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[W40K] Ork Companies PDF Print E-mail
Written by The Unshaven   
Monday, 18 June 2007

Orks I've had some theories for how you could use the Company and Unworthy Opponents rules in REIGN for Orks in the Warhammer 40,000 setting. Anyone can feel free to correct me for Correct Orky Feel, and Actual Facts, as I have mainly by-proxy experience of Warhammer generally. 

ORK COMPANIES.
 
I've shifted the way Qualities interact for Orks slightly, in an attempt to reflect how they work.

First of all, Influence: Orks don't use Influence. This is a raft of options that is not available to them.

Might: Ork companies start with a minimum of Might 1.

Sovereignty: Sovereignty also works a little differently. For Orks, it is an average of Might and Territory. Against other Ork bands, the Sovereignty average has at least one subtracted from it unless your Company's Sovereignty is 3 or Higher.

This is intended to reflect the internal divisions within the Orks, and how deeply tied they are to their numbers. At a particular tipping point of arms and/or territory, it's presumed that a Boss is now involved and that things are a little more organised.

Territory: As normal.

Treasure: This is a little bit different. Initially, Orks get 1 Treasure for every *2* that is stolen in raiding or other actions against their neighbours. This doesn't have to be in one action, so if last month you got 1 Treasure, and this month you get another 1, then yours goes up.

Why is this? Firstly, because an Ork company's Might cannot be lower than its Treasure. If they're tied and Treasure goes up, Might follows. My reasoning for this is that Treasure is representative of the resources looted and stolen from other nations, and which is being retrofitted into Toyz and Gubbins. Initially, the Orks bust as much as they steal, which is why it's a 2 for 1 ratio.

If the Sovereignty of an Ork company ever hits 3, then the focus provided by having a Boss means they're more focused in their looting. Treasure from raiding goes back to a 1 for 1 increase. The parity with Might continues.

It's also worth considering that the higher a Company's Treasure, the more advanced the Company is going to be on the field. You can expect to see more magic, more Meks, and other such developments the higher the Treasure is.

You Do Not Want An Ork Company To Hit This Threshold.

Ork If the Sovereignty of an Ork Company ever hits 5, then you have a whole new problem. At that point, it is large enough that other Orks nearby are going to begin gravitating towards it, let alone fighting the boss.

Roll Sovereignty + Territory with Difficulty equal to Might.

If two Ork Companies of equal Sovereignty go head to head, their effective Sovereignty is reduced by at least 1, perhaps 2. This would flow over into any other Company conflicts that month. That way, once a Boss is established within a Company, the typical Orkish infighting is reduced - and yet if another Boss of equal stature turns up, then all bets are off.

A reduction in Sovereignty past 3 would mimic the rest of the Orks deciding that their Boss isn't doing them much good anymore, and POW back to scrabbly infighting. Much the same result as assassinating him would be.

Possibly some kind of botch on that Sovereignty + Territory roll, so no successes at all, reduces effective Sovereignty for an extra 1 that month as new Orks challenge the leadership, even as Might goes up another 1.

"Our campaign against the Orks has thinned out their numbers, commander!"
*pause*
"Well shit, they're back again."


Notes: Orks do not have access to any of the temporary raises for Qualities that normal companies do. The entire wierd Orky machine is running full-blast the whole time. Tactical variants like Fight from Entrenchments can apply, but only once Sovereignty has hit 3 and a Boss is on the field to persuade the boyz not to run out and start choppin.

Additionally, Orks are vulnerable to successful Head Hunting attacks once they do hit Sovereignty 3. It should be a game session in itself for feel, but if you do successfully kill the Boss then along with other consequences, the Company's Sovereignty falls by one. The Company loses any benefits it had of being over one of the thresholds if the number falls past that point.

Eradicating an Ork Company

Reducing Ork Sovereignty to 0 will certainly splinter the company, but will not eradicate the scourge.

In practice, since Ork Sovereignty is largely derived from Might and Territory, assaulting those directly will yield the best results. Tactically, Orks are also vulnerable to having their Treasure (and thus tech level) damaged.

Should you eradicate the Company on paper, then a new game begins. Take the Territory held by the Orks at the height of their power, and subtract 1 (or 2, if they rose very rapidly and didn't have much time at that level.)

From the Ork perspective, after 5 - (Territory - 1 or 2) Months, their Might will pop back up to 1 and the whole saga will begin again. This represents the Ork infestation producing wild Orks, as reinforcements for whoever escaped the last battle.

This number (which I will refer to as Infestation Score for the sake of argument) is reduced by 1 for each month (or relevant timeperiod) you attack it as normal, essentially to represent going through conquered territory and burning chunks of it and putting any Orky wildlife to the sword. This also stops the clock for re-infestation.

If there is a whole month in which you do NOT attack the Infestation Score, then the clock begins again with 5-Infestation Score months until more Orks appear and the Company revives at its most basic level of Might 1.

After that month, the first time you attack the Infestation Score does not reduce the number, but instead resets the clock to 0. The next month after that, you can reduce the score again.

Metadiscussion

The theory I was going for here was to make Orks a nuisance. They're hard to eradicate, unless you have nothing else to focus on but cleansing their territories of wild growth, and have a tendency to pop back up again if you turn your back. And they have a potential to become exponentially more dangerous once they hit certain thresholds, to attempt to emulate an "Orkish pests, Orkish pests, filthy greenskins, OH GODS THEY'RE AT THE GATES AUGH!" vibe.

If anyone has better or more elegant suggestions for this, I would be very happy to hear them.

Orkish Unworthy Opponents:

The minimum Threat of an Ork Mob is 2, as even the most disorganised mob is at least as dangerous as wolves.

Ork Mobs are immune to magic-based Morale Attacks at any level less than or equal to their Threat, to represent how Orks gain confidence in numbers.

Ork Mobs are immune to Morale Attacks from individual humans as if their Threat were 1 point higher than they are, so a Threat 2 Mob of Orks is going to be immune to Morale Attacks lower than 4 using the Threaten manouvre, for example, because Orks just aren't scared by much.

However, little provides a Motivation boost to Ork mobs. They're already running on full bore, so unless the Warboss is physically there (a whole new problem in itself) what you see is what you get. 


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Chris Cooper     | 196.25.255.250 | 2007-06-18 11:40:07
I believe WH40K Orks are part vegetable and their corpses regrow and regenerate in the soil after being killed. So, at any ork battlefield, ork fatalities re-emerge out of the ground hungry for conquest.

The Unshaven - Whoops, correction!   | Publisher | 2008-02-02 00:25:39
I've only just now realised that there's some information missing from this article.

Here we go:

~~~~~~~~

Roll Sovereignty + Territory with Difficulty equal to Might.

If successful, Might goes up by 1 as the Ork company recieves reinforcements.

~~~~~~~~~

I'm guessing it was obvious from context, but there we go.

- The Unshaven.
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Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved.

 
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