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This is not so much a fix as it is a way to give Ork players an additional option with a unit that does not see alot of love.

As the Tankbusta unit is, it is a sub-par choice purely for the sake of the Glory Hogs special rule containted within the mob. Players have to be smart with how they deploy their Tankabustas (out of LOS, as roadblocks for vehicles with their Squigs, ect). Likewise, a smart opponent can lure a Tankabusta unit into attacking a useless target and effectively deny an ork player a useful unit.

My proposed changed is to simply give the Tankabustas a special character upgrade akin to a Boss Snikrot or Boss Zagstruk, giving the Ork player the option to upgrade the unit and in the process give the Tankabustas more versatility.

Introducing- Boss Krakhed.

WS 5
BS 2
S 4
T 4
W 2
I 3
A 2
Ld 9
Sv 4+

Instead of a Nob, one mob may be led by:
Boss Krakhed........85 points.

Wargrear:
Tankhammer
Tankbustabomb
'eavy armour
Cybork Body

Tankpole- Boss Krakhed has lived long enough to know what his Tankabustas need to kill, and has a specially designed boss pole with a rokkit attached for smacking upside the head orks who fail to pay attention to what he wants shot. At the beginning of the movement phase, Krakhed can use his Tankpole to take a Morale test. If it passes the Morale Test, the unit ignores the Glory Hogs special rule until the end of the turn. The Tankpole can also be used as a regular bosspole.

Special Rules:
Mob Rule
Furious Charge
Waaagh!

Krakheaded- Boss Krakhed's sobriquet is well earned- to this day he still has a live krak missile lodged in his head. Whenever a wound is inflicted upon Boss Krakhed (even if it is his last wound), roll a die. On a result of four or better, place a large blast template centered on Boss Krakhed's model. All models underneath the blast template suffer a S8 AP2 hit as the missile finally explodes, naturally giving Boss Krakhead a very bad headache (along with giving everyone else in his immediate vicinity a severe case of missing body parts). His model is not removed as a result of his krak missile going off, but the blast may surely end his life!

Kustom Rokkits- Krakhed's Tankabustas are the proud owners of a set of unique weapons: accurate rokkit launchas. Thanks to the tinkerin' of Krakhed's meks, all rokkit launchas in Boss Krakhed's unit are twin-linked.

This model basically gives the whole unit a very interesting upgrade: 2 high-risk, high reward abilities that can have splendid or horrific results for the ork player, and a fairly good ability that gives all the unit's rokkits the effectiveness of the Deffkopta's twin-linked rokkit launchas. The Boss himself is also not a slouch either, as he has cybork and 'eavy armor upgrades along with an improved bosspole and a Tankhammer, effectively giving his unit up to three potential Tank Hammers for his mob.

Im getting a full 15 man squad for my fluff list, and could see using this character in friendly games. It would be nice if all special ork squads got a special character of their own.

Wouldn't that be great to see most of the units get a special boss upgrade? I mean, not all of them would be functional in competitive gameplay if they ever did that, but a few should shore up a lack luster unit option rather than make it more of a point sink (I'm looking at you Captain Badrukk) or give it an interesting, somewhat powerful option with some potential downside (Boss Zagstruk).

Anywho I took some of the ways I used to make up Magic cards and applied the principles of working within the game, making Boss Krakhed balanced and at the same time unique and still pushing the boundary of possibilities.

So in short I used the stats of the Snikrot boss as a template for the abilities of Boss Krakhed (but with lower strength, better armour, and a bump to his Leadership), added in appropriate wargear related to his fluff, and gave him some abilities that fit within the ork play style.

I laughed at krakheaded.
Nice pun.

Anyways, I actually think this could work really well!

JSK-Fox wrote:I laughed at krakheaded.
Nice pun.

Anyways, I actually think this could work really well!

Thank you!

I was inspired by the Tau upgrade to suicide detonate himself for the Greater Good, and thought how funny it would be if an Ork had a similar ability, but one that was unpredictable and prone to killing off most of his unit as well as the opponent!

Yeah, tankbustas are the problem child of the ork list (flash gitz are worse, but would be fairly straightforward to fix). Basically, the stats for a rokkit launcher encourage players to fire at MEQ over vehicle options, and if the rules permitted that they'd be a fairly boring option. I'm not really sure what should be done about it, perhaps dropping the rokkit launcher as the default and giving the tankbustas an even greater range of short range and CC oriented weapons with high strength?


I like the character, and krakheaded is really funny. Mind you, it doesn't actually say that the krak missile finally detonating kills krakhead... which might be intentional (and kind of funny - if he wipes half his unit but survives himself) but it should be spelled out either way.

Oh, and the tankpole inflicting a casualty is pretty harsh, as you'd wouldn't be losing a regular boy for the sake of keeping a unit in the game, you'd be losing a tankbusta to make the unit useable. I'd probably drop the casualty element.

I think that the exploding part is really harsh. Might I suggest, if you keep it in, that you give them the Tank Hunters USR with the Character upgrade as well.

I LOVE the idea of this. The rules need a bit of streamlining, but otherwise this is well on its way!

sebster wrote:Yeah, tankbustas are the problem child of the ork list (flash gitz are worse, but would be fairly straightforward to fix). Basically, the stats for a rokkit launcher encourage players to fire at MEQ over vehicle options, and if the rules permitted that they'd be a fairly boring option. I'm not really sure what should be done about it, perhaps dropping the rokkit launcher as the default and giving the tankbustas an even greater range of short range and CC oriented weapons with high strength.

I agree a S8 missile is not a heavy tank killing weapon. it is a light tank weapon at best and the ap3 makes it a good option for infantry/MC killing. My idea is thus.

The Tankbustsa Rokkit.

One day an enterprising Mek decided to remove the warhead from his rokkit and replace it with a tankbusta bomb. Due to the large magnet included in the tankbusta bomb, it is more accurate against large metal boxes but has a shorter range due to wind resistance.

R 18" S6 AP6 A1, tankbusta.

Tankbusta-When shooting at any target with an armor value the missile counts a twin linked and rolls 2d6 for the armor penetration.

I think maybe this special character could give the squad this weapon. It is better at heavier tanks due to the 2d6 penetration (average roll of 13), but it is not good to shoot it at infantry due to the low strength and AP.

sebster wrote:Yeah, tankbustas are the problem child of the ork list (flash gitz are worse, but would be fairly straightforward to fix). Basically, the stats for a rokkit launcher encourage players to fire at MEQ over vehicle options, and if the rules permitted that they'd be a fairly boring option. I'm not really sure what should be done about it, perhaps dropping the rokkit launcher as the default and giving the tankbustas an even greater range of short range and CC oriented weapons with high strength?

In the case of Tankabustas, they are just an ork mob with lots of rokkits. I wouldn't mind them assaulting opponent's units rather than vehicles, but GW has done all they could to incentivise people to use Tankabustas as Tank Hunters short of making their rokkits Heavy Weapons.

A good point.

sebster wrote:I like the character, and krakheaded is really funny. Mind you, it doesn't actually say that the krak missile finally detonating kills krakhead... which might be intentional (and kind of funny - if he wipes half his unit but survives himself) but it should be spelled out either way.

Correct. All that happens is that a large template is placed over him. And I will reword to reflect that his model is not removed as a result of the krak missile going off, but he still does suffer the template hit.

sebster wrote:Oh, and the tankpole inflicting a casualty is pretty harsh, as you'd wouldn't be losing a regular boy for the sake of keeping a unit in the game, you'd be losing a tankbusta to make the unit useable. I'd probably drop the casualty element.

This is where I had to made a judgement call about his last ability. I already gave his entire unit twin-linked rokkits, and gave the Boss a bunch of wargear as well as Krakheaded. To keep the boss relatively cost effective and attempt to introduce a fix to Glory Hogs as one of the premier crutches to the unit, I gave him the tank pole. I could not allow Krakhed to simply ignore the ability all together, as it is fof fluf and game mechanic reasons a major part of the unit's personality. I introduced an ork like concept to the solution- bashing heads in. I figured a pretty powerful ork boss could bash in a few heads in order to keep his unit fokused on the target at hand. Looking at Zagstruk who introduces forced Deep Striking along with losing some Vulcha boyz, you lose a Tankabusta to be able to fire all your twin-linked rokkits at an opponent's unit of your choice rather than what he presents as the closest option you are forced to attack.

Again I stress I attempted to keep everything within fluff and current ork methodolody and believed I succeeded. What would you introduce as a third ability?

svendrex- Sounds like a good ability.

How about a Rokkit that effectively functions as a lance? Might keep the rules a bit simplier in terms of how to explain a new weapon.

Lance is generally describes as being a very precise weapon, like a super focused lazor. It does not seem orky to be that precise.

Maybe you could give Krakhead a special gun (kustom mega blasta that is A1) where you roll a d3 every time you fire it. 1=lance, 2=AP1, 3=Melta? This would represent how focused/unfocused the lazor he shoots is and adds some randomness/orkyness to it.

I dunno, I think the best, most simplistic way of "fixing" tankbustas would be to allow them a dedicated transport.

I agree with the transport part and love the new boss Idea. But the kills a unit member to use the special boss pole is uneeded. I whould just leave it out all together. For 85 points he has enough of a draw back.

Final Update- removed the wound ability of Tankhammer and clarified a bit what his krakheaded ability does.

I do not think the Tankabustas would need a transport. At least, not one that I've seen that could be specially suited to them. They're probably as prone to exploding their own transports as the enemy's would be.