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.

I'm trying to come up with a simple set of house rules for Snakebite / Feral orks and I'd like to make it so that boars and warbikes cost exactly the same, so you can switch between a house-rule list and a counts-as list depending on whether your opponent accepts the house rules.

The problem is that ork warbikes are pretty awesome, so boar-riders need significant advantages to compensate, but there's only so much you can justify with an angry pig.

By changing from Bike to Cavalry you lose Armoured Steed, Jink, Relentless (not a big deal anyway) and Turbo Boost, but gain Fleet. In addition, you lose your 4+ save, Smoke Cloud and Dakkaguns.

To compensate for that, we can add bonuses to characteristics, or additional special rules. Looking at existing riding beasts, a horse gives nothing extra, while a Thunderwolf gives +1 to S, T, W and A and Rending. I think a boar should be somewhere between those two extremes.

I'm thinking something like +1 S, +1 W and all HoW hits gain Shred. Would that be enough to compensate for the loss of a warbike in your opinion?

 Perfect Organism wrote:
a horse gives nothing extra

Unless you are a Death Snowflake of Krieg, of course, in which case a horse gives you +1 wound, +1 attack, 4+ armour, allows you to re-roll dangerous terrain tests, and 6+ FNP.

make them cavalry, +1 W, and buff the living daylight out of the HoW

You also gain the ability to move+run+assault on a waagh which can be a pretty nifty distance with a 12"inch move and fleet.


I suppose warbikers will should be kings of speed and dakka, while boarboyz should be just as tough and kings of closecombat?

didnt boarboyz get an improved armour save back in 2nd ed? you could easily have them keep the 4+ armour save I think (or T5 alternatively)
Just giving them +1 w (just talking durability here) is not enough to make them as durable as warbikers. I think you should either keep them at 1 w but with +1 toughness and a 4+ save, or give them a wound and either a 4+ save or +1 Toughness. With the toughness bonus they will be slightly tougher against most attack, but will still lack the jink save.
I like the idea of giving them a +1 strength upgrade and the shred on HoW.

Maybe give them either move through cover or the ability to reroll failed dangerous terrain tests, as boars dont have long weedy legs like horses.

maybe boost their sweeping advance ability. either crusader (mechanic wise fluffy, but the name doesnt suit orks) or the ability to reroll the result of they dont catch the fleeing unit.

Have you considered a cyboar upgrade? While not that fitting for feral orks its an old upgrade from 2nd edition (alternatively for feral orks make it a pigdoks speshul fungus injection) something like giving the unit rage USR or 1D3 HoW or hatred(everything!) or feel no pai, once per game.

Something like thunder pig cavalry comes to mind.

2 wounds for 18 pts is rediculous though. You're ending up with a faster better nob. But on the other hand if you don't add anything other than +1 wound for them and they'll have to go stock with 6+ armor and probably 6+ fnp to compensate for their weak defence, you're good to go. Just say those boars are kyborked.

I'd simply go with +1 str, +1a, +1 t, and 6+ fnp. They're inferior to bikers due to lack of dakkaguns and potentially 3+ cover save. But have much better mellee capabilities. They'll have durability problems, but houserules should be a bit underwhelming. They'll still be a decent unit nonetheless. Probably you could equip them with some armor...

Or if you really want to field the modest that are on par with warbikes, you should take a route of minimal changes. Count boars as bikes *yeeeep* but since they don't have dakkaguns, give them plain +1 str or somehing. It's just hard to judge what can replace jink and dakkaguns and be equally good whithout going overpowered.

I feel like cavalry in general is the melee equivalent to bikers' shooting. The boars give +1S, Furious Charge, HoW, Re-rolls on HoW wounds, plus everything else other armies with cavalry get.