The wall-of-text continue...
Part the Second: Transports and Mobility
One of the reasons for the extensive use of vehicles in 5E, of course, is the mobility they provide, and this lack of mobility compared to other armies is a second major issue with the Ork codex. Ork armies come in two major styles: Green Tide and Speed Freaks. Green Tide hardly even needs to be discussed in terms of mobility: it doesn't have any. Its large number of models and space required for them make it incredibly unwieldy and, combined with the short range on most Ork guns, it becomes a simple matter to chop it apart piecemeal. Speed Freaks are the Ork lists using (generally) Trukks and Battlewagons; Warbuggies and Bikes are also common, but they aren't really relevant to this part of the discussion, as all-bike armies are not really feasible for Orks and Nob Bikerz are a discussion all their own. (Suffice to say that you are not likely to control multiple objectives with them.) So instead we will look to the two dedicated transports available to Orks and how they fit into the game.
The first thing to note is that they are both Open-Topped vehicles. This is necessary in some ways, as Orks really need to be assaulting out of their transports and their shooting comes in numbers, not quality, so Fire Points are all but worthless to them. There is a big downside to Open-Topped, however: it makes you much more fragile. Vehicle's greatest asset in 5E is the damage table, which forces one more roll beyond what most units get in order to do anything to them, and even a penetrating hit is only 1/3 likely to kill. This is part of why Melta is so good- you raise your kill percentage to 50% and can destroy even on a glance. Well, all weapons are Melta when they're shooting Orks, and Melta is 66% likely to kill them after penetrating (and is guaranteed to at least strip a gun or immobilize). Combine this with the comparatively low armor values of Ork vehicles and their transports start to look very, very fragile. Yes, they have the Kustom Force Field to help mitigate this, but other mech armies generally have access to cover saves of their own (be it from going Flat Out, Smoke Launchers, psychic powers, or the universal save from Disruption Pods), so this is not an advantage they have- it is merely keeping up with the Joneses.
The second problem is that Trukks are not reliable the same way other vehicles are. Even once wrecked, Chimeras and Rhinos often provide excellent terrain to hide behind, as it's not hard to form strategic walls with them. Trukks cannot hope to do this- their Ramshackle rule not only bounces them about the table randomly, it also (under most interpretations) does not leave a wreck behind afterwords, thus denying them the benefit against other shooting for the turn. As Trukks are the only dedicated transport available to units other than Nobz, this means that Orks cannot reliably create cover saves for their vehicles outside of the KFF, and anytime your army has a linchpin that can be broken, you are asking for trouble.
The third issue is also specific to Trukks: they carry twelve models. When you are talking about Space Marines, this is plenty; when it comes to Guardsmen, that is also a fine number, since eight of the squad members are just wound markers anyways. But for Orks, who rely on superior numbers to overhwelm opponents, this is a problem. Squads of Boyz in Trukks do not have the numbers to soak up casualties during an assault- losing 5-8 members will severely hurt a squad, possibly causing them to lose combat, at which point their poor Leadership (as Mob Rule no longer helps) and Initiative virtually guarantee that they will be wiped out. Now, for a squad of twenty or so Boyz, this is not an issue- they can afford to take some casualties from shooting, exploding transports, assaulting, etc, and shrug it all off. So long as those last ten or so Boyz (and Nob) get to swing, they will probably win the fight- Orks on the charge can do a ridiculous amount of damage if they have any significant numbers. This is where our issues with the Ork army start to coalesce, however: those same Battlewagons that you need to carry your large squads of Boyz into the fight are also needed to carry your anti-tank and to function as AT themselves (via Deff Rollas), not to mention carrying harder units like Nobz. So our poor, benighted Battlewagon- which the Ork army only has access to 3-4, in most cases- is stuck trying to do quadruple duty for the army, and that's a no-go.
Transports are also valuable to other armies because they allow not only speedy delivery of units to where they need to be, but also protection against incoming fire and assaults while they are getting there. Ork transports... do not offer this advantage. A Rhino makes the unit it carries immune to being shot by Bolters; a Trukk does not, because the Trukk itself can die to Bolters and other light weapons fire. Battlewagons are immune to this issue, but they are not available in great enough numbers to solve the Orks' problems here. This is why mechanized Orks are a failure compared to other, even older, codices; unlike, say, the Tau Devilfish, a Trukk does not function the same way that other transports do. Orks are too different- and their needs and rules too different- to have a shoddy, overpriced knockoff of other people's vehicles work for them. (Remember, Rhinos cost as much as a Trukk and have none of these issues; BA Rhinos are only 15pts more and are just as fast with an effectively larger carry capacity.)
No comments:
Post a Comment