Krusade Orkvolution

Back in 8th edition I got back into 40k after a bit of a break, and built myself an Ork army.  I wrote about it here.  When 9th came out and brought with it Crusade, I started with Raven Guard, but eventually I wanted to pick up a non-Imperial Crusade army to play against Imperial armies such as Charlie’s Cobalt Scions.  When the Ork Codex dropped full of Crusade goodness, I knew it was time to dust of Da Ork Airforce and bring Da Two Worlds Waaagh! To the Eridani Sector.

A Blood Axe army vaguely themed towards WW2 with an emphasis on aircraft.  The core of the army is a large mob of choppa boyz (Da Paras) that I often deep strike (using the Tellyporta stratagem, but instead of teleporting I flavour it as them parachuting out of da Orkules), a mob of shoota boyz for holding objectives (Da Guard) and a mob of Kommandoes (Bravo Toof Zero) to take and hold forward objectives.  Fire support is provided by aircraft and mek guns.  

Getting Legal

First up, the rules on what wargear Nobz could have had been tightened up since 8th edition.  Not that big a deal for me, my original Nobz had been built from the Boyz kit, and I had always intended to replace them with ‘proppa Nobz’.  

Out with the old…

…and in with the new.  Sarjunt Kroggler da Stompy, Sarjunt “Big Drop” Zagblag and Big Mek Dhakadak.

That done, I realised that the new Big Mek Kustom Forcefield was…  not great.  So I decided for my second compulsory battalion HQ I would get a Weirdboy instead.    Not a fan of the official model, I dipped into the Nobz kit again…

Zogwart Da Shaman

It’s sort of dropped out of the lore these days but older Ork players all know that Orks use copper to channel the excess energy that builds up in a Weirdboy, and if he doesn’t release it safely his head can explode (as well as those of unfortunate boyz nearby).  As such, it’s common for smart Ork bosses to ensure that Wierdboys’ copper staffs are chained to them so that they can always safely earth the power away when not in battle.  

Finally, Crusade is all about “your dudes” and not really good for Named Characters.  Whilst Snikrot was a great Blood Axe character to lead my 8th edition force, I knew I needed my own budding Warboss to lead my forces.  One last dip into the Nobz box and I produced the newest upcoming officer in Da Two Worlds Waaagh!.

Kurnul Guluk Da Git.

I used extra armour to beef him up a bit more than the other Nobz, gave him loads of gear and the perfect Kommando head I’d been saving up.  You might say he’s small for a Warboss, but he says all the better for sneaking about.  From behind you.  Maybe you shouldn’t have said that about him…

Oh, and I painted up a third Deffkopta since they’re now units of three.

Gun is where the heart is

At some point in the intervening years I had managed to acquire a couple of delightfully Blood Axe models just because they looked so great, and rapidly got them painted up as well.  

The Kromlech “Orc Tigerwagon” is an absolute brick of resin, and looks glorious on the table.  I run it as a Forgeworld Kannonwagon with Supa-kannon and three big shootas.  I also gave it an “’Ard case” which used to be a legal option but GW dropped in the latest version because their model does not come with it as an option.  That’s not really how we roll here at the Bunker, so ’Ard case it has.  

I also grabbed a Megatrack Scrapjett because, eh, just look at it, what could be better than an Ork pilot who crashed so often the Mek got fed up and just gave him wheels instead.

Terrestrial living has not improved Farksnot’s lot in life, and he has continued to blow up just as often.  He has survived a grand total of two games from the twelve he’s fought in.  

Mek Stugbrok

I also dropped in a regular Mek, who has proven to be a wonderful small fill-in unit pootling about doing Actions, repairing Mek Guns and occasionally nuking a Space Marine or two with his Kustom Mega Slugga (or sometimes himself).

Giving Kicks and Taking Licks

With a Krusade up and running, I quickly got some games in with Charlie’s Scions.  Guluk quickly developed a personal beef with “Leftenunt Nervous”.  Here is a small excerpt of the Krusade Afta Aktshun Report (Guluk insists his ‘writin slave’ ‘just writes zactly wot I say’):

"Ee woz standin at da back shouting fings at iz lads, like oomie bosses generally do, but ’e ’ad fancy gear and different glyphs dan da uvvers and not in a mob so it woz obvious wot ’e woz.  ’Iz hair squigs were all white an’ short, an’ ’e ’ad dis look... Eiva ’e woz finking reel ard, or ’e needed to visit da drops, ya know?  So I legs it in and gets my claw around ’im and den I wakes up on Dok’s table.  Da ladz, well, wot ladz were left, dey says I smashed up da beekee boss but da Dredd din’t like dat and smacked me wiv its big fist.  Da lads dragged me back to ol Bonesnippa an ’ere I am.”

The ‘Kurnul’ bangs a knife on his bionics, eliciting a metallic sound.

“Fing is…  My squig, ’e got squished by da Dredd.  So, way I figured it, Leftenunt Nervous owes me.”

Guluk noticed me looking at his squig.

“Ah, yeh, well I got anuvva dinn’ I?  Dat’s Preshus.

“Anyway, next time I sees ’im was later on.  By dis point da Generalissimork ’as ordered everyone back to da base coz dere’s too many of dem so we packs up da gear and starts back an’ dem blue gits turns up again!  Dey is tryin ta chase us off, so obviously we turns about and smacked em good.  Dis time dere was no Dredd so we chased ’em off pretty quick, but I did manage to get my claw on dere boss.  

“I ’eard some of dem callin ’im, which kinda makes sense since ’e didn’t seem too ’appy to see me.  Dey also said ‘pray to Nervous’.  Didn’t get dat bit coz ee might ave been tough for an oomie but ’e was well weedy compared to a propper god like Gork an’ Mork or even your oomie Empra.”

Guluk may be hearing ‘Praetor Nerva’, an alternative title used by the Scions, but it’s best not to interrupt him mid-flow.

“Anyway, I fort I killed ’im dis time, but well, turns out I didn’t.  Still, we seed dem off gud.”

At this point the Kurnul took a brief pause to consume some form of squig and drink some looted recaff; an unusual choice of beverage amongst Orks who typically prefer crudely brewed intoxicants.

“I heard a weirdboy say once dat “free times da charm” an I figured ee was right, coz da fird time ’e tried to zap da enemy it worked, but da ford time ’iz ed exploded.  Anway, I ran into Leftenunt Nervous a fird time.

“Dis time I was in Da Lorry wiv Nakboz an iz boys, and we wuz sent off tuh get some oomie slaves.  Some of dem…  wot you call oomies wot don’t fight?”

“Civilians?”

“Sure, dem.  So da flyboyz says dere’s loadsa dem runnin off in a big mob, and we goes out to grab some and drag ’em back fur lifting and moving stuff and grot work.  But when we gets dere we finds some more blue gits standing tween us and der civvies.  Obviously I sees dis as a fight brewin, so I calls in da Orkules wot starts ’eadin our way.  Dem blue gits musta felt da same coz just as we’z getting stuck in Leftenunt Nervous turns up again wiv some more boyz of iz own.  Course da Orkules is ere by den, so da Paras all jumps out to come join da scrap.

“Din’t go too good for Zagblag an iz lads, dey was floatin down on der parryshoots, and der beekees all just turned der guns to da sky and shoots dem right up.  Pretty funny to be honest, quite a few of them got shot in deir shoots an just, you know, dropped.  We wuz pulling a few of dem ’ead first outa da ground later. Probly shud try landing a bit furver away next time.

“Anyway it wuz a pretty gud scrap, but by da time we chased off da beekees all da rest of da oomies ’ad legged it.  Stugbrok shot one, not akshully sure why since dat din’t help much, but I can’t blame a lad for enfusiasm.  An it wuz only a reel tiny one anyway.

“I did manage to get stuck in wiv Leftenunt Nervous again.  Ee’s tuff, I’ll give im dat. I smacks ’im up, but ee always comes back wiv ’iz flashy little sword and ’iz funny fighting pose.  Chopped some bits off ’im again but ’iz Painboy, you can tell beekee painboys coz dey all paints themselves gul, he dragged wot was left of im off as I was trying ta round up da lads.  So, I reckon I’m gunna see im again.  Got meeself a Grod, just like Gaz ’az Ole Bale Eye.”   

With that Kurnul Guluk ‘da Git’ left me, the interview apparently concluded.

Learnin’

Getting stuck in with the Orks was great fun, but also educational.  Charging into Charlie’s battle pile with the lads is very bracing, particularly with his multi-unit overwatch stratagem and counter-charge shenanigans.  But 20 boys can take a pounding and still have plenty of fight left in them.  Plus the creamy centre of Nobz and da Kurnul are particularly delicious.  Giving the Kurnul Da Killa Klaw meant he could pretty much eat up any low model count that unit he wanted to.

That said, what I seemed to lack was effective shooting.  Charlie’s Dreadnought was a particularly potent thorn in my side on many occasions.  Plus at S8, AP-2 and D3, Ork Rokkits are quite particularly fine at blowing up Space Marines. The Deffkoptas became the shooting workhorse of my army, but what I wanted was…

Moar Dakka

It was time to finish the project that had been sitting on my shelf for too long.

Sarjunt Nakboz Trakkrumper and his Tankbusters are a long running passion project of mine. No official Tankbusteres were used in the making of this unit, since they are turbo-garbage.  This is a Boyz kit, and lots and lots of scavenged explosives.  The Skorcha missiles left over from my Dakkajet were a particularly great source of boom, suitably cut down in size.  

In an attempt to make them slightly less krumpable, I also gave them a Trukk aka Da Lorry.  This is an old project of mine finally painted up.  I wanted a vehicle that looked more like a military bedford lorry than the usual scrappy Ork Trukks.  It goes much better with the Blood Axe aesthetic.

They worked out pretty well in one of the earliest games with them.  Da Lorry got shot out underneath them but the ladz were unhurt, leaving all ten in position to shoot back without moving.  Shooting a squad of 10 intercessors that’s 3 shots each.  Turns out 30 rokkits will do some work on Intercessors even when they’re hitting on 5s.  Wounding on 2s, leaving a 5+ save to not die.  It helps a lot if your opponent forgets Transhuman Physiology though.  

That said, they are fragile as hell and die to a stiff breeze (and doesn’t your opponent know it), the Lorry adds a lot ot their price tag, and if they move you halve their hits, so if you deploy out of sight and jump out in your turn there’ll be a lot of wiffage.  I still haven’t quite worked out the best way to make use of them.  But damn they look cool!

Clearly what I needed was some more mobile firepower, ideally with better BS…

Da Firespitta

The dream was always to have lots of aircraft.  The Dakkajet (now named Morfang) was always the test run.  Da Firespitta was the dream realised.  A Wazbom Blastajet with all the trimmings.  

Group Kaptin "Orko Rosso" Mazzadak is the terror of the skies!  

…sometimes.  

Even hitting on 4s Ork shooting is a fickle thing.  He has at times been absolutely devastating, appearing from above the clouds to wreak devastation upon the puny and defenceless ground-pounding enemies.  At other times he turns up and does…  not a lot.  Ah well, he always looks stylish doing it.    

Da Jeep

Honestly I just really like the Ruckatrukk Squigbuggy, so I got one.  I did a bit of work to make it look a bit more like a US Jeep, gave it a folded down windscreen and some headlights, but largely left it as is.  Lore wise this is the NAFFI food truck that is supposed to just be supplying the lads with food, but ended up getting carried away and tends to join in the fighting.

Krusading

At the same time as I was pursuing the impossible grail quest for Moar Dakka, my ladz were continuing to roam the stars and krump everything krumpable.  The guns changed around a lot but my original mobs were the backbone throughout.  I did pretty well with my random rolls for Crusade upgrades, and got some very thematic upgrades for my units.  

Da Paras got (amongst other things) ‘Fleet of Foot’, meaning they only need to roll an eight when they jump out of the Orkules and do a deep strike charge (re-rolling because they’re Orks, it’s pretty fresh).  Da Guard scored ‘Cool-headed’, meaning they overwatch for free and hit on 5s (i.e. normal Ork shooting) which Jeff’s Genestealers have rated as a solid Fresh.  

Bravo Toof Zero…  died.  A lot.  Often deployed forwards onto an Objective I wanted to hold on to, their job was to keep the enemy busy until the rest of the lads arrived.  But they did allow me to use the greatest Strategem in 40k a lot.  “Surprise!” allows the Kommandoes to fight first when charged if they are within terrain.  Naturally you are legally required to shout “Surprise!” in your best Orky voice when you do so.  There’s nothing more horrifying to your foe than charging into what they thought was an occupied building to find it empty.  Right up until an Ork Nob clinging to the roof yells “Surprise!” at you then pulls your head off with his power claw.  

But Guluk.  My boy.  Kurnul Guluk Da Git.  The Blood Axeiest Blood Axe that ever Blood Axed.  Ork Warbosses are pretty nails to start with, but Crusade lets them turbocharge.  As the most killy unit in my Krusade, he would regularly score more than half the unit kills of my whole army, and nab most of the Agendas too.  He skyrocketed in XP, even when I was trying very hard to give it to anyone but him.  

When he hit Heroic he found himself a Dark Age Displacer belt whilst fighting some Cobalt Scions in a museum.  He could be anywhere.  Whilst some Gorky fools might use this to try and charge him in as soon as possible, Guluk is more Morky than that, and gambling your Warboss on a 9” charge without support is pretty risky.  But it did mean he could redeploy to wherever Da Paras appeared, or more often move around the battlefield to be wherever the enemy needed him not to be, doing actions, claiming table quarters, and taking objectives.

When he stole a Null-field Disruptor from a shrine defended by the Sisters of Battle, he became a Legend, the first unit in our group to hit Legendary level.  In the lore, Guluk commanded just part of Da Two Worlds Waaagh!, fighting under the banner of Da Generalissimork.  But a Legendary Warboss can’t be answering to anyone else.  There were no specific rules, but Charlie and I worked something out from the Waaagh!boss challenge rules and had Guluk fight Da Generalissimork.  TLDR: Guluk won.

It was time.

The goggles come from the plastic Space Marine Scouts kit, with a strap made from green stuff.

The skorcha head I’m not sure about, perhaps a Sentinel, but the fuel tank is one half of Guardsman flamer backpack, I think probably even the half left over from the first model.  The blue plate on Da Killa Claw is a trophy taken from da beekee’s dredd.  

A bit of a glow up, I think you’ll agree.

Da stars iz da limit

Da Two Worlds Waagh! Crusade force currently sits at just over 2,000 points.  They’ve fought pretty much anything and everything there is to fight in Eridani.  They’ve had highs and lows.  They have invented new Morky ways of warfare (fly a Dakkajet up to an insufficiently bubble wrapped enemy character and yell “ASSASSINATE” as loud as possible whilst rolling a trillion dice).  They have discovered and fallen in love with Sirrius’s Goff Rokk (with Guluk’s teleporter he never pays for a gig, but Surrius has realised that’s one ticket jumper worth overlooking).  

I’m mainly focussing on other armies at the moment, but they remain at large in the Eridani sector.  They’ll happily come out to play when the story calls for it, or someone fancies a bit of Orking.  At best I consider them on sabbatical.  In the pile of shame I have a built and base-coated Battlewagon, a squad of Grot Tanks and a mob of Stormboyz.  And of course, da piece ov resistance, a Stompa.  Rumour has it Sirrius is building up for a big Waaagh!, and Kurnul Guluk da Git is gonna be coming along for the ride.