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Do elda reprodoose? da old fashon way?

gazelle wrote:Gather round, for story time. Once upon a time, Orky fluff said that Orks and their servants, the Gretchen (spelled with an "e" back then) were raiders and pirates that would rather take technology from others than make their own. And they would make the Gretchen manufacture their weapons before they would do any work themselves. Much later the idea of Mekboyz and psychic connections to the warp got added, and evrything started getting weird and screwy.

To me, they should have kept it simple. It made sense. It worked. Now it's a mess.

Not really. Fluff moves on, whether you like it or not. And besides, it is still pretty simple. Meks build stuff, which works, and the psychic wotsit just makes it work better.

DA WAAAAGH power of course .

gazelle wrote:Gather round, for story time. Once upon a time, Orky fluff said that Orks and their servants, the Gretchen (spelled with an "e" back then) were raiders and pirates that would rather take technology from others than make their own. And they would make the Gretchen manufacture their weapons before they would do any work themselves. Much later the idea of Mekboyz and psychic connections to the warp got added, and evrything started getting weird and screwy.

To me, they should have kept it simple. It made sense. It worked. Now it's a mess.

I hate to say anything more (I'm a bit ashamed of the previous post, was in a bit of a rage when I posted, but it's already out there) but I'm confused on how you perceive it as a mess. As a previous poster said, Meks make reasonable tech, but the Psychich gubbin's make it work better (or at all). It's not as if you have to consult a star chart and 3 encyclopedias to figure out when or where or how it should work. It just does. Yes, previously they were the (admittedly simpler) scavengers cobbling stuff together, but look at the sheer SIZE of the Orkz spread across the galaxy. Even spread out, there are so many more Orkz than anything other than Tyranids, that mere scavenging would make even LESS sense than "Psychic Gubbinz". They still loot and thieve, but now the Mekboyz let their numbers make sense.

None of it makes any sense.

The Orks were created by the Old Ones millions of years ago.

If they have innate knowledge of technology why didn't they overrun the galaxy long before humans and so on evolved?

Kilkrazy wrote:None of it makes any sense.

The Orks were created by the Old Ones millions of years ago.

If they have innate knowledge of technology why didn't they overrun the galaxy long before humans and so on evolved?

To be fair, they kind of did....
After all, just how many sectors have ork empires in them?
In addition, they may even have extended outside the galaxy - I think there was a short line or two in the Rulebook that states an Imperial probe has detected orkish signals from near universal centre. BE VERY AWARE when reading that; I am only 40% sure of it.

Because "technology" doesn't always mean "Infrastucture for a Galactic Empire ". The background consistently points out that they are divided and fractious, and that they would conquer the galaxy if united. In addition even the Anzion fluff points out that such 'innate' skill requires training and experience to be of consequence. Remember that saying something like "Ork technology" generalizes all the Ork kultures and individual technicians, and their various levels of achievement and area of expertise, rather than addressing acknowledging whatever specific differences might exist in the 40k universe.

Not to mention that competing civilizations like those of the Eldar tend to cull the Orks in order to prevent them from over-running the galaxy. The Armageddon Wars, for example... The latest Forgeworld book visits this precise scenario: an Imperial mission to kill an Ork Mekboy before the worst-case scenario happens.

In other words, beavers have an 'innate' ability to build beaver dams, but that doesn't mean they have the capacity to produce and exploit hydro-electricity.

Orks however have an inbuilt capability to construct all kinds of vehicles and weapons, and an inbuilt desire to attack and enslave any non-Orks.

It hardly makes sense that the Orks were wandering around the Galaxy millions o fyears ago and haven't infested practically every planet capable of supporting life.

Kilkrazy wrote:Orks however have an inbuilt capability to construct all kinds of vehicles and weapons, and an inbuilt desire to attack and enslave any non-Orks.

It hardly makes sense that the Orks were wandering around the Galaxy millions o fyears ago and haven't infested practically every planet capable of supporting life.

Perhaps it's because over the millenia, that desire to conquer got broken down a bit, until any fight was a good fight to the orks, even if it affected them badly as a race. That would act as a limiting factor as to what they could achieve.

Kilkrazy:

They appear to have an 'innate' capacity for technical expertise, but I don't see how it should follow that they should have infested every planet in the galaxy. If anything it's surprising that they survived the height of the Eldar Empire. Presumably the last 20k have been spent repopulating after the Fall of the Eldar.

Likewise remember that warp storms may prevent worlds from being accessible, as they did by isolating Terra, for example.

Yeah, it does say that an Imperial probe was sent to explore the universe, and they detected Orks everywhere, even in other galaxies I assume.

They are the most populous race, and they control more planets than any other race IIRC, so they have infested almost every planet, but the other races try to keep there planets well protected, add in the fact the not all Orks are united, it makes sense that they haven't fully conquered everyone.

Ork tech is quite simple really...

I read somewhere that the 'Old Ones' gave them some sort of latent psychic abilities that can cause useless pieces of junk to work as a weapon if the ork thinks that's what should happen. That's why red ones go faster and checkered is lucky, because that's what they think is true. They still need their mekboyz to create something that looks like a functional weapon though. But without the ork's psychic prodding the technology won't work. Many imperial forces who have come across amazing ork technology find it absolutely useless in their hands.

It's probably mentioned in the codex. I got that from somewhere on the internet and Gorkamorka.

With citation like that, who needs fluff?

*Chuckles lightly.*

I think you're all overlooking the fact that the obvious answer is very clearly WAAAGH!!!!

Even with any genetic memory allowing them to craft certain things, Orks still manage to create new technologies (usually by mimicking other races). Orks weren't programmed with the ability to build Stompas, for instance ; that came about after an Ork mek saw an Imperial Titan. So just because orks have certain genetic memories for certain things, doesn't mean that they'd have been able to spread far and wide to conquer an early galaxy.

Orks are sorta like the most powerful psykers in the Warhammer Universe. They just dont know they are, or how to use it. If a space marine ran out of ammo for his heavy bolter and grabbed a big shoota, it would never work. Their guns work because they think it works. Their red paint jobs make trukks go faster because they think it will make them go faster.

Now my take-over-the-universe idea would be to open a public school for Orks to teach then how to use their powers, but the bank of the emperor wont hand me out a loan...

@Nurglitch: check the sources on this: http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Waaagh!

The W40K 4th Edition Ruleboook and Codex: Orks. So somewhere in there it takes about the field. I understand your point about Imperial lies/superstition/etc. and (even though it made you look like a complete donkey) I think everyone else gets it too. We are simply going off of what we have. That is the solid fluff we have on orks right now. Hell, if GW said tomarrow: "Orks are actually green, confused humans!" We would have to go with it. It's their game, it's their fluff.