Finally, Characters get the biggest glowup. Most get far spicier on base rate, and all benefit from a hugely improved list of Warlord traits and some decent relics that should give them the tools they need to stomp on the ‘umies or whoever else is annoying you. At the higher end, the Beastboss on Squigosaur is probably the most powerful non-Named Character in the entire game, and that’s a neat way to segue into the things about this book that scare the hell out of me. The Kill Rig is a truly outrageous creation that could comfortably cost 40pts+ more than it does. Expect to see lots of them just as soon as players manage to paint the thing. Hunta Rig This is where Roar of Mork ended up – it still inflicts -1Ld to all enemies in range, but also tags one unit for -2 to Advance and Charge rolls. Pretty good! Overall this is an interesting and potentially potent part of the book. Trukk Boyz actively switches on some nasty stuff, and the rest go some way towards mitigating one of the challenges you often get in list design, which is taking units that don’t fit the main theme of your chosen faction. Quite a few of these let you amp up shooting units in a melee build or melee units in a shooting or vehicle-focused list, and that’s a neat mechanic that we really like. Warlord Traits

Once you have selected an eligible unit to declare a charge, you must select one or more enemy units within 12" of it as the targets of that charge. The targets of a charge do not need to be visible to the charging unit. Jabbin’ Fingerz: New power: WC6, one visible enemy unit within 18” subtracts 1 from their hit rolls for the turn. The Mekboy Workshop retains its link with Kustom Jobs, now letting you include the same one in your army multiple times, and also letting a Mek perform an Action to add one to one of your vehicles for free*. Free gets an asterisk there because you’re paying for both the Workshop and the Mek, and there’s also a chance that these bodge jobs fall off during the game. This datasheet is, honestly, a massive argument for some of these Fortifications becoming AoS style free add-ons for armies, it would fit very well into that paradigm. As it is, there’s a whole bunch of creative fun you can do with it, but it’s definitely not a competitive choice. Oscar Sorak – Drukhari: Pretty standard Drukhari goodstuff with a light Cronos contingent (2×2). Drukhari are good enough all-rounders that they don’t need to skew that much in teams, but the 2×2 Cronos does happen to be a particularly good number as it means they can be put into Strategic Reserves for 2CP, helpful both in matchups where the opponent has the reach to take them off the table at range, and as an offensive tools against armies reliant on 2W models like Grey knights.

Troops

Just before we close for this event, I thought a final interesting thing would be to run down the total army usage across the top eight teams, trying to get some indication of whether there’s any sneaky trends beyond the obvious “good armies still good”, and whether there is more diversity than normal. The answer? Kinda, yeah! Across the 64 total lists in scope, there were: This is feeling a bit like a 7th edition AdMech-style split codex, with the psychic disciplines applying to different units, and their buffs divided cleanly into Weirdboy powers that work on all CORE units, and Wurrboy powers that only work on Beastsnaggas (in a few cases, units have the keywords to benefit from both). Straight damage-dealing powers and enemy debuffs are available in both, but it seems to be incentivizing running the majority of a list as either Beastsnaggas or Orks Classic, without a lot of cross-pollination. Now let's assembly the prepared parts. So far we have quite a good impression of the size of the buggy. Similar to the Death Guard’s change with Disgustingly Resilient, this is going to be useless sometimes but more reliable and more useful overall. This shuts out a large number of “smaller” heavy weapons, including Heavy Bolters, Assault Plasma Incinerators, Autocannons, Fleshmowers, Executor Bolt Rifles, Plague Belchers, Belleros Energy Cannons, and Volkite Culverins, as well as a lot of 2-damage melee weapons. It’s a big boost on the faction’s deff dreads and killa kans. Two Ork Psychic Disciplines – Powers of the Waaagh! And Beasthead – with 6 powers each for your Weirdboyz and Wurrboyz to cast

These are, bluntly, outrageous powerhouses that should form a part of many successful lists. They’re all substantially better on both the offence and defence, mostly got cheaper, and some were already seriously playable units! Good stuff. Squighog Cavalry Often seen muscling their way through their fellow Speed Freeks as they hurl toward the front lines, Rukkatrukk Squigbuggies employ living close-range artillery to wreak havoc amongst the enemy. They launch a variety of squig beasts at the hapless foe such as: Rich’s list makes use of 3 Squigbuggies, less than some others that have popped up. The list runs the Squigbuggies as single units making them very annoying to kill. Taking them as Deathskulls also lets them get some extra re-rolls, which is pretty nice. The army is, as expected of Orks, a fast aggressive army. It’s got a ton of units and a lot of annoying ones, from the Squigbuggies, to a bunch of small squig-mounted units. There aren’t really any crazy combos with the Squigbuggies, though they do fit the theme, but they are a useful part of the army. They provide the bulk of the armies anti- MEQ ranged firepower and fit in well overall. All of these problems are fixed in the new book. Shifting the basic Ork statline to T5 and adding AP to the choppa means that every Boy (plus all the units that share their statline) now feels more like a brutal brawlin’ killa. That’s good, and what’s more this is somewhere where I think other sliders have been moved to stop this being oppressive. Your Boyz are better on their base rate, but the removal of Unstoppable Green Tide means that your starting complement is your lot, and the difference between victory isn’t going to turn on a last few dice rolls that determine whether a unit clings on to be completely refreshed. I was a bit worried when T5 Boyz was announced that they’d be oppressive, but I think here the tuning is good – they’re playable (with maybe a slight asterisk of “once Enriched Rounds gets nerfed”) and scary, but not broken. Eadbanger: reduced WC to 5, from 8, but instead of outright killing a model, does d6 Mortal Wounds to it. Known issue: unlike other MW, these do not spill over once the first model is killed.One or more units from your army can start to perform this action at the end of the Move Units step of your Movement phase if they are within 1" of a Hatchway. This action can be performed by any unit that is not within Engagement Range of any enemy models, even if that unit is being affected by a rule that would normally prevent it from performing actions. The action is completed at the end of your Movement phase if no enemy models are within 1" of that Hatchway. If there are any enemy models within 1" of that Hatchway, your opponent can attempt to prevent the action from being completed. If they do so, roll off with your opponent; each player adds the Strength characteristic of one of their models that is within 1" of that Hatchway to their respective scores. If you win, the action is completed; otherwise, the action fails. If completed, that Hatchway opens (if it was closed) or closes (if it was open). People who really like to convert vehicles by either lovingly crafting spectacular amalgams of 10 different kits, or by covering some other faction’s model in glue and rolling it around in their bitz box like a katamari. All in all, excellent stuff, and this team took an impressive 6-1 overall, only losing to FNP7+ in round 5 (and putting up what looks like a respectable fight in that). Top Eight Army Totals