So the Ork codex is just over a week old and I thought I’d share my thoughts on it. I’ll start off by saying that I don’t play Orks a great deal but I do have a fairly large Ork army and have played against them many times so I know their last codex quite well. So far I have only had a couple of games with the new codex and I’ve found they feel quite different than before. This review is based on my own experiences with the book so I don’t cover every change so forgive me for anything I’ve missed. I may write a follow up in the future after a few more games with the greenskins.
NEW UNITS
Of course there are new units in the book as you expect. These are in the shape of the Gorkanaut and Morkanaut. I have so far only ran the Gorkanaut. With 5 hull points and 13,13,12 armour he will only fall to heavy fire but he certain attracts it and due to his size he his hard to hide. The Korkanaut can take a custom forcefield which in my opinion may well be worth the points. I wasn’t too impressed with the firepower on the Gorkanaut. 3D6 str5 ap5 shots are nice but with the ork BS of 2 you’re going to miss two thirds of your shots so you need to roll high on the 3d6 to do any significant damage. He also has twin linked rokkits and big shootas which are useful but I think his biggest strength is in combat if you can get him there. He can also transport 6 models which is pretty nice.
‘ERE WE GO!
A nice little rule for the Orks which lets them re roll one dice when rolling for their charge range. In a lot of cases this is better than having to re roll both dice and gives Orks that little bit of a boost when it comes to charging.
CHEAP DAKKA
There are some nice cheap shooting options in the Ork codex now though which will see a lot of people change up their Ork lists to include these new lists. Warbuggies with twin linked rokkit launchas have been talked up a lot as a good cheap option and at only 25 points each I can see why, especially as they can outflank! The new Mek Gunz are also an excellent choice. The traktor cannon at only 30 points is an excellent anti flyer or flying monsterous creature gun and lobbas are still useful and come in at a mere 18 points each. The only downside to these is the price of the model itself.
WARLORD TRAITS
A quick mention on the warlord traits in this codex. They are actually useful! The one’s that allow models within 12″ of the warlord to reoll failed morale and pinning checks is nice as too is the one that lets you re roll run moves. There’s ones that allow the warlord to re roll one hit or wound roll a turn or one failed armour or invulnerable save. Prophet of the Waaagh! Gives the warboss the Waaargh rule or if he has it then all models with the ‘Ere we go! special rule become fearless during a waaagh!
MOB RULE
The changes to mob rule are huge. No more fearless blobs of Orks running across the battlefield which really hurts. For regular Ork boys this isn’t a major issue. They are cheap at only 6 points each so losing a few from the mob rule table or having a few fall back wont hurt you much however you can no longer take warbikes or nobs as troops so the regular boys or gretchin are your only units with objective secured. The mob rule changes are not so bad for units that you take in smaller squads as they didn’t rely on being fearless before but it’s units such as lootas who I have found are hurt the most. They do benefit a bit however. By not being fearless they can now go to ground behind an aegis defense line to benefit from a 2+ cover save. Also attaching a painboy to the squad, who is now a HQ unit, will increase their survivability. However as I found out myself, a unit like this that tends to be kept on the back field struggles with the new mob rule and one failed leadership and a bad roll on the mob table will see a lot of firepower run off the board.
OTHER CHANGES
There are a few other changes that are not so nice for Orks. Cybork bodies no give you a 6+ FNP instead of a 5+ invulnerable which if you give to a ten man squad of Nobz is the same points cost as adding in a painboy who will give the whole squad a 5+ FNP. Orks have their own relics so to speak called the Gifts of Gork and Mork. All of them are really nice and are not over costed. I ran my warboss with Da Dead Shiny SHoota as I had 5 points spare and the extra twin linked shots from it were well worth the 5 points. A model can only take a single relic unfortunately.
As mentioned before Painboyz are now a HQ choice. In 6th edition this would have been terrible as you only had 2 HQ slots to play with but now with unbound and multiple detachments it’s not such a big deal. Being able to attach him to any squad you like is awesome. 50 points is a big price to pay for FNP but in some cases it may just be worth it. As he’s a character he can also come in handy for one of the mob rule table results.
Your data is amazingly significant.