The New Ork Codex (2008)

A Battle Report (of Sorts, November 2007)

Well the best way to test the new dex is to use it. So here's the trial list I set up to play against a good local player.

Warboss, pklaw, kombi skorcha, eavy armor, cybork body

BigMek, pklaw, shokk, armor, cybork

12 Burnaz

11 Tankbustaz with a nob, 3 bomb squigs

10 lootaz

21 slugga choppa boyz including nob with pklaw, 2 big shootaz

21 shoota boyz including nob with pklaw, 2 big shootaz

23 gretchin with 2 runtherds with grot prods

12 boyz with nob with pklaw, 1 bs, in trukk

3 killa kans with grot riggers, 2 bs, 1 grotzooka

all said and done, 1498 points, 115 models.

My First Impressions While Making the List?

Surprise! I'm not happy. This is basically the same list I ran normally, but with lootaz and a big mek instead of a looted russ and some buggies. While basic boys are cheaper, it seems that if you run the same kind of list as you used to, you end up sinking points instead in the elites. The burnaz and tankbustaz are more points than the big boy mobz (180 vs 171), which hurts as these were troop choices in the past. The toy factor is also gone, for while you can put in meks in these units, they cannot take kffs. It's true I'll have a lot more rokkets in the tankbustaz, but I'm afraid that I'll end up short changed by the lack of the tank hunter skill.

So superficiallyit looks like I end up with the same army list, but weakened.

Pros: More rokkits and burnaz in the burna boy squads. Shokk Attack gun. Increased number of boyz in trukk, better trukk survivability, grot riggers on kans, furious charge, fleet of foot.

Cons: No burnaz in regular mobs, no bionic bonce, limited wargear on nobs and meks, no choppas. No more big shoota and tankbusta bombs on runtherders. No more looted vehicles

Sorry to be such a grump about this, but I am still just not seeing the benefits the new codex is producing for us, especially as the old one was so "underpowered". I'm still thinking GW has bent us over and shoved a grot prod up our bleep.gif . That having been said, I am entering the game tomorrow night with an open mind, but currently the "mathhammer" doesn't add up.

Now lets see what happens once we play.....

Battle Results.

1500 points vs DeathWing, Recon, gamma

With terrain set at 25% of a 4 x 6 foot table, and we did turns to deploy terrain prior to game play. We rolled up mission and level, and chose table edges. I chose mine, and he deployed first. The majority of his units deepstriked, but he put down 2 x 3 units of bikers, a dreadnought, a land speeder, and a scout unit.

I deployed the kans dead center, backed by the burnaz and a mekboy. To their immediate right I stacked the shoota boys up front, and sluggaz behind. To the kanz immediate left were the tankbustaz, and further left the grots with the trukkboyz backing both up. On the Far right, the lootaz occupied a terrain feature. Warboss Bob and the Big Mek (not gooba) minded in the center.

Turn 1.

I won the turn, and decided to go first. As he was deepstriking, i decided to go first to see what I could kill while I had the chance. It was also recon, so I figured the faster across the table I could be the better. The army surged forward, with the exception of the tankbustaz who moved into cover, and the trukk that I was holding in reserve. The big mek fired the shokk attack gun, and killed a single biker.

He went, and I lost about 3 grots. Ho-hum.

Turn 2.

The boys continued to move up, and the lootaz faced poor terrain rolls, not making it to the next feature. The kans swung left towards his main deployment zone, followed by the burnaz, and the main mobs moved up. The tankbustaz had no target (i was keeping them in cover as fire support), but the gretchen surged up, shot and killed one scout, and assaulted the unit, killing two, but not breaking the scouts.

His dread surged across some trees, and assaulted the grots. The speeder's ass cannon stunned and damaged a kan, and one of the termie squads deepstriked in my deployment, and shot up the trukk - fortunately missing. The dread's attack on the grots, ended up with all but one scout killed, and the grots fled and were cut down.

Turn 3.

The trukkaz, unscathed, pulled up and lined up a perfect assault on the 5 terminators. I was unable to soften them up with the tankbustaz, who could still see but couldn't' reach the land speeder, and their shots were wasted. The shokk attack gun fired, but fired off an 11 strength hit. The shot also deviated, and not only was it useless this turn but the next as well. The other two kans moved up and stunned the speeder with BS fire, and the advancing shoota boyz killed off another biker with shoota fire. The lootaz were still slowly making their way into the terrain piece.

Assault came, and there were still 5 termies to 12 trukkaz, including a nob with pklaw. They assaulted, and managed to kill 2 termies - that was complete with 9 swinging 4 attacks on the charge (one termi had lightening claws, lost two to it before we could swing), the nob never got a chance to swing due to model removals. The termies are fearless though, and everyone got stuck in fresh.

His turn, the rest of his army came on deepstrike, and he wisely came in behind himself in a unified pattern. The dread and speeder and the new termi squads assault kannoned the snot out of the kans, destroying the working two outright. Combat found the three remaining termies laughing as the boys, now str 3 and choppaless, failed to kill a single termie. The pklaw hit and killed one, but the orks lost the fight, and despite being still 7 models strong turned and ran off the table. What do you mean no head count!

Turn 4

I moved the tankbustaz behind the building they were in so I could shoot the termies in my backfield; the lootaz could also now draw aim. 20 loota shots later, one dead terminator, but the lootaz fired (12 rokkits), and nothing. the boys moved up on the right, but the burnas hunked down among the destroyed kans, using them for cover.

the last two terminators charged the tankbustaz, now out of cover, and won combat, but they held for a turn, locked in. His other units moved up to knock out the remaining kan, but couldn't.

Turn 5

the tankbustaz lost the next round of combat, and fled off the table. I called the power of the WAAAAGH, and surged up the burna boyz and Bob with the full shoota mob for assault. Poor fleet rolls ended up with the burnaz being exactly .5 inches short for the assault, and only bob made it into CC with a full termi squad. He took 2 wounds, but killed 3 terminators, and the orks skrummed into combat with the remaining 2 terminators. The shokk attack gun fired at the mass of terminators, but I rolled double 4's so while it hit, it had no AP and did no wounds.

He moved up with his bikes and speeder and scout and shot the kan and burnaz, killing 3 but they held. The dread and his DA captain character hit bob but couldn't get a wound to stick - bob swung next, and failed to wound the character out of 4 swings, and glanced and stunned the dread. His other terminator squad hit the side of the shoota mob, and over all the combat went his way, but there were still enough orks left to be fearless. His bikes assaulted the burnaz, and killed one, but lost one in return. The remaining terminator in my backfield destroyed the trukk.

Turn 6.

I pushed my full unit of sluggaz into his deployment zone, and 18 shots from the lootaz barely brought down the speeder (just 3 hits that counted as glances). The mek moved up, shot and missed a lone biker, but killed him on the assault with his pklaw (lost a wound in teh process). The burnaz cut up the bikers, and won that combat. Miracle of Miracles, the shoota boyz in combat with the lord, dreadnought and termi squad, survived, and eliminated one termi squad with pklaw action. A leader ship roll of 3 left the unit there for his turn.

He wiped out the shoota mob in CC, and his last terminator put four wounds on the burnaz, causing them to break and flee. Game over.

Results.

Deathwing Victory, just, by 190vps. I had one unit in his deployment zone, but the inability to finish off units of his cost the game.

So what are my thoughts now on the new 'dex, after having used it?

Do you really have to ask?

Small mobs are frighteningly fragile with head count gone. A nob is now 7, and you can't buy him horns or a gob to better it. So when you're facing any modifier you're facing a below average chance at sticking it in ( I was corrected on this, you can get a bosspole that allows leadership re-rolls).

Large mobs are no more durable; enough damage was done to mine over 4 rounds to make the mob size useless. They will wear you down faster than you can kill them with the hidden powerklaw, because boyz, that's all you have. And smart casualty removal can make that claw worthless.

Tankbustaz are a total hose job. Having to fire at targets i couldn't reach, or move the models out, unprotected, at 15 points a model, is NOT a nice choice to make. I had to move mine behind the terrain they were in to even use them, and this cost them their lives. Perhaps i could have moved them forward, but for what - they would have had to shoot again at a vehicle out of their range. The squigbombs never got used, but I should have put a pklaw on the nob, they might have been able to kill that last terminator.

The burnaz were effective when in combat, but so ungodly fragile.

The gretchin were more worthless than before. I had much better luck with a single slaver with a big shoota, choppa, squighound, and tanksbusta bombz. Hell, at least then the squighound had a profile. And i'll take a choppa over a grot prod anyday of the week.

The lootaz were unimpressive; 20 shots and one dead terminator and one dead tornado for 150 points is kind of a wash. Ap4 vs Beakies......

The shokk attack gun was a waste of points. It's overly erratic, and did not justify it's cost.

The loss of head count and mobbing up, on top of the lack of our other treasured traits is huge. Even large mobs are fragile now, and when they're gone, they're gone. 12 trukkboyz with nob on pwklaw vs 5 terminators should be at least an even chance (although with proppa chopas, they were owned), but that wasnt' the case. After the first charge, it was a horrible experience. I'm convinced that Calgar DID right these rules (it was at least not an ork player).

It seems the things we got in return for the losses we suffered are completely dependent upon dice; fleet of foot, the shokk attack gun, getting the kills in on the charge, loota shots, are all examples of this. When the dice work you way you will probably see good results, however when they fail you are hosed - for the redundancy that the units and wargear the previous codex provided us is gone. No choppaz, and only have 10 orks left in that CC, and you lost? kiss that unit good bye the majority of the time.

I still hold this is a shit codex and GW can kiss my ass. When I get back from Germany in late November, I'll try another list, but the writing for a lot of this is on the wall. I understand that folks will say that, well you need to play them different - but I'll argue why? If I want to play differently, why play orks at all? Maybe I won't play orks. There are plenty of different lists and races to choose from; for cc I'm better off with nids now, and for a cheap horde army, you're better off with Guard - they at least have better big guns (and did you know that extra armor for the guard is 5+ a bloody model, instead of 10 for us? WTF?). It seems the orks have been designed to ensure that beakie players triumph, and we fulfill no actual role in the game universe other than cannon fodder. Ork players have been the most loyal of all races, and they have simply shafted us with this new rule set.

'ere is dem nasty legal bits:

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