Scratchbuild Experiment: Deathskull Ork Battlewagon

As I mentioned at the time, the Grot Tank was an interim project. A stepping stone to something more involved, a Battlewagon. There's a fair whack of history involved the concept, with Battlewagons being the Ork heavy transport, beyond that things get muddy. There was a 1st edition kit with no actual weapons, which went out of production, and bunch of related vehicles in the 6mm Epic system kept its spirit alive. The Battlewagon still had 40k rules though, but by the time we got the modern Battlewagon in 2009, it had long been the domain of conversion projects. Even after having been split into the Gunwagon and Bonebreaker variants, the battlewagon is an unusually malleable vehicle by GW standards. This prompted me to spend a long time mulling this project over, both in terms of tactics and build. Eventually I settled on a Dethrolla and Killkannon variant. The Dethrolla I should not need to justify, but the gun does need a justification. You can make the case that any ranged weapon is not cost effective on a Battlewagon and the Killkannon limits passengers. The thing is, I had the mental image of those Epic models and wanted to put my own spin on it. Amongst other things, this meant tank treads. 

 

Now, the design and production of those tank treads proved challenging, although I think I got the hang of it by the end. My initial design wasn't working out, and I eventually opted to recast my prototypes in a two-part Oyumaru mold. It took a while to figure out, and much finishing was required, but things came out better than the previous one-part blue stuff attempts. The wheels meanwhile where built up from wooden discs and washers, and I found some useful bogie parts in the bits box. The method of assembling the tracks was largely the same as the Grot Tank, just bigger, although I did feel the need for additional wheels after the fact, to help fill gaps. I'm pretty sure I can attempt interlocking tracks next time. 

 

The actual hull was a far simpler matter, being mainly a trailer toy stripped and then built up with flat packers and bits. Of great help was what remained of a firetruck, which worked great for the front end. The turret was built up from offcuts and an aerosol lid, while the gun was a bit of a spray bottle. I made the dethrolla by hot gluing bottle-tops together and then wrapping it in a foam sheet and too many rivets. This was probably one of the rougher aspects of the build, as while I've made rollas before, it was quite a while ago, and I didn't really have a plan for mounting it. This prompted some changes up front, as I tried not to make the vehicle too long, and opted to connect it to the wheels, bulldozer style. It worked, although I had conceal a few sins with weathering paints. Around the same time, I also realised that it's possible to inscribe panel lines into foam sheets with a craft knife, thus allowing me to add detail after gluing. It's my new favourite technique. On the downside, I feel I phoned in the detail around the turret base. Maybe that would have benefited from some more riveting, or possibly a bit of wall filler to add texture. That worked well on the back/right panel. Painting meanwhile saw the return of the Pébéo Studio Acrylics stuff I used on the Grot Tank, but remixed a tad in the case of the silver to darken it.

Nit-picking aside, I was really pleased with how this turned out. An "enter into a modelling competition" sort of pleased. I'll update this post if I get anywhere. 

 

Update: I was a runner-up, awesome!

Work-in-Progress Pictures

 

Kitbash: Deathskull Looted Rhino

 

Imagine the scene. It's the run up to TFNation, and I've decided to scratchbuild a Battlewagon. This process begins with a rummage through the cavernous bitz boxes I have, which will no doubt be a right nuisance to my survivors some day. This search presents a largely complete Rhino APC. I decide against using it in the project as Rhino hulls are on the lighter end of the tank spectrum, but I put it to one side. The battlewagon project continues apace, resulting in a well-received vehicle, and the week directly before TFN comes around. Rather than doing the Ork infantry I've putting off, I decided to work on the Rhino instead. Because I have brainworms. 

 

The idea of Orks nicking other factions' vehicles is a grand old tradition, one that even the often po-faced GW is known to be somewhat supportive of. It's more the stuff of "Narrative Play" these days, but many an excellent conversion starts with this idea. Key to this is the concept of a "counts as" as a rules justification and work around. I.e. you could Orky up a Sentinel, and use it as a Killa Kan. Google that, those tend to be great. Doing up a Rhino like that is a fairly mundane example, and one that can be achieved with relative ease. Put a big shoota on it, rough it up, take off the roof, and you've got a "counts as Trukk". This is how my brain is, I consider such things to be a light and easy change of pace. 

 

Possibly I'm under-selling my efforts, as the Rhino was an eBay rescue in all but name. The previous owner had the idea of merging it with a Gorkamorka era Trukk, and had to rip those bits out. It's not a bad idea, to be fair, but their reach exceeded their grasp. And they built it a bit wonky too. In their defence, they did put in some good bullet holes. After salvaging, the hull lacked the roof hatch and a door, no loss, but also a chunk of the front end and the weapon mounts. I toyed with the idea of building it out, before replacing missing panels with chipboard and gubbins. The gun barrel and three of the exhausts are resin pieces, while the wrecking ball assembly is off a poundshop toy. I'd used the same thing on my recent Battlewagon, but I dressed it differently here, placing a bead on one side of the arm to suggest a spool of cable. It's probably less obviously a wrecking ball than other examples, but I'm pretty sure it's the most durable one I've made. Painting followed in my usual style, with interior left muddy but basic.

 

 

The main thing of note here from a painting/modelling perspective was the use of Mod Podge to add texture, something which I had tried on the Battlewagon, but not as extensively as here. A Rhino features a lot of flat panels, as befits it's function of cheapo battle taxi, but as a subject that can work against me as a painter whom likes drybrushed models washed in gunk. Furthermore, as a vehicle "misappropriated" from an opposing force, a certain degree of wear only makes sense. Modge Podge when applied in rough or stippling manner solves that problem. The stuff seems to have an almost memetic variety of uses, I recommend it to scratchbuilders for adding texture to stuff. It's also useful for sealing and concealing the surface of wooden beads, like on the wrecking ball arm. I need to experiment more, but its looking like PVA glue, but better. Also: shout out to AK Dark Rust Deposits, it's good stuff.

A very pleasing end result, I must say.

 

 

 

Oh! And BTW, I did eventually do some infantry. Well, Warbosses. Perhaps not my best work, but definately table-ready.

Scratchbuild: Ork Gobsmasha

I started this one when I was kinda in a bad mood. Work had been stressful, I was processing a few things emotionally, I was going off Project Sulaco, and finding myself at loose end creatively. So I ended up opting to do another orky scratchbuild. I've done a great many of these, and truthfully I fear falling into a rut without realising. I've got a method for these locked in, and while the results speak for themselves, it gets samey to write about. That said, I find these fun and therapeutic in way that Project Sulaco wasn't really. So, with that in mind, the Gobsmasha.

In order to put the Gobsmasha onto context, we have to go back the earliest days of the 40k setting. You know, the 1st edition, early Epic, mostly metal rather than plastic, pre-me, sort of time period. As I've mentioned before, actual 28mm scale vehicle kits were not something GW could easily do, which is why things like jet/motorbikes and dreadnoughts were so common unit types at the time. And in many ways still are, but I digress. This isn't to say there wasn't a demand for heavy vehicles at the time, the 6mm scale Epic system was all about that, and 40k had vehicle rules from day one, but GW was a much smaller company back then, and such things were a major investment for them. It's not like you can 3D print stuff in the early 90's is it? As such both the 1st edition rulebook and subsequent White Dwarf articles featured a variety of scratchbuilds and kitbashes, even to the point of featuring plans for complete vehicles. Games Workshop absolutely would not do that today. The Gobsmasha, as featured in this link, is one such vehicle. It's one of the numerous and oft odd battlewagon-adjacent vehicles that turned up in Epic, had an obscure resin model in 28mm, but otherwise has been forgotten. it's overall vibe is typical of the super early Ork vehicle pool, sitting somewhere between a self-propelled gun and an olde timey traction engine.

 

Now, I could have gone and attempted the plans as is, but I didn't for three reasons. 1) Size creep is a thing, and I'd probably end up with something more akin to a Grot Tank or buggy than a modern Battlewagon. 2) I'm not a fan of papercraft stuff, being too clack-handed and impatient. 3) In my hubris, I felt that in between my bitzbox, my experience, and a hot glue gun, that I could free-form something better. Arrogant, I know, but those plans are 30 odd years old, I've got things they didn't, and this ain't my first barbecue. I use the word "hubris" as I ended up crafting the front wheels from 60mm bases, and the result isn't perfectly circular, something that sets off my perfectionism something fierce. It doesn't matter in the wider context, although it's a shame I wasn't able source some suitable lids for use in this project, that would have sidestepped some faff. The main body was built up from three tubes hot-glued together in a H shape, which was then layered with old toy truck panels and such. My stockpile of resin pieces from Ramshackle Games came good with a boiler and chimney piece suitable for a traction engine, while the weapons are GW plastics. Now, as a first edition thing, the Gobsmasha predates the modern orky armoury, but there's some fairly obvious equivalents to go for, i. E. heavy bolter = big shoota, a convention I've used on this and many other projects. As the Gobsmasha had a big cannon on it and two machine gun type things, this led to me me treating as a Big Trakk, like my recent Basilisk. That's not actually ideal given the size this ended up, plus it doesn't actually have trakks, but I didn't feel adding all the ancillary stuff that comes as standard on a modern Battlewagon. That would spoil the effect I was going for. Innumerable rivets later, I got to drybrushing.

Its good to be back :)

Plamo: The Orktober Gunwagon

Well, my current trajectory of liking 40k, but not trusting myself with the actual game, continues. Given my obsessive nature, it would be all to easy for me to fall down into that time/money sink, when I should be trying new things. However, Orktober is Orktober. And there are few greater joys than a scratchbuild build. So, I decided to mark this annual event by doing something for as little money as possible. My bitzbox, my build pile, is so out of hand that I don't actually need to buy anything.

This Gunwagon started life as an aborted Bonebreaka Battlewagon project, circa 8th edition. At the time, such units were popular, but this was shortly before I stopped playing and my heart wasn't in it. I forget precisely how I got it, but I was in possession of an incomplete Land raider, mainly the tracks, and such things are great for Battlewagon style builds. As the connecting plates were missing, I built up the hull with off-brand lego, to be dressed with plasticard and bits. This is still largely how I would do it today, but I'd probably make the front less boxy. Upon re-evaluation, I ditched the Dethrolla, and decided to build something I didn't technically have, the Gunwagon variant of a battlewagon. Orks don't really do battletanks, mostly they do heavy transports and super-heavies instead, but the Gunwagon is about as close as it gets. It's a concept I've wanted to explore for a while, and the rules haven't really encouraged it, but if I'm not actually playing? Competitiveness can go hang.

My build lent towards the modern interpretation, AKA non-Forge-World, and probably the most complex part of it is the turret. In my hubris, this ended up as a sequel to the Junkernaught, using largely l the same "hot glue and hot resin" technique. I did however make use of leftover gap-filler from the Space Hulk project, to, well, guess. I suppose green stuff could have worked as well, but this stuff is soft, plentiful and cheap. After building up from the top of a deodorant spray, I added two big shootas, one back, KV-1 style, and one coaxial. These were minor conversions, using tiny tokens from a poundshop connect 4 game. Another little thing I'm disproportionately proud of is the use of paperclips for cabling on the engine block. Tip: if uncertain where to drill the holes, cut the clip in a J shape, insert the long leg into the first hole, and use the other leg as a guide.

Painting followed in my usual fashion, where I used dry-brushing and every single metallic weathering method I was able. Yes, it's predictable, and I over did it in places, but it's how I like it. I should probably have used more blue, but at least I varied the technique a little there. It was drybrushed in two shades, but avoided the edges in places, so the metal showed through. I. E worn/crappy paint. I actually painted the turret separately, which worked out well until I tried to attach it the hull, where a design oversight became apparent. Following some bodging, I hot-glued it in place, but I'll know better next time. I also made a point of painting the guns, tracks and some riveting with different tones, as while it is very easy to do dirty metal, you shouldn't have just one type of metal. Especially on something this big. 

 

Paint List

Humbrol Acrylic Spray Dark Brown - Basecoat

Citadel Paint and Ink

Morefang Brown – whoops, the spray didn't get this bit

Brass Scorpion – metal base

Leadbelcher - main metal colour

Gehenna's Gold – metallic contrast colour

Calgar Blue – Deathskull blue part 1

Lothern Blue – Deathskull blue part deux

Xereus Purple- cables

Abaddon Black- viewsilts

Agrax Earthshade – Gun and track wash

Vallejo Game Color and Ink

Silver – chipping highlight

Gunmetal – guns & tracks

Orange Fire – rust highlight

Brown- thinned ink wash

Citadel Techicals

Stirland Mud - messy bits near the floor

Typhus Corrosion – too many places, mainly the orkish components

As projects go, this proved to be fairly enjoyable. Its not quite what I originally had in mind, but it all came together once painted. I just wish I could get better pictures...

Work in Progress Pictures

 

Scratchbuild: Another Ork Battlewagon

 Yes, I sometimes repeat myself.

With the new edition, I inevitably began thinking about modernising my forces. And how certain units seem to have been reshuffled Given my specific cocktail of neurodivergence and neurosis it's very hard to put things like that aside, so once I did those Grot Tanks, I decided to take a swing at doing another battlewagon.

The weird/annoying thing about battlewagons just now is how they interact with the "exactly what's in the box" design philosophy found in the index lists. This is because the kit spent two editions representing 3 distinct variations, one doing the classical 'wagon, one being about the deathrolla, and an unpopular cannon one. (There's also Forgeworld units, but honestly I don't care.) Putting guns on one wasn’t usually viewed as an especially practical option given A) ork marksmanship, and B) how these act as an ork party bus. With this in mind, creating and pricing the unit on the assumption that people would build one with all possible options is daft. Experienced players wouldn't have done that under the previous points systems, as the options are contradictory in purpose to an extent, while beginners would have to look up the difference, and thus likely came across the opinions of the former. So, for this new project I took a "can't beat 'em, join' em" approach. I'd build a wagon with all the guns, and most of the melee options. The Wrecking Ball option is not actually in the kit, I assume that was a concession to kitbashers, so I skipped it. The choice between Firing Ports and Ard Case meanwhile is still largely a matter of side grades and what dakka if any the passengers have. I went for Ard Case as it simplified the build. As to how practical such a battlewagon is, I'm unsure. Putting a lobba, kannon, and 4 big shootas on a single platform means it can unleash 40 odd shots in a single volley. I dunno if that's good on something that carries troops and likes to pancake people. You'd be looking at 14ish S5 hits, which isn't bad, but it's the sorta thing you can get elsewhere. I see this as a tactical battering ram and distraction.

 

 

Having done… frankly too many such modelling projects, this thing went together with relative speed and a lot of hot glue. I decided on a wheeled design fairly early on, first going for eight wheels, and then realising that was far too big even by my loose standards. In terms of techniques and materials used, I’d call this a “pragmatic” scratchbuild. The wheels, weapons, and details like exhausts were pre-existing bits, either plastic or resin. That’s the sort of thing I could try doing myself, and have done, but I have the bits, so why not? The majority of the hull however was more mixed material; bits of toy, flatpackers, chipboard, scrap plastic, and EVA foam. The curved shape comes from what remains of a fork-lift toy. It was then painted in my obsessively rusty style.

I’m very pleased with one. I’ve been grinding away at lot of rusty projects over the last year or so, and it seems to be paying off. I should probably stop putting off the infantry though.

 

 

 

Kitbash: Deathskull Ork Battlewagon. Yes, again.

 

I feel I am needlessly repeating myself a bit here. Battlewagons and such were a recurring theme of my "scratchbuild phase" and something I tended to do when I want to build something involved at minimal cost. Why do I keep doing this? Oh right, I hyper-fixated on something. And GW went and changed the unit definition again. Gunwagons are a thing once more, but Dethrollas seem to have vanished. Unless GW is quietly planning to do the Bonecrusha or something as DLC, my most recent of these is not remotely rules legal. Charming. Anyways as a unit, the Battlewagon now is exclusively a heavy transport with space for 22 Orks, and a firing deck for 12 of them. It's quite durable, with a rather useful OC5, surprisingly capable in melee, and has a related detachment. I can easily imagine one happily joining in, or just parking on an objective. 

I shouldn't really complain too much about the rules changes that much though. I can throw one of these together from a charity shop find, hoarded materials, and salvaged parts. With the Dethrolla conspicuous by its absence, the greatest technical challenge of such a project is gone. It's just a matter of finding a big enough hull, preparing it, and then orkifying the thing. The hull here is a firetruck from the Paw Patrol franchise, a children's series that's most notable for a meme of a film review. It's slightly smaller and shorter than an actual 'wagon, but that was probably to my benefit as it's very easy for these projects to end up too big. My basic idea here was to build up the front end, put a flatbed out back, and the weapons wherever they fit, feeling things out as a I went. The main difficulty here was the sticker stripe recessed into the flanks, the stickers leaving gluey residue and the trench breaking up the look of the vehicle. I ended up filling these areas will milliput and sanding them out, to some success. In happier news however, an old piece of KillTeam terrain could be attached as a Grabba Klaw almost unmodified. I didn’t even try to strip the old paint of it, it worked too well as is. Plus the recess ended up not mattering, as this became less of a build so much as a katamari of a kitbash, using a variety of materials to armour it up, but still leaving that distinctive front-end peaking out.  Maybe the flatbed got a bit lost in the process though.

 

The painting moved swiftly once I got the three million rivets on. This was a run of basic drybrush sponging, and washing techniques. This is the sort of thing I really enjoy about Orks now I think of it, the rustbucket, shitbox, kitbash vehicles. And I managed to get in done in time for Orktober too, so here we are. It came out OK.

Battlefleet Gothic: Ork Tactics, Sort-of

So, I had this idea to write a series of tactical analysis articles about a dead game I've hardly played, and am not likely to play for the foreseeable future. Why? Well, its something to do. I'm building some Ork Ships, so why not use the creative energy that's there? Plus its ORKTOBER! Well, it was yesterday.

 

The Ork Fleet Concept

Orks start from a position of being the comic relief faction explicitly and repeated stated as being bad at this whole space navy stuff. Its easy to think the rules for them back this up, because there's pretty some obvious flaws. They also suffer from comparisons with the Panzee list, which had a similar but opposite approach to its ships. But this is not the whole story.

Now, I ended up drafting and redrafting this article repeatedly, creating pages of notes as I read around, researched, and mathammered at this game. I was trying to understand how the Ork Fleet was meant to work, and as an Ork player I'll admit to a vested interest in proving the common perception of the fleet wrong. I.e. I'd be able to live with the ships being held together with duct-tape, nails, and prayer if there was an Orky way to play. Its not like I have the inclination to play often, anyway, but given time and money investments, I like to know what I'm dealing with. Its core concept in other words. The humie fleet is flexible, but mainly about forming nice lines and torpedoing things to death. Those Chaos boyz like to keep their distance, and/or go for a selection pack of god-based bonuses. The Panzees, are, well, Panzees. The obvious answer was to say that the Ork Fleet is about frontal assaults, and then spend a bit of time listing the ways their weaknesses and strengths select for that. Or I could have talked about how Orks started as a smaller list mainly intended for Raid missions, which is where certain ships shine brighter. Or I could talk about how Ork Kroozers resembled knock-off Imperial cruisers, while their escorts are more immediately appealing. But no. 

The metaphor that makes the most sense to me, and the most interesting to write about, is tell to you how the original Ork ships, i.e. the ones in the rulebook, resemble Ork infantry and models from Warhammer 40K. Buckle up.

Brute Ramships = Choppa Boyz

Every faction needs its one bread & butter choice, and this is the Brute. It is highly regarded for its notably low cost, solid all round stats, and its talent for head-on collisions. Can be spammed, but also is the most agile Ork ship by some margin. Of course, you can build a fleet without Brutes, in much the same way you could build an army without Choppa Boyz. You'd just need a proper reason not to.

Onslaught Attack Ships = Shoota Boyz

Orks don't do long range combat well, an issue and a half in space, but do a ship that does no-nonsense dakka in the Onslaught. It offers enthusiasm rather than consistency, a big trend in Ork naval design, but dakka is dakka. Here we also note the general format of the Ork vessels; lotta guns and armour upfront, fast in a straight line, but with bad handling and no ability to broadside. Its a ATTACK SHIP, a SHIP that ATTACKS. Not a frigate or destroyer.

Savage Gunships = Burnaboyz

Like Burnaboyz, Savages are great, but in only quite specific and fiddly circumstances. Technically a threat to most targets and nippier than most of its kin, the minimal range makes them unpopular outside of scenarios where you deploy close to the enemy. Also oddly notable for having consistent damage output, but don't treat them like Lance boats, they don't work like that.

Ravager Gunships = Rokkit Launcha Boyz

Probably the most random and least reliable of the Ork escorts, Ravagers are also the one with the most specific niche: coating the board with rokkits that your foe should dodge. If you roll well, these things can output more torpedoes than any other ship of its size, buuuut ork discipline and/or enemy revenge will make reloading tricky. Also somewhat multi-functional due to its back-up guns and turrets. These will often end up in mixed squadrons as "that one dude with the rokkits" or alternatively in dedicated squadrons. Either way, consider yourself lucky if you get to fire twice.

Kill Kroozer = Battlewagon

These have guns, but are more about running people over, (AKA Ramming,) or having the Orks riding therein jump out and punch things (AKA Boarding Actions). Cheap & customizable to an extent, especially if a Warlord is on-board, which is rather like having a Nobz mob as boozed-up passengers. These are tough, obvious targets to distract from your Gunships, but not as tough as you may think, and need to be mindful of bombers. Can actually do broadsides, but only really within 15cms.

Terror Ship = a different Battlewagon

99% similar to the unit above, but with one gimmick that encourages you to keep your distance. Actually about as mandatory as the Ramships, as it provides a vital answer to enemy bombers. However, once bigger ships are available Terror Ships loose a bit of appeal.

How is the Ork fleet unlike their 40k Army?

Well, the fleet is one that must aggressively close with the enemy, firing the whole time, and ideally create a mess of confusion in their lines where Orks can break heads like Gork and Mork intended. Oh wait. No. That sounds exactly like the 40k army. But that's sorta the point. Battlefleet Gothic is played on large tables with often minimal scenery, where movement is mandatory. Fire arcs are also a huge thing, as Ork guns usually fire forwards, where their armour is thickest, but not necessarily on the sides, where the armour is weak. This combined with the modest effective range of their ships mean that Orks often have to hurry to meet the enemy, whereas the most recent Ork Codex allows for greater freedom in how you kill things. Part of that's simply the march of time, and there's later additions I haven't talked about above, but you're gonna have to deal with a short range, a limited pool of ships to choose from, and taking a lot of damage on the way in. You'll also find a lack of modern amenities like a clan system, unless you use the 2010 compendium rules. These documents are unusual in that they are fan-made, but GW approved, and tournament legal. While I'm in favour of the compendium on balance grounds, I remain personally undecided if I actually like those ork rules as these add a lot of complications. And obviously don't line up with how the clans are done these days. On the plus side? The Clan list has more Lances, and some newer ships. In practical terms, you have three lists to choose from, the original Pirate list, the expanded Waaagh list, and the 2010 Clan list. These get progressively more powerful and “complete” as you go along, but I stand by the metaphor I use above.

Wrapping things up

I don't have the arrogance to call this a tactics article, this is all theory, but I hope it was of some use or entertainment to you. Sequel articles may appear as and when I have something funny or interesting to say.

Warhammer 40K: First Impressions of 10th Edition, by an Ork Player

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 8^th and 9^th 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>

The 8th Edition Codex Orks: My Thoughts

I really should dust this place more often. Yes. I'm back doing this blog again. Yes, its been ages. But, I've not felt like writing about stuff. So, there's been a new Ork Codex with new models. Before that, there was the 7^th ed codex, that sucked. Then 8^th ed happened which was good. Then the Ork index army list aged like a glass of milk left abandoned next to a radiator. Then, much later, we had Orktober. With the ACTUAL CODEX released November. Suffice to say, its been a long and annoying wait. Here are my first impressions, possibly to be followed by further articles.

The codex as a revised Index list
Now, what annoyed me so much about Orks being so late to a codex was that so much of it was obvious and simple. You could have done it in maybe 3 pages in a Chapter Approved. 1 page for discounted prices of about 10%, 1.5 pages for stratagems, and the rest for some kind of shooty rule. So, the first question I have to ask is: did they do the obvious bug fixes? My first instinct is to say yes, as I'm somewhat impressed with the end product. Not everything is as I'd like, but there's enough rebalancing so multiple playstyles are feasible. Its also noteworthy how many little additions have been made that so easily could have been ignored. Case in point, we now have three flavours of Battlewagon, and Kans get multiple different melee weapons. On the flipside, Boyz are now 7 points each, BOO! BOO, I SAY! But I can live with it. This leads us neatly to the next section.

The matter of shooty
Orks never suffered because they lacked close combat ability, they suffered because they lacked reliable tools for shooting. This is simply due to the nature of dice modifiers, which would completely disable such attacks by demanding a 7+ on a six-sided die. Of course Orks were never actually good at shooting, anyone whom claims otherwise is misspeaking at best or cherry-picking data at worst(1), but we shouldn't have been incapable. The result? A very melee-centric army with loads of infantry, and maybe some grot artillery. GW has came in, done the obvious fix, and took it further with the Dakka Dakka Dakka rule. This makes ranged attacks functional again, and fits in very well with existing units. Those of you wishing to make a go of it have plenty of choice too, with the Bad Moons being explicitly a shooty clan, with only Goffs and Snakebites selecting against it. Of course, the other reason for slow & choppy ork forces was overpriced fast stuff, so lets talk about the real reason you are here.


Freeks & new tactics
Orks are the first faction in a while to get new units, excluding beakies, and this brings another concern. GW has a habit of balancing rules to sell new models, which was the match that lit the raging dumpster fire that was the 7th ed codex. The question here is not necessarily do these new units work, its also "did they make something popular suck?" Well, as mentioned they did make boyz more expensive. Mek Guns got reworked too, removing crew shenanigans. And they declined to include a few units without current models, such as, surprise-surprise, the old trakks and buggies. These units seem to be both useful and characterful, a stark contrast to the mishandled launch of the 'Orkanauts. However, its rather difficult not to look at the Evil Suns rules and not say something like, "Yeah, this is too good.". You could easily have one rule removed from the Kulture and it still be powerful, but given how my old favourites Deathskulls turned out, maybe I shouldn't throw stones. Less cynically, the new speedwaagh units seem to be a culmination of something bubbling below the surface in Ork rules: vehicles as close combat units. Its not a new idea, as this can be found as early as 1992 with the old Epic game, and then appearing as dethrollas and wreking balls for more modern kits. Ork vehicles now clearly value the Fight Phase as much as the infantry do. And their role is to drive straight at the enemy lines, firing all the way, and then Tokyo Drift into people. I remain undecided as to which of these new ones are actually the must-haves, if the term can actually be applied to any of them. The Shokkjump Dragsta and Kustom Boostablasta seem to be the most obvious choices, but these models in general are hovering around the 120 points bracket for something with Trukk-like durability. People don't seem to like the Squigbuggy, I dunno. One thing more immediately useful is the Tellyporta strategem, which allows you drop a Gorkanaut anywhere you need it, which did win me a game.

Conclusion

Ehhhh, it looks OK.

Foot Notes

1) Don't even start with your 1^st edition, your Feral Orks or your Lootas. An accuracy of 50% is average, not good, and while you can have shooty orks, you can also have tough Aeldari. It doesn't mean all of them are.

Kitbash Experiment: Ork Mek

As my 40K relapse continues, I relearn old skills as much as learn new ones, and take on challenges I largely wouldn't have before. At the moment, this mainly involves the actual ork, rather than the machines they build/bodge/loot/weld-together. Its a different skillset, if only because everybody has a body and therefore notices when something is wrong. Finding and perfecting methods of doing orky bits was looking to be a necessary prerequisite of a couple of ideas I had, so an interim project was called for. Something on theme. An Ork Mek. 

 

As the name implies, Meks are the ones responsible for the creation of Ork machines and weapons. In terms of personality, Meks usually sit somewhere between Jeremy Clarkson & Adam Savage. While just as fond of casual violence as the next ork, but their exuberance is focused more on making things bigger, better, faster and probably explosive. Everything they do is on some level a custom job, and a brute force solution only one step away from a critical failure. Duct tape may very well be involved. Meks come in a variety of sizes and influence l, the one I have built here is the unpopular regular Mek. This unit hasn't done much to differentiate itself from the other versions, offering a minor character with an overclocked energy weapon, and not much else. I built this mainly for the practice, and with a suspicion that the Deathskull bonuses might suit him.

The main components of this kitbash come from the recently retired mrk2 boyz kit, and the spanner pieces from the compatible loota/burnaboyz kit.I dismantled a kustom mega blaster and combined it with the large two-barrelled slugga, to make the Kustom Mega Slugga. This ended up a little bit oversized and TBH rough, but there's no mistaking what it is. The tool was taken from the Battlewagon upgrade sprue and attached to a basic boy arm, while the spanner backpack was given a new icon. I also attempted to sculpt a basic mechanics apron from green stuff. I've dabbled in sculpting before, I have several orks with funny hats, but its been a long time. The head meanwhile was off an old metal Burnaboyz, and the model was painted alongside some Boyz, so there was some delay before completion.

 

 

Overall, I have mixed feelings about how it turned out. The kitbashing is on point, but I feel I need more practice with sculpting. Also, mass painting Boyz remains a chore. Mind you, an experiment is an experiment, and it was useful practice.

 

Oh, and, HAPPY ORKTOBER!

Work in Progress Pic