Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

OK, so I have been daydreaming about a 40K lunar mission - Space Marines vs. Orks! Another theme I'd love to do: battles against the surface of Mars, perhaps to claim one of the ancient Manufactoriums.

Now, with Space Marines, you can imagine that their armour is equipped with an artificial atmosphere. But as for Orks, well, I actually wasn't sure if they need air or not!

If they do, should they be modeled with Space Helmets or what?

And what about other races? What do they do? Nids, Chaos, how do they fare in low oxygen or no-oxygen atmospheres?

I am actually surprised this hasn't come up in any of the obvious places (like my Codex or the 40K rulebook). After all, many battles can and do take place in deep space. Heck, I bet even Ork Roks have huge areas that are unprotected by forcefields.

All comments welcome.

WAAGGHH (in space???)
Solorg

Orks need air, as far as I'm aware. It's never been explicitly stated that they do, though. But I imagine funky helmets would be the order of the day. It's possible their skin is tough enough to survive exposure to a lunar environment.
Daemons don't need to breathe, and some types of nids can survive in a total vacuum. I'm sure the Hive Mind could manage to extend that to all the gribblies if it had to, but it would be a risky expenditure of resources.

When thinking of orks in space, never forget the KFF technology. It could easily be used to trap air for the orks to breathe, and protect them from the damaging effects of the void. Boyz within range of a KFF don't need helmets, maybe? And perhaps 'ard boyz rules could be used to represent orks with space-suit type protection.
I've always imagined ork space hulks and kroozers use a mix of sealed areas, force fields and suits to get by, due to their haphazard construction.
Edit to add: Third edition had some funky rules for fighting in low G, if I'm remembering right. I'll have a poke around my room and see if I can find my old book.

You can't WAAAAAGHH!!!!! in space. There's no sound.

I think funky helmets or small, individual KFF. Or maybe each squad has a banner/KFF bearer.
There's some ideas in it.

The OC-D

I'm assuming they need air, based on the old 2nd edition virus bomb card that could wipe out most of an ork army before the game started. Breath 'dat virus in, boyz!

Oh, and they use force fields to capture bubbles of atmosphere inside their roks and hulks.

very interesting, i was reading the Soul Drinkers omnibus the other night and the very same thought popped into my head...i see how daemons and nids could live in space due to no need of air/ the hive mind, and MEQs due to their power armor's atmosphere. Hell i bet even the guard could whip up some nasty little space suits (that would be an awsome conversion) but orks...do they even have the technology to make things air tight? i basically see them using KFFs and such but i was thinking also maybe they have "Spase Soots" made of layers of metal (or the equivalent) to keep air in rather then an airtight seal, and "Spase Sheeldz" on ships made by similar means. But by all means yes i do believe orks breathe air. it has been proven throughout the books of the black library (which are all for the most part very accurate representations of the 40k universe) whenever guard or marines fight orks they nearly always mention some sort of grisly nasty breathing...
so thats my two cents

-SwanCo

Orks have better technology than humans

All an Ork would need is a fish bowl over his head and someone to tell him it would work.

theocd wrote:You can't WAAAAAGHH!!!!! in space. There's no sound.

In space, no one can hear you waaagh....

BoxANT wrote:All an Ork would need is a fish bowl over his head and someone to tell him it would work.

This. If an Ork believes it'll work, it'll work. A fish bowl, maybe a few random pieces of wire and metal, and they're good to go.

Orks have red blood which means that they have oxygenated iron running through their veins so logically they need some way of oxygenating that iron hence orks do need to breathe.

Orks also have fungal and algal strains in their skin that presumably respire anabolically and so would use CO2 and excrete oxygen poentially directly into the orks bloodstream so they may be much more efficient at breathing than a human but would still require and air source of some description.

As for how they'd go about fighting and operating in an airless environment then well presumably the meks are programmed with how to make sealed areas and space suits and the forcefields would do a good job with trapping air.

All orks are low level psykers and presumably if they believe that the space suit is airtight their tk powers could make it airtight.

Plus since they're more efficient at respiration and such hardy stock they can presumably function without air for much longer than a human.

bravelybravesirrobin wrote:Orks have red blood which means that they have oxygenated iron running through their veins so logically they need some way of oxygenating that iron hence orks do need to breathe.

Yes, the only reason they have red blood is because of hemoglobin, there couldnt be any other way...after all, things in the WH40K world follows science as we know it, what with all the FTL travel and the parallel universe called the warp to name a few other things that functions just like it does in our world

IIRC according to the 3rd ed ork dex they do have hemoglobin.

And what's more fun, trying to extrapolate an answer to the question based on in game knowledge and what we know about science or just going "dunno, GW never said. Magic! Could be anything! Orks can breathe in space just coz!"

Go back in your hole killjoy and let the nerds have their fun.

I believe I read somewhere that Orks can survive in vacuum for much longer than humans, but not indefinitely.

If people turn blue/purple when they hold their breath too long, what color do orks turn?

The Power Cosmic wrote:If people turn blue/purple when they hold their breath too long, what color do orks turn?

Eight

Skinnattittar wrote:

The Power Cosmic wrote:If people turn blue/purple when they hold their breath too long, what color do orks turn?

Eight

You sir made me laugh



"I said brown......" (cookie for the move thats from)

I agree with the "fish bowl" idea. Fish bowls and force fields. That could be a pretty cool objective to a game. Kill a nob/boy/mek carrying the force field, and the rest of the unti gets sucked out into space or something. Man that would be awesome to play!

Orks are not hurt by the Vacuum of space. They need an oxydiser to metabolise energy like us (usually, oxygen). But they have much, much greater reserves then us and their brains can work on anareobic respiration so they wont faint or anything for a long time. Maybe several hours, if they are not too active, even in a vacuum.

However, they are also all latent psyckers and are attuned to the Warp and able to leech off some of its energy (as the Old Ones intended when they created their ancestors). So if they use that ability (usually becose they belive they should be able to breath, aka they have a fishbowl on their heads), they can remain in space indefinitly, and even heal injuries (as long as they dont bleed out too fast).

its orks. dont question orks