Warhammer 40K: Psychic Awakening – Orky Rules You Can Use
Games Workshop is showing off some of the Ork Rules coming in Psychic Awakening – and how you can use them!
Psychic Awakening: Saga of the Beast will be shipping soon and Games Workshop is talking about some of the new rules in the book and how you can up your game with them. It’s always interesting to see how GW envisions how these rules will work and what combos they come up with so let’s take a look.
An Orky Tune Up
The core of the new vehicle options come from Kustom Jobs. There are two ways to get hold of these – either by including a Mekboy Workshop in your army, or using a Stratagem.
It can be quite easy to get carried away with these, so be careful of running out of CPs before the game has even started! You’ll probably want to limit yourself to one or two Kustom Jobs to get the best of them, and you’ll usually want to combine them with Stratagems mid-battle.
These Kustom Jobs add new effects and rules to specific units – it’s kind of the theme of this entire premise. They might add some staying power or make your units move even faster or many other effects.
The first combo we’re getting a look at is combining the Deffkilla Wartrike with Squig-Hide Tyres. Why the Deffkilla Wartrike? Well it’s an HQ which means you’ll be able to stack a ton of extras – Relics, Warlord Traits, Kustom Jobs and Stratagems! And if you keep a Weird Boy around, you can probably hit it with a Psychic Power for even more boosts. So let’s start with the Kustom Job:
The Deffkilla Wartrike is a Speed Freeks unit so it fits the requirement. Adding another 2″ to this unit’s already impressive 14″ move puts this murderball in first-turn charge territory. Mix that with Fuel-mixa Grots for the automatic 6″ move when advancing (because Speedwaaagh! allows for this unit to charge even if it advanced) and you’ve got a very scary 22″ first turn move. You can attempt to run from this guy…but it won’t do you any good.
How about more defensive options? They have that covered, too. The new Forktress will turn your Battlewagons, Bonebreaka or Gunwagon into one tough target.
And for yet another dirty trick if your Bad Moons, you can use their new Psychic Power Gleamin’ Gear for some extra armor:
Conversely, if you wanted to just get in there with a smashy unit why not take a Bonebreaka with the dreaded Red Rolla and get in there!
This Kustom Job on a Bonebreaker full of Nobz, teleporting in and then using the Ramming Speed Stratagem (which gives a 3D6” charge and potentially mortal wounds on contact), will hit like a ton of bricks on turn 2, and keep on hitting in turn 3 as the Boyz get out and get to work.
If you’re more interested in vehicular mayhem of the walking variety, Deff Dreads are about to be another option in your arsenal. Between Dirty Gubbinz providing some defensive support and Dreaded Death Machine boosting their offensive potential, they are looking pretty mean. Take them in a unit of three for your best odds (and considered teleporting them all).
Kustom Trukk Tricks
You know what those Orks need – a way for their Megatrakk Scrapjets to fight twice. Say hello to the Korkscrew Kustom Job:
If you combined that with Unstoppable Momentum you could have a Scrapjet roll across multiple units in a turn:
The Shokkjump Dragsta is also getting its own Kustom Job option and it makes that teleport jump a tad more reliable:
If you really need it to shoot and scoot around the board you can also use the new Tempermental Shokk Drive for fun:
Imagine how your opponent will have to try and plan for the Shokkjump Dragsta being able to threaten pretty much any objective from anywhere on the board!
Gork And Mork
Let’s talk about the ‘Nauts for a moment. They got some great options for Kustom Jobs and new stratagems, too. You know what’s scarier than a regular ‘Naut? How about one that moves FAST?
Orkymatic Pistons get your Gorkanaut up to a respectable 11” of movement. That’s better than some so-called Fast Attack units in many armies. The Evil Sunz Clan Kultur even gets that up to 12”. Pop in a Character with the Rezmekkas Redder Armour Relic to get up to a frankly ridiculous 13” – unlucky for your enemies.
Yeah – a Morkanaut/Gorkanaut that is moving 13″ is just scary. They weren’t exactly “slow” before but getting an extra 5″ of movement? Yeah – that’s not going to bode well for your enemy! Don’t forget about that Deffkill Wartrike from above – that Speedwaaagh! ability applies to friendly Bikers and Vehicles within 6″ of him as well. That’s going to put these beat sticks in that first turn charge arena now…
What if you want to go for a shooty option instead? Well there’s Kustom Job for that, too:
And if you want to ensure you get the most out of it’s statline, you can always use a quick Patch Up:
One last thing – each Ork Clan also got ahold of new Psychic Powers. Evil Sunz got a nice ability that can help your vehicles accuracy with Visions in the Smoke:
A ‘Naut with a 4+ to hit from Shooting and re-rolls? That’s going to make their shooting actually hit – and that’s downright terrifying!
The Orks are going to be pretty fun to play around with thanks to the Psychic Awakening boost – are you going to be ready for their kunnin’ tricks?
