused lists, and very little upside in most mixed melee- and shooting-focused lists. It takes a specific volume-of-fire style shooting build to get the most out of the Bad Moons package, and that just isn't going to be a very attractive choice now that you can't soup a Bad Moons shooting detachment with a Clan like Goffs, Deffskullz, or Evil Sunz to better compete in other phases of the game. Better luck in 10^th edition, ladz.
• Snakebites: The Snakebites fall into the same trap as the Bad Moons: their Kultur is too niche to build a list around outside of a very specific and limited composition. Their Kultur has two components. First, it grants a significant defensive buff (transhuman) versus attacks with strength <8. At first glance, this might seem like a potent buff, but in reality it only matters against S6 or S7 attacks since literally all of the datasheets that benefit from the Clan Kultur have T5 or better. Second, the Snakebites Kultur gives +1 to wound for SQUIG units on the charge. Only four datasheets in the entire Codex have the SQUIG keyword (Squighogg Boyz, Nobz on Smasha Squigs, Beastbosses on Squigasaurs, and Mozrog Skragbad), so this buff is utterly useless for any list not bringing those units. Surprisingly, Kill Rigs and Hunta Rigs don't even benefit! Their Stratagem (1CP to allow one unit to Deny the Witch) is outstanding but not enough to justify giving up a more useful Clan Kultur. To me, Snakebites are the textbook Clan that is great as a small supporting detachment (say as an Outrider of Squighogg Boyz led by a Beastboss on Squigasaur), but not remotely strong enough to build a list around outside of a Squig-heavy skew list, which I suspect would be pretty awful on the table.

2. New mission layouts

The Nachmund GT pack presented a total of 18 new missions with new objective layouts and deployment zones.

The number of objectives per mission and objective scoring dynamics (i.e., the Take & Hold objective) are critical features of each mission, as they influence your overall strategy and your selection of secondaries.

To get a better sense of the variety of missions in Nachmund, I tallied missions based on the number of total objectives and the number of objectives required to score 4/8/12 primary victory points (VPs) from Take & Hold:

From these tables, we can quickly see that 14/18 of the Nachmund missions have just 4 or 5 objectives, and 15/18 missions score Take & Hold based on 1/2/more objectives. This is a slight shift from previous 40k mission packs, which had comparatively more missions with 6 objectives and a fair number of Take & Hold objectives scoring on 2/3/more.

A few comments on how these distributions influence Ork list building:

• Fewer objectives means it is now crucial to be able to bully your opponent off an objective in the midboard or no-man's-land. Speed combined with enough melee hitting power to clear an objective is the name of the game here. You need to be able to move from cover and complete a charge onto an objective before clearing out your enemy's units once you arrive. Hefty units of Squighogg Boyz, Deffkoptas, or buggies can all accomplish this on their own, especially when benefiting from the +1A from Waaagh!. Similarly, Battlewagons with Deff Rollaz carrying Meganobz also stand out as a good tool here as well.
• Fewer objectives means that durable ObSec units are more valuable in Nachmund than in previous mission packs. A big brick of Deffskullz ObSec Meganobz (even supported by a Painboy or Kustom Force Field) seems like a great addition to lists in the Nachmund era, whereas that level of points investment might have been too concentrated in a single package in earlier editions where your army was spread more thin.
• Given that Take & Hold usually scores on holding 1/2/more (and not 2/3/more), you can score maximum VPs from Take & Hold in most missions by simply holding two objectives and being able to deny your opponent 1-2 other objectives. I think this may merit scaling back on the extent of MSU that was rampant earlier in 9^th edition and instead investing more points in large, durable units (like big squads of Meganobz, Killa Kanz, or buggies), although these anvils will need to be supplemented with small chaff units of Stormboyz, Kommandoz, and Warbikers for trading, screening, and moveblocking.

3. Mission-specific primary objectives & special rules

Two more exciting aspects of the Nachmund GT pack are the introduction of mission-specific primary objectives and special rules.

Each Nachmund mission awards primary VPs from Take & Hold as well as a mission-specific objective. The sum of VPs from Take & Hold and the mission-specific objective is your overall total of primary VPs, which is still capped at 45.

From the perspective of VP math alone, you technically don't have to attempt these mission-specific objectives at all. You could hold more objectives than your opponent in turns 2-5, scoring 12 primary VPs each turn for a total of 48, which is more than the maximum of 45. Of course, this outcome is ludicrous outside of the most unbalanced matchups or landslide games. For the average player like me (and certainly for any well-matched game between two players at similar skill levels), it isn't remotely realistic to expect to score 12 VPs on Take & Hold every turn.

Given this, it seems wise to take these new mission-specific objectives into account when building your list. To get a sense of patterns in these mission-specific objectives, I've gone through and categorized them for all 18 Incursion and Strike Force missions:

Mission-Specific Primary Objectives

One clear theme jumps out when scanning the top few rows of this table: Nachmund places a huge emphasis on being able to target a specific objective and take it in a single turn. While the specified priority objective in question varies between missions, it's typically an objective that won't be a layup to control and will often be in your opponent's table half.

Let's break this down a little further. There are two aspects to many of the most common mission-specific objectives:

1. Getting to a prespecified objective without dying, and
2. Seizing that objective once you get there.

In abstract, there are three ways you can reach an objective in no-man's-land or in your opponent's territory. You can:

1. use speed to jump out behind cover and reach the objective in a single turn,
2. bring units directly onto that objective via deep strike-like abilities, or
3. be durable enough to take two turns to move onto the objective while shrugging off return fire and counter-assaults along the way.

Orks have a deep bag of tricks and dataslates, but are much better positioned to go the speed or mobility routes than the durability route. This is actually good news in Nachmund because almost all Nachmund mission-specific objectives score every turn, so taking two turns to move a large, durable unit to claim an objective wastes a turn of potential VP scoring.

In terms of fast objective contenders: Stormboyz, Bikers, Squighogg Boyz, Deffkoptas, and some of the buggies are natural fits for this role given their speed combined with their moderate melee potential. Stormboyz and Deffkoptas stand out due to their ability to jump over terrain with FLY and their option to deep strike as needed based on the mission and the rest of your list. None of these units pack a massive punch in melee, but all are servicable enough to clear out light or medium infantry tagging an objective. Squighogg Boyz are one of the slowest options for this role but will be able to deal with the widest variety of enemy units in melee once on the objective.

Transports are also worth considering here, and especially Trukks loaded up with a unit of Boyz, Nobz, or Meganobz with the Trukk Boyz specialist mob upgrade, which has a theoretical maximum movement of 15" (or 16" with Squig-hide Tyres for 15 points) for the embarked unit that would still be eligible to charge any enemy units on the objective. Big Trakks, Battlewagons with Deff Rollas, and Kill Rigs are also good shock transports as the vehicles have a decent chance of clearing small enemy units tagging objectives all on their own in melee, allowing their (ideally ObSec) passengers to stay safe for a turn before disembarking onto the objective on the subsequent turn.

There are two stratagems worth tossing into the conversation of the ways Orks can assault objectives in 9^th edition:

1. Ramming Speed costs 2CP to grant a vehicle unit a 3D6" charge and a good chance (D6 of 2+) to deal D3 mortals upon impact. While the name of the stratagem might indicate that it's meant for buggies, Trukks, or Battlewagons, it's worth noting that both Killa Kanz and Deff Dreads are technically eligible for this strat and are phenomenal choices for clearing and holding an important objective, although staging them to make a 10.5" charge will be a little trickier than for the faster buggies and Trukks. As an added bonus, Deff Dreads can also re-roll the 3D6" charge thanks to 'Ere We Go.
2. Tellyporta also costs 2CP to deep strike a unit up to 20 power level, and this explicitly includes transports with units embarked. The most intuitive use of this strat would be to deep strike a big mob of Meganobz (which remain <20 power for a max unit of 10), but the combination of Tellyporta and Ramming Speed is a CP-expensive ploy but does open up possibilities of deep striking a Battlewagon full of angry Orks 9" away from a key objective and having an odds-on chance of making the charge. Three Deff Dreads or six Killa Kanz also fall below the power level limit for this stratagem, although the unit deployment rules for Deff Dread mobs does mean you would need to roll separate charges for each of the three Dreads. Even the mighty Gorkanaut (power level 19; how convenient!) loaded up with three Meganobz or a Warboss and five Nobz could take advantage of the Tellyporta + Ramming Speed combo, although that kind of investment enters the territory of being a lynchpin tactic you build an entire list around... still, worth considering!

If you're taking a Weirdboy, Da Jump can fill the same role as Tellyporta to move any CORE unit, albeit with the risk of failing a >9" charge once they are in position. Both approaches also run the risk of being screened out by your opponent, so it's probably not wise to bank on these as your primary method for assaulting and claiming midboard objectives.

Beyond the heavy emphasis on lists built to tackle midboard objectives, the mission-specific objectives in Nachmund also raise a few other minor considerations for the Orks:

• ObSec is rewarded by a few mission-specific objectives, which further underscores the value of the Deffskullz' Clan Kultur and the Freebootaz Get Da Loot stratagem in the Nachmund era.
• Blood Axes provide access to at least two Strategic Reserve-based tools (pregame redeploy 3 units and a 1CP stratagem to move infantry off the edge of the board into Strategic Reserve) that should be useful for staging units to tackle high-priority objectives in many Nachmund missions.
• On the flip side: slow, static armies will not do nearly as well as scoring in many of Nachmund's mission-specific objectives. This is a slight nerf to pure footslogging lists like the slower Goffs melee builds or infantry-based shooting builds.
• One-third of all mission-specific objectives require completing actions. Even if you don't take any action-based secondary objectives, it seems unavoidable that every list needs at least a few cheap infantry units for actions in the Nachmund era. Minimum-sized units of Kommandoz and Stormboyz seem perfect for this role given their mobility. This trend also hurts several of the pure SPEED FREEKS-style lists, especially the Speed Mob Army of Renown where infantry are outright excluded.
• Two missions reward kill points as part of the mission-specific objective, which slightly penalizes MSU-style lists in favor of fewer, more durable units.

Separately from the mission-specific primary objectives, most missions also feature a mission-specific special rule. These rules range in effect from trivial (your Warlord gains ObSec) to minor-but-meaningful (objectives disappear over the course of the game). In the same fashion as for mission-specific objectives, I've categorized these mission-specific special rules for all 18 Incursion and Strike Force missions in the Nachmund GT pack, which are summarized below:

Mission-Specific Rules

There are a few takeaways from these mission-specific special rules for Orks, namely:

• Just like the mission-specific objectives, the plurality of mission-specific special rules prioritize being able to hold objectives and reward ObSec units by opening access to sticky objectives in four missions. Another reason to structure your lists with the goal of taking and holding objectives first and foremost, and yet more votes in favor of Deffskullz ObSec-heavy builds.
• Several missions explicitly limit off-table and pregame mobility shenanigans (infiltrators, scout moves, pregame redeployment, etc.). This probably hurts Blood Axes in Nachmund more than other Clans due to their reliance on Strategic Reserves. This also means that you should not rely on infiltrators (Kommandoz) or deep striking (Stormboyz) as your main mechanic for accessing midboard objectives. Every Nachmund Ork list shoudl have some raw speed deployed on the table at the beginning of the game, with very few exceptions.
• Many Nachmund missions mess with CP generation in some way, either by requiring you meet certain conditions to gain your CP each battle round or by forcing you to wait until later turns before your CP starts flowing in. While Orks don't have many good stratagems compared to other factions, it's probably safest not to rely on CP-hungry mechanics in Nachmund lists unless you carefully budget for your bare-bones strategems from your starting CP alone. This also gives very small bonuses to Blood Axes and Deffskullz, whose Clan relic and warlord trait, respectively, are the only ways to generate additional CP in Codex: Orks (to my knowledge).
• Nachmund missions have a slight trend on your Warlord being involved in either the mission-specific objective and/or special rules. With this in mind, it's more important than ever to make sure you designate a survivable, hardy character as your Warlord (instead of, say, a Big Mek or Weirdboy). This might seem like a trivial detail when building your list but may actually make-or-break your game on certain Nachmund missions!

4. Revised secondary objectives

Finally, the Nachmund GT pack revised a handful of the faction-agnostic secondary objective options. None of these changes were major, but appear to be attempts to tone down the stronger secondaries and make some of the more obscure options a little more attractive.

I didn't exhaustively compare each secondary to its previous version, but have tried to pick up on the most obvious changes. Below, I've highlighted some of the most important ones for Ork players to keep in mind while building their lists for Nachmund GT missions:

• Bring It Down now pays out 1/2/3 VPs for killing VEHICLE and MONSTER models in wound brackets of 5-9/10-14/15+ as opposed to the previous brackets of <11/11-19/20+. On balance, this is a tough break for Orks as several popular units are now giving up more VPs to your opponent. Specifically, Battlewagons, Kill Rigs, Hunta Rigs, Trukks, Gorkanauts, Morkanauts, Mega Dreads, Meka-Dreads, and Squiggoths all have moved up one bracket and give up one more VP when killed than they did before Nachmund. Given the comparatively immense number of VEHICLE models Orks can field for relatively cheap (buggies, Deffkoptas, Killa Kanz), it now seems like a good idea to tally up the maximum number of VPs your list will give up to your opponent for Bring It Down and make sure that total isn't too juicy (if possible).
• No Prisoners now gives bonuses of 1 and 2 extra VPs when you reach 50 and 100 wounds in kill points, respectively. Not that Green Tide horde builds were popular before Nachmund, but this certainly didn't help their case. Leave the 30-strong Boyz mobs on the shelf at home.
• Psychic Interrogation now no longer requires line of sight to the enemy character when performing the psychic action. This, combined with a few other 40k-wide trends we'll discuss in a later installment, might tip the scales in favor of including a Weirdboy or two in Nachmund Ork lists to be able to flex into taking Psychic Interrogation in matchups where you're short on attractive secondaries.
• Retrieve Octarius/Nachmund Data picked up a major change in the Nachmund GT pack, as the action no longer succeeds automatically. Instead, you have to roll a D6 less than or equal to the number of models in the unit after completing the action for it to score the secondary. This means that minimum-sized 3-man units of Warbikers or 5-man units of Stormboyz and Kommandoz will no longer auto-complete this action, so it's probably worth paying the extra points to get those action/utility squads up to at least 6 models each.
• Troops units picked up some small perks in the Nachmund versions of Retrieve Nachmund Data and Deploy Teleport Homers. Sadly for Orks, these perks only really matter for very small units (<5 models), meaning that Orks miss out on these perks since Gretchin, Boyz, and Beast Snagga Boyz all start at a minimum of 10 models.
• Related to the point above: this also means that the Nachmund version of Deploy Teleport Homers is awful for Orks, because all of our Troops choices are too slow to reach the enemy's deployment zone and all of our faster units will need to survive through our opponent's turn. Interestingly, BIKER units can perform the action required to score Teleport Homers, but they're not particularly durable and Ork Fast Attack slots are too precious to be wasting on throw-away Warbiker units. The likely best tool Orks have for scoring Teleport Homers in Nachmund is a bare-bones unit of specialist mob Trukk Boyz in a Trukk, but you're almost certainly going to regret paying 160 points and giving up one of your precious specialist mob designations just to have a chance of scoring 2-4 VPs one turn before your Trukk Boyz are annihilated.
• Both Investigate Signal and Engage on all Fronts now require at least three models (or one VEHICLE) in the unit to score. This isn't a huge issue for Orks, but is worth keeping in mind as a 5-man unit of Kommandoz or Stormboyz is just a few bolter rounds shy of dropping below the hallowed threshold of usefulness for Engage or Investigate Signal.

Conclusions

To recap some of the most prominent themes:

1. The death of mutli-Clan soup lists really hurt the hyper-specialized Clans other than Freebooterz. Conversely, Deffskullz and Blood Axes are looking quite strong in Nachmund as their Clan packages both provide strong starting points for playing Nachmund missions and winning games without the support of other Clans.
2. Nachmund missions place a huge emphasis on the ability to take and hold midboard objectives. Being able to hold objectives outside of your deployment zone is now more important in Nachmund than ever before in 9^th edition. Ork lists need to include at least several units or packages that can quickly get to a specific midboard objective, clear it of enemies, and hold it as long as possible. There are a plethora of viable tools in Codex: Orks for accomplishing this task, but it's probably best to field a variety of options so you don't get burned by any specific matchups or Nachmund mission-specific special rules.
3. Speed on the table (and not off-table shenanigans with Strategic Reserves) is vital for competing in many Nachmund missions. This makes transports and fast, hard-hitting units more attractive in Nachmund than in earlier GT packs, but also reflects a slight nerf for avoidance/shooting-style lists that weren't as strong when playing towards the primary objectives. Your lists need to be able to bully midboard objectives in melee, period. If you can't do that, you simply aren't going to win close games.
4. Nachmund introduces a series of very slight disadvantages for heavy MSU builds, which give up more kill points, risk failing several popular secondaries, and aren't as able to bully midboard objectives. I'm honestly not sure how great the combined disadvantage of these tweaks are in terms of constructing Ork army lists, but I do think Nachmund pushes more for a balance of large and small units better than other 9^th edition mission packs.
5. Many aspects of Nachmund missions reward lists with solid representation of ObSec units. Unfortunately for Orks, Boyz and Grotz are slow, not overly durable, and overcosted for their offensive output. To me, this is a massive vote in favor of Deffskullz, who can eschew Boyz entirely in favor of either faster (Stormboyz/Kommandoz), more threatening (Nobz), or more durable (Meganobz) ObSec alternatives.
6. Changes to several secondaries merit increasing the unit size for most utility units (especially Kommandoz and Stormboyz, who should start at six models minimum in my opinion).

In the next installment of this four-part series, we'll take a look at the impact of Chapter Approved and the Balance Dataslates on the internal balance of Codex: Orks. See you then!