Ork Codex Review: Part 2

Hello everyone, 

It’s time for part 2, where we’ll take a look at the Warlord Traits, Relics, Psychic Powers, Datasheets and Points. 

Warlord Traits 

A major boon in this new codex is the strength of Ork characters, particularly Warbosses. Combining them with Traits like Ard as Nails for a minus 1 to wound aura means you can make some really survivable characters especially combined with some of the Relics on offer.

Brutal but Kunnin is the obvious pick for an offensive character but I do also like Big Gob. Pushing that +1 to hit aura out to 9 inches could be really effective in some builds, with lots of core or character units nearby. 

Relics 

There are some excellent relics in this book, I would personally combine a relic or warlord trait that grants  an improved invulnerable save with something strong in combat. 

As you can see below Supa Cybork body is amazing for this role, combined with Brutal but Cunning and you’ve got a great combination. 

Da Killa Klaw is also a really nasty relic which you could combine with Da Best Armour Teeth Can Buy for that +3 save and +4 invulnerable save on your Bad Moon character. 

Power of the Waaagh! 

I think here you have to be looking towards the classics of Da Jump and Warpath for the movement it gives you for playing the game and for the extra attacks. I favour Da Jump as I like it’s flexibility for throwing a late game Warboss or Boy unit across the board from their hiding place. 

Looking at Fists of Gork though, I’d be very tempted to take this and use it on the Beastboss on Squigsaur. What a monster he’d be! 

Datasheets

There’s a fair bit more to talk about here but we’ll mention some of the big changes. 

Dakka weapons have changed to the two values as you can read below, I think this is a way of reducing those re rolls that slowed down playing with orks so much. 

My Bad Moons do miss the rerolling ones but having played a few games now, I do think it was better to move away from this. Bad Moons certainly do benefit from the extra 6 inch range, meaning they’re more likely to be in half range for those extra shots. 

Ramshackle is obviously a strong ability for vehicles making them a lot more durable than the old ramshackle rule. 

One thing that is a shame are the changes to mob rule, even with T5 Ork boys still die fairly easily to small arms fire, I often take at least 20 casualties on a 30 Ork unit in the first turn if I fail their charge. This means morale will always be an issue for any big units now and so Insane Courage is the only way to keep them around for 2 CP. 

However, I do like this tactic as it is a great way of hemming your opponent in on their first turn and potentially denying them an objective with a charge. Even though you’re losing most of a big unit if you fail the charge, they still have a tactical use and with insane courage they will stick around into turn 2. It can also be a great distraction piece to help the rest of your army advance unscathed. 

Calling a Waaagh! 

Calling a Waaagh has now disappeared from the Warboss datasheet and into its own rules section. 

These are just once per battle abilities but will certainly pack a punch if chosen in the right turn. This will take some planning to have as many Ork core or character units getting into combat on the same turn but you’d expect turn 2 and 3 to be the best turns to use it in. 

Datasheets 

Obviously there is far too many units to look over on a here but we’ll look at a few of my favourites. 

An excellent choice in an aggressive army, movement 10, it’s getting up the board pretty quick if he runs on turn one. Having an inbuilt -1 damage rule is also amazing so picking a trait or relic that would grant an improved invulnerable would make him a brilliant hammer unit. 

Da jump some Snagga boys up the board with him and you’ve got a powerful combination of threats.

Their older sculpts are now terrible but they’re pretty easy to kitbash if you use Burna Boyz or Lootas. 

They seem like a mixed bag but D3 Rokkit shots on a unit of ten is a lot of shots. They’re hitting on fours against vehicles now and as Bad Moons they’ve got that 6 inch range buff and can use Showin Off. 

The only question is how to deploy them, Trukk or Tellyporta? 

Next up Warbikers, a great unit in the new book. Just 25 points for 3 wounds and a built in rule of -1 to hit against ranged attacks! A bargain I think and it’s why I’m now painting up nine! 

Great for objective or aggressive play I think they’re a must include for most Ork lists. 

Finally you’ll all know about the Rukkatrukk Squigbuggies by now so another great unit is the Dakkajet. 

At just 120 points with six supa-shootas, it’s a brilliant distraction piece and if it’s ignored it will do plenty of damage within 18 inches. 

At six shots on each supa-shoota at strength 6 and -1 rend you’ve got a powerful asset for targeting infantry or elite units. 

It’s movement also gives them nowhere to hide on turn 1 as well. It’s an auto include for me but it always dies early, but in doing so it takes a lot of heat off of my other advancing units. 

Points 

Finally points wise I think they’ve done fairly well, the buggies are all cheap enough to be very useable now, the scrapjet gets a lot done for 90 points. The Rukkatrukk Squigbuggy also comes in at 90 points and with nitro squigs it still only reaches 115 points. 145 for the Best boss on Squigasaur is also a steal. 

The unfortunate part is that the Morkanaut has gone up significantly to 380 due to having more wounds, however I don’t think it will see play anymore due to its increase. Without sparkly bits it’s just not good enough to make the cut. 

Conclusion 

Its a great book with lots of options for any kind of player. It’s also strong enough to compete without being obnoxious like the Mechanicus and Drukari books. 

My only complaint is the one I mentioned about Ghazghkull earlier in the review but I’m really enjoying the list building process. I’ll be working on Warbikes and then some buggies to make my list more aggressive. 

Long term though if I go to events I’d probably be looking towards Goffs for a powerful Ork list, there’s no denying they have the best allegiance abilities in the book bar the objective play that Deathskulls provide. 

Motivating myself to paint said bikes is proving difficult though! 

Thanks again for reading and to Games Workshop for sending us a copy of the book. 

Aveinus Kaane 

Gorzods Bad Moons

Hello everyone, 

It’s time for the Bad Moons to show off their 50 power level for the beginning of the crusade set in the Cassalaian Sector and the planet of Catharn...

I’m not completely familiar with the terminology used in the Crusade section of the rule book but here’s the starting 25 power level list out of the 50 for Gorzods Orks.

A Bad Moon Warboss Gorzod is going to be portrayed as a more intelligent Warboss for an Ork at least who’s favoured deity is Mork. 

Although with his battlefield decisions being made by me some mistakes will definitely be made regarding his tactics in the heat of battle. 

We then have Gorzods Boyz, which will be the first boyz to travel to the surface of Catharn with him in a big unit of 30. 

This is try and give them some survivability as their lifespan will be particularly short especially against the Tau! 

The Ardboyz stratagem may be used in order to give these a 5+ save to again save a few of them where possible. 

To back them up we then have the Stormboyz to provide some deep striking movement in the early stages. Although Tau overwatch may mean these guys struggle and possibly not get in at all if they fail a charge. 

Finally it’s Gorzods Uva Boyz. Just a unit of ten these will have to try and stay out of the way and claim an objective. 

I’m wanting to try going infantry focused initially but we’ll see how this goes with the shooting they’ll face, including a Trukk would have been nice but at 25 Power it’s not really possible. Unless I go for smaller units of boyz.

So there you have it, Gorzods initial scouting force who will be making planetfall. 

It’s going to be hard playing against the Tau with Orks so there will be a lot to learn and I think we may have to adapt the force as things progress to having some transports and some shooting but we’ll see! 

I’ll be providing some initial narrative for why Gorzod is at Catharn soon in another post and then I’ll also show the full 50 power level roster. 

Thanks again for reading, 

Aveinus Kaane 

Crusade and the Cassalaian Sector

Hello everyone, 

It’s been a while due to Covid-19 with a few of us having been working through the lock down it’s meant there hasn’t been a lot of progress! 

However, after what really is years we’ve finally reached a point where we all have playable armies for 40K. I personally did manage to make some decent progress on my days off during lockdown and now the Bad Moons are ready for their first foray into galactic domination!

As a group we are quite mixed in our preferences whether it’s matched play or narrative. However, with the recent Crusade rules coming out with ninth edition, we’ve found a system that we think will work brilliantly along side our plans for a campaign.

So, what are we planning? 

We have all really wanted to run a set of campaigns over the past few years involving a particular part of space that can be a sandbox for our leaders and their armies to fight for dominance. 

It’s early days though so to begin with we’ll be playing right out of the box and will then probably add house rules in and campaign mechanics as we gain more experience with the rules or decide the campaign is missing something important. 

How will it be presented? 

We don’t really have the time or equipment to film and edit our battle reports and campaign progress so we’ll be keeping it simple in order to keep us releasing regular enough updates. 

There will be battle reports on the blog which won’t be blow by blow but they will give you an idea of how the battle progresses and how the key moments unfolded.

We will be letting the games tell the story and working the narrative around that so you can follow the campaign. Crucially the crusade system will help to improve the narrative and the character progression of our armies as the games unfold.

We’ll see if any house rules need to be brought in for this though! 

Finally we’d like to create a running history of our sector of space so we’ll have a chronology to the campaigns and battles so if you find us at a later date you can revisit the past victories and defeats of the sectors inhabitants. 

How will it all start? 

We’ll be posting over the next few weeks to give more detail on the campaign including the Cassalaian Sector itself, with a pretty cool map of it so you can place armies and campaigns. 

Initially the first two armies to invade this somewhat peaceful sector of imperial space and in particular the planet of Catharn will be the Orks and the Tau. 

You’ll hear more on these two forces in upcoming blog posts. But it certainly will be a tough adversary for the Orks to deal with! 

Future campaigns may then involve other armies we’ve been working on but we’ll leave that for now! 

So look out for an overview post on the Cassailian Sector and the two armies to first appear from the warp. 

There was no bias in which generic pictures were chosen for this post. 

But Green is best! 

Thanks for reading, 

Aveinus Kaane