Adam, a dedicated Ork player, gives his first impressions on Orks in 7th ed 40k.
I Have No Idea
I’ve been getting a lot of folks asking me how I feel about the Ork codex so far. I’ve only read it and not played a thing. My initial reactions are that I am very confused. I am honestly not sure how I’m supposed to use this book. I’m assuming the answer is “However you please,” of course, but that’s not really good enough for me.
WAAGH! Drillteef is a Brainboy-Heavy force which uses lots of vehicles and dabbles in Warp manipulation and tactical legerdemain. I think this Codex is going to do a lot for my army from a fluff perspective. I believe I can use this Codex to build an army which very closely reflects what WAAGH! Drillteef would look on the battlefield.
Multiple Combined Arms Detachments or Self-Allying
I think the new Ork Codex is a pretty good example of why we should be allowing players to take multiple Combined Arms Detachments or, in lieu of that, simply allowing them to ally with themselves. I think these lists should really shine when you allow them to put more HQs in the squads to make them more survivable when they start taking these horrible Mob Rule checks.
Brainboy HQs
I love what I can do with Meks now. Truly, this is my favorite part of the book. Only in my wildest dreams did I think I’d be able to pick up extra Meks to distribute throughout the army. This allows me to truly make WAAGH! Drillteef into the Mek-led force I’ve always wanted it to be. From a storytelling perspective, this is a huge win for me.
Being able to move the Painboy from unit to unit is a great boon. I’m excited that Mad Doc Drillteef will have some cool assistants to help him fix up da Boyz during a battle. I can’t wait to try a list which brings Mad Doc, two Painboys, and a Big Mek along with four Meks in two detachments. I’m thinking this will help mitigate a lot of issues with Leadership, staying power, and flexibility in the average Ork list.
Dedicated Transports
The inclusion of Dedicated Transports for units of Burnas, Lootaz, Tankbustas, and Flash Gitz is a huge improvement. You no longer need to bring Battlewagons from the Heavy slot to protect them from an alpha strike. Also, really, shouldn’t these units, above all others, be able to rig together a vehicle of their own?
Trukks are Fast Attack
It might be advisable to bring an extra Trukk or two to the battle if you’re finding yourself not using your Fast Attack slots. It might be nice to leave them in reserve and use them to hunker down in later in the game.
Buggies Seem Awesome
At the low-low price of 125 points, you can add a squad of 5 Rokkit buggies to your army. I dunno about you folks, but this seems like quite the steal. They have pretty good range and have the added bonus of being a wall of dangerous terrain if they’re wrecked by small arms fire. They can also fairly reasonably shoot down a flyer with 5 twin-linked Strength 8 shots. At 125 points and 10 hull points, and with that maneuverability, I’ll take that over a Psyfleman Dread any day of the week.
Some Obvious Winners
I think Mek Gunz and Meganobz will be some very popular choices. Mek Gunz are going to be really nice for plugging holes in a list. If you’re finding yourself unable to deal with a specific kind of unit, the Mek Gunz have a solution for it sitting on the backfield with Toughness 7.
As for Meganobz, they simply do not care about the Mob Rule table. Their 7 Leadership was always a pretty bad detriment to them and now at least they have a chance of staying in the fight. Meganobz are the one unit that Mob Rule actually improves.
Additionally, I’m going to be turning into quite the Ork Hipster. I’ve taken Mad Doc in almost every game for the past 3-4 years. Now that he’s one of the cool kids on the block, I’m not going to be alone and I will not hesitate to point every opponent who balks my use of him to this Blog to set the record straight!
Mob Rule and Boyz
I’m not sure what to say at this point. Below 10 models, it gives you hope, but losing fearless while not receiving a points adjustment does give me pause. I have concerns. I must say that the very concept of 30 Boyz having to take a Leadership check for anything (and this is just real talk here, so please bear with me), well, it kind of pisses me off. I can’t imagine a giant Mob of Boyz caring one whit about the scary Chaos Space Marines they are assaulting. I can’t imagine them caring at all about the 8 Boyz lost in shooting… they’ve still got 22 others!
I’m very leary about taking things just to mitigate the table. A Stompa or Gazghkull would do wonders for this, but do I really want to bring a Lord of War to every battle? I don’t think so. I’m going to, instead, be looking for ways of using deployment, unit composition, challenges, and wargear to mitigate these issues.
Possible Game-Changer
Mad Doc has both Feel No Pain and also Feel No Pain 6+ for no reason. I sent GW a question about this and if Cybork Bodies gets upgraded to a +1 FNP instead of a 6+, this could be a pretty nice game-changer for some units.
Well
I need to play the Codex for a few weeks in order to really give an assessment. I’m sure I’ll find things to enjoy. I hope it’s fun!