The New Ork Codex (2008)

(December 10, 2007)

Note that I have made my decision on what to do, and that is to NOT follow where GW has gone before.

(November 6, 2007)

Well that old krafty loota Gooba managed to get his gimpy arm on a print ready copy of the new codex. While we can only manage to presume this is a final copy, as they yet may make changes, we can get a pretty good idea of where it’s going.

A fair amount of the new ‘dex is dedicated to ork fluff and history; in fact, the section about ork Kulture looks as if the majority of it was looted right off of my own web site (not a fair accusation though, as I didn’t write the text either and got my copy off of a site that long ago disappeared. The original is most likely GW’s). The fluff and history are a nice addition that the last codex didn’t have, and it’s appreciated. The klans are even outlined, and they also go into some depth on orks in space, including both roks and Hulks (which is interesting, as these almost never have a roll to play in 40k).

Unfortunately, the direction the rule sets go move the orks away from this fluff.

It’s noted through out this part how orks “excel” at close combat, and how they enjoy a good drubbin’, knockin’ headz, etc., with their foes; or knobs ready a charge with their choppaz ready; a warboss slams into a marine gun line. Yet the codex removes so many ork traits and or weapons that have in the past provided the orks with something to back up the reputation of close combat ferociousness; choppas, burnazs in squads, and the power of the waaagh are all things of the past. Sure, they’ve given us furious charge, but in my mind, having plus one strength on the turn you assault does not make up for the loss of armor rending weapons and the chance to “usually” double initiative. I know that the designers are convinced that this will be over come by the cheaper point cost models, but I disagree here, and will come back to this in a bit.

But what about other units? Sure there must be other better close combat units? True, you can now take a 15 burna strong burna boy mob, and nob squads, but it’s easily to see that both of those will be quick targets, and a nob mob will again be festooned with limp noodle close combat weapons, or if klaw toting, forced to endure hits before they even get a chance to swing. In exchange for that, we loose skarboy and cybork mobs. Not to mention killa kanz getting hamstrung in close combat with a lesser weapon skill, a factor that is going to see them getting constantly krumped by dreadnoughts, and monstrous creatures.

The total sum, at least with my addition, seems to make the ork army less effective in close combat than it was before. Maybe that’s a good thing, maybe the ork army was too strong before, and needed to be toned down. Were ork armies dominating the tournament settings, krushing opponents at grand and rogue trader tournaments on a regular basis? Um…..nope. Not even close. Well there has to be a good reason to take the close combat teef out of the orks, I just with that GW would let on to what that is…

Lets flip the coin a little bit on the other side. So Orks are shootier now; the shoota has better stats than before, tankbustas can take up to 15! rokkits in a single mob, and we now have a shokk attack gun (basically a 60” zapp gun) as well as some definitely shooty new bitz for our vehicles. So orks are meant to be a shooty army, right?

Wrong. Sure, the shoota is better, but you may now only add one heavy weapon per 10 boyz in the mob, and the nob himself cannot choose from the armory as he could. This means with a 30 strong mob of boyz, you can have 3 big shootaz max. Hows that for a shoota boy mob? Doesn’t match what we had, does it. Tankbustaz may be able to take 15 rokkits, but they can only target one thing at a time, and that has to be a vehicle if it’s in line of sight, regardless of it’s range. Want to open up on that line of beakies 12 inches away with 15 rokkits? Forget it. Any opponent worth his power armor will simply hover a land speeder 30 inches away in plain sight, and you might as well have left the tankbustaz at home.

What about the vehicle weapons? Don’t’ we get new guns? Yup, and the stats aren’t that bad actually – except that if you put them on anything other than a battlewagon, they’re riding on a base that can be destroyed by heavy bolter fire. Nice. Just a bit different than that looted russ…..

So again, maybe the previous ork codex left orks too shooty – despite the BS 2 handicap that all ork players smiled at when they rolled 12 dice for big shoota fire, and missed 5 out of 6 times. Nah, that can’t be it.

Now what of the other missing “ork” elements? Looted vehicles, grot screens, and the like. Despite the fluff in the codex talking about looted hammerheads, all we get are paper shells; despite tales of grots getting walloped for being in the way, we’re not allowed to use them as living cover. Again, the presumption that extra armor plates and grots saves and the like must have overbalanced the army in a terrible way.

Make no mistake, we do get some nice things – the vehicle upgrades, and the destruction table for the trucks is great. Wyrdboyz are also a nice touch. And who doesn’t like a toughness 5 warboss (well, me actually, I would have rather had wargear that allowed a 4+ invulnerable like everyone else)? The over all tone, though, is going to hurt more than help the ork army.

I have to ponder on the motive of this. Some have argued that things like the choppa were removed to “streamline” the weapon into the more generic rules, same with the power of the waaaagh. But if that was the case, couldn’t they have left the boyz points the same and made instead the choppa rending? Hell the bloody bug troop choices have this option. This argument would also seem to make sense until they introduce other odd ball rule sets like the Glory Hogs for tankbustaz, or for that matter the wyrdboyz and trukk damage tables. These don’t fit, so why bring them in?

My thoughts on this are at the moment clear.

GW is responding to the myrid of beaskie players that have been stupid enough to hand feed their terminators to ork armies. Doesn’t matter that terminators were not designed for close combat ( that’s why there are, ahem, close combat terminators, and those can own orks). Also, marines are the hero’s of the 41st millennium, why shouldn’t they crush all they face, with nothing more than a combat knife? Why should some green beastie be able to paste me in hand to hand? That’s just not fair! Something must be done. Jervis, rip the heart out of the orks, would ya?

GW is hoping to sell more models, and are clearly targeting the codex to this end. This strategy will work at first, but will ultimately fail. Why? Well by reducing the point cost of boys, key to their strategy of allowing orks to excel at close combat (I do wonder what dictionary they use), folks will have to buy more models. A logical conclusion. Except that it is very doubtful that the bandwagon jumping gamers are going to be prepared to not only purchase, but paint the models they need to field a successful ork army. Sure sales will go up with its release, but I predict that there will be flood of half built ork armies on Ebay within 6 months.

In the meantime, the loyal (some would say the most loyal of any 40k race) ork players stare at dismay at their piles of now useless models, and hamstrung boyz. Some may soldier on, some may simply play the game with the old codex among friends, some may just quit. I’m still not sure where I stand here, without a doubt some play testing is in order before any concrete decision is made, but I stand firmly at this time that the new codex is not a good document.

(September 2007)

I normally don't post stuff like this up on my site, but as it's already widespread on the forums, I dont's see any harm in adding it here. Note that this was cut and pasted from a forum, I will not include the name of the poster or the forum, so please don't ask. It shouldn't be too hard to find it out there if you're looking.

So here goes, and remember - these are notes that the poster took, and as of this time (september 07) this is still not "official" I've added my own comments at the bottom, as I felt it better to not taint your ideas with them.

Army Special Rules:
• Furious Charge
• WAAAGH!!: once per game, call a WAAAGH, entire army gains fleet for that turn. Any unit that rolls a ‘1' for fleet takes a wound, but still acts normally.
• Mob Size: Units of 11 or more orks count as fearless; if any unit fails a Ld check, roll 2d6 and compare the result to the number of orks in the mob- if the result is less than the number of orks, the Ld check is considered passed.

HQ units:
• Warboss: gains T5, special rule “Da Big Boss” allows 1 mob of nobz/meganobz to be taken as troops. Same price, not mandatory or ‘0-1'.
• Wyrdboy(!): stats of nob, and has a chart of 6 psychic powers. At the beginning of each turn you roll a d6 to see which power he MUST use that turn. For 30pts, he may be upgraded to a Warphead, who can re-roll for psychic powers. The powers are as follows:
1. ‘Eadbang: as Frazzle below, but place the template over the wyrdboy.
2. Frazzle: shooting attack that auto-hits with Range=24" S=6 AP=3, assault 1 blast and pinning.
3. Zzap: shooting attack that auto-hits with Range=36" S=10 AP=2, assault 1 and counts as a melta weapon.
4. Warpath: the wyrdboy and any unit he is with gain +1 attack for that turn.
5. ‘Ere We Go!: the wyrdboy and any unit he is with are removed from the table and automatically come in via the Deepstriking rules.
6. WAAAGH!: the wyrdboy and any unit he is with get a free WAAAGH! move (fleet) that does not count as their WAAAGH! for the game.
• Big Mek: has Ld8, special rule “Da Big Mek” allows 1 “Deffdred” (Ork Dreadnought with name change) to be taken as troops. Can take Shokk Attakk Gun (more on that later). Comes with toolz and may take oilers. Slight points increase.

Elites units:
• Nobz Mob: unit of 3-10 Nobs. The mob may take bikes, and WAAAGH! Banners which grant the unit +1 WS (the wording is “any model may take”, with no indication of one per mob!). May take various weapons and equipment. One may be upgraded to a Painboy with Painboss stats, syringe and toolz, and may take orderlies; allows the whole mob to be upgraded with cybork bodies. The mob may take either a trukk or battlewagon as transport.
• Meganobz Mob: unit of 3-10 Mega Armoured Nobs. May take various weapons, and be transported by either a trukk or battlewagon.
• Burnaboyz Mob: unit of 5-15 burnaboyz. All are armed with burnas. Up to 3 may be switched to meks for free, who replace burnas with toolz and oilers and may take kustom mega blastas, force fields, or other stuff.
• Tankbustaz Mob: unit of 5-15 tankbusta boys. All are armed with Rokkits(!). Up to 2 may replace their rokkits with Tankhammers, close combat weapons that allow them to strike with S10. The unit may include 3 Bommsquigs, which when released count as an automatic S8 hit against the nearest enemy vehicle on a 2+, or the nearest vehicle period on a 1. One may be upgraded to a Nob who can take various equipment.
• Lootaz Mob: unit of 5-15 lootas. All are armed with Deffguns, which are heavy d3 autocannons. Up to 3 may be switched to meks for free, as with burnaboyz mobs.
• Kommandoz Mob: unit of 5-15 kommandos. 2 may take heavy weapons, one may be upgraded to a nob. Infiltration, Move Through Cover.

Troops units:
• Boyz Mob: unit of 10-30 boys. 3pt decrease, no choppa (though ‘choppa’ is the term used for c.c.w. throughout the book). 1 in 10 may have a heavy weapon, so you need 30 to get the current standard of 3 (they’re pushing the horde idea here, the bastards pphhtork.gif ), and burnas are no longer an option. One may be upgraded to a nob, who can have various bits. The entire mob may swap its choppa and slugga for shootas for free. Up to 1 mob in the army may be upgraded to ‘Ardboyz. The mob may be transported in a Trukk if it has few enough models.
• Grot Mob: unit of 10-30 grots. Same cost, gain BS 3, lose better footing and living shield but keep mine clearance as “It’s a Grot’s Life”. There must be a 1 to 10 ratio of Runtherds to Grots. Runtherds can take various kinds of equipment, including a new grabba stikk item which reduces the attacks of one enemy model in assault.

Transport units:
• Wartrukk: same stats and small points increase. Can transport up to 12 models, those in mega armour count as 2 a piece. No longer precisely follows the vehicle damage chart; if a ‘vehicle destroyed’ or ‘vehicle explodes’ result is rolled on the regular chart, roll another d6 and consult the chart that follows:
1-2: Kaboom!: the trukk explodes and the orks inside take each a S3 hit, and must test for pinning.
3-4: Kareen!: roll the scatter die and move the trukk 3d6" in the direction indicated (the ork player chooses if a hit is rolled), and then apply the Kaboom result in the new location.
5-6: the vehicle is destroyed, but no models take any wounds and the orks do not have to test for pinning (don’t recall the name).

FA units:
• Stormboyz Mob: unit of 5-20 stormboys. 3pt decrease, and gain fleet of foot (separate from WAAAGH! Rule). One may be upgraded to a nob who can take various weapons.
• Warbikez Mob: unit of 3-12 warbikers. 5pt decrease, Hard to Hit increased to 4+, and have a regular 4+ save. Lose Psycho Blastas. Dakkaguns replace TL-Big Shootas with Range=18" S=5 AP=4, Assault 2. One may be upgraded to a nob who can take various weapons.
• Warbuggies: unit of 1-3 buggies. May be upgraded to trakks, which allows them to re-roll terrain tests. Come with TL-Big Shootas free, which may be upgrade to other weapons.
• Deffkoptaz Mob: unit of 1-5 deffkoptas. Come with TL-Big Shootas, count as Jetbikes, have Hit and Run and Scouts. May upgrade big shootas to rokkits or mega blastas, and may also be equipped with buzzsaws and bigbomms (don’t have the rules for those at present).

HS units:
• Looted Wagon: ork equivalent of a rhino (circa dark angels/blood angels codexes) before upgrades, but open-topped and can transport 12 models. Has special rule “Don’t Press Dat!”, presumably as current breakdown (can’t recall atm). May replace transport capacity for a Boomgun for much increased points (more on that later). May have up to one skorcha, as well as two rokkits or big shootas, in addition to the boomgun. Can take various upgrades.
• Big Guns: unit of 1-3 guns with krew. 10pt decrease for kannons base, which may be upgraded to lobbas or zzap guns. Kannon loses Ordnance rules for shell shot, lobba remains the same, and Zzap gun is now Range=36" and melta. The unit may take up to 3 Ammo Runts.
• Flash Gitz Mob: unit of 5-10 flash gitz. Nob stats, all come with ‘eavy armour and Snazzguns (more on them later). The unit may take More Dakka, Shootier, or Blasta kustom jobs, all of which do the same thing. One flash git may be upgraded to a painboy, who acts the same here as with the Nobz Mob above.
• Killa Kanz Mob: unit of 1-3 killa kans. 10pt decrease, with WS 2 and BS 3. Each kan must choose a weapon from the following list in addition to its c.c.w. (list is from least to most expensive weapon): big shoota, skorcha, grotzooka, rokkit launcha or mega blasta. May take grot riggers or armour plates.
• Deffdred: unit of 1 dreadnought. Comes with 2 c.c.w., and must take 2 weapons from the following list in addition (list is from least to most expensive weapon): big shoota, skorcha, rokkit launcha, dreadnought c.c.w. (Each gives +1 attack, potential 6 attacks on the charge), mega blasta. May take grot riggers or armour plates.
• Battlewagon: 30pt decrease and gains Front Armour 14. May take a Killcannon (more on that later) for much increased points, which reduces its transport capacity to 12 from 20. Only vehicle which may take a Deff Rolla. May also take 1 big gun for various points and up to 4 big shootas/rokkits. May take various vehicle upgrades.

Vehicle Upgrades:
• Grot Riggers: same as current.
• Armour Plates: now as extra armour on imperial vehicles.
• ‘Ard Case: turns an open-topped vehicle into a close-topped one.
• Reinforced Ram: allows tank-shocking with extra bonuses (can’t recall atm).
• Deff Rolla: causes d6 S10 hits on any units tank-shocked(!).
• Red Paint Job: same as current.
• Stikkbomm Chukka: don’t remember....
• Boarding Plank: don’t remember....
• Wrekkin’ Ball: don’t remember....
• Grabbin’ Klaw: prevents an enemy vehicle within 2" from moving in the next turn.

Armoury:
• Choppa: c.c.w.
• Slugga: same as current.
• Shoota: Range=18" S=4 AP=6 Assault 2
• Power Klaw: same as current.
• Big Choppa: +2 strength.
• Burna: same as current.
• Shoota/Skorcha: same as current.
• Shoota/Rokkit Launcha: same as current.
• Big Shoota: same as current.
• Rokkit Launcha: same as current.
• TL-Shoota: a twin-linked shoota....
• Dakkagun: Range=18" S=5 AP=4 Assault 2
• Deffgun: Range=48" S=7 AP=4 Heavy d3
• Grot Blasta: same as current.
• Grotzooka: Range=18" S=5 AP=6 Heavy 2 Blast
• Kannon (Frag): same as current.
• Kannon (Shell): same as current, but does not count as ordnance.
• Killkannon: Range=24" S=7 AP=3 Ordnance 1, Large Blast
• Kustom Mega Blasta: Range=24" S=8 AP=2 Assault 1 Gets Hot!
• Lobba: same as current.
• Shokk Attakk Gun: Range=60" S=2d6 AP=2 Ordnance 1, Large Blast. Rolls of 10+ for strength count as S10. If doubles are rolled, consult the chart that follows:
Double 1: mek and models within d6" die automatically.
Double 2: ???
Double 3: ???
Double 4: ???
Double 5: ???
Double 6: ???
• Skorcha: same as current.
• Snazzgun: Range=24" S=5 AP=d6 Assault 1
• Zzap Gun: Range=36" S=2d6 AP=2 Heavy 1 Melta
• Boomgun: Range=36" S=8 AP=3 Ordnance 1, Large Blast

Wargear:
• Attack Squig: simply grants the model +1 Attack.
• Bosspole: can’t remember.... same as current I believe though.
• Mega-Armour: 2+ armour save, Slow and Purposeful, comes with TL-Shoota and Power Klaw. The Shoota may be replaced with kombi weapons, or (IIRC) big shoota, rokkit launcha, skorcha. Can’t recall on kustom jobs.
• Cybork Body: same as current.
• ‘Eavy Armour: same as current.
• Doks Toolz: work on a 4+ as base.
• Meks Toolz: work on a 4+ as base.
• Grot Oiler: allows the Mek to re-roll failed toolz rolls.
• Grot Orderly: allows the Painboy to re-roll failed toolz rolls.
• Warbike: same as current, except it confers a 4+ save instead now.
• Ammo Runt: same as current.
• Kustom Force Field: 5+ cover save, vehicles count as obscured.
• Stikkbommz: a combination of the two...
• Gitfinda: can’t remember....an orky auspex, methinks.

Scarpia's Thoughts:

Well a lot of folks are jumping up and down about this, but I'm not one of them. Do I think this list has some good stuff? Sure, I do. Is it complete crap? Of course not. But it does a few things that represent a significant shift in a direction that I don't care for.

I'm a little confused why GW is taking an army that has become known for close combat krumpiness and turning into a shooty army. I'm also concerned that they are removing the character of the race in order for it to fit into the more generic rule sets they are producing.

Lets start with the first. When the Eldar codex came out, GW didn't turn the Eldar into a suddenly close combat army, instead they even got better guns. So why on earth is GW taking away the orks close combat prowess? What am I talking about you say? Well if you missed it, the choppa is gone. Sure, we get furious charge, which means str 4 on the turn we charge, but the other guys still gets full armor saves. Even the Fantasy range choppa works better now, as that system is smart enough to take into account modifiers, reducing the armor, but not in 40k. Sure, we'll do ok that turn of the charge, but with out low intuitive, odds of surviving later rounds are slim. Thanks GW.

Also, now stock boy mobs cannot take burnas as weapon choices. Yup, no more power weapons in cc for regular mobs.

BUT the shoota boy is better now, you say. Shootaz are 18 range assault 2. Yup, that' s great stuff. Means taking a slugga boy is kind of pointless other than an extra attack in cc, and I think it would be better to use the shoota, as at least THAT has an ap value.

So what was the motivation to take away our krumpiness? Why push the shooting? Who knows? What is clear is the new orks will not be the same one's we're used to.

Now lets look at my second issue, the removal of ork character. Choppas we've already mentioned, which to me are iconic to the race, but they've removed grot saves and extra armor plates as well. Nothing was more orky to me than a boy using grots as a living shield, or for that matter the occasional bounce of a las cannon off of a duct taped piece of corrugated steel. That was good stuff, characterful, and not unbalancing. Most importantly, it was just damn fun. So why pull these items out? The only reason I can see is they don't fit into the new rule sets - and even that's not a good argument.

Lastly, the fact that I will now have an entire motorpool of useless looted imperial vehicles does not make me a happy camper. Sorry GW, you'll lose money on this one, as I will be scratchbuilding a lot more than lootin'.

I'd be happy to entertain comments on this if folks want to write an email, and we can keep this page posting.

-Scarpia

Trial Battle Report with the new dex (November 2007)

Reader Comments...

"I love your webpage. It was part of the reason I switched from collecting a SM army to an ork one. However now it seems like all my time and effect are for naught. Since I just started it’s only been a couple hundred blow on a looter army. For me it’s the loss of the looted vehicles that’s most disturbing (although almost all my army orkpower is choppa based :/) "

After reading your comments on your most recent battle report and your summary of the new codex, I have to say that I completely disheartened by these turn of events. I have been planning on building a new ork army since I worked for GW back in 2000-01. Obviously, many years have pasted since as I have worked on other projects. Now, I have the time. Over the years I have amassed a ton of kits, boyz, etc. for this moment in preparation to unleash my own brand of WAAAAGH! Oh but wait. Now, all the things I love about the greenskins are going to be taken away (hard CC capabilities, looted vehicles, armor plates......).

I have two questions to pose to you: First, (and no disrespect intended) how reliable is the source that gave you this information? Secondly, (and more personally) what are you going to do? Are you going to drop your boyz? Your army is literally shot to pieces by a disturbing trend implemented by the new think tank developers who are "generisizing" 40K for whatever reason.

I consider myself a "fanboy" of 40K. I started to hear grumbling from the fellow local gamers when the Dark Angels Codex first appeared. At first, I thought it was nothing. Then the CSM codex was released. The pattern was then set and I finally understood. Now orks with furious charge too? How generic can it get? For the first time in my life, I find myself disappointed with the "numbing" down of the game.

Scarpia: No disrespect taken. The codex "leak" was put out on the ---------, and was confirmed by a variety of sources as a legitimate preliminary copy. The copy came from a gamestore that had a photocopied set, apparently this does happen on occasion. Maybe it was to test the waters, but either way it seems kind of solid. And as feed back has been on the forums overwhelmingly positive (which I don't understand, actually, except for the fact that perhaps many members don't actually play.....) it will probably happen.

I do expect some changes in the final draft, however I've heard of rumors of the choppa disappearing for quite some time now, so that's a done deal.

So what am I going to do? Damn good question. I have one of the new army boxes on reserve, and I'll assemble a new force, bringing in units that I can field from my existing list. My looted rigs will collect dust though, I am not interested in cutting them apart to make "lootawagons" or battlewagons. I'll give it a shot, and if it really sucks, well, I'm also starting a new imperial fist army, and can always play more fantasy...

I don't understand why GW is dumbing down 40k though, i don't see how making it stupider will increase their sales. Orks especially are not a "kids" army due to the sheer volume of models needed, this is serious (as in dedicated, not dour) player's army to assemble and paint.

'ere is dem nasty legal bits:

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