Survive Against Waves of the Green Tide In “Rise of the Orks”
Space Marine Terminators, each a hero in their own right, are used to being outnumbered. But can these five Terminators last long enough to save the planet?
Greenskins have invited the Imperial planet of Vertex and Shield Generator Gamma-9 is all that stands in the way of the green tide. A few orks have slipped by and are looking to destroy the power reactors keeping the shield generator going. It’s up to a squad of Terminators to wipe them out and save all of Vertex.
Space Marine Adventures: Rise of the Orks is a cooperative horde defense tactical combat game. The objective of the players is to kill all of the orks before one of two things happen: either 3 Terminators get knocked out, OR once all of the power reactors are damaged.
At the beginning of the game, the players choose the difficulty rating, which determines how many orks will arrive each round, as well as the pool of orks which will appear throughout the game. At the beginning of each round, the previously mentioned number of orks spawn randomly around the board. Then the Terminators take their turns by taking one move and one attack (typically).
If a Terminator moves onto a supply space, they get to draw 2 supply cards, choosing 1 to keep and discarding the other. There are a wide variety of supply cards, ranging in effects from bonus attacks and movement or moving the orks around the board, and many others.
Terminators can attack any ork within their line of sight and kill an ork by rolling equal to or greater than the target ork’s toughness, listed in red on the right side of the token.
Once each Terminator has acted, the orks act. They will move up to their speed (in green) towards the nearest undamaged reactor, unless they reach an Terminator along the way. When an ork attacks, the Terminator automatically takes damage equal to the ork’s strength, (in yellow). There are also some orks with special abilities, like Painboy which adds 1 toughness too all nearby orks.
After every orks has acted, a new round begins and more orks spawn. Once the supply of orks is empty and the remaining orks on the board are killed, the Terminators win! However, if 3 Terminators are knocked out or if every reactor is damaged, the players lose.
Final Thoughts
Rise of the Orks is a fun, quick playing tactical skirmish game. It is super quick to set up and to play with no game taking more than 30 minutes, but still providing a great level of strategy. Plus the difficulty level mechanic is pretty freeform, so that give players full control of how much challenge they are looking for, which is great for inciting newer and younger players into the hobby.
Plus who doesn’t love mowing down waves of greenskins?
Space Marine Adventures: Rise of the Orks – $49.99 – Available Now
Space Marine Adventures: Rise of the Orks is a fast-paced cooperative game for 1-5 players, pitting a squad of heavily-armored Space Marine Terminators against a full-scale Ork Waaagh!
Subscribe to our newsletter!Get Tabletop, RPG & Pop Culture news delivered directly to your inbox.By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.Each of the stalwart warriors has a unique specialty, and utilizing their strengths is the key to winning the game. Variable difficulty levels offer harder challenges as you learn new tactics and improve your skills.
- 1 – 5 Players
- 30 Minutes
- Ages 10+
Thanks for watching!
