GW brings us some previews and more info on the incoming Orks Speed Freaks!
These articles were originally published on the Warhammer-community site.
In the wastelands of Vigilus, a new kind of Waaagh! rages. Engines roar, cannons boom and green-skinned warriors laugh as they outmanoeuvre (or blow up) their rivals in fast-paced races through the desert dunes and scrap-towns.
If the Orks are a force of nature, then the Speedwaaagh!, much like a conventional Waaagh!, can be likened to a natural disaster that fell upon the world of Vigilus – literally. When the Great Rift first ripped itself across the sky, it spat out an armada of ramshackle Ork craft that blasted through the cordon around the Imperial world and crash-landed in the desert wastes between Vigilus’ hivesprawls.
The surviving ships were quickly cannibalised by enterprising Meks and scrap cities rose around them, from which issued hordes of cobbled-together vehicles of all shapes and sizes.
The Speedwaaagh! had begun.
The Orks quickly discovered that Vigilus’ cities were protected by powerful force fields, making them impregnable to the greenskins’ assault. In their inimitable style, the Orks adapted and turned their attention to their two other favourite activities – scrapping amongst themselves and racing across the length and breadth of the planet.
These races are more than just vehicles speeding toward a finish line. Orks are renowned for being both brutal and kunnin’, and their races put both those qualities to the test. If an Ork can win just by going really, really fast,* that’s great – but if they can take their opponents out with big guns or sneaky traps, that’s even better!
Unusually, it’s not just the speed-obsessed Evil Sunz** who take part in the Vigilus races – a huge part of the Ork kultur on the planet has become dedicated to the Speedwaaagh!, with even the staunch traditionalists of the Snakebites*** and the stealthy Blood Axes eschewing their usual methods of war in favour of joining in the fast and furious fun.
In fact, each clan has taken to the Speedwaaagh! so well that they’ve adopted their own ways to gauge success in these races. The rich Bad Moons are able to make their vehicles the finest (and shiniest) around, while the Goffs have made an art out of getting up-close and giving their rivals a good krumpin’, even at speed. The Deathskulls, on the other hand, use their resourcefulness to grab burning wreckage from destroyed vehicles and patch up their own.
In Ork society, the strongest inevitably rise to the top, and the Speedwaaagh! is no exception. Various mobs have risen out of the pack and lead the way, foremost among them the Blastamob of the Evil Sunz, whose red-painted vehicles really are the fastest, and the Bad Moons Shokkaboyz, whose snazzy Mek-wagons are as powerful as they are impressive.
Most revered of all is the greatest of the Big Meks on Vigilus, Krooldakka. Master of the Scrap City known as Fort Dakka, and leader of the Waaagh! that fell upon the planet in the first place, this Speedlord Supreme rules over dozens of speed mobs and Battlewagon mobs. He cemented his position after an act of the purest kunnin’ that allowed the Orks to breach the Fortwalls that divided Vigilus, opening new racing routes across the planet and firmly installing him as the master of all he surveyed – even if he only surveyed it briefly, in a blur, as he sped past.
With so many Orks on Vigilus, constantly testing the defences of the great hivesprawls (not to mention other enemies lurking within the dark places of the cities), it is only a matter of time before the Speedwaaagh! overcomes the Imperial defences and the racers get a whole new set of dangerous routes to race across and new enemies to test their wagons and bikes against.
Until then, the races will continue – and you can join in with them through the upcoming Speed Freeks boxed game! Plus, when the new Codex: Orks comes out, you can build your speedmob into a bigger force and take a crack at Vigilus yourself! Waaagh!
We hope you’re all ready for the Speedwaaagh! as we’re about to kick #Orktober up a gear. With all the new Ork vehicles unveiled and Speed Freeks available to pre-order this weekend, it’s time for us to take a look at the game itself:
The game includes four rukks – each of which is part race, part fight – fought between up to eight players, depending on the rukk. Victory condistions in each rukk vary from shootin’ and krumpin’ the vehicles of rival Speedmobs to blowin’ up their stuff or gettin’ across the finish line first.
One such rukk is Da Grand Smash – a classic demolition derby where victory belongs to the Speedmob that scored the most points by destroying rival models – even if their own Speedmob is subsequently wiped out! In fact, you’ll be able to see this particular rukk in action in November’s issue of White Dwarf!
Once you know what rukk you’re using, you then pick a Speedmob to play with. Each Speedmob comprises four models – 3 Warbikers (one of which is Boss Nob), and your Wagon of choice (one of the six shiny new vehicles we’ve been showing off recently).
There are six Warbiker datacards and six Wagon datacards (one for each different type – the two in the box and the four additional Wagons available soon), that detail their respective background and rules. The datacards reveal everything you need to know about each vehicle, from the guns it has available and which direction it can fire them in, to how skilled the driver is and how much damage it can suffer before it is destroyed. Each of the vehicles also has a number of abilities that can help give them the edge in certain situations, such as the Axle Saw of the Shokkjump Dragsta:
Each rukk takes place over a number of game rounds or until its victory conditions have been met. A game round consists of the following phases:
Kunnin’ Phase: Players secretly allocate their 10 Speed Freeks dice into Kunnin’, Speedin’ and Shootin’ pools on their dashboards. The more dice you allocate towards Kunnin’, the more likely you are to be able to activate the first vehicle in each subsequent phase that round. You must allocate at least one dice to the Speedin’ pool per surviving vehicle in your Speedmob – after all, Orks would never stop intentionally!
Speedin’ Phase: First of all, you assign at least one dice from your dashboard’s Speedin’ pool to each of your vehicles. The more Speed Freeks dice you allocated to a vehicle, the faster it is likely to move (and less likely it is to stall) when you roll to determine how many gubbinz you can place end to end to create a Trail.
If a vehicle’s Trail leads it into another object, it will ram it – in the case of a vehicle – or simply crash if it hits something like a scrap pile. You can perform flashy manoeuvres like driftin’ to skid around corners or other vehicles, and can also make use of speshul or even snazzy gubbinz to careen across the battlefield at breakneck speed. These manoeuvres come with risks, however, and can force your vehicle to spin out at the end of its move if you fail the subsequent drivin’ test – you have been warned!
A Word on Rammin’
The angle from which you ram your opponent makes a big difference to the level of mutual destruction. While only the bravest (some might say Orkyist) players would risk a head-on ram, shunting or T-boning your rivals can be a useful tactic – especially if your Wagon has an ability that can increase the damage caused, such as Megatrukk Scrapjet’s Turbine Screw Drill:
Shootin’ Phase: When activating a vehicle in the Shootin’ phase, the number of shots you can make in each direction varies according to its datasheet. In the case of the Kustom Boosta-blasta, this can range from its turret-mounted rivet kannon, which can fire in every direction, to its massive burna exhausts that unleash a wall of flame to its left and right:
If your attack roll causes more successes than your rival’s armour roll, they draw a number of damage cards equal to the weapon’s Damage characteristic. These results can vary from a simple damage point being inflicted to the driver being wounded (hampering any subsequent drivin’ tests they make), or the vehicle being set ablaze:
As a rukk carries on, mayhem is all but guaranteed as vehicles begin to pick up all sorts of debilitating damage. However, once a vehicle has a number of damage counters equal to or greater than its Hits characteristic, it is destroyed!
Fightin’ Phase: This is where rival models that are within 2″ of each other can get down to some good ol’ fashioned krumpin’. These fights are resolved in the same way as for the Shootin’ phase, but using each vehicle’s Melee profile instead of its ranged weapons.
That about wraps up our rules preview for the moment. Later this week, we’ll be taking a closer look at some of the Wagons that can lead your Speedmobs, so keep an eye out. Until then, why not pick up a Warbiker Mob and get your Speedmob started early?
And remember, Frontline Gaming sells gaming products at a discount, every day in their webcart!
