Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Sixth Edition 40K Orks - Random Thoughts #1

I have now played 4 games of sixth edition with my Orks and I am starting to learn a few things (I am not real quick sometimes).  I just want to share a few of my thoughts and maybe get some feedback.

The Warboss is a total bad-ass but the challenge mechanism can be a real bitch sometimes.  The first key to success with the challenge rules are NEVER have an independant character in a unit that does not also include another, weaker, character.  For Orks this means the Warboss should never be in a unit of Nobz (as of the most recent FAQ, units of Ork Nobz are no longer considered characters, therefore they cannot issue or accept challenges).  The reason for this is you always want to have options when a challenge is issued as to who will answer the challenge.  With only one character in the unit you either refuse the challenge, and take the ding, or answer with the only character in the unit.

The loss of character status for Nobz in there own unit is not all a bad thing.  Nobz in their own unit can still be upgraded just as if they were characters which means that special equipment, such as Power Klaws,  cannot be sniped out by a challenge. This allows a large unit of Nobz, unburdened by characters, to actually hunt down loan ICs or Monsterous Creatures, as well as take on very tough units.  From now on my Nobz run character free.

Since a unit of Nobz is no longer a safe place for the Warboss where should he go?  Obviously, running around alone is not safe.  I think the Warboss would work well attached to a large unit of Boyz lead by a Nob.  The Nob leading a unit of Boyz is a character and can issue/accept challenges.  In a unit like this the Boss will be safer and still have aditional options with challenges.  The best place for him might be in the middle of a huge mob of Gretchin with three Runtherds.  The Gretchin will soak up huge amounts of shooting and each Runtherd is a character that can help with challenges.  Just for the record I do not like challenges but they are here to stay (for the next 4 years anyway).

That is all for now.  Maybe next time I will talk about infantry on foot vs. infantry in tranports...

2 comments:

Scottswargaming said...

Must admit I am not a fan of challenges either... as it just comes down to 'whos got the biggest best stick' as we used to say... and just enhances the 'hero-hammer' image of the game...

sonsoftaurus said...

Also not a big challenge fan.

But I think the boss can do fine with nobs of either stripe. For the most part a warboss can handle anything in a challenge, or at least engage in MAD. You may not get full benefit of his own attacks, but the rest of the squad can still clean up without worrying about the enemy character (I'd rather have the PF hitting my T5 boss than some T4 nobs). Nobs being small units can really benefit from the boss' Ld too.