I'm a big fan of 2nd Edition 40k, it was the edition I grew up on. It is the one which I still like to have the occasional battle or just paint up a miniature or two.
Of course as something I regard with fondness this means I am always reading up on any new battle reports or other blogs about the subject. One such subject that isn't addressed a lot is the merits of the various wargear cards you could equip characters. Now I won't go over every wargear card as I will be here all day, but I am going to do a small review of the Ork specific wargear in this post.
Let's get going and find out what a cunning ork warboss should be using:
1. Mekboy's Tools (5 Points):
At only 5 points Mekboys tools are good value you get an extra attack and may repair a damaged vehicle. In theory the repair effect could be useful, in actual practical terms I find most ork vehicles tend to either blow up or are more of a hazard to the Mek. This is also completely pointless if your Mek is going to be using the Shokk Attack Gun as you don't want him in hand to hand combat.
2. Kustom Force Field (20 Points)
Reduces the strength of incoming fire depending on what you roll on the dice, unfortunately on a roll of a 6 you get a strength 3 hit from feedback instead. If combined with a steel skull or used on an ogryn champion with high toughness this can be quite good. On a standard ork I'd rather take a normal force field.
3. Force Field Projekta (50 Points)
Are you facing a gunline with not much cover to keep you safe? The Force Field Projekta is for you and unlike the Phantom Menace version you can't walk, teleport or drive through it either. Nothing can get to you until it burns out. Costly but very useful in the right battle (especially take and hold if you can time it right), pity only a mekanik can take it.
4. Doc's Tools (8 Points)
Painboys and 2nd edition, need a dreadnought? then you need one of these guys. What they do outside of this isn't much. The tools give an extra attack and can KO a foe with multiple wounds if they win in combat (which they won't as anything with multiple wounds is going to make mincemeat of a painboy in hand to hand).
5. Kustom Shoota (20 Points) & Kustom Blasta (30 Points)
Very orky, very unreliable but with potential to be amazing. Most warbosses take one for some reason (must be the lure of strength 10 with 2 sustained fire or a 3 inch blast marker!) In my experience you get a strength 2 shot off, it jams and/or then blows up in your face while your gretchin assistant giggles. If you must take one have a back up gun.
6. Cybork Body (35 Points)
An extra +2 to strength, +2 wounds and an armour of 15 is not be sniffed at for an ork army. A very useful bit of kit if you have an appropriate model to hand. Good for warbosses, surprising on smaller characters and downright evil on a Blood Axe Kommando Captain or Ogryn Champion.
7. Buzzer Squig Stikkbomb (5 Points)
Depending on the army you face this grenade is either amazing or useless. It's a cheap option certainly and in a pinch can actually be good at killing Terminators and Carnifexes as it reduces there save to 1D6 instead of two.
8. Vaccine Squig (50 Points)
Not needed as most sensible 2nd edition players dislike setting up an army only for one card to kill off there entire army, tear up the virus card and don't use virus grenades. Also 50 points! Why?? Let's move on.
9. Ghazghskull's Adamantium Skull (15 Points)
Ghazghskull's signature wargear makes him tougher and gives him a strength 10 attack in hand to hand which is nice. On the incredibly rare chance you get this as special issue just give it to your best ork character.
10. Runtherd's Grabba-Stick (20 Points)
A surprisingly good wargear card if you like to get him into hand to hand combat or Swooping Hawks become a problem for your support weapons. It is a bit pricey and as my Runtherd usually stands at the back to make sure snotlings don't leg it I don't take it very often.
11. Sniffer Squig (20 Points)
Assassins, Lictor's, Ratling Snipers, Eldar Scouts getting you down? Take this and your Ork force will have significant breathing room at the start of the game. Won't prevent teleporting terminator librarians ruining your day unfortunately :(
12. Squig Attack Arm (3 Points)
A Gnasher squig makes me think of that dog from the Beano. I have never actually used this but could be quite fun. An automatic strength 5 hit is pretty good for just 3 points.
13. Spike Arm (5 Points)
A simple +1 to WS and winning on a draw has in the past been just enough to win a round of combat for me, under-rated but certainly useful.
14. Gyro-Stabilized Monowheel (8 Points)
The ability for an Ork Character to charge 16 inches is great, alas it also means they become an easy target as they will be miles ahead of the army (only Warbikes will keep up). My only uses for this have been on a cheap character which I used as a decoy or if you are feeling completely mad give it to a weirdboy warphead so he can ditch his minderz!
15. Weirdboy Staff (5 Points)
To avoid exploding heads please take, very useful if you are dealing with demons of chaos as it counts as a force weapon. Essential for the mastery level 2 weirdboys who'd rather leg it from the action.
16. Steel Skull (5 Points)
Everyone loves a +1 toughness boost, madboy behaviour not so much. It can be useful if you are lucky or want to take a risk on a low point character. Don't give this to characters crucial to your battle plan such as (warbosses, weirdboys, shokk attack Meks, Blood Axe Kommando Kaptains or Special characters). Mind you it could be fun if you are playing a campaign and the painboy fixed them up from a previous battle injury :)
17. Teleskopik Legz (5 Points)
Remember Mekaneck from He-Man:Masters of the Universe? Well with this bit of kit your ork boss or mek can see over hedges and walls to spy and take pot shots too. The usual result for me is raising up to fire the gun only to be shot by overwatching troops.
18. Combi-Weapon (10 Points)
Many forget this can be taken by Orks as well as Imperial Guard. The option of firing either a bolt gun and a flamer, plasma or meltagun is really good. I prefer this over the Kustom Shoota and it is 10 points cheaper. It also gives the nice option of taking a Storm Bolter which are otherwise off limits to the ork army.
Of course as something I regard with fondness this means I am always reading up on any new battle reports or other blogs about the subject. One such subject that isn't addressed a lot is the merits of the various wargear cards you could equip characters. Now I won't go over every wargear card as I will be here all day, but I am going to do a small review of the Ork specific wargear in this post.
Let's get going and find out what a cunning ork warboss should be using:
1. Mekboy's Tools (5 Points):
At only 5 points Mekboys tools are good value you get an extra attack and may repair a damaged vehicle. In theory the repair effect could be useful, in actual practical terms I find most ork vehicles tend to either blow up or are more of a hazard to the Mek. This is also completely pointless if your Mek is going to be using the Shokk Attack Gun as you don't want him in hand to hand combat.
2. Kustom Force Field (20 Points)
Reduces the strength of incoming fire depending on what you roll on the dice, unfortunately on a roll of a 6 you get a strength 3 hit from feedback instead. If combined with a steel skull or used on an ogryn champion with high toughness this can be quite good. On a standard ork I'd rather take a normal force field.
3. Force Field Projekta (50 Points)
Are you facing a gunline with not much cover to keep you safe? The Force Field Projekta is for you and unlike the Phantom Menace version you can't walk, teleport or drive through it either. Nothing can get to you until it burns out. Costly but very useful in the right battle (especially take and hold if you can time it right), pity only a mekanik can take it.
4. Doc's Tools (8 Points)
Painboys and 2nd edition, need a dreadnought? then you need one of these guys. What they do outside of this isn't much. The tools give an extra attack and can KO a foe with multiple wounds if they win in combat (which they won't as anything with multiple wounds is going to make mincemeat of a painboy in hand to hand).
5. Kustom Shoota (20 Points) & Kustom Blasta (30 Points)
Very orky, very unreliable but with potential to be amazing. Most warbosses take one for some reason (must be the lure of strength 10 with 2 sustained fire or a 3 inch blast marker!) In my experience you get a strength 2 shot off, it jams and/or then blows up in your face while your gretchin assistant giggles. If you must take one have a back up gun.
6. Cybork Body (35 Points)
An extra +2 to strength, +2 wounds and an armour of 15 is not be sniffed at for an ork army. A very useful bit of kit if you have an appropriate model to hand. Good for warbosses, surprising on smaller characters and downright evil on a Blood Axe Kommando Captain or Ogryn Champion.
7. Buzzer Squig Stikkbomb (5 Points)
Depending on the army you face this grenade is either amazing or useless. It's a cheap option certainly and in a pinch can actually be good at killing Terminators and Carnifexes as it reduces there save to 1D6 instead of two.
8. Vaccine Squig (50 Points)
Not needed as most sensible 2nd edition players dislike setting up an army only for one card to kill off there entire army, tear up the virus card and don't use virus grenades. Also 50 points! Why?? Let's move on.
9. Ghazghskull's Adamantium Skull (15 Points)
Ghazghskull's signature wargear makes him tougher and gives him a strength 10 attack in hand to hand which is nice. On the incredibly rare chance you get this as special issue just give it to your best ork character.
10. Runtherd's Grabba-Stick (20 Points)
A surprisingly good wargear card if you like to get him into hand to hand combat or Swooping Hawks become a problem for your support weapons. It is a bit pricey and as my Runtherd usually stands at the back to make sure snotlings don't leg it I don't take it very often.
11. Sniffer Squig (20 Points)
Assassins, Lictor's, Ratling Snipers, Eldar Scouts getting you down? Take this and your Ork force will have significant breathing room at the start of the game. Won't prevent teleporting terminator librarians ruining your day unfortunately :(
12. Squig Attack Arm (3 Points)
A Gnasher squig makes me think of that dog from the Beano. I have never actually used this but could be quite fun. An automatic strength 5 hit is pretty good for just 3 points.
13. Spike Arm (5 Points)
A simple +1 to WS and winning on a draw has in the past been just enough to win a round of combat for me, under-rated but certainly useful.
14. Gyro-Stabilized Monowheel (8 Points)
The ability for an Ork Character to charge 16 inches is great, alas it also means they become an easy target as they will be miles ahead of the army (only Warbikes will keep up). My only uses for this have been on a cheap character which I used as a decoy or if you are feeling completely mad give it to a weirdboy warphead so he can ditch his minderz!
15. Weirdboy Staff (5 Points)
To avoid exploding heads please take, very useful if you are dealing with demons of chaos as it counts as a force weapon. Essential for the mastery level 2 weirdboys who'd rather leg it from the action.
16. Steel Skull (5 Points)
Everyone loves a +1 toughness boost, madboy behaviour not so much. It can be useful if you are lucky or want to take a risk on a low point character. Don't give this to characters crucial to your battle plan such as (warbosses, weirdboys, shokk attack Meks, Blood Axe Kommando Kaptains or Special characters). Mind you it could be fun if you are playing a campaign and the painboy fixed them up from a previous battle injury :)
17. Teleskopik Legz (5 Points)
Remember Mekaneck from He-Man:Masters of the Universe? Well with this bit of kit your ork boss or mek can see over hedges and walls to spy and take pot shots too. The usual result for me is raising up to fire the gun only to be shot by overwatching troops.
18. Combi-Weapon (10 Points)
Many forget this can be taken by Orks as well as Imperial Guard. The option of firing either a bolt gun and a flamer, plasma or meltagun is really good. I prefer this over the Kustom Shoota and it is 10 points cheaper. It also gives the nice option of taking a Storm Bolter which are otherwise off limits to the ork army.
Hi I'm looking online for info on the wargear limit for wierd boy warpheads, it says 1 but that is the same for standard wierdboyz.
ReplyDeleteAs a max level psycher surely at least 2 would make sence.
I've found errors in the ork codex ie, the cyboar stats are wrong which is the case too in the battle bible.
Did you play with the 1 gear limit on a warphead?
Ork Codex states 1 wargear card for the Warphead, which is what I have played with in the past.At least they are well protected from the Daemonic Attack warp card.
DeleteAs for the Cyboar I use the stats on the actual forces entry in the codex.
So M10 WS4 BS0 S4 T4 W1 I4 A2 Ld3