The prior post on the Ork Codex Update has gotten long (
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/321977.page), and there's a lot of good stuff with it. I would like to share some of my thoughts, but figured the only way to get a fair shake was by starting a new thread. Forgive my impudence.
Consider, what is the Ork Codex theme or flavor? I think we're agreed that it is made up of an assault-oriented horde of myopic weilders of wakky, dangerous (to friend & foe), unpredictable weapons. The four embolden adjectives are what ought to guide a codex redesign. That some cases below.
Case Number One: ZZAP GUN ARTILLER
CURRENT CONDITION. Everybody hates on zzap guns. I have seen only ONE positive speculation that zzap guns MIGHT be good if spammed. Here's the situation: nobody gives them a chance. I spammed them at a tournament, and they did just fine, especially behind objectives. Most infantry are T4 or less. Zzap guns role for strength on 6 or higher 13 out of 18 times, which then means wounds 5 in 6, without armor saves (
AP 2). Wow! And rolling 4 or 5 for strength isn't all that bad most of the time. Well, what about their likelihood to hit? Good question. Answer, they are manned by grots and allowed up to THREE ammo runts for re-rolls for three points! Against vehicles, they are more problematic, because of strength being unpredictable (
2D6). However, they are capable, though unlikely at any given moment, of penetrating a landraider. How? Role Strength 9 or 10 (5 in 18 chance); roll to hit with ammo-runt re-roll (3 for 4 chance); roll for penetrate (1 for 3); roll for wreck!/explode! (1 for 3). Pretty damned unlikely, but possible (2 for 81 chance to wreck!/destroy! with ammo-runt roll per model). [This mathhamer does not include the "glancing-to-death" tactic, which while not viable, is more practicable with the zzap Gun than the rokkit-spam lists.]
FUTURE CODEX. Three options: 1). make zzap Guns ordinance (two rolls for penetration picking the highest); 2). make zzap Guns
AP 1 (so even glances MIGHT cause a wretch! result; 3) both 1 & 2. For twenty points more than the Kannon Big Gun, I think you know which I would prefer. Let's follow the mathhammer again with option three: Role Strength 9 or 10 (5 in 18 chance); roll to hit with ammo-runt re-roll (3 for 4 chance); roll for penetrate
(1 for 2!); roll for destroyed/wrecked
(1 for 2!). Still pretty damned unlike (about 1 in 20 chance to wreck!/explode! with ammo-runt roll per model). [Nor am I counting in the possibiility of glances at strengths between 8 through 10, which will wreck
AV 14 1 in 6 chance.] A landraider should not be easy for an ork to shoot to death, but the hope in the possibility is very orky indeed.
Case Number Two: KUSTOM MEGABLASTA
CURRENT CONDITION. Utterly worthless. A disgrace to all big meks out there; you know you can do better. I suspect that they are included on the burna & loota lists as a reason to put them in those box sets, giving you four burnas/lootas instead of five. I'll not complete my suspicious any further, because I can't defend it with evidence.
FUTURE CODEX. Four options: 1). increase the strength to 9 or 10; 2). Decrease the
AP to 1; 3). make the goofy thing twin-linked; 4). remove the Gets Hot! special rule. Of the four, only is options two & four, really viable, as option one makes the gun too powerful, and twin-linked would only be justifible if the Megablasta did indeed risk giving its weilder a wound. (I would suppose Twin-linked if Got Hot! were included, and visa versa; no to either is no to both, in my eyes.) As with the Zzap Gun above, the possibility of killing a Landraider exists, but its hard, not impossible. There might even be call to turn it into a power weapon, perhaps a type of pistol, in close combat. However, I haven't thought through that notion, and will leave it half formed here.
Case Number Three: MEGA NOBS
CURRENT CONDITION. There's a pretty good pro-vs.-con thread on dakka going on right now (
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/60/323130.page), and I'll not add to it here. However, I'll summarize their attributes on which the contention rests: power klaws galore; 2+ armor save (not invulnerable); slow-&-purposeful; and so on.
FUTURE CODEX. The aforementioned thread already mentions some of the obvious solutions: painboys (feel-no-pain special rule), cybork bodies (invulnerable saves), bosspoles (moral re-rolls), maybe a Waaagh! Banner (better
WS), etc. All good suggestions (except maybe the painboy; that would overpower the unit). However, I contend that reexamining a special rule, otherwise perceived as a weakness, might be seen as a (mixed) blessing: namely, the slow-&-purposeful special rule. What does that special rule allow? It makes the unit relentless, a special rule without use to the current meganobs; although relentless allows them to fire even heavy weapons, they are given none to carry! (Hey, if you give somebody one eye, at least let him cast a laser beam from it!) Solution: give them heavy weapons to select. What heavy weapons does the current Ork Codex contain? The follow: kannons, lobbas, zzap guns; lootas, shokk attack gun. Now, the
SAG might be a bit much, but all the rest I could see any perfectly insane meganob happy to lug slowly but with purpose to the battlefield. I’m not sure whether the relentless meganob would be given one round of heavy shooting or many, and how much it all would cost point-wise. However, I do believe it would give a meganob unit the complexity it needs to stand up with regular nobs as a preferred elite choice.
Case Number Three: FLASHGITS
CURRENT CONDITION. No need to beat this horse. It's well conceded that they are the worst unit in the codex: power
BS; mediocre weapons; high price for upgrades, then still not that good; unable to preform would-allocation magic; poor to awful in combat; no dedicated transport; no bosspole; etc. Why go into it? You know the story. But, in my opinion, the real problem is the sameness of the outfitting, where in my imagination, the flashgits are a bunch of a-holes who each decided to bring their own best toys to the show.
FUTURE CODEX. One word: diversification. Flashgits have fancy weapons and they are also (essentially) nobs; ergo, they should be competent in both a fistfight & a firefight. In that spirit, for assault, one model would be allowed a power klaw; one model a big choppa; a third perhaps a combat weapon that increases initiative. likewise, for in the shooting phase, I suggest a targeting eye could increase the
BS for THAT one unit; one model might be a standard snazzgun (and a targeting device, if so chosen); another twin-linked, which gets hot!; templete weapons; rokkit launchas, big shootas; perhaps there is burna-like device which becomes a power weapon in combat (duel roles); etc. There are any number of options you smart people could suggest. Once again, diversification is my recommendation to solve the flashgits ills. I want the flashgits to be like the commando unit from the original "Predator" movie --- with wound-allocation magic. The unit could be small or large, multipurpose or single purpose. [Oh, and of course they should be elite and have dedicated transports, probably looted.]
A SIDE NOTE
Should lootas become heavy, ork players won't be able to play battlewagon-bunk lists, which I like. Let's not make them heavy, ah?
I would love to hear your thoughts. Please be kind.
. I think a nice way to solve it is to use them as R24" S8 (one more than regular plasma weapons)