Appendix Orkicus (MkII)

by Andy Chambers and Gav Thorpe

Orks have spaceships for raiding and general piracy but they also make use of space hulks and roks for invasion fleets and in the defence of Ork-held systems. Its highly unlikely that any Citadel miniatures even could be made for these craft but we’ve decided to include rules for them anyway because they’re fun and comparitively easy to scratch-build.

ORK ROK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 pts

Orks Roks are basically large asteroids hollowed out and fitted with drives, guns and crew quarters. Though Roks are incapable of travelling through the warp any system containing Orks will quickly accumulate a growing number of Roks as the Orks ‘build’ them at prodigious rate. For example in 147.M41 an Imperial cruiser force swept the Kaloth system for Ork pirates and destroyed seven escort class ships and four Roks. In 148.M41 another expedition encountered twenty one Roks in the same system and was forced to disengage after the battlecruiser Stalwart Warrior suffered crippling damage and was in danger of being overwhelmed by Ork boarding parties.

Type/Hits Speed Turns Shields Armour Turrets
Defence/6 10cm special 1 5+ 1
Armament: Range/Speed Firepower/Strength Fire Arc
Heavy gun Battery 15cm 4 All round
Gunz Battery 45cm D6+6 All round
Torpedoes speed 30cm D6 All round
Special rules

Roks are sufficiently different to both defences and true spaceships to require a number of special rules. However any rules which are not specifically noted as being modified below apply in full to Roks, for example Roks which lose half their damage are crippled just like other vessels.

Movement: Because they are basically large lumps of rock with engines studded all over them, roks don’t move in the same way as normal ships. In their movement phase Roks travel 10cm forward in a straight line, no more, no less. Roks may not turn or use Burn Retros or Come To New Heading orders.

On all ahead full orders roks move an extra 2D6cm in any direction at the end of their move. If this causes them to move 10cm or more in a different direction to the one they are travelling in, this becomes their new direction of travel. Thus;

A successful rok course change.

An unsuccessful rok course change.

Due to their low speed and considerable momentum roks which are crippled or moving though blast markers do not reduce their speed. Roks in the gravity well of a planet or moon may make free turns like an ordinary ship and/or place themselves in a stationary or low orbit.

Critical hits: Roks lack the complex systems of true space craft so critical hits are not rolled on the critical table, instead each critical hit inflicts +1 point of damage.
Building Roks

Roks are nice and easy to build and make good practise for building space hulks! Here’s your step by step guide to rok engineering

Step

Take a flying standing and drive a rough chunk of polystyrene (anything up to about 5cm across) onto it.

Paint the polystyrene with textured paint (avaialble from DIY stores) or a mixture of paint or glue and sand will do.

Find lots of small pieces of junk from your bits box - spare turrets, engines, antenna, whole escort ships, pieces of Epic tanks, small tubes and so on. Don’t go too mad with the number of pieces (especially metal bits) or the whole thing will get over-balanced and tip over all the time in an annoying fashion

Push the small bits into place across the rok, pushing them into the painted surface so that they will be securely attached. Then use PVA glue to stick the small bits in place. Important note - Do NOT use superglue for this as it will only melt the polystrene and produce horrible toxic fumes.

Cover any exposed bits of polystyrene with more glue and sand.

Spray it black and paint it. You will need to put a mark on the Rok’s base to show which way it travels, I used stickers for this but transfers or a blob of paint work just as well.

 

ORK Space Hulk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 600 pts

Space hulks are gigantic agglomerations of ancient wrecked ships, asteroids, ice and other such flotsam and jetsam as are cast together after millenia of drifting in and out of warp space. How and why space hulks appear from the warp and are then drawn back to it is unknown, although there is plentiful evidence for some being controlled or navigated by their inhabitants or some external force. Some space hulks are infested with alien life forms, Chaos renegades or even worse horrors but most are simply empty, ghost ships plying the void forever. Tales of greedy scavengers meeting a horrible fate aboard a space hulk are told throughout the Imperium, but there are just as many tales of vast fortunes made from the ancient technology they carry.

For the Orks space hulks are their primary method of travelling between the stars. When a space hulk appears in an Ork-held system it is soon seized and converted into a huge invasion craft with cavernous launch bays for innumerable assault boats and hundreds of thousands of Ork warriors and their war machines. Once completed the space hulk is sent back out of the system with an attendant fleet of attack ships, roks and kroozers. Once beyond the outer reaches the space hulk will eventually be drawn back into the warp and, if all goes well, arrive at some point at a world ripe for conquest. No Ork space hulks were reported in the Gothic sector during the course of the war, but by their very nature a space hulk could appear at any place at any time.

Type/Hits Speed Turns Shields Armour Turrets
Defence/ 40 10cm Special 3 4+ 6
Armament: Range/Speed Firepower/Strength Fire Arc
Prow Gunz 45cm 2D6+6 Front
Prow Torpedoes 30cm 2D6 Front
Prow Heavy Gunz 15cm 8 Front
Starboard Gunz 45cm 2D6+6 Right
Starboard Torpedoes 30cm 2D6 Right
Starboard Launch Bays Fighta-bommas- 25cm
Assault boats 30cm		 D6+2 -
Port Gunz 45cm 2D6+6 Left
Port Torpedoes 30cm 2D6 Left
Port Launch Bays Fighta-bommas- 25cm
Assault boats 30cm		 D6+2 -
Dorsal LAnces 60cm 4 All round
Aft Gunz 45cm 2D6+6 Rear
Special rules

Like roks, hulks are so unlike other spaceships that they require a number of special rules. Again, any rules which are not specifically noted as being modified below apply in full to hulks.

Leadership: Due to their enormous size and the strain this places on Ork communications systems (ie shouting loudly) means a hulk is always Leadership 6.

Warlords: If an Ork warlord is aboard a space hulks its boarding value is not doubled. Also the warlords upgrades are modified as noted below:

Looted torpedoes and Maniac gunners upgrades can be used to affect only one weapon system or torpedo battery per turn. Which system is being affected must be nominated before the roll is made for its effectiveness - the reroll can’t be transferred elsewhere afterwards!

Extra powerfields costs +50pts instead of +25.

Mad Meks enables the hulk to ignore the effects of a critical hit on a D6 roll of 6.

Mega armoured boarding parties is unchanged.

Special orders: A space hulk may not use come to new heading or burn retros special orders. Due to their enormous capacity Space hulks do not run out of ordnance if they roll a double for their command check for reload ordnance special orders.

Movement: Like roks space hulks must move 10cm in a straight line each turn, no more, no less. Space hulks likewise do not have their speed reduced by blast markers or damage.

Turning: A space hulk must spend a movement phase going straight before it can turn in its next movement phase, and the turn made must be taken at the end of the space hulk’s movement. Thus;

Crippling: Space hulks are not crippled by damage like ordinary ships. They are so big that they must be gradually eroded by enemy fire.

Critical Hits: Do not roll for the effects of critical hits on a space hulk using the critical damage table. Instead the player who inflicted the critical can choose one of the options below to represent them targetting specific areas or systems of the hulk. Hulks may not repair damage from critical hits during the game.

Option 1. Reduce one of the following characteristics by one point:

Turret value.

Shield value.

Lance strength.

or

Option 2. Reduce one of the following chracteristics by two points:

The Firepower of a battery facing the direction the attack came from.

The strength of a torpedo battery facing the direction the attack came from.

The strength of one of the launch bays.

or

Option 3. Damage the hulks thrusters. The hulk must roll higher than the number of thruster damage criticals it has suffered on a D6 in order to turn.

Gravity wells: If a hulk is within the gravity well of a planet or moon at the end of its movement it can make a single 45° turn towards the planet or moon regardless of whether it turned in its last movement phase. Also, the enormous size and mass of a space hulk means that it creates its own gravity well extending 5cm from the edges of its base. This affects other ships in exactly the same way as a planetary gravity well and means that ships, roks etc can take up a stationary orbit with the hulk. Objects orbitting the hulk are moved along with it until such time as they break orbit.
Building Hulks

As mentioned above hulks are built in a very similar fashion to Roks. The main difference is that a hulk needs a central core to give it some rigidity and a big base.

Step

Take a length of wood, dowelling or plastic tube to form your central core and cut it so that it’s about 15-20cm long.

Drill a hole in the core halfway along it and glue some strong wire into the hole (coat hanger wire is about stiff enough) using a two part epoxy glue. This will give you a ‘handle’ for holding the hulk while you’re modelling it and later a stem for your base.

Find another chunk of wood for the base of the hulk and drill a hole in it that the wire attached the core can fit into. This makes a useful temporary stand while you’re working on the hulk and eventually you can glue the wire into place to form a permanent base when you’ve finished it. Note, you could simply use a battleship-sized base but you’ll need to keep the hulk itself light or go for some serious reinforcement to prevent the perspex stand breaking. On my hulk I ended up having to use three stands to brace it because it was so heavy!

Scrunch some polystyrene onto the wooden core and secure it in place with lashings of pva glue. Use the polystyrene to give it a general shape you can add bits to later.

Paint the polystyrene with textured paint as for a Rok.

Add antenna, wrecked ships and gun turrets to taste. On my hulk I also used pieces of tubing to represent fighter launch tubes and a number of really old metal spaceships I’ve had kicking around since dinosaurs ruled the earth. However don’t add anything which is too big as it will destroy the hulk’s sense of scale. Secure the pieces in place as for the Rok.

Cover any exposed bits of polystyrene with more glue and sand.

Spray it black and paint it. You will need to mark the proper base size - a 6cm diameter circle (same as a battleship) - onto whatever you’re using to mount the hulk on. You could just use the hulk’s actual base of course but this will make it a huge target for nova cannon, torps etc.

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