Goatboy: Mastering Ork Clans – Deff Skulls, Snakebites, Blood Axes & Freebooterz
Let’s continue the deep dive into the Ork army by looking at four Clans and how to use them. Today we’re talking Deff Skulls, Snakebites, Blood Axes & Freebooterz.
Goatboy here and little did we know the Ork Calendar has 60 day months – so it is actually still Orktober even though its November when the new Codex comes out for us humies. But enough joking around – the book is here, it feels pretty good, and as a long time Ork player I can say I am very excited about the army prospects from this book. In fact that is one of the best things from this book – it feels like you can create a ton of decent builds without one particular thing being the best. There are only a few “Clan” stratagems that you might want to abuse and each of the Clans have their own uses. To me it feels like the Knight book where everything might actually have a use at some point or another.
Let’s begin the deep dive into the army by looking at the Clans and what I think about them. The Clans themselves are split up into the following – Goffs (Ghaz’s bros), Snakebites, Bad Moons, Evil Suns, DeffSkullz, Bloodaxes, and Freebooterz. Each one has its own “Kultur” which is own version of tactics traits you would expect out of any other “big” army. All of these Kulturs will force you in particular directions for your army as it fits a specific play style. A few of the Clans have somewhat similar play styles but with Stratagems and abilities they make for a different army.
Death Skulls
Deathskulls are another interesting Clan. Their power is pretty interesting in that it makes the entire army better. Everyone gains a 6+ inv save as well as each unit can reroll a single hit roll, wound roll, or damage dice during any phase it shoots or fights in. On top of that every infantry unit gets their version of Objective Secured. That is a ton of abilities to add to every unit in the army. I really like the 6+ inv save as it gives everything a chance to survive in the army. Add this to some Painboy FNP rolls and you can have hordes of boyz that are a pain in the butt to remove. Plus all the Characters on foot get to be greedy little objective holders too. The biggest and probably the unit you will see all the time – is the new Mek Gun Traktor Cannons. They have changed to Autohit – and since it is a mixed unit they still get the Kultur. Just like every other Artillery option – each unit after deployment becomes its own separate unit. Thus each one gets to reroll their wound and damage roll. Expect 3-12 of these guns in Ork Armies. Their Stratagem is ok as it allows a single unit to reroll wound rolls for Vehicles. With the amount of Knight Armies running around this is a good thing – but overall it feels a bit to expensive for 2 CP. Their relic is a Mek based relic that lets you heal 3 hit points instead of D3. I think there are other better “Stompa” armies out there so I don’t expect this one to be used too heavily. Warlord trait lets the Warlord target characters if they are within 18″ as well as lets the warlord reroll 1’s for attacks versus vehicles. Me thinks the Deathskulls have a bit of a Vehicle hating problem. Or they want to steal all the Airbags out of those rhinos.
Stratagem Power – 3 out of 6 Grots
Relic Power – 3 out of 6 Grots
Kultur Power – 6 out of 6 Grots (Traktor Guns make this Kultur so good)
Warlord Trait – 3 out of 6 Grots
Overall – 4 Grots cuz fractions are hard for Orks
Snakebites
Snakebites are an ok Clan. They are not my favorite and I was never interested in playing them before. They were the Savage Orks so I left them alone. Their Kultur of giving everyone a 6+ FNP roll is not terrible – especially when you mix it with multi wound options like some of the FW monsters or gasp – robotic jerks like the Gorkanaut and Morkanaut. Of course those things don’t really match up with the overall theme of the army so it is annoying. While Deathskulls hate Vehicles – Snakebites hate things with more then 10 wounds. Their Stratagem grants them a +1 to wound the unit they picked with more than 10 wounds. I like that effects the entire army so while the 3CP cost is steep it is a powerful ability. Their warlord trait is extremely powerful though as it grants everyone within 6″ of the leader a reroll morale ability and forces the Gretchin to ignore morale. It is too bad they removed the ability for these Gretchin to take wounds from the Grot Shield Stratagem from other Clan Kulturs. It makes me think they tested this a bit. Still if you want to keep waves of boyz alive throw some Gretchin into the mix and they will be around till they are all dead – taking wounds for their brothers. Grot shields is pretty interesting in that you use it as soon as an Clan infantry unit is hit by a ranged weapon. As soon as they take a wound (fail save and FNP save) then you can roll a 2+ and put the wound onto a Gretchin unit within 6″ of the targeted unit. Pretty powerful and a good way to protect special infantry units in your army. The relic for the Snakebites is pretty cool as well as it is a huge “Bee” grenade. It auto hits, dishes out 3d6 wounds at str 5, -1 Ap, 1 Dam and then hits another unit within 6″ of the first one hit for 2d6 hits. Not too bad at all.
Stratagem Power – 4 out of 6 Grots (If you see a ton of MC – this Strat can be amazing – Morty and Magnus better watch out)
Relic Power – 4 out of 6 Grots
Kultur Power – 4 out of 6 Grots
Warlord Trait – 3 out of 6 Grots
Overall – 4 Grots and some Grot Fingers and Toes.
Blood Axes
The Blood Axes are the sneakier Orks out of the big soup that is Orkdom. Their Kultur trait is very powerful as well as it grants them cover even if they are not in it if the enemy is 18″ away. They also get to fall back and either shoot or charge depending on what they want to do. Mix this in with the Stratagem to hide some units to reveal themselves at the end of a movement phase and you have an army that will be sneaky, hugging terrain, and most likely be a pain in the rear most games. This Clan got the CP regenerating Warlord trait with the ability to throw a dice for each CP spent and and on a 6 gaining one back. If you are playing this Klan expect this Trait to be in the army especially with their Relic – Da Finkin’ Kap. This lets you generate another Warlord trait for your Warlord or lets the model holding the Relic gain a Warlord trait. This is pretty amazing and lets you throw a supreme command of lets say 3 Weird Boyz plus an Warboss or index based Biker Warboss. Burn a CP to get the Finkin Cap and profit from some chances to regain CP.
Stratagem Power – 4 out of 6 Grots
Relic Power – 5 out of 6 Grots
Kultur Power – 3 out of 6 Grots
Warlord Trait – 5 out of 6 Grots
Overall – 4 Grots – more so as a combo detachment for your army
Freebooterz
Freebooterz seem ripe to be downright nutty in specific Ork armies. Thankfully their Stratagem isn’t very good but their Kultur power more than makes up for it. Also the Flashgitz themselves are always Freebooterz so they love it when everyone is an Ork Pirate. Their Kultur is adding a +1 to hit rolls for attacks made by models if any other friendly unit within 24″ has destroyed an enemy unit this phase. I want you to think of the bubble this generates if say a unit of Lootas kills something from in the middle of the army. You all of a sudden cause all your Shoota boyz, Gork/Morkanuts, Stompas, Warbikes, and heck any other shootie thing to now hit on half the time. Mix this in with the More Dakka! stratagem that lets a unit generate Dakka! Dakka! Dakka! on 5’s and 6’s and you have a unit generating so many dang hits. Let’s do the math on say a Shoota boy unit. 60 shots – hitting 30 times with 20 of the shots being 5’s or 6’s. Then another 10 hit out of that amount and thus generating 40 hits from a unit of 30 boyz. Of course if the math pushes you in one direction you could have more. This is pretty amazing when you think that Orks most of the time get lucky having a low amount of shots. I am thinking this ability gets even more nutty on things like the Stompa and the Supa Gatling gun that normally shoots twice. The fact this ability isn’t just for the shooting phase is also pretty dang nutty too as you could go the horde route with a ton of Boyz running up the line with Choppas going chop chop. The Stratagem is kinda enh as it is expensive and not guaranteed. It is basically an Ork version of the Orbital bombardment that picks d3 points and can get a chance to cause Mortal wounds on a 5+ (6+ for a character). The relic isn’t bad as it gives you a single turn shot to let your entire army not have to take morale tests. This Kultur feels like a shooty type but the Warlord trait is a bit counter to that as it allows units to reroll 1’s for attacks in the fight phase if they are within 6″ of the warlord. I think their could be a Nob Biker army built around this and a ton of Deffkilla Trikes and Warpheads (most likely Blood Axes).
Stratagem Power – 2 out of 6 Grots
Relic Power – 4 out of 6 Grots
Kultur Power – 6 out of 6 Grots
Warlord Trait – 4 out of 6 Grots
Overall – Give it a 5 Grots cuz while the Stratagem is meh the Kultur is friggin bonkers good.
This concludes my deep dive into the Kulturs for the new Ork Codex. I really like it so far and have found a few armies I want to try and build around. Look for a ton of Ork lists in the coming weeks as I deal with my inner Waagh and try to build as many lists as I can. I will do a break down of the units and basic Strats next time as I really wanted to do a through review of the Kulturs. Heck we waited all month for this – what is a few more days to dig through the horde of green skin jerks.
~What Clan are you painting up and why?
