Codex Review: Vehicle Upgrades

‘Ello ‘ello ye bleedin’ gitz, this ‘ere be da thurd an’ final entry for Codex review: Wargear, da vehicle upgrades! After dis ‘ere gets done den we can move on to da importan’ bitz, da boyz demselves! We gonna take a right quick look at da snazzy upgrades fer yer Wagons and Trukks, plus dem stompy dreads an’ da like. ‘ere we go!

Just as before this review will cover the basic vehicle upgrades, any which are specific, like the Deff rolla for the Battlewagon will be reviewed with the Battlewagon.

Ork Vehicle Equipment:

Red paint job- Nothing makes a Trukk go faster than a nice coat of red paint, or some racing stripes for that matter (as long as they’re red). Orky believe that “Da red uns go fasta” as proven to be correct time and time again, Imperial intelligence still has yet to find out just how this happens for sure but it’s undeniable to anyone who sees just how fast Ork vehicles go.

One of the more interesting Ork upgrades available, painting a vehicle red (and paying the applicable points) does in fact make the vehicle go faster. Whilst moving Flat Out an Ork vehicle increases its speed by 1”. I find this upgrade more often than not un-necessary and usually will not make a difference in a game. If you have a Trukk or Warbuggy with red paint you increase its’ total move (Move + Flat out) from 24” to 25”, so potentially useful to get close enough to an objective it more likely has not won’t make much of a distance to getting closer to the enemy or into position to shoot next turn. I case of a Trukk you are usually 24” away from your opponent at the deployment step, so moving, flatting out, and then moving again in the next phase will net you 30” of movement, while doing the same with red paint is 31”, not a massive difference for a Trukk unit. It is however potentially more useful on non Fast vehicles such as Battlewagons or Supplemental Forge World units, as these models may only Flat Out 6” instead of 12”, that one extra inch may just help them. Overall this Vehicle equipment has a rating of C

Reinforced ram- Most Ork Meks fit their vehicles with large rams made from scrap which allow the vehicle to plow through terrain and enemy units and barricades with ease. In some cases Meks find they don’t have a choice, as the drivers of these vehicles love ramming things and end up damaging the vehicle in the process.

Any Ork vehicles with this upgrade may Tank Shock or Ram as if it were a tank, in addition it counts its’ front armour as two higher during a Ram. When moving through dangerous terrain the vehicle may re-roll failed Dangerous Terrain tests. These three abilities combined together make the Reinforce Ram one of the best dozer like upgrades available for vehicles, making it easier to move through terrain, being able to Tank Shock and Ram with non tanks, and counting the armour two higher will give Ork vehicles a sort of advantage on the table top, paired with their speed and high transport capacity Ork vehicles are not to be taken lightly. Overall this Vehicle equipment has a rating of A

Stikkbomb chukka- A crude device that fires a volley of Stikkbombz into the foe sending them ducking for cover allowing the Ork unit to organize a charge against the now bewildered enemy forces.

I would have to say this is without a doubt one of the most useless equipment choices for vehicles for the Orks, if not in the entire game. Effectively it counts the unit as having equipped with assault grenades the turn it gets out a vehicle and charges, the problem comes from the small fact that almost all units in the Ork codex come with assault grenades as standard equipment. There are a total of 3 units that do not come with Stikkbombz on their profile and those are Painboy, Mad Dok Grotsnik, and Grots. Now this could be useful for a Painboy as he strikes at I3 using his ‘urty syringe, but more often than not your opponent will be swinging first anyway, The Mad Dok is equipped with a Power Klaw so he swings at I1 regardless of having assault grenades or not and Grots are I2, so there is nothing they can swing before anyway and even if they were faster or the same speed as something else buying a transport for Grots that they will be using to assault from is a laughable idea. Overall this Vehicle equipment has a rating of F

Extra Armour- A fancy way of saying “Welding more scrap metal to the side of a Wagon”, Extra armour is adding a few pieces of armour to some of the more vulnerable parts of a Trukk or Wagon, such as the wheels, gas tanks or the drivers face. More often than not an “Armoured up” Trukk looks more like a pile of scrap than it did before the enhancement.

An upgrade that is almost universal to armies that have access to vehicle upgrades, Extra armour offers slight protection to a vehicle, treating Crew Stunned as Crew Shaken results instead. This can be useful to transports as it allows them to keep moving and not get bogged down by a lucky shot from the opponent. On more shooting focused battle tanks it can be useful in case enemy infantry get too close, you don’t want you tank being destroyed in combat because it’s not able to move away from any unit trying to assault it. Overall this Vehicle equipment has a rating of C

Grot Riggers- Effectively Ork damage control for vehicles, Grot riggers make hasty repairs to vehicles during battle, riveting on new armour plates after a missile blasts through the side of a wagon, replacing tank tracks or even pushing the vehicle to a safe spot to repair it without getting shot, these little Mek minded Grots keep the tanks going well past when they should have been blown up.

A fairly useful upgrade, Grot riggers give any vehicle the It will not die special rule, effectively allowing the tank to repair mid battle without a Mek being present. More so useful on Battlewagons due to their high armour or Deff Dreads so they can keep going in combat over Trukks that usually don’t make it past a turn of shooting. Overall this Vehicle equipment has a rating of B

Wreckin’ ball- Much as it sounds, a Wreckin’ ball is a large crane like arm that is usually fitted with a spiked ball or other sort of large dense object that an Ork operator will swig into enemy vehicles as they race by. Nothing is more satisfactory to the Ork controlling it than to hear a large crash and see parts of a vehicle flying away, as a huge rent leaves it crippled.

The only Ork vehicle equipments that add an additional weapon to the vehicle, the Wreckin’ ball is an extremely short range weapon with a threat range of 3” but what it lacks in range it makes up for in power. Every time you use this weapon it gets D3 S9 AP4 shots that work just like any normal shooting attack. Making a vehicle with a Wreckin’ ball quite possible of severely damaging another vehicle at short range, if not destroying it completely

. The power this weapon offers often outweighs the short range and point cost tied to it. Overall this Vehicle equipment has a rating of B

Boarding planks- Large spiked planks that are often welded to the hull or set up with hinges, these allow a Mob of Orks to disembark much faster than normal from a vehicle, even if it hasn’t come to a complete stop yet.

A great piece of wargear for an Ork mob that loves to assault from vehicles, Boarding planks grant a +2” bonus to units disembarking that charge in the same turn (to a maximum of 12”). This helps the Boyz reach enemies in those hard to reach places. Overall this Vehicle equipment has a rating of A