Codex Orks - Informed discussion.

[Mr Mystery]

Afternoon all.

Just picked up Codex Orks, and we don't seem to have a thread dedicated to discussing what we now actually know.

If you haven't got the book, feel free to ask questions. But please, don't depend on rumours to answer questions. Use the Codex for that.

So, first up, the layout.

It's somewhat shinynewdifferent. The formal army list section? Gone. The unit description section? Gone. Instead, they've been amalgamated into one section, showing the points, upgrades, FoC slot and the fluff for the unit. Bit jarring, but then it is the first of the 7th Edition Codecies, so we best get used to it.

Then we have further oddities, such as Boss Snikrot. He's available as a stand alone Elite slot, but if you have a unit of Kommandos in your army, you can take Snikrot without expending a second Elite slot.

And that's not all. Meks and Big Meks are separate HQ slots. Meks are a piffling 15 points each, and the same stats as a Nob. You can take them as your HQ, but you can also one Mek for each other HQ (excluding other Meks, but not Big Meks) without using up an HQ slot. They must be assigned to Artillery or Infantry, immediately after Warlord Traits are determined - This means you select their unit prior to deployment beginning.

Badrukk, Zagstruk and Mad Dok Grotsnik are all HQ choices now.

Fast Attack changes? You can now take Trukks as separate slots. Which is....interesting.

Now, we have lost two Special Characters....at least.....sort of. Zogwort is gone, gone gone. Completely gone. Not in the book.

Wazdakka....well, he's the sort of. He himself is not in the book, which is disappointing for those players who converted one up. But wait! I said 'sort of' gone. You see, turn to page page 100, and we find Gifts of Gork and Mork. And amongst them? Warboss Gazbag's Blitzbike. 35 point upgrade, and it's basically Wazdakka's bike, more or less. 18" Turboboost, instead of 12" (vroom!), and gets +1 cover save when doing so. Also has Kustom Dakkablastas - 24", S6, AP3, Assault 3..... So we can still field Wazdakka, after a fashion!


And those Gifts of Gork and Mork are not those shown in the rumour thread - seems that page is from Waaagh! Ghazghkull.

Other items?

Da Finkin' Kap - Grants an additional Warlord Trait from the generic ones in The Rules.

Blitzbike - As above.

Da Lucky Stikk - It's Makari's old banner! Old, because Makari is confirmed dead. Ghaz went and sat on him. It's a Bosspole that grants +1 WS, and gives you the option to re-roll any and all To Hit, To Wound or Saving Throws. ANY. No limit. However, if 3 or more of these re-rolls generate failures in the same turn, the model is removed as a casualty, with no saves of any kind allowed. Pretty nice if you like pushing your luck!

Headwoppa's Killchoppa. +2 S, AP5, Melee, Rending, Two Handed, and Decapitating Strike (any 6's to wound have Instant Death)

Da Fixer Upperz - Special Mek tools. Instead of shooting, on a 3+ a vehicle in btb with the owner can gain back a hull point, fix a weapon destroyed, or fix an immobilised. Fairly useful!

Da Dead Shiny Shoota - 18", S4, AP6, Assault 6, Twin Linked, and Stray Shot - For each missed shot, roll a D6. On a 1, a friendly unit within 6" of the target, chosen by your opponent, suffers a S4 AP6 hit. Opponent can't choose the owner or the owner's unit.

Bit of a mixed bag there.

Right, enough waffling from me. Next poster please!

[Mr Mystery]

Just found something interesting under Tankbustas....

They're now free to target whatever, whenever, rather than having to go for Tanks. And they gain 'Glory Hogs'. A very situational rule, but potentially quite game winning. In short, if Tankbustas score 'First Blood' for you, and do so knacking a vehicle, you gain double the victory points. Not something I'd exactly bank on as a strategy, but a pleasing bonus all the same.

[John Bower]

Actually 'Da finkin' kap' is a little more specific than that, it's the 'Strategic Traits' you get one from.
Zagstruk you didn't mention he gets S8 AP2 Hammer of WRath, which is pretty cool.

There seems to be a lot of point drops too, Grots/Trukks/Deffkoptas all wend down by 5 points. Trukks appear to be Fast Attack (like buggies/Deffkoptas they have a Lightning strike icon).

[DrLove42]

Im not sure on the layout. Sure its nice to have all the units rules in one place with points. But flicking back and forward between all pages to write a list is a lot more awkward. And if you dont know the emblems for the FoC slots you wouldnt know. I missed it to begin with. Also i miss original coloured artwork from the other dexs. The photos arent quite the same

Overall i like the dex. Rules seem decent

[daboarder]

Im not sure on the layout. Sure its nice to have all the units rules in one place with points. But flicking back and forward between all pages to write a list is a lot more awkward. And if you dont know the emblems for the FoC slots you wouldnt know. I missed it to begin with. Also i miss original coloured artwork from the other dexs. The photos arent quite the same

Overall i like the dex. Rules seem decent

wait, there is NO artwork in the new dex?

[Tzeentch's Dark Agent]

Nope.

Overall, I enjoy the Codex, a lot easier to make army lists from.

Did any of you notice the Ork specific Force Organisation Chart?

3 HQs
9 Troops
3 Elite
3 Fast Attack
3 Heavy Support
1 Lord of War
1 Fortification

[Uberbeast]

I for one am absolutely furious with this book. It was pretty widely accepted that orks had been laboring quietly under a lot of rule-based nerfs for a while now, and were in desperate need of a boost to compensate for a playstyle that didn't really pay big dividends under 6-7th.

Instead it seems that to go along with a few gimicky new toys what they got was nerf after bum-tearing nerf. Every time I pick up the book I notice something else that lost a rule, an option, or was hiked in price. And the entire time I'm thinking, but this book was already desperately behind the power creep, why the hell did they need to nuke that as well?"

Just to name a few wtf moments: mob rule changed to be a basic ld test or orks either kill eachother or simply run off if the unit doesn't have a character or enough models, killa kans increased 15 pts and given a rules that makes them test or be shaken, cybork nerfed to a 6+ fnp and only avaiable to a few nobs and characters, kff made to affect only the actual models within 6" and no longer extends from vehicles, weirdboys generating extra warp charges for being within range of ork units but then being forced to pass a ld test on 7 or take str 2 no save wounds, painboyz removed as unit upgrades and made into a single HQ choice, shoota boys going up a point in cost, gretchin losing all special rules now being super low ld unit. Burna boyz increased in cost, tank hmers getting nerfed, nobz lost cybork and painboy options, mega nobs still useless, ramshakle rules downgraded to only reduce pen to a glance on 6, stormboyz lost their extra d6 move boost, dakkajet loses shots, bikers lose exhaughst cloud cover save for a lame +1 when turbo boosting, zzap gun nerfed again to kill more crew when rolling too high, deff-rolla made into a normal ram that does only 3d6 hits when used against a death or glory, gork-morkanauts fairly useless, lootas moved to heeavy slot, flash gitz lose armor and ignore cover for a 3 pt drop a couple exta shots and a +1 bs when sitting still, flash gitz also lose painyboy, cybork options, and gun upgrade options while going to a larger base, ghazghkull moved to a lord of war.

This is just a quick list off the top of my head. Overall a myriad of nerfs and sideways moves with nowhere near enough improvements to even compete with the old book.

The format of the book itself is also terrible. Every unit entry includes a massive color picture of models we've all seen a thousand times before, with a much reduce fluff entry and a smallish composition section which literally amounts to "go to page such and such", leading players on a bouncy romp through the new book every time they want to know what's going down with the nerfs. I'd say the new book is about 3/5th silly whitedwarfesqu picture gallery of the common dribble we've all seen a thousand times before. Don't expect much new artwork.

All the things people wanted out of a new ork book just aren't here, and in fact they're losing much of what they liked about the old one.

In my opinion this is the worst book GW has ever produced, and the first time a brand new codex update has started off on the bottom of the pile in everything from power level to layout. As a ork player for more than 20 years, I'm shocked, insulted, and infuriated by this new so-called "ork" book.