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Is there much info out there on how Ork units are resupplied in the field?

It is well documented that small, feral Ork settlements are self-sustaining via the orkoid ecosystem generated to meet the needs of the developing society. Essentially squigs provide foodstuffs, beasts of burden, and various chemical reagents; gretchin provide slave labour; and orks form a warrior and hunting class. Pigdoks act as sources of medical, vetinary, and mechanical knowledge. If the feral Orks begin to tech up, they have to scavenge or raid for advanced materials like metal to craft from. These are not the forces I am thinking about, because their logistics will be simple and small-scale, operating out of Ork village hubs where resources are stockpiled and processed. Raiding parties likely only have what they (and attendant slaves) can carry, and likely must return to the village if ammunition and/or food are depleted. I could see larger, more developed forces having accompanying baggage trains similar to medieval forces, but resupply of the baggage train in the field seems very unlikely (except by plunder, of course).

At the other end, Freebooterz, tribes, and Waaaaghs! have large quantities of fairly advanced gear utilising huge quantities of ammunition, fuel, and spare parts. It is also well documented that Orks use slave labour to produce most of their raw materials, equipment, and consumables, overseen by meks. Gretchin are part of this, but Ork groups will readily enslave other species like humans for this work, and routinely capture mines and workshops to turn over to Ork military production. Ork warbands belonging to such advanced forces regularly spend extended periods on the frontlines- good examples would be the Orks fighting along the trechlines in the 3rd War for Armageddon, the Siege of Hades Hive in the 2nd War for Armageddon, and the Tratican War (which involved an Imperial siege of an Ork fortress lasting over 2 months).

We also know that Orks have some understanding of logistics, probably instinctively- Orks are known to build ammunition stockpiles, such as those built by Warlord Thugsnik's big gun warbands on Armageddon that were sabotaged by stormtrooper raids. Orks in speed freek warbands are also known to have a preference for vehicles that are easy to maintain, as they tend to operate away from resupply for extended periods. It is also noted that Ork logistics are more resilient than Imperial logistics, Orks thrive in chaotic warzones and raiding Ork logistics can be extremely perilous due to their warlike nature, such as the failed Raid on Kastorel-Novem. However, they can be effective- the aformentioned raid on ammo dumps was significant, attacks on Ork airfields have been noted to significantly disrupt air operations coming from those fields, Yarrick's forces successfully destroyed Ork siege weapons before they could be deployed in the Siege of Hades, and slave partisan efforts to sabotage material produced in captured Tempestora Hive were noted to have an impact on Ork efficacy at the front (albeit not sufficient to recapture the hive).

Based on this, is there any lore describing how Orks move supplies from workshop areas to frontline troops? Do they have supply trukks, or just haul stuff with slaves on foot? Or are frontline Ork units rotated to the rear to resupply and replaced with fresh troops?

Orks take what they can carry. If an Ork can carry a Slugga, a Choppa, a couple of Stikkbombs and some spare ammo, then that's it.
He can loot more stuff of the gitz he kills or he can beat them to death with his bare hands.
You either come back from a scrap or you don't.
Remember Ork populations grow quite rapidly so replacing troops isn't a massive deal.

 Gert wrote:
Orks take what they can carry. If an Ork can carry a Slugga, a Choppa, a couple of Stikkbombs and some spare ammo, then that's it.
He can loot more stuff of the gitz he kills or he can beat them to death with his bare hands.
You either come back from a scrap or you don't.
Remember Ork populations grow quite rapidly so replacing troops isn't a massive deal.

That doesn't work in the very large or defensive Ork operations though, unless you are suggesting warlords and warbosses* rotate out Ork units that have depleted ammo? That would be feasible. The other option is just to continually send in fresh forces, but that heavily limits the supplies of survivors of older units at the front, who will have to take supplies from the reinforcements.

In addition, an Ork force that wins an engagement is not going to be able to replenish enough ammo from looting in the short term, so they need to supply from rear areas somehow. It is in the lore that Ork rear supply areas exist, my question is how those supplies reach the front. The only example I can think of is the 3rd edition codex stating ammo runts run back for ammo during a battle after being used, but don't make it back from camp in time for the end of the engagement.


*The canny ones anyway, I'm sure there are plenty of warlords and bosses who just expend their forces in a single engagement and simply lose if they cannot overwhelm their foes in one go. They are not typically the successful ones though.

----------
Edit: for clarity, I am referring to situations where the Ork forces are large enough that their forces and logistical bases are separated. A small force just returns to base after a scrap, sure. But a warband committed to a trenchline cannot just leave after an assault or "da big boss will give 'em a krumpin' for not followin' ordas", although they probably have a camp built into their defences where a local stockpile is kept. Likewise, artillery warbands are going to expend huge amounts of ammo and need resupplying in the field somehow. Those supplies are being produced and stockpiled by slaves and meks in rear areas, but they have to reach the front somehow, even if it is to resupply the frontline depots.

All kind of baked into them.

We know Oddboyz start popping up at different population densities. What starts off as Pigdoks, expands into Meks, Doks and Runtherdz to support the tribe.

Presumably, there’s some kind of rough ratio of manifestation, so no matter how big a tribe becomes, there’ll be enough Meks and Doks to go round, ensuring the logistics are there to support the Boyz, their guns and stop too many getting perished in the fighting.

And as a Waaagh! is comprised of multiple tribes, each will come with its own Oddboyz. Even an Ork force on a planet which isn’t part of a Waaagh! will again be comprised of multiple, largely self contained, Tribes.

Do keep in mind that a Tribe can also have different clans within it, depending on size. Yes some will be purely Goff or what have you, but the clans are more a leaning of an individual Boy, who eventually finds like minded Boyz to hang around with.

If we're talking defensive scenario then the Grotz push carts around filled with bullets and bombs or maybe the Boss Mek has made a crazy train system.

For anything else? What I said above. Orks bring what they can carry and if they win, then they nick whatever is and is not bolted down. They might have spare bullets on the Trukk or Wagon they rode on but they don't think that far ahead and military (or civilian) logistics aren't a thing.
Basecamps aren't a big deal for the Orks who will tear them down and turn them into transports or weapons, then build them back up again when they win the next scrap. There is no real "rear" because they just keep moving and establish new camps.

Take Helsreach as an example. The first landing zones were used as launching points but by the time the walls were breached and the Ordinatus reached the city, the original landing zones had been abandoned and torn down for more tanks, planes, guns, and armour scraps.

I don’t agree they don’t really think about it.

Rather, logistics is almost certainly hardwired into them, because of their obsession with fighting.

You know your shoota needs ammo. And for that, you go to the Meks. You can trade teef, scraps, maybe slaves. But even the lowest Boy will know what he needs, where to get it, and how to pay for it. Or where to send your Grots to nick it from.

Food? Squiggly beasts, corpses of foes, Snots and Grots are all viable food sources. All part and parcel of Orks Orking. More sophisticated food stuffs are usually hawked by enterprising Grots for a Toof, or maybe even the promise not to kick their head in if you’re currently broke.

This is again part of the secret of their success as a species. Wherever they go? Orkoid life follows. Squigs may well vary in tastiness, but all are inherently edible.

I just don't think this should be looked at too hard, as its difficult to see how it gets sorted. The question of where Orks get their kit from is key. Taking the current example of high-intensity conflict, Ukraine has been supplied with 300m small arms rounds and 3m artillery shells, in addition to whatever stockpiles they had before the war and its still not enough. You don't get proper supply to a conflict zone of this nature using cottage industries and Boyz kinda scrounging. The Imperium has whole worlds dedicated to these logistics, and even they can't keep up.

Difference being, like their guns? Orky ammunition need not necessarily be functional.

I know it’s a largely unloved bit of lore, but lore it remains.

Orks * definitely* think about logistics to a certain degree, or are strongly implied to in various 40K fiction - for instance, the very fact that particularly large Mek workshops can produce things like Gargants comfirms orks are capable of (relatively) complex production and division of labour, which in turn assumes a (relatively) complex logistic process to get the bitz and such they need.

As for how they might handle frontline resupply? I guess they have those rickety, easily put-back-together trukks for a reason, eh. Anything the ladz can't scrounge off the battlefield (as others have said), they can either pay a mek to sort them out with individually, or in the case of a particularly big invasion a Warboss and his closest cronies might ensure some kind of supply deal with the local meks.

Half the stuff they need they don't necessarily worry about as strongly as humans would, because of the inherent, well, orkiness of the orks. After all, like Grotsnik says, why worry about food supply when you tend to spore your own food sooner or later - and can eat whatever you kill while you wait for it?

I think people are confusing logistics with industry.

Industry the Orks do shockingly well. They can churn out guns, ammo, and vehicles at breakneck speeds and it (usually) works as intended. They have an entire genetic subspecies with a genius intellect that can create marvels of technology from the simplest of parts.

They don't however, have a capacity for logistics. There is no supply corps for the Orks and they don't have any storage facilities beyond "We put da gunz there and da Squigz there". At best any transports might be used for ferrying Loot and Gubbins back to whatever camp has been set up, if that original camp is even returned to in the first place.

Again I disagree.

Stop and think for a moment. What percentage of humanity as we stand right now know how to make the casing, propellant and Pointy Bit* that comprises a bullet?

No, not those who know where to buy and assemble at home. But how to make all of that, from scratch? Even on the cottage “just for me” level?

I’m willing to bet it’s really not that many, at all. A tiny sliver of our overall populace, even in countries where firearms are more common.

Orks? There must be a Mek to Boy ratio. Because that’s how it’s presented in the fluff. And all it take is the Mek to build the moulding, pressing and *whatever you call making gunpowder process*ing. Then you leave that to the Grots, very few of whom are demented enough to take the field of battle.

Grots. Grots are your industry here. Indentured workers trading their efforts for food, protection, and maybe not getting beaten by their patron when said patron is bored, or fancies a laugh.

And Ork society being Ork society? Such dubious rewards absolutely are riches to a weedy little Grot. So they do the manky jobs, because of guaranteed (more or less) rewards.

*I genuinely don’t know what the right term is. Slug? Bullet? Killy Bit?

I think it’s best just to assume that space magic deals with it. The background is littered with the difficulties of imperial logistics, and that’s with an astonishingly small number of set weapon patterns. Assuming every second ork has a slightly different gun needing personalised logistics leads to madness. How do Orks scrounge for their sluggas and shootas when facing imperial forces that are largely based on lasguns? Or Eldar where everything is wraithbone?

Food wise, we would need to know how efficient ork metabolism is, but for humans, apparently just over 1kg of MREs are needed per day. Small regiments are needing several tons of food per day. The crazy Valhallan monstrosities needing upward of 100 tons per day. At this scale, it’s kind of hard to scavenge for it.

Is it efficiency of metabolism, or robustness of digestive system? The more things you can safely consume, the easier feeding yourself becomes.

We see this in nature with carrion feeders, which can eat even rotting meat safely thanks to their gut biome. Not to mention Orks have no taboo or seeming biological downside to cannibalism.

Lasguns don’t give a satisfying bang, but can still be melted down into more satisfying weapon components.

A Shoota may look unique, but that doesn’t mean every Shoota is of a unique bore/calibre*. And we can safely look to the general robust build of Orky gubbins to argue whatever variance does occur, the guns can mostly handle it.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
*snip*

That's still not logistics though. Logistics in the military sense is having dedicated supply chains which Orks don't have because they don't need it. There are no Ork Quartermasters divvying up the ammo and gear because that's not how Ork society works. An "ammo dump" is much more literal in that Orks will just pile bullets, rockets, guns, engines and other scrap on a big heap which they'll dig through later to find useful gubbins.
If an Ork is big and tuff, he'll get good loot and good gubbins. If he's got the teef he can pay a Mek to make some stuff for him.
As for Meks, while they only start to appear when an Ork gathering reaches a certain mass, they're still pretty common. A Big Mek is of course different and a Waaaagh might only have one but your bog-standard Mekboys are all over the shop.

The exception to the rule is possibly some Blood Axe Waaaagh's but they're all weirdos who do marchin' and salutin'. They ain't Propa' Orks.

 Flinty wrote:
Food wise, we would need to know how efficient ork metabolism is, but for humans, apparently just over 1kg of MREs are needed per day. Small regiments are needing several tons of food per day. The crazy Valhallan monstrosities needing upward of 100 tons per day. At this scale, it’s kind of hard to scavenge for it.

Orks are not picky about what "food" is. Have the Orks just wiped out 3,000 Guardsmen? That's 3,000 corpses that can and will be eaten. Throw in Squigs, Grotz, Snotz, various local wildlife, and if needs be, weaker Orks.

I think we’re arguing the same thing.

Ork society is entirely geared toward warfare. Where we have a Supermarket and Convenience Store, Orks have Meks of varying stock. And those Meks have plentiful Grots doing the boring bits, leaving the Mek free to create ever more elaborate guns etc.

Lasguns are complex combinations of plastics, different metals, probably some pretty complex chemistry in the power packs to hold the anmountnof energy needed for annlaser to do annything and in some cases wooden furniture. We have difficulty recycling coffee cups effectively. “Just melting it down” doesn’t really cut it

Agree that Orks can eat a wide range of things that we would not view strictly as food. However, what if they haven‘t just killed 3,000 guardsmen?

If they are consuming themselves Or even other orky ecosystem beasties where do all the calories come from to support them? Again, just need to point at space magic and not look too hard.

Squigs occur in The Drops. Basically the Ork latrine.

Being part fungoid, energy can come from many sources. And do keep in mind even if they’re not the descendants of the Krorks? Orkoid life forms have been genetically tinkered with.

Hell, it’s possible Orks can, to some degree, photosynthesise. Just because it’s not been delved into in any great depth doesn’t mean it’s therefore inexplicable. Spesh as this is a species confirmed to get bigger and stronger the more it fights and survives injuries.

So space magic. For scavenging to be effective for even a fraction of their sustenance they need to be able to convert what they find or can be exposed to into energy and biomass. The background has them basically as the most pervasive species in the galaxy, so they have to be able to do that in a wide range of environments. If squigs are living in the latrines, then there must be sufficient materials in the ork effluent for the squigs to be absorbing that wasn’t absorbed by the Orks themselves. But in order for those squigs to form a major part of ork diet then the ork need to be eating loads of stuff that they themselves can’t be using. It just boggles my brain and I have difficulty in believing how scavenging and cottage industries can support industrialised warfare.

It's not that difficult a concept IMO.
Orks spawn as fungi that are extremely adaptive and hardy. When they reach maturity they're an Ork at which point meat is back on the menu.
The Orks eat the weaker Orks, who release spores as they die, creating more fungi which creates more Orks.

Ork society progresses at a rapid rate because Ork life is so cheap and fast. When your race reproduces hundreds of generations in the time most others produce one or two, things move quickly.

You can say it's "space magic" or you can say it's advance genetics. It's sci-fi, weird stuff happens dude.

Fast reproduction is also based on collosal input of energy and biomass from somewhere in the ecosystem. I guess I can only deal in human historic terms, so ww2 European theatre had maybe 10m combatants supported by 1bn non combatants, and that was with the main armaments being produced in major mechanised factories, and everyone else making stuff, making food or gathering the stuff that helps make the other stuff and the food. The scale of the support structure needed to supply lot of giant angry fighters is huge, and I don’t think I e ever seen that alluded to in the background for orks.

I think the answer is that the great ork warbosses that are potrayed as super-slayers in the fluff are actually genius-level logisticians. That's not sexy in a miniatures game, but knowing where to send the squigs before they are needed, getting those runt-powered supply routes set up to keep the dakkadakka flowing, that's what distinguishes a legendary leader from just a goff boss on a raid.

Ork society is very hierarchic, and GW makes no money selling sculpts of Road Warrior cargo trukks driven by grots, but they're definitely out there.

Meks, gretchin and various trukks are the logistical side of the Ork waaaagh machine. They are great at it in fact, they have to be. Fightin' is what Orks are made for, so they gotta have the kit for the job. There's a huge caste of spanna boyz who do the making rather than just meks.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
I don’t agree they don’t really think about it.

Rather, logistics is almost certainly hardwired into them, because of their obsession with fighting.

You know your shoota needs ammo. And for that, you go to the Meks. You can trade teef, scraps, maybe slaves. But even the lowest Boy will know what he needs, where to get it, and how to pay for it. Or where to send your Grots to nick it from.

Food? Squiggly beasts, corpses of foes, Snots and Grots are all viable food sources. All part and parcel of Orks Orking. More sophisticated food stuffs are usually hawked by enterprising Grots for a Toof, or maybe even the promise not to kick their head in if you’re currently broke.

This is again part of the secret of their success as a species. Wherever they go? Orkoid life follows. Squigs may well vary in tastiness, but all are inherently edible.

IIRC the ork codex pretty directly states that most warbosses are so disconnected from logistics that they don't even bring spare ammo.

So I'm betting it's a mix of on-the-fly looting and straight up hoarding. Something along the lines of most boys bring a couple of spare clips (because they don't have a massive amount of weapons to choose from) meaning that those who survive the first volley can spend a few seconds scrounging corpses to swap magazines, while a lot of deffskulls show up in looted wagons / buggies packed to the gills with spare ammo that their comrades help themselves to.

Probably my favorite option is mid-combat mercantilism. With the Squigbuggy setting precedence as an in-combat meals-on-wheels service, I can see some enterprising Badmoons showing up with a bunch of spare ammo and then charging extortionist prices to sell them under fire. Not like teef are in short supply, given all the boys can just bash their dead mate's head for a few spares.

In terms of non ammunition related stuff, orks are just orks. They're openly stated to happily eat the dead on the campaign, and readily eat their own dead (or the weaker fights amongst them) if there aren't enough enemy dead. Vehicles and spare parts are looted and hammered into shapes as needed; Meks are (again, according to lore) scrappy and resourceful enough to straight up make workshops under fire that they can ply their trade on the front lines. When it comes to more exotic elements such as fuel or explosive primer.. Well there's a squig for that, and the orks bring their ecosystem with them.

It may have been discribed loosely in waagh da orks and codices/campaign books, but there was never a straight up article fixing it in a cannon manner ones and for all.

First, what do we could logistics?

Ferrying all necessary goods needed to fight, to the good unit, and in the necessary quantities, so they are always combat effective.

Then, why do orks necessarly have got logisitcs logicwise?

Because burning though grenades, ammo and all stuff basically is incredibly quivk even with enforced discipline and restrictions, so no ressuply means you've lost because you won't be able to overcome whatever challenge you face with you're bare hands and choppas, even being an ork.

The hoarding/they bring only what they can carry falls apart if you have any experience or knowledge about military manouevres: vehicles must be refilled every day or so more often than not, ammunition can be as qucik as a few minutes to be fired through (from reports from our soldiers in Mali).

These two examples by itself would mean that an ork army would be probably be combat ineffective on any given sector within, say, a few hours of combat tops. Combat on large scale is not like tabletop: not one of engagment, but even overcoming a Guard position in 15 minutes, you will need many mor emedical/ammunition/fuel supplies to hold back any possible counter attack, push onwards, or be redirected anywhere else. And hoarding won't come in that handy if airstrike or artillery pound your position right afterwards.


However, regarding orks themselves, what do we know:

Ork bosses are lazy and don't care about logisitcs.

Orks are tribal and function as a collection of smaller warbands and tirbes.

Ork are individualistic and long for success and becoming the biggest and badest.

Orks have slaves, vehicles and meacnics that can do the job.

Orks skills at warfare are engrained into their DNA.

Tying these facts about orks and the logic of logistics as described above, it is reasonnable, I think, to think of ork logisitcs like this:

First logistic line will be organised on a warvband or tribe base, with the boss competing to be the baddest probably bullying a mek and his grots to ferry him all he needs by needs of grot carts, truks, or whatever they can think of. Of course, since mek's wallet trhive on selling war goods, we can assume they won't be to reluctant about this as long as they get paid their teef.

This leads to ork logistics probably being messy and inconsistent because they are what they are and won't go into in depth planning, but they sure will instinctively have braod methods they will use to make sure they can carry the fight on.

Second line logistics are the roks, in my opinion, and the field stockpiles and deposits.
In the first case, it is stressed both in Armaggedon and The Red waaagh how they act as forward bases to resupply orks by being repurposed as settlements once they hit the ground. They can provide repair workshops and forward factories, field hospitals and deposits, from which tribe to tribe ferrying can be carried out or rotation to ressuply can be set in motion.

Stockpiles can be either part of said rock, or, as the orks are pretty adpatble and not to fussy about their living and stocking condition, be as good as a hole in the ground or a corrugated metal roof. Again, this can be where the ferrying begins.

From this close to the line forward settlements and rocks, the orks can sustain themselves with food. It's pretty easy for them because as long as they settle anywhere they will bring in their simbiotic ecosystem along with them: squigs and fungi will grow and do the trick, plus eating the deceased if food becomes scarce.

To feed these would be logistical platforms, a more or less consistent dual stream would go in and out: one to bring loot and transfer it to heavier facilities to the rear, if any avid mek gets his pawns on it, while the other stream will be manufactured goods ready to get back into the fray.

Third lines of logisitc would finally be the biggest settlements, if the orks are in defensive position, holding their planet or say a fort they have built. In that case, it's pretty straight forward, as every production facility needed will be readily available, as long as loot and extraction (mostly for fuel, for example) of necessary ressources keep coming.

Hoarding only truly comes in to play in the end of a campaign or major engagment, where the eney would have to lick it's wound and let the orks alone enough time to actually proceed with the looting and sending to the rear (read: trading of said loot), but as soon as they have a time window to loot, it'll be a vital part of the campaign to them, providing most of the raw ressources to keep production afloat.

I'll keep medecine away here, because really, between doks coming in to do surgery in the thick of battle, and those who get their grots to retrive patients any time and bring them back for taking care, i'd presume it is another chain outside of the first one for goods and supplies.

They're you go, I maybe didn't went into every bit but I think that's enough of a wall of text at once

In summary: they would be logistics, but in a tribe to tribe ferrying organised according to layered, instinctive procedures, directly tied to ork economy.

Orks don't rely on cottage industry after a certain point, they create and/or capture large factory complexes and resource extraction facilities to mass produce gear (to Ork standards- it won't be terribly standardised and will likely be "kustomised" heavily by whoever gets their hands on it). Slave labour is used to man this- It is unusual for Orks to exterminate civilian populations in places they capture as they rely on these slaves for production. These production centres can be on entirely-separate planets to the frontline - like Scalex VI supplying Waaagh! Wazdakka, or behind the frontline on the same world- like the captured Hives Tempestora and Acheron on Armageddon during the 3rd War.


See the last line.

 Maréchal des Logis Walter wrote:

*Snip*

In summary: they would be logistics, but in a tribe to tribe ferrying organised according to layered, instinctive procedures, directly tied to ork economy.

This broadly tallies with my thoughts for large Ork forces (for me, anything of tribe size or larger- single warbands will operate at the local level in a similar manner as feral Orks).

I think some posters are assuming a simplicity in large Ork forces that is not supported in the lore (but is how small Ork forces operate). It is well established that Ork society grows instinctively more complex as the numbers of Orks increase- we see this in social organisation with increasing layers of hierarchy and the appearance of oddboyz and subkulturs, we see this in technology level, and we see it in complexity of strategy and tactics (partly enabled by the first two). It is entirely consistent that Ork industry and logistics also grow in complexity alongside this. I don't think individual Orks think much about any of the above, it is simply programmed into them at an instinctual level- a warboss doesn't have to instruct a dok to start a field hospital, it just happens. Likewise, the warboss won't be thinking about logistics, he will just beat the gak out of his mekboyz and grotz if there isn't enough ammo nearby to grab.

I like the idea of grot carts, and I'm sure a dizzying variety of solutions appear. However, I have found some images of GW conversions for cargo trukks:




I also found this snippet in the 3rd edition Ork codex, which describes grots being forced to do the logistics work:


Putting the above together, and thinking about the Ork reliance on slave labour, both gretchin and enslaved aliens (such as humans), probably the real overseers of Ork logistics operations (in conjuction with Meks doing production and maintenance) is a type of oddboy specifically for managing slaves- runtherds!


I suspect there are baggage trains or convoys connecting production centres and stockpiles behind the lines to forward ammo dumps and camps. The convoys are probably majority crewed by gretchin and captured alien slaves, with at least one runtherd keeping them in line. Larger convoys may have a small mob of boyz attached as enforcers and guards, probably ladz that pissed off the boss in some way and got sent off as punishment (it is established that unpopular jobs get assigned as punishment to boyz out of favour with the boss).

I feel our two posts combined would be a quite apt answer, i'm happy

I think your bit about runtherds being the base on which ork logistic would work is probably true, as said, since grots will operate most logistical machinery, shuffle stockpiles to find the useful bitz, and do the charging/discharging operation of any means they crewed to bring supplyes... Yeah, runtherds overseer are probably one of the most vital part of this machinery. Meks will still hold ex aequo first place I think, or close behind, as they actually provide a good part of the supply and their maintenanced and repurpose loot.

The photos are just so great btw.

 Flinty wrote:
So space magic. For scavenging to be effective for even a fraction of their sustenance they need to be able to convert what they find or can be exposed to into energy and biomass. The background has them basically as the most pervasive species in the galaxy, so they have to be able to do that in a wide range of environments. If squigs are living in the latrines, then there must be sufficient materials in the ork effluent for the squigs to be absorbing that wasn’t absorbed by the Orks themselves. But in order for those squigs to form a major part of ork diet then the ork need to be eating loads of stuff that they themselves can’t be using. It just boggles my brain and I have difficulty in believing how scavenging and cottage industries can support industrialised warfare.

Greenskins are described as being a symbiotic combination of animal and a component that is akin to a fungus or algae (but probably doesn't quite fit into either as an engineered symbiote). The algal/fungal component is conserved through all Orkoid variants. It can almost certainly produce energy from a wide variety of sources. Given this accounts for the green skin of most Orkoids, I think a green, algal symbiote of a species engineered to be a survivor-warrior species can almost certainly photosynthesise as one source of energy. It is likely they can also unlock various forms of chemical energy in the environment, and fix nutrients from various atmospheres. I highly suspect that Orks are in a minority in Ork society (based on relative growth rates, the timed appearance of different Orkoids, and the increasing needs of the larger forms), being outnumbered by various runts, squigs, and particularly by general Orkoid "mycelium" (for want of a better word)- the mobile Orkoid forms almost seem to be the equivalent of mushrooms fruited from a static network of Orkoid material. The material is described as noxious to humans, even in small feral settlements such as the settlement in the depths of Hive Acheron travelled through by Lieutenant Kage and Colonel Schaeffer.

Was there bitz and pizzas in the war of the beast, where da orks were shipping humies out for lunch on a industrial scale?
Might also be a Cain on, where he finds a human slave, who made ammo.
All fell under the purview of a runt herder, Or what ever the planetary or galactic version is called.

Good stuff going on here

Maybe the main thing that is missing from the published lore is just the sheer number of grots, squigs and slaves that become the basis of a decent Waargh. the orks on the tabletop are just the most frontline of troops, and nothing is really said about the billions of second line, garrison and internal security/oppression forces that would be needed to keep the system working. All of them apparently working on an instinctual level to go in the same general direction, but sufficiently antagonistic with all the other parts of the society around them that its funny.

By comparison to the other factions, Imperial background is clear about the vast effort put into gathering resources and supporting manufacturing and supply lines. This basically applies to Chaos, Tau and Votann forces as well.

Eldar get around it a bit by having them literally magic up their wargear from the warp

Genestealers are parasitical, while Tyranids are quite well described I think.

Totally true. The tabletop only takes into account directly fighting forces, and grits when they take up arms. Well, are made to at least.

Apart from a few grot helpers here and there, I mean, you don't see them that much.

When I read the translated version of Waaagh da ORKS on Taran, I thought it was really well pointed at how important and everywhere they truly are.