The 11th Edition of Warhammer 40,000 has been with us for a couple of months now since the awesome Armageddon box exploded onto the scene followed by the miniature packed Starter Set. But today with Codex Orks up for pre order we have the first look at the new format for codexes for 11th Edition and more of an idea of what to expect going forward this time round.

In this full review we’ll be checking out the new Codex, seeing what has changed in the book and how the Ork army has updated in this edition. There’s also a host of brand new miniatures released alongside Codex Orks which we’ll be having a look at and painting up to see what they look like in the flesh.

Massive thanks to Games Workshop for sending us these over to check out on the site. If you would like to support the site then why not order your Ork goodies through our affiliate Element Games and save yourself some money too?

We’ve also filmed a full unboxing of the new Ork kits which you can see just below or over on YouTube

So without further ado let’s dive into Codex Orks and take a look at what the format of books is in the new edition of Warhammer 40k!

Codex Orks Review (2026) – 40k 11th Edition

So it’s always interesting to review the first book of a new edition, as it really sets the benchmark for the books going forward. With the release of Codex Orks we see a couple of major changes before we even open the book.

Introduction and Format

First up, the book is in a similar format to the recent campaign books such as 500 Worlds – This is a smaller format softback book in a slipcase rather than being a big hardback book – And this change of format leads to a new price too with the book having an RRP of £25 rather than the current £38 of books at the moment. This is a great change, especially in the light of upcoming price increases too, and arguably softback is a better format for chucking the book in your gaming bag when you are going to an event. It seems we have come full circle from the softback books back in 2nd edition when I got into the hobby, and I for one am up for this change!

If you still rather have a hardback book then you still have the option for these, as they will be available as Limited Edition volumes – so it’s nice you can have whichever format suits you more, but softback deffo seems the way to go (It’s worth noting here that we only have a digital copy to review so can’t speak about the binding quality or how the book holds up to multiple games with it etc)

Codex Orks 2026 also has a bigger page count than the previous edition with 175 (ish – not including backing pages with the code on) pages. Yes, we still get a code to redeem on the app which unlocks all content – Games Workshop have shared that in 11th codes will unlock new content throughout the life of the edition, but this has always been the case where new detachments and profiles get added once they are released, so interested to see if anything more than this gets released over the life of the book.

Format wise we’ve got some big changes – there’s now a massive 115 pages dedicated to lore and hobby with a few things we’ll talk about shortly that really remind me of old school Codexes from the 90s. The remainder of the book is dedicated to rules and profiles, and you’ll notice that in order to accommodate this extra page count a couple of things have been removed from the Codex. First up Crusade is gone. We were big fans of Crusade, but it seems that we were in the minority as most people tended to stick to matched play games. This is a shame, but with the introduction of narrative card decks Games Workshop have given 11th Edition 40k a system that means that players can enjoy narrative games and campaigns while still using the same core 40k rules as Matched Play, bringing the two types of play together under the same umbrella.

The other big thing that has been removed from the Codex though is Combat Patrol – there’s no sign or mention of it! I assume Combat Patrol rules will exist solely within the app now, and I suppose from a Hobby Journey point of view this makes sense – A lot of people will pick up a Combat Patrol as their entry point into the hobby (Such as the two new Starter sets for Orks and Marines) and will be progressing to “full” 40k after playing some games and at that point pick up the Codex. There’s an argument to be made that Combat Patrol content in a codex is a little redundant as there’s a small number of people who would use the book to play Combat Patrol rather than just the free content on the app.

I know that some people will be disappointed by this, but I think they want to be a bit more laser focused with the books this edition, with a focus on lore and core 40k rules.

Lore & Collecting

We mentioned earlier that the lore section has expanded, and there’s quite an old school feel to this – I’m reminded of the sorts of things that we saw back in the original 2nd Edition Codexes with stacks of lore, looks at some of the different sorts of armies that the Orks field, examples of translations of Ork Glyphs and a rundown of all the Klans. There’s also some inspiration from old with a full bestiary that goes through each unit in the book with background, art and model shots. Age of Sigmar did this for the most recent edition, and It’s a great update from the traditional couple of pages of model shots, instead not only allowing new players to identify which model is which, but also giving them a full lore primer to learn about them.

In another blast from the past Codex Orks also has a great section that talks about collecting an army. From talking about how they play and what they need to do in game, to explaining how you can tailor detachments to suit the theme of the army you want to play this is a brilliant way of explaining these concepts before we get to them within the main rules.

There’s also some great example forces with a full list of the models needed and how they work on the table, which is a really nice touch.

We also get a couple of painting guides covering multiple different greens for skin along with a really good guide on how to do markings, tattoos and checks along with some really good advice on how to weather and grime up your Orks! While I’d have liked to maybe see a couple more pages here, it’s still a great addition to the book and I’m glad that this hasn’t disapeared along with the Combat Patrol content (the guides – grime in particular – are also a little more advanced than what we used to get too!)

So what about the rules themselves?

Codex Orks | The Rules

The last half of Codex Orks is dedicated to the rules, and there’s a couple of changes here too. Firstly, there’s a couple of pages that clearly explain how the picking of detachments works along with how the Leader and Support keywords work – but the book spells out that detachment points will be available on the app and in the downloads on Warhammer Community – the same is true for what units that characters can attach to too – this is no longer listed on the profile. This makes sense from a futureproofing pov as they can easily release a new unit and make existing characters able to attach to them, or if a particular combo is too powerful they can also outlaw it too. Essentially on the points documents on WarCom it will list under each character which unit that they can attach to, if you’re using the app this will be automatically built in so you don’t really need to worry when writing a list.

The main Army Rule that we see for the Orks is Waaagh! This allows Orks with the rule to reroll advance rules, but also allows them to become “riled up” being riled up gives them a 5+ inv, gives them assault and allows them to advance and still charge. A once per game War Cry makes the army riled up, but there’s quite a few different ways of triggering this during the game, which we’ll see when we get to the profiles.

If your Warlord has the “Da Boss” rule then you get an additional CP at the start of the Battle Round too – so I suspect we’ll get something similar for other armies to encourage the warlord being certain units.

We also see the surprise return of Psyker Levels too – this works pretty much like it used to back in the day – your Psyker Level determines how many psychic abilities you can do each battle round with a unit – so a Psyker Level 3 unit could do 3, while a level 1 unit can do only 1. As we’ll see later in the book these abilities also require a dice roll to trigger, making them feel more like they used to and having to manifest their power with the chance of a downside if they don’t succeed.

In an interesting move, Codex Orks also contains a couple of new Move Types – This is a really nice way of creating some movement rules for unique units that can be captured within this rules section rather than having to clutter datasheets – in this book we get Pulse Jet Move (which allows Wazdakka to move 18+D6 inches and gain -1 to hit from incoming fire) and Assault Disembark which allows units to pile out of a transport that has moved and still be able to charge at full effect. Units that have access to any special moves have the special move mentioned on their profile.

Detachments

Codex Orks has a massive pile of 15 detachments to properly tailor your army to a playstyle that you want. This is a very different approach to what we have seen with the detachments that have been added to port 10th edition books over to 11th – Instead we see a single 3DP detachment the War Horde. This gives us a similar style detachment to 10th edition ones, we get a rule (sustained hits on all Ork melee attacks), 4 enhancements and 6 strats.

All of the other detachments however are 1DP detachments and laser focus on a certain element of Ork Warfare. These are all single page and contain a detachment rule (Green Tide, the Boyz focused one still gives Boyz sustained hits 1 in melee, but also gives charging Boyz lethal hits against non monster/vehcile units). They only get 2 enhancements and 3 strats, but by taking three different 1 DP detachments you can end up with something that is potentially more powerful than the more wide detachment. Yes, the 1DP detachments only really benefit one or two units each, but across the 15 you can really tailor something that suits your entire force.

There’s some really fun stuff here too, Deep Striking MegaNobz, Grots that can take do an action after advancing or falling back, Shooty Orks getting extra range when riled up, and even battleline Stormboyz, Bikes and Grots! This is what I was looking forward to with the new edition of the game and it really let’s you craft an army that is very much suited to your playstyle. I’m sure there will be some “best” picks that develop, but for casual players (which is the majority of the player base) you’ll be able to put together something very fun!

I’m very tempted to do an entire wing of Ork Aircraft led by a Flyboss Character upgrade that makes nearby aircraft and Deffkoptas riled in when he makes an ingress move (with the detachment giving all those units +1 to hits when riled up) I’ll have the Dambusters theme on standby on spotify…

Datasheets

So onto the profiles in Codex Orks – and before we start here there’s quite a few units that have been removed and have become legends. We all expected Lootas and Burners to go away (which they have) but there’s been some culling to the buggies too – Shokkjump Dragstas and Megatrakk Scrapjets have been removed from the book with Kuston Boosta Blastas and Boomdakka Snazzwaggons being consolidated into a single “Warbuggy” profile that has the weapon options for each. This is a massive shame to anyone who had a big Speedfreeks army with multiples of each buggy type – thankfully the Rukkatruck and Deffkilla are still in the book. The Wurrboy is also gone, but you can easily use him as an alternate Weirdboy.

Across the board Orks have got tougher and stronger with some even getting more wounds – we’ll take a quick look through all the profiles now, but I’ll be touching on the highlights – there’s a lot of units and a lot of them have changed considerably.

Ghazghkull is now an absolute beast, now boasting Toughness 10 and 16 wounds, hitting like a truck with his weapons. He also gives friendly Orks +1 to hit and wound and can use Makari once per game in order to make a number of units Riled Up.

Nazdreg is the new kid on the block and he has an amazing profile too, able to put out an insane amount of damage with his gun, can attach to Meganobs giving them ignores cover and deep strike! He gets to move D6 inches in the enemy movement phase and every turn can pick a unit to lose battle shock and gain riled up!

The Warboss is really good, gaining access to the new weapon options in the new kit – give him a Power Klaw and once per game he can hit with 9 attacks at S15! He also has the same rule as Nazdreg allowing a unit to lose battle shock and gain riled up.

Warboss in Mega Armour is tougher at T7 and 7 wounds and gains cleave on his weapon making him a unit blender – he also now makes his unit cause impact hits on the charge!

Big Mek gets some weapon tweaks with the Mega Blaster now getting flat 3 damage, the Traktor is lower strength now but gets Anti-Fly 2+. He also hits a little harder in combat and gives his unit Ignore Cover or Sustained Hits if riled up! He also allows his unit to change advance rolls to a 6 and move through models! There’s still a Big Mek in Mega Armour, he has had quite a lot of tweaks but his guns seem better than the old profile

Shokk Attack Gun has been made more reliable, now getting D3+3 S12 shots with D6+1 damage each! He also gains lone operative when standing near a unit!

Big Mek Dakkarig gets a glow up from the Armageddon rules with all its weapons getting Ignores cover and Lethal hits replacing the precious rules! It also gets sustained hits while riled up and still gets a bonus 6 attacks on the kannon when shooting at non monster/vehicles

Meks still work in a similar way, being able to heal vehicles D3 wounds and giving them +1 to hit rolls. There’s now no limit to how many times a vehicle can be targeted, so you could use multiple to fully heal something if you wanted.

The Deffkilla Wartrike has had some updates to melee weapons, now hitting a lot harder in close combat and can now make a Speed Freeks unit no longer battle shocked and gain Riled Up once per turn (you’ll notice a theme here, its a lot easier to get the benefits of Waaagh across the army)

The Beastboss like most of the Ork Characters hits harder in Melee and is tougher, and he has the ability to make Beast Snagga units not battle shocked and gain Riled up

Zodgrod is pretty funny, his unit of grots is now always riled up and have +1 A, WS and S for when you need to chuck a massive tide of grots into something to die!

Wazdakka is still amazing, boasting some brilliant shooting and close combat abilities as well as still being able to dance around the battlefield!

Mozrog has had a glow up, more wounds, more toughness and hits a lot harder in close combat, now also rerolling wounds against monsters and vehicles. he still comes back to life on death, but now on a 2+ and instead of joining units he now gains Lone Operative when nearby one. The generic BeastBoss on Squigosaur has had similar changes, and he now gives friendly units +1 to charges. – he can also do the usual cancel Battleshock and hand out Riled Up to Beastsnagga units.

The Weirdboy is now a level 1 Psyker (though the Weirdboy detachment allows you to increase this and give him extra powers too) he now can try and do Da Jump or Warpath each turn – You roll a dice to cast either of these with it causing him to become battleshocked on a 1 – on any other result Da Jump allows his unit to go into reserves and gain Deep Strike, while Warpath gives his unit rerolls of 1 to hit and all their melee weapons become psychic.

Snikrot is really cool now, if he is ever hidden and unengaged his unit can do into strategic reserves, and while in reserves it can make an ingress move in the enemy movement phase!

Bannernobs and Bigbosses are both now Support and their roles have changed a little – the Bannernob now gives a unit +1 to charge and the Bigboss gives a unit +1 to hit for melee. Both are handy for giving those buffs to units.

Both Painboy and Painboss work pretty much the same way, with the Painboss being a Beastsnagga only varient. They both heal units 3 wounds in the command phase, interestingly the Painboss can be attached to a mounted unit – he gains Mounted, loses Infantry and increases his movement by 4 – I’m going to have to convert up a squig mounted version!

Gretchin are back and are still terrible at combat but really handy for objectives, they secure them at the end of the movement phase – and now 2 models take 1 slot in a transport, meaning you can fit 20 in a Truck! Runtherds are now a serperate support unit that can join them as are basically Commissars, killing grots to remove battleshock.

Boyz have had a glow up in the new Orks Codex, now hitting at S5 and getting a Big Shoota, Rokkit Launcher and Burner for every 10 models in the unit (which is a shame for people with the Armageddon Orks, hopefully there’s some easy conversions available to max out the weapon options.) The nobz now have 3 wounds each and the unit gets Lethal hits on the charge, can use ammo runts for +1 to hit and can do actions while engaged too!

Beast Snagga Boyz get a similar glow up with them hitting a lot harder against monsters and vehicles, getting extra S and AP when fighting them! They can also force battleshock on those units too, which is pretty cool!

Meganobz have had a bit of a refresh with their ranged weapons getting a bigger spread of options in the new Orks Codex, but there melee weapons losing strength but putting out more damage. Where they are interesting is their ability to reduce incoming weapons by 1ap, making them very tough to crack with their 2+ save.

Nobz have a brand new kit on the way and from the fact that each model can be upgraded to take a specific weapon it feels like these will be a Kill Team – they look ace though with lots of damage output and the ability to charge through models (This will be really nice to getting to juicy targets hiding behind something else!)

Kommandos are fun, they can spot enemy units with extended detection range, get +1 to hit against hidden units and can even split into two units of 5 at deployment! Really fun now!

Flashgitz now make use of all their crazy targetting equipment, hitting on a very un-orky 4+! They also have a range of different weapon options from an infantry shredding Dakka mode to a single shot high damage Cutta mode. If they or their target are on an objective they get -1 AP too, meaning they can get as high as -4AP on their most powerful firing mode!

Stormboyz now hit harder like normal orks, but on the charge they also get +1 A and +1 S giving them 4 S6 attacks each in combat! They do also get hazardous if you opt to do this though!

Breaka Boyz return as a hard hitting melee unit, one that is very good at ripping apart vehicles! They also get +1 to charges!

The Mek Gunz have had a complete rewrite – if you equip every model in the unit with the same gun then they also get a bonus effect put on the target too – so for example Bubblechukkas give friendly units the benefit of cover when they are shot by the bubbled unit, and the Traktor Kannon stops units from taking to the skies!

Tankbustas return as a high strength ranged unit, they are also surprisingly accurate with 4+ to hit too! Any unit shot by them also has to take battleshock at -1 too. Really like these guys now!

Warbikers are ace in the new Orks Codex, the basic guns get 6 S5 shots each with lethal hits, and the Nob gets to shoot rockets too! They are also pretty nice in close combat getting +1 S and D on the charge!

Wartrakks get some fun new rules – Firstly they count as Lone Operatives if they are near a Speed Freek unit, but they also act as spotters for other Speed Freeks, any unit they hit they give lethal hits to any friendly Speed Freek who also shoots them!

Deffkoptas are now the ultimate Uppy Downy unit, they get +1 to hit when they make an ingress move, which is really easy now as they can opt to go into reserves at the end of the enemy fight phase! Rockers are also stronger and more reliable with flat 2 shots each.

Rukkatrukk Squigbuggies now have a slightly different purpose – they can now fire squigs at enemy units to make them -1 to hit, which is pretty cool. The squig launcher itself has a similar profile to before but now hits on 4s, and you only need to hit a unit to give it the -1 to hit debuff

As mentioned earlier Warbuggies are now a consolidated profile with selectable weapons of the surviving Speed Freeks buggies – still think it’s a massive shame we have lost a couple of models here.

Squighog Boyz have lost a point of toughness, but now have slightly stronger melee weapons and now cause extra damage on the charge.

Trukks have a new profile to go with the new model, and theres some pros and cons here. You can give them a rokkit launcher and there’s the option of a Buzzsaw with cleave or a high strength Grabbin Klaw. They can no longer heal themselves, but instead the units inside get to disembark when an enemy unit moves within 8″

Battlewagon and Gunwagon vehicles both get tougher, with the Battlewagon at 11 and Gunwagon at T12 – Battlewagons also reduce all incoming damage by 1, while Gunwagons can reroll hits of 1

Hunta Rigs are a fun one, they are basically a transport that allows everyone onboard to add to the attacks in close combat! It’s main gimmick is its Butcha Boys attack with starts with 4 attacks (with anti Monster/Vehicle 4+) and then you can add up to 22(!!!) attacks for each model embarked on it! On top of this the squig itself also has a couple of high strength attacks – Oh, and it can Crushing Impact for -1 CP too!

Kill Rig on the other hand still trades transport capacity for more guns and a Lv1 psyker. This can be used to give a disembarking squad +1 to wound vehicles/monsters, or to give the rig Lethal Hits and Psychic against a unit in melee.

Killa Kans now have a choice of weapon profiles each time they shoot rather than different ones per weapon, which makes building them easier – they also get +1 to hit when attacking things with T6 or less, making them a pretty good unit for bullying things like space marines.

Deff Dread has a pretty similar profile but loses the feet attacks, ranged weapons are better in line with other changes in the new Orks Codex.

Gorkanaut and Morkanaut both get a bit of a refresh, both getting 5 attacks on their melee weapon but cleave on them both (3 on the Gorka, 2 on the Morka), the Gorka has more ranged weapon output, but the Morka allows a unit to do an Assault Disembark out of it, allowing them to charge after it moves!

The Stompa is ace now, most shots have fixed values now so its a lot more reliable from an output point of view, and its always riled up allowing it to take advantage of a lot of buffs depending on which detachments you pick! it also makes anyone who disembarks from it riled up too! Mega Choppa now has Cleave 4 if you want to annihilate massive units in melee too!

The Big’ed Bossbunker is basically a stationary transport with an ok ranged weapon and the ability to give cover to units behind it. Still not sure if this one is worth bringing, though with firing deck you could load it up with ranged units – and they get to add their OC to the terrain piece while near a friendly objective.

All 4 of the Ork Aircraft get a bit of a refresh in the new Orks Codex. Weaponry has got better across the board and each of them now has their own niche. The Blitza-Bommer gets to pick a unit at the end of each Enemy Fight Phase and do between D3 and D3+3 mortal wounds to them, the Dakkajet gets +1 to hit non flying units (now with 16 shots and rapid fire 4 on top!), the Burna-Bomma gets to also drop a bomb at the end of the enemy fight phase, this time doing D3 mortal wounds and stripping them of hidden while giving your units ignores cover, and finally the Wazbom Blastajet gets some decent high strength and weapons that get +1 to hit vehicles or monsters. It can also be upgraded to get a 5+ inv.

Summary

So what do I think of Codex Orks as the first book for Warhammer 40k 11th edition? I really like the changes to the format here, it feels much closer to what the Codexes I had back when I got into the hobby felt like, with a deeper focus on lore and background for every single unit in the book.

From a rules point of view it feels like a big refresh for the army with lots of units now working in very different ways, and again I feel this is good – We’ll see the impact of this when future Codexes get released, but it now feels like you can customise your army a lot more and give it it’s own identity through the use of very modular detachments rather than having to shoehorn your force into an existing one.

This does feel a very powerful Codex, and we’ll need to see how points costs level out to see if that makes them a little too oppressive early in the edition, though I have a feeling we’ll be seeing codexes brought up to the power level of this book as the edition progresses, and I’m sure armies without 11th Edition books will see some points cuts to bring them up to a level playing field.

I’m sad to see the end of Crusade, and surprised that Combat Patrol is no longer in the book, but I feel the new Ork Codex is a great benchmark for the further release of new Codexes this edition.

Codex Orks is up for pre order today and is released Saturday 5th August. Games Workshop provided Sprues and Brews with free copies for review purposes.