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Codex says that Blood Axes trade openly with the Imperium’s more isolated worlds and occasionally even fight for the humans as mercenaries.
Where this is described in fluff? Is there anything at all about ork mercenaries in fluff?

Understand that today's fluff is a dim echo of the creative nirvana that was Rogue Trader. You have to go back to 'Ere We Go to understand comments like this about the Ork clans.

From the book:

"Blood Axes are considered 'dodgy' by other Orks because of their associations with human traders and mercenaries. Their style of dress is said to ape human uniforms, so that camouflage patterns are common, as are human style caps. The Orks' love of rich colors means that their disruptive camouflage patterns do nothing to hide the wearer - but no real Ork would want to hide!"

This is accompanied by a picture of a Blood Axe warboss with a human advisor, an Ogryn, and boys decked out in yellow camouflage.

The Clans each had a different flavor back then since the selection of the Warboss' clan dictated the overall structure of the army. Blood Axes could take squads of Imperial Guard, Ogryns and "human adventurers" who were really just meatshields. The IG squads could take Rhinos, Land Raiders, Jetcycles and bikes. the Warboss always had to include a human advisor in his retinue as well.

Some of the other things that made them different was that they had fewer specialists than other Clans. For instance, they could not add Wierdboys or Painboys to the army list, unless they were part of the Warboss' retinue. They could, however, have as many Mekboys as they wanted. For each Mekboy, you could bring a couple vehicles.

Blood Axes were pretty tough back in the day and I loved the fluff. I always wanted to make one of these armies (and might someday.)

So, only info is from RT era books. Well, thank you, spikey.

Now I see that old wh40k stuff isn't just half-humorous, but also rich with fluff. Thank you again.

Only direct example I could find in fluff was Battle of Big Toof River, where the IG hired Blood Axes as scouts:
http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Massacre_at_Big_Toof_River

So Blood Axes mercs gave silly 'oomies wrong information purposefully?

No, the Blood Axes reported what they knew - but didn't have good information since they were only given a very limited time to scout and they didn't get a chance to do a more thorough inspection due to the Tallarn commander's haste.

Plus being Blood Axes they probably thought the other Orks were a bunch of worthless gits not fit for fighting and that their warboss was an over sized grot.

If some kinda deal is struck which the Oomies will lead the Orks to a better fight then I don't see why not. Freebooterz too might on the rare occasion get hired by Oomies in exchange for sumfing. The Orks actially have less to worry about such an unlikely alliance then the Humans do. Any human caught doing such things with Xenos is going to be met by the Inquisition's Xeno smashing branch. In their own way the Orks are the least racist of the Milky Way inhabitants (tyranids are from somewhere else) in that they enjoy the company of all races equally (the fact that their form of entertainment is combat thanks to genetics is another story).

Yes, ProwlerPC, I know. And I wanted to seek out examples of such deals.
BTW, the radical members of Ordo Xenos may hire orks themselves, I think.

When Big Toof River was written, Ork Mercenaries were actually part of Imperial doctrine, and the Ordo Xenos hadn't been codified yet - Before third edition, the only Inquisitorial ordo that had a major presence was the Malleus, and that was just because of the Grey Knights. Ordo Xenos was invented alongside the Deathwatch and Ordo Hereticus was invented for C:WH.

It is a shame that the only place that mentions Blood Axe mercenaries in the modern game is Codex: Orks.

Ye write 'umiez' wrong.

NO, I WRITEZ "'OOMIEZ" PROPPA! "UMIEZ" IZ UNPROPPA!

And so began the great Ork Spelling Wars...

The current Codex: Orks does state in the Blood Axe section that they do act as mercenaries for the Imperium 'on occasion' but gives no examples.

That's what I said. The only place that mentions Blood Axe mercenaries of Codex: Orks.

 Iron_Captain wrote:
And so began the great Ork Spelling Wars...

...Wherein thousands of thousands of greenskins perish.

The great irony being the vast majority of those that died couldn't spell it either way if they tried.

As Gork intended. Or maybe Mork.

Sorry I tried looking with no success, so far I only know of a video game example of Orks and Humans striking a deal that didn't last more then half the game. The inquisitor in DoWII Retributon makes a deal with Kaptin BluddFlagg, he and his Orks find and kill Kyras and she promised she'd set up a fulll battalion of Imp Guard to fight the Orks in a battle for Ork fun after. These Orks were Freebooterz not Blood Axes and also it's a video game, I'm not ready to accept video games as fluff without a huge majority agreeing.

It has been in recent ork codices of the past. Not even as far back as 2nd edition. One thing I remember was that IG commanders in the reaches of space fighting orks would go after the battle and collect Teef from the dead orks which is what they then went and paid Blood Axes with, since apparently Teef are ork currency. Its why Storm Boyz are very disciplined and they used to actually have German-esque style uniforms and beaked caps. They drilled at boot kamp as well.

 ProwlerPC wrote:
Sorry I tried looking with no success, so far I only know of a video game example of Orks and Humans striking a deal that didn't last more then half the game. The inquisitor in DoWII Retributon makes a deal with Kaptin BluddFlagg, he and his Orks find and kill Kyras and she promised she'd set up a fulll battalion of Imp Guard to fight the Orks in a battle for Ork fun after. These Orks were Freebooterz not Blood Axes and also it's a video game, I'm not ready to accept video games as fluff without a huge majority agreeing.

There's no such thing as "canon" in 40k. If you like the way a source explains or describes something, go with that. If you don't? Don't. If there's no source? Make it up yourself.

What about Diggas?

I suppose you are right if consistancy is kept. Some games (for the sake of game mechanics and enjoyment of players) will buff the hero to obscene levels and handicap the hordes and hordes of enemies so that a single person wipes out an entire army. Tweaks done to games so that the game isn't impossible to complete. But DoW doesn't do that too too much, a bit maybe, but not much (aside from last stand) since it's an RTS with mobs and squads.

 Exergy wrote:
What about Diggas?

They're a tiny cult on an out-of-the-way planet that nobody cares about. What about them?

 Furyou Miko wrote:

 Exergy wrote:
What about Diggas?

They're a tiny cult on an out-of-the-way planet that nobody cares about. What about them?

Oi, oi. I never haerd 'bout these Diggas, can you tell me who are they?

In the 40k game Gorkamorka - based on the Necromunda rules, and essentially Mad Max with Orks - the Diggas were the human faction on the planet.


Also in the background - In the FFG Rogue Trader RPG, one of the options for an explorer (player character) is an Ork Freeboota as part of an otherwise human Rogue Trader Crew.

It has downsides - the 'Sanctioned Xenos' trait essentially allows you to not be repeatedly shot in the head by every representative of the Imperium you meet, provided (a) the sanctioning badge is prominantly displayed, (b) you're with your sanctioner (i.e. the Lord-Captain Rogue Trader) and (c) no-one feels like it (a lot easier when you're a hulking ork).

This doesn't mean you won't start a small riot if out in public amongst the xenophobic masses, but at least the arbites won't come gunning for you.

You get the default trait "Mob Rule" - which boosts your willpower based on the number of other orks nearby, and (unique to Freebootas) "Da Next Best Fing" - which allows you to count an allied, armed human as half an ork if they're carrying enough dakka.

In the Rogue Trader era Ork books 'Ere we go, Freebooterz and Waaaagh the Orks it is also explained how Blood Axes were among the fist clans to go "wandering orf" to find new worls to conquer and so they were among the first to ever meet humans both in battle and in trade.
And also quite often after a battle was won the local human leaders rather surrendered and promised to deliver tanks and other imperial material than being destroyed.
A good for both, because Blood Axes rather admired the Imperial forces (except for being puny) because they made plans before the battle and wore camouflage, rather different from orks.
Blood Axes still wear camo and use both tactics and are the clan with a bit of strategic vision (beside the occasional Bad Moon or other exception).




Automatically Appended Next Post:
Additional...

In 1st edition alliances were not as rare as before the last 2 editions (alliances are back) and ork alliances with imperial worlds (usually not completely out of free will) or Chaos (often Khorne) were not uncomon.
The armies existing of alliances between Orks and Imperial worlds were called "Ork border armies", usually Blood Axes.

In 3rd edition there was also given a reason for the new style bigger orks of the 3rd edition. These were orks from deeper in the Ork region (and the deeper you go, the bigger they are). The border armies were smaller orks, less warlike and they were for the most part conquered by bigger orks and also disappeared from the ork background for a while.

I have several Ork armies and my army of Blood Axes is a Blood Axe / Imperial Guard Alliance with a lot of commissars that see to it that the alliance does not cross more lines than it has to.

 BioVass wrote:

 Furyou Miko wrote:

 Exergy wrote:
What about Diggas?

They're a tiny cult on an out-of-the-way planet that nobody cares about. What about them?

Oi, oi. I never haerd 'bout these Diggas, can you tell me who are they?

The Diggas are one of two groups of survivors of a Mechanicum Explorator Team who were on Angelis when the Space Hulk crashed, investigating some ancient ruins. When the Hulk crashed, they took shelter in tomb complexes under the pyramids they were investigating. Their ship and all methods of communication with the Imperium were destroyed by the hulk's impact - if Angelis weren't a dead rock in the first place, it would have been an extinction level event.

The Diggas regressed, technologically, as they bred in hiding and watched the Orks, until the third or fourth or tenth generation had basically decided that they were orks. Weak, skinny ones, but Orks none the less. They adopted Ork culture, for the most part, although the influence of their allies in the tomb was felt somewhat.

The Orks thought they were a bit annoying, but the one time they attempted to go into the Digga tunnels and wipe them out - a massive coalition of a hundred or more gangs, Morka and Gorka alike - they were wiped out save a few shell-shocked survivors who staggered back to Mektown with tales of green lightning and silver death when the Digga's allies woke up to defend their homes.

The other survivors became Bedouin-themed mutant nomads.

If I remember correctly the diggas somehow managed to control a few necrons to do their bidding and used them to fight their enemies.

Their fluff is pretty bizarre.

It was never stated outright that there were Necrons - they were the 'mysterious allies' mentioned in my post if they were there at all.

Its a VERY important piece of Necron fluff though, since if they ARE necrons then its proof that the civilised, non-omnicidal 'newcron' concept was built into the faction's fluff from the very beginning (Digganob coincided with the original 1998 Necron release).

 BioVass wrote:

 Furyou Miko wrote:

 Exergy wrote:
What about Diggas?

They're a tiny cult on an out-of-the-way planet that nobody cares about. What about them?

Oi, oi. I never haerd 'bout these Diggas, can you tell me who are they?

I'm one who believes gorkamorka is really a small town story that has galactic spanning lessons. That there are diggas everywhere.