OK, let’s do this. A reactions article to the big pile of rules that have been dropped. I’m kinda obligated to do so as an Ork fan. But, first, I must make a disclaimer. I played precisely zero games of 9th edition, or any games of 10th, so there's gonna be better takes than mine out there. That said, 10th edition is a hard reset of the game, and at time of writing this introduction has been playable for mere hours. We've had several weeks of the rules being drip-fed to us, only to become playable at the very end with release of the points costs. This is something conducive to hype, and sudden disappointment, rather than considered opinions. It's gonna be a few weeks before things have settled down and people have got a handle on the game. In such an environment however, I'm sure my observations are as good as any.
The Big Picture
10th edition is a root and branch reform of the game, and as such there are too many changes for me to usefully address here. However, the biggest change is the one they saved for last, the points costs found in the Munitorium Field Manual pdf. Continuing a design trend we've been seeing for a while, units are costed and composed based on the contents of their model kit. The number of models is fixed, and what equipment options they have have been subsumed into a single points cost. Returning players should immediately recognise this as an evolution of the Power Level system of earlier editions, something that gives me cause for concern. The reason why a lot of people didn't like Power Levels was because it lacked granularity and seemed to be easily abused. People liked fine-tuning thief army lists, and Power Levels were simply not suited, nor intended for, competitive play. The new way of doing things is very much the same thing by another name, so I really hope the GW did some serious play-testing. Assuming this works as intended, army building should be a dramatically faster experience, especially for those armies with a lot of moving parts like T’au, but decidedly less important to actual play. Whatever happens, I expect a transitional period where everyone with an existing army adjusts their squad sizes to be a multiple of 10 or 5, with units like Battlewagon suddenly having new guns glued to them, and people homing in on the one optimal load-out for each unit. Then again, Age of Sigmar has been working like this for years, maybe it's fine. Another significant change, and one I think more welcome, is a general attempt to remove redundancy. Each seems to have been granted a unique party trick to help it stand out and be valid for reasons other than cost. Some armies do this better than others, Space Marines remain bloated in the extreme for example, but it's something I like. The net effect is that the game seems more characterful, the general simplicity of things allowing for two sentence concepts to make big differences. I will say from a general presentation and readability angle, GW has done a fine job.
The Boyz
So, how might Orks work in this edition? Well, let's consider the humble Ork Boy. The bread and butter of the faction. At first, Boyz seem to be rather a lot like they were in 8th & 9th, just the terminology has changed, and things maybe look better? Shootas get Rapid Fire 1 rather than Dakka 2/3 for example, Rokkit Launchas aren't Heavy but still get Blast, and the lads get a 5+ save now. What they don't get is a native bonus to charge rolls any more, that sort of thing now the domain of Stratagems, unit synergy, and the Waaaaggghh. This not to suggest that Orks are any less choppy, the Waaaaggghh effects everything, and often triggers unit specific abilities, while the "army composition" bonus is exploding 6s in melee. You will likely be recognising that as the Goff trait, but the orky clans are not currently present in the rules. I'm disappointed, but not surprised. Boyz notably max out at 20, but their special thing is that they can be joined by two leader models, one of which has to be a Warboss which are being pushed a bit in the Ork Index. Warbosses are pretty hardcore, so that's not really a problem, and it seems to forestall some potential game-breakers. A few interesting effects come out of this, like the Big Mek adding a re-roll-1s shooting bonus, and the Painboy inflicting mortal wounds, which again, is quite characterful. The potential for a 22 model unit is also reflected in the Battlewagons troop capacity, though the Trukk seems fated to have a spare seat. What discourse I’ve seen tends towards mechanisation as the way to go with Orks, as Trukks are notably cheap, although I wonder if people are sleeping on the assorted leaders and their effects. While squad sizes of 30 are a thing of the past, you can certainly pull off a Green Tide.
Meganobz, the Anti-Tank Role & Combi-Weapons
These guys are interesting from a game mechanics perspective. These are a rare unit with multiple squad sizes do to a quirk of the kit, an example of how the new style combi-weapons work, and an example of how vehicles seem to work now. Starting with the vehicle angle, most now have a Toughness of 10, making them much harder for the tried & true Power Klaw to take out. Killsaws do better, but you don’t get many attacks out of them. Orks having difficulties with the anti-tank role isn’t exactly new, but the general theme here is S8/9 and D2/3, so a rethink is probably required. Now, you’d think the clever thing to do here would be to look at Tankbustas, but GW’s “only what’s in the box” policy kinda screws them over, as you can only have 5 of them in a mob, and only 3 have Rokkit Launchas. Yay. Presumably, this is where Beast Snaggers come in, whom come at that problem from a different direction, getting rerolls and fixed wound rolls on stuff. So, going back to the Meganobz, anti-tank is something they can do, but their weapons seem to a favour an anti-infantry role. That’s where the Kombi-Weapons come in, having the Anti-Infantry and Devastating Wounds rules. This makes them quite capable of killing dudes, but also means my favoured tactic of rocking up and setting fire to things isn’t possible any more. Given that exactly the same thing has happened to Space Marines, I wonder if this might be GW applying some common sense. Previously, these weapons were essentially a rifle plus a much better gun, say a Meltagun for humies. Being able to spam weapons like that is exactly the sort of scenario I’m worried about with respects to points costs above, so its good GW closed it off. Also of note: a Big Mek in Mega-Armour can resurrect the dead of its squad. Unexpectedly.
Giant Stompy Robots
Well, I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t touch on this. As often happens, there’s been a bit of shift in relationship between Killa Kans and Deff Dreads, with the kans being more immediately appealing. You get three Kans to one Dread, offering more dakka and arguably better melee for the same price. Kans also win on personality, now having a rule that makes their attacks ignore cover, if occasionally shooting that one bastard whom picked on them, aka the nearest ork unit. They also get an improved version of the Big Shoota, thus making that option useful. Where the Kans suffer is in durability and speed. While both get a native invulnerable save, Deff Dreads are tougher and move 10 inches, which is Battlewagon pace, and cause Battleshock as bonus. ‘Orkanauts meanwhile continue being big tough bastards, and have gained a transport capacity of 12, thus meaning they can actually carry units of note. The Morkanaut oddly lacks a Kustom Forcefield though…
Oddments and things That Aren’t a Parargraph by Themselves
Something that affects a lot of units of the Speed Freek variety is the change of Twin-Linked from being two guns nailed together into a reroll-to-wound. This means slightly less dakka overall, the weapons generally have been rebalanced, so.. swings and roundabouts? Do you like Grots? Well, its time to go looking in your bitz box, because Runtherds are mandatory now. They can generate CP though. Do you want to really annoy a shooty army? Well, Kommandos can’t be targeted by Overwatch.
MWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Wrapping things up
I’m fairly sure that within weeks, somebody will have found a way to break the game. Its just how statistics and the average wargamer tend to work. I’m also sure that the rules bloat problem will come to haunt this game as much as it did 8th and 9th edition. At this precise moment however, its hard to complain when everything is in a free PDF, and GW seems to be actively maintaining its games these days. <Cautious thumbs up>
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