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Sadly I cannot tell you that. But what I will say is that if you can find a PDF of Waaargh The Orks!

Do so. It’s kinda unique in all of 40k’s history in being entirely new (at the time!) background. No rules or stats. Just background stuff.

That Orks have remained largely unchanged since then? That’s just a bonus.


Please other Dakkanauts correct me if I’m wrong? But the only major and noticable changes to the Ork background came around GorkaMorka/3rd Ed, with the getting bigger and ‘Arder the more really good fights you find?

Oh, and the possibly corrrct Orky reproduction by spores thing.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Sadly I cannot tell you that. But what I will say is that if you can find a PDF of Waaargh The Orks!

Do so. It’s kinda unique in all of 40k’s history in being entirely new (at the time!) background. No rules or stats. Just background stuff.

That Orks have remained largely unchanged since then? That’s just a bonus.


Please other Dakkanauts correct me if I’m wrong? But the only major and noticable changes to the Ork background came around GorkaMorka/3rd Ed, with the getting bigger and ‘Arder the more really good fights you find?

Oh, and the possibly corrrct Orky reproduction by spores thing.

Yeah, the old way Orks reproduced was, interesting too say the least


Automatically Appended Next Post:
On an interesting note, orks apparently have submarines. Source is the new lore book in the Armageddon launch box. Page 55 to be exact.



Automatically Appended Next Post:
I'd figure that this would be blood axes, but they have a bad Moons symbol right next to this text. It also sounds like the bad moons also control Hive tempestura. Later on the same page it says
"... Ugrokk gliztoof's meks have been working to inprove the submersibles used to take the hive."

and furthermore Ugrokk gliztoof is a bad moon himself.

Ork submersibles are not new. I remember GW showed off a scratch built one, with a datasheet, back in a White Dwarf back in like... 2007, maybe? Crafted by the genius "Orkimedes".

 Ashiraya wrote:
Ork submersibles are not new. I remember GW showed off a scratch built one, with a datasheet, back in a White Dwarf back in like... 2007, maybe? Crafted by the genius "Orkimedes".

Cool! I feel like that would be a fun way to do a grot mega tank if they ever remade them. Would be pretty fitting considering the previous one was basically a battleship.

The whole willing things into reality turns orks from 'Skilled, but unrefined' to 'A wizard did it'. Makes them less interesting. There is no nuance, no skill, no mehcanics. It just...happens. And as a writer, it provides as convenient solution to problems that you will constantly have to not use in order to keep any sort of stakes.

Like, come on. Do not give faith-powered reality bending powers to overconfident idiots that will believe anything.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
The innate knowledge thing is one of many favourite aspects of Orks for me.

Funny enough, personaly I do not care for genetic memory.

I've got to say it annoys me on a more personal level too. I'm from a rural Irish village and I have an accent that we'd call "culchie".

My whole life, all the way through university and after, people have assumed I was stupid because of my accent. Or at least, been surprised when I wasn't stupid. Meanwhile I've seen posh boys with RP accents who obviously don't know their arse from their elbow lauded as intelligent (I'll name no names for fear of breaching the politics rules).

Orks are that trope wound all the way up - they seem dumb because of how they talk (of course "dumb" is here just "urban working class") but they're actually pretty smart and capable of things that the snooty tech priests of the Imperium can't even comprehend. So of course, the Tech Priests are going to come up with justifications for how it can't be that Mekboys are better at tech than them.

So I've always identified with that aspect of the Orks and enjoyed it a lot, and it's depressing when people see "funny cockney accent" and read it as "stupid brutes".

It’s more than just their speech. As a society, it’s all seemingly just rough and ready. There is consideration of aesthetic appeal, but in a uniquely Orky way. The main rule of their society is “Might Makes Right”, at least so long as you’re Brutal and/or Kunnin’.

It seems outwardly anarchic, but it’s genuinely well ordered, and it works. In a sense, it’s a meritocracy. Blood Axes might be sneered at for adopting un-Orky taktiks, but other Orks will still acknowledge when that’s successful.

That a reasonable number of hobbyists don’t look beyond the Simple Brutes angle is, in a fashion, testament to that background. They’re making the same error as in-universe sources.

As Uthan the Perverse put it?

“The Orks are the pinnacle of creation. For them, the great struggle is won. They have evolved a society which knows no stress or angst. Who are we to judge them? We Eldar who have failed, or the humans, on the road to ruin in their turn? And why? Because we sought answers to questions that an Ork wouldn’t even bother to ask! We see a culture that is strong and despise it as crude.”

Even that frequent infighting is part of their societal strength. First, it provides entertainment. Second, that’s their form of training. The more you fight, the ‘Arder you get. The ‘Arder you get? The fightier you become.

The Clans represent a form of caste system. Cults provide specialists, and may be another manifestation of Oddboyz, the Ork society responding to foes particularly strengths by providing specialists to better support the war effort.

Rightydokey. I’m up, showered, fed and watered. And I’ve been digging out me books!

First, the Rogue Trader explanation of the Bubble Chucker. As with its Tek Stablemates the Traktor Cannon and Lifta-Droppa, it’s an unconventional application of Ork Forcefield technology.

Second, from ’Ere We Go, further snippet on Meks, and the state of Orky Tek. Note that it’s described as being in no way inferior to that of other species.

Third, the speculation found in Xenology that Ghaz may be a new breed of Oddboy. A leader caste.

The other annoying thing about this particular meme is that it reduces the humans/Imperium to idiots as well.

Humanity has been fighting Orks since the Dark Age of Technology; but somehow they remain completely clueless about essentially all aspects of them.

You can do a level of 'dark ages/theological ignorance', but supposedly learned figures like tech priests believing that humanity's most common enemy for tens of thousands of years can magic their technology into functioning through vibes is just GrimDumb and actively detracts from the darkness of the setting - it's not grim and dark if it's only that way because everybody in universe has a below room temperature IQ!

I think that’s a reflection of how Waaaaghs! scale.

Every Waaaagh! is half migration, half holy war. Every Waaaagh! is set off by the need to expand and find new fights.

But not all Waaaaghs! are of the same size. Ghaz’s is notably vast in scale. But for the past 10,000 years, The Imperium (outside of the Beast) has more experience tackling smaller Waaaaghs!

And so, with Orky kunnin’ and Tek scaling to meet immediate needs? Ghaz is doing stuff that hasn’t been seen in thousands of years.

Likewise, a Regiment that has mainly been on mopping up duty, rooting out nascent Orky Tribes on a reconquered world is going to have a very different experience to those on Armageddon

 Lord Damocles wrote:
The other annoying thing about this particular meme is that it reduces the humans/Imperium to idiots as well.

Humanity has been fighting Orks since the Dark Age of Technology; but somehow they remain completely clueless about essentially all aspects of them.

You can do a level of 'dark ages/theological ignorance', but supposedly learned figures like tech priests believing that humanity's most common enemy for tens of thousands of years can magic their technology into functioning through vibes is just GrimDumb and actively detracts from the darkness of the setting - it's not grim and dark if it's only that way because everybody in universe has a below room temperature IQ!

As originally presented it was a fringe theory by a discredited tech priest, but it's just been memed way beyond that now.

Also, it’s not magic.

Telekinesis is real in 40K. There are various takes on MIU and psychically triggered weapons. Unusual, yes. But far from unheard of.

The takeaway should be that despite the crude appearance? Orky technology can be just as complex and everyone else’s, if not better.

What doesn’t help is that we’re not told more about the weapons in question. We don’t know what they are, so we can’t extrapolate how rare the subject of the observation might be.

For instance, if it’s a Kustom Megablasta? It could be the Mek’s favourite gun, and the telekinetic element could then be a safety feature. An element only the Mek would know about, preventing some other git from nicking it and using it on its erstwhile owner.

If it’s a Slugga? Then it’s a comparatively wasteful application of sophisticated technology, but still an effective one. And as with all Orky creations, the result of the Mek bodging it together from whatever happened to be in the bit box at that time.