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.

Hello Chaps,

So I was wondering, we know that Chaos and the IoM use Ork mercenaries on occasion but how exactly do you go about hiring them?

I can't imagine you can just swagger into an Ork settlement and demand to see the Warboss (or maybe you can, Orks like a bit of swagger!)

Do you just broadcast on a frequency until a random Ork answers the phone? Are there shady bars where you can find Blood Axe facilitators that can make contact with a Warboss on your behalf?

Actually, yes, you could swagger up to Orks and convince them that you know where da gud fighten is or da gud loot. How they receive you would be dependent on what tribe they are and how powerful they are. A very powerful warboss already has the ability to find a good fight and probably has no use for you. A small, planet-bound tribe - especially one led by a mek who are generally focused on finding more things to play with - would be more inclined because your access to space travel is something they need. Orks are genetically disposed towards spreading their race across the stars, so it shouldn't be too difficult in the right circumstances to convince them to go fight elsewhere...as long as the prospects of fighten and lootin are low where they currently are. Of course, they still might try to steal your ship or kill you after all the other proppa fighten has finished.

IoM hiring Ork mercenaries was easier to imagine in the older fluff, when it showed Orks in a more mundane, comical way - drinking fungus beer and playing games like toss the grot. The ultra violent, animalistic depiction of Orks these days that tends to dominate makes it largely unimaginable, admittedly.

Orks will definitely work if you have the right bartering material. Some Orks will work with whoever as long as you have enough teeth/teef which they use as currency. Others just need the promise of loot. While others need the promise of a fight/war.

There is one case in Dawn of War Retribution where a Freebooter Warboss destroyed a Daemon Prince for the Inquisition. The price? The Inquisitor’s hat.

My guess is that a lot of the bargaining is from a position of superior firepower— park a cruiser in orbit and then start sending heavily-armed messengers to the local boss. Blood Axes used to be fluffed as inveterate mercenaries so they probably make their presence and availability known, maybe they’ll keep a communication channel open.

DontEatRawHagis wrote:
Orks will definitely work if you have the right bartering material. Some Orks will work with whoever as long as you have enough teeth/teef which they use as currency. Others just need the promise of loot. While others need the promise of a fight/war.

There is one case in Dawn of War Retribution where a Freebooter Warboss destroyed a Daemon Prince for the Inquisition. The price? The Inquisitor’s hat.

In DOW1 Chaos just bribed them with weapons as I recall. Then the Orks planned to use the weapons against Chaos later on. The trick to Ork bartering is ensuring there's always a better alternative to killing you.

DontEatRawHagis wrote:
Orks will definitely work if you have the right bartering material. Some Orks will work with whoever as long as you have enough teeth/teef which they use as currency. Others just need the promise of loot. While others need the promise of a fight/war.

There is one case in Dawn of War Retribution where a Freebooter Warboss destroyed a Daemon Prince for the Inquisition. The price? The Inquisitor’s hat.

The Ork proably saw that as a great deal, they get to fight a war AND get an awesome hat? where's the downside?

BrianDavion wrote:

DontEatRawHagis wrote:
Orks will definitely work if you have the right bartering material. Some Orks will work with whoever as long as you have enough teeth/teef which they use as currency. Others just need the promise of loot. While others need the promise of a fight/war.

There is one case in Dawn of War Retribution where a Freebooter Warboss destroyed a Daemon Prince for the Inquisition. The price? The Inquisitor’s hat.

The Ork proably saw that as a great deal, they get to fight a war AND get an awesome hat? where's the downside?

Now they need to find a different war?

Interesting that everyone has gone for the 'negotiate in person' option, I wouldn't like to be the chap they sent to the meeting!
They do negotiate in person in DoW 2 (despite using communicators elsewhere in the campaign) so perhaps a Warboss wouldn't respect anyone too afraid to meet him in person.

My guess is that a lot of the bargaining is from a position of superior firepower— park a cruiser in orbit and then start sending heavily-armed messengers to the local boss. Blood Axes used to be fluffed as inveterate mercenaries so they probably make their presence and availability known, maybe they’ll keep a communication channel open.

Yea I agree but I think it would be a difficult balancing act, if you come with too much muscle then you make the Warboss look weak and undermine his authority (so he would fight you to look strong), but come with too little and he will think you are weak and not respect you enough to negotiate (or not kill you).

I think the Blood Axes and Freebootas are the most likely to use communicator devices through their adoption of human technology, but I'd be surprised if they also didn't work as intermediaries between humans and other clans as most tribes contain more than one clan of Ork.
I can see some Freebootas scooping up a band of Orks from a random planet with promises of a good fight without mentioning that it was da humies that pointed them in the right direction.

There used to be a titbit in the background that the human "advisors" and "mercenaries" the Orks (especially Blood Axes) hired would actually be Imperial officers using their influence to redirect Ork attacks to the Imperium's advantage. There's a piece of artwork by Paul Bonner IIRC of a man in a commissar's uniform whispering into the Warboss's ear.

Eh, using a DOW game as evidence in a fluff argument is tenuous.

 troa wrote:
Eh, using a DOW game as evidence in a fluff argument is tenuous.

There are many cases of Orks working with other races within Fluff. It’s just that the DOW moments are particularly fun.

Will bartering with Orks save you from the full might of a Waaagh? No. But you may be able to hire a handful to get killed instead of your men. One bit of old fluff a friend of mine would tell me was that there was an Imperial Guard regiment that would use Ork Teef of Those they killed to hire Orks to fight for them. Then after the Orks finished the job the Guard would kill the Ork Mercs and add the teef they gave and the teef of the Ork mercs to hire more Ork Mercs.

DontEatRawHagis wrote:
Orks will definitely work if you have the right bartering material. Some Orks will work with whoever as long as you have enough teeth/teef which they use as currency. Others just need the promise of loot. While others need the promise of a fight/war.

There is one case in Dawn of War Retribution where a Freebooter Warboss destroyed a Daemon Prince for the Inquisition. The price? The Inquisitor’s hat.

I can just imagine the Warboss' Nobz snickering to each other when the Warboss decides he wants the Inquisitor's hat.

Nurglitch wrote:

DontEatRawHagis wrote:
Orks will definitely work if you have the right bartering material. Some Orks will work with whoever as long as you have enough teeth/teef which they use as currency. Others just need the promise of loot. While others need the promise of a fight/war.

There is one case in Dawn of War Retribution where a Freebooter Warboss destroyed a Daemon Prince for the Inquisition. The price? The Inquisitor’s hat.

I can just imagine the Warboss' Nobz snickering to each other when the Warboss decides he wants the Inquisitor's hat.

Snickering? No they’d be schemeing on how to kill him and steal it for themselves. It’s that good of a hat.

DontEatRawHagis wrote:
There are many cases of Orks working with other races within Fluff. It’s just that the DOW moments are particularly fun.

Like in the first one when the CSM hire orks to fight the heroic Loyalist marines. The Chaos Lord isn't too convinced it's a good idea with orks being so unpredictable, but his Sorcerer assures him orks are perfectly predictable - they WILL come for us next, so better get our mission done while they occupy the Loyalists.

And the ork cutscene shows the same thing. A boy asks the warboss why they're helping the Chaos lads, so the warboss tells him. The Chaos lads aren't a proper fight if they need orks to fight the Space Marines, so we'll fight the SM for trophies. Then we'll come back and krump the Chaos lads. The orks cheer at hearing this kunning plan.