Part 2 of my Chapter Approved 2017 review will look at the new Faction rules for the Orks and Imperial Knights.
Orks
Warlord Trait
An Ork warlord can take the Might is Right warlord trait, giving him +1 strength. On a warboss, this will take them up to S7 base, so they will be able to wound most vehicles on a 4+ without any additional weapon. With a Big Choppa, this will take them up to S9, with a Power Klaw, up to S14. This is great, allowing you to wound most vehicles on a 2+ with a warboss with a Power Klaw. This would allow your warlord to tear through most enemy vehicles or units with ease. I can see this being a great warlord trait for an Ork warboss to take.
Relic
The Ork Relic is Headwoppa's Killchoppa. This is a melee weapon with +2S, -2AP and D3 damage. In addition, on a roll of a 6+ to wound, it does D3 mortal wounds instead of normal damage. I think this is a decent Relic for the Orks to take. It doesn't have the -3AP of a Power Klaw, but you will be wounding most units the same as a Power Klaw, but the chance of doing mortal wounds is a great bonus.
Stratagems
Orks now have access to the Mob Up and Dakka! Dakka! Dakka! stratagems.
Mob Up costs 1 command point. This allows two of the same type of infantry unit to join together to form one unit, as long as one is below 10 models and the other is above 10 models. This is a pseudo return to the old mob up rules. Will be useful for denying your opponent kill points in some games, but I don't see this being used too often. I think in most situations it would be better to have a smaller unit to soak up overwatch fire before the charge of a larger unit. If you mob up the two units, you will take the overwatch fire and are more likely to fail a morale test and take more casualties from the big unit.
Dakka! Dakka! Dakka! also costs one command point. Can be used on an Ork Infantry or Biker unit. For each 6+ to hit rolled in the shooting phase, you get to make an extra attack with the same weapon. The extra attacks cannot generate further attacks. Given the BS of most Orks, you will be getting bonus shots from roughly half your hits. Could be useful on a large unit of Shoota Boyz, Lootas or Warbikers. Can't see this being used too often, but could be good in certain circumstances. If Orks get a similar close combat ability in their codex, it would be amazing given the number of attacks they can muster in assault.
Overall
A few good bonuses for Orks, but nothing to get too excited about I feel. Will be more interested to see what the codex brings for my Deffskulls army.
Imperial Knights
Warlord Trait
In a battle forged Super Heavy detachment made up of Knights, you can select one to be a Character and give them the Knight Seneschal warlord trait, giving them +1 attacks. This is actually a nice bonus for an Imperial Knight, giving them 5 attacks. With titanic feet, this gives them 15 attacks. Given the power of some of their weapons, this is a great trait to use.
Relic
The Knight Relic is Ravager, which replaces a Reaper Chainsword. This is a Knight melee weapon that is +6 strength, -3AP and 6 damage. It also allows you to re-roll to hit rolls of 1. This takes the Knight up to S14, allowing it to wound most units on a 2+. This will greatly improve the devastation your Knight can cause against most units in combat, utterly demolishing them.
Stratagem
The Knights have access to a single Stratagem, Rotate Ion Shields. This costs 1 command point. Can be used when a Knight is the target of an enemy attack. You can add 1 to your invulnerable save until the end of the phase. This will give a Knight a 4+ invulnerable save against shooting or melee attacks, which will increase its durability a lot. This could be great when your Knight is targeted by a powerful shooting attack or melee unit in combat.
Overall
Some really nice bonuses for Imperial Knights in Chapter Approved, I feel. A useful warlord trait, great Relic and brilliant stratagem should do well for players who wish to field an all-Knight army.
Chapter Approved 2017 Review
Part 1- Deathwatch and Genestealer Cult Faction Rules
Part 2- Orks and Imperial Knights Faction Rules
Part 3- Eternal War Missions
Part 4- Maelstrom of War Missions
Chapter Approved 2017 Review
Part 1- Deathwatch and Genestealer Cult Faction Rules
Part 2- Orks and Imperial Knights Faction Rules
Part 3- Eternal War Missions
Part 4- Maelstrom of War Missions
The ork relic is pretty decent for a second warboss. But everyone will still be taking zhardsnark as their main boss, as he did not get a points bump like everyone expected (he's still extremely cheap for his efficiency).
ReplyDeleteI am pretty happy about the ork point drops though, it allowed me to take a slew more stuff in my normal lists.
Good to know, Greg! Nice to get the perspective of someone who has actually played Orks in 8th edition.
DeleteHaven't focused on the points changes much so far, but they will make a big difference for a few armies, particularly Primaris forces that received points drops for the most part.
Main points drops was the buggies (major) and the morkanaut. Minor change to gorkanaut. Power claws took a big drop too, making mega nobz and the nobz actually affordable. Still utterly crippled compared to any full release codex, but hey, at least its a bone.
ReplyDeleteThe Warlord Trait and Relics for the Orks both look good, but the Stratagems, not so much. Mob Up isn't bad, but it is really situational. Dakka, on the other hand, is kind of garbage. It's copied from a number of (Chaos) Space Marine Rules, but it's only half as good when you're hitting on 5+ as when hitting on 3+, and I don't believe Orks have anything like the access to re-rolls that the MEq Armies do, making it even less likely to trigger. When you consider that the abilities it's copied from are already pretty niche, being significantly less than half as good looks really bad.
ReplyDeleteI actually don't mind the repeated stratagems across armies. It gives a bit of consistency and kind of lets you know what to expect. However, they do need to match the army playstyle, and I don't think Dakka! Dakka! Dakka! does the Orks justice. As I said, I hope they get access to better ones in the codex, whenever it comes out.
DeleteI'd say dakka dakka dakka is much better than the same rule on a BS3+ unit. When your firepower is designed to trigger on a 5+ and the number of shots etc all functions on that basis, getting an extra shot for fully half of your hits is brilliant! On a BS3+ unit, only 25% of your shots will trigger the extra roll. Sure, the chances of hitting with the extra shots aren't as good with Orks, but we're talking about Ork shooting here, it's not something you want to base your whole army strategy around! ;)
DeleteI'm with you in some respects, Nick. You have better odds of getting the 6's with Orks. However, if you have a unit of 30 Shoota Boyz firing 60 shots, on average you are going to get an extra three or four hits. I wouldn't say that is really worth a command point, so don't see it getting used too often in my army (especially as I tend to run Slugga Boyz). On smaller units it gets even worse.
DeleteIt's absolute trash. :(. Once again, the rules writers for orks aren't taking into account their BS 5+. They do this for everything, from points, to rules, to balance. If you just exchanged BS 5 for BS 3 on many ork units, suddenly they fall right in line with other armies.
DeleteThey haven't quite figured out how to balance the BS 5 stuff.
Take that strategem for example...now if you changed it so that every 6+ = 3 total hits (ie tesla), now we are talking a powerful and useful ability.
But because you actually have to "roll" the extra generated hit, its very lack luster.
Math hammer. Group of 30 shoota boyz firing. You'll get an extra 1-2 wounds using the strategem. (3 extra hits)
DeleteA unit of 10 marines actually does more damage with the strategem (only firing 20 instead of 60 times) then the unit of 30 shoota boyz does.
Yeah, I'm with you there Greg! I have hope for the codex though. All the 8th edition ones have been pretty good so far, so hopefully the trend will continue.
DeleteUse Mob Up to add mob of 10 slugga boyz with nob to full mob of slugga boyz with nob. Cast warpath with one wierdboy, then cast Da Jump with another wierdboy. Watch enemy's face when 40 orkz teleport turn one next to his army...
ReplyDelete