Friday 7 August 2009

Taxi! Mounting up for 5th Ed


I'm sure many of the veterans of 5th edition have realised this already, but I have come to realise that this edition is all about being mounted.

I have only had a few games with my orks, but each time my foot slogging mobs are generally decimated. I started orks, and indeed built them, to have/be a horde army (I have 2x 25 shootas and 25 sluggas), but I am coming to view this as a failure on my part.

Orks need to be in combat to do well - in most cases anyhow - but an infantry mob on foot with a paltry movement of 6" a turn will take way too long to get there. In addition, these units need to be big - 20 strong at least - to survive the shooting phases they will have to slog through. Even the ork weapons are designed for short ranges, the basic shoota being 18". The two special weapons available to the mobs are a little bit better, with the rokkit at 24" and the big shoota at 36". But even with these the average ork mob is not made to be static, to keep with their strengths they must move.

So, what's the best way of getting an ork to where he needs to be? A trukk of course. 13" (12"+1" for Red Paint Job upgrade) followed by the 2" disembarkment and assaulting (got to love open topped vehicles for this) means the mob has an average assault range of 21" (22"-27" if they WAAAGH! that turn). So, this is much more to their tastes - a fast means to get where they need to be. What is the drawback? There are a couple of can think of:

  • smaller mob size
  • vulnerable/low armour
The first is problematic as orks are only fearless is they number 11 or higher. The capacity of a trukk is 12. Which means once you take two casaulties you're looking at using LD. Granted you can use the units - due to the Mob Rule, but with only a 6+ save, its not looking good for long.

The second means that the trukk - AV10 in all locations - is very easily to stop in its trakks, and reducing the mobs to the same state and problems as their footslogging friends.

How to solve these? I suppose having lots of targets is one. Saturate your opponent with options and a couple will slip through. The other is look at Battlewagons. More expensive but higher capacity and tougher; meaning it'll last longer and there'll be more orks left at the end of it.

What does this rambling mean to me? I means I'm looking at taking more trukks. I already have a battlewagon but only got three trukks. However. I might keep one footslogger so they can camp on an objective and soak up casulties. The rest I'd have to rely on the combat ability of other units to contest or maybe hold a trukk back for those last minute speedy grabs.

1 comment:

  1. Trukks are fragile, so you really need to field quite a few. Battlewagons on the other hand are very sturdy, sure easily popped with a melta or a shot ot the side, but once that's possible it's likely to be very close anyway. Don't forget a Mek with KFF can help shrug off quite a bit of firepower.
    What I've seen is experienced people using warbuggies, either to act as a distraction or to screen the other vehicles. The guy who used them was in Polish team for ETC (European Team Championship). They placed second and the guy didn't lose a single battle so I reckon it works well!

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