Proof That Space Orks Like Funfairs

Nigel Stillman chose six Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader Ork warbands for White Dwarf 133, with background detail.

These armies were put together for the mail order team in 1991 and each had at least 10% discount from normal retail prices. The Warbosses themselves were fairly uniform with power armour, bolt gun & knife. The exception was Snagrot who wore flak armour.

RTB13 Space Orks came 6 to a sprue so it's unsurprising these were sold in multiples of six. Each army was about 1000 points. Prices ranged from £33 to £55.

This was all a sales pitch, but I appreciate the effort Stillman put into providing lore for each army.

Waa-Grimbad (Goff)

Grimbad 'da Bad' lives for war. He loves the smell of fungus gas in the morning and the cheerful chatter of the bolter (dakka! dakka! dakka!). So do all his mates in the tribe. A lot of his drinking companions have been personally decorated for valour and raised to the status of high-ranking Nobz. Grimbad does not much like other clans because they are not as hard as the Goffs; nevertheless Grimbad has condescended to allow a Blood-Axe mob into his tribe, probably so he can expend them mercilessly in some tight spot.

Grimbad is a strong believer in bolter fodder, which is why there are no runtz in his tribe - they're all dead! His tactics are to get to grips with the enemy in hand-to-hand combat, regardless of the intensity of enemy fire. As far as he is concerned, this is the only way for a Goff to fight.

These tactics have earned the Warboss some criticism in the tribe, with the result that many of the younger Orks have joined the growing Stormboyz Korps. They know that Grimbad is going to march them straight into the strongest point in the enemy line, so they might as well train for it now so that they can overwhelm the opposition and live to fight another day.

The only troops armed for melee were ten Stormboyz who had chainswords and bolt pistols. Everyone else had a single knife. Orks were not good at close combat in Rogue Trader. I suspect these armies did not come with the Ork power weapon/heavy weapon sprue as a cost saving exercise.

Waa-Snagwort (Snake-Bites)

Snagwort's tribe lurk in the wilderness, following the trails of feral Orks, ambushing enemy convoys and raiding colonial outposts. Booty has been thin on the ground recently, so the tribe is numerous but lightly armed.

Snagwort is a very traditionaly-minded Warboss, obsessed with kultur and kustom. Some say he has survived the bites of hundreds of venomous snakes and has the skars to prove it, so no-one argues with him or they get dealt with in the fighting pits. All of the best armour, which in fact ancient trophies taken from Snagwort's own hovel, has been given to two Drillbosses in order to impress a bunch of whelps the tribe is trying to train in Ork ways. This has the advantage of giving the Wildboyz, armed with only primitive weapons, a real punch with some good old Ork technology.

Snagwort is lucky enough to have a bright Mekaniak who has made a version of the legendary Shokk Attack Gun which the tribe has recently heard about. The Runtherdz are keen on seeing this in action and are willing to bring the tribe's valuable herd along if it is to be put to worthwhile use. The Mek has also knocked up a Runtbot to protect the herd. The plan is for the Mek and one of the Runtherdz to get together with the herd and lob a few runtz into any enemy vehicles that come anywhere near them.

Snagwort also places great faith in the cunning deployment of his Weirdboyz. So this rather savage-looking horde have a few hidden stings to surprise their enemies.

I wish I knew the relative sales number for these lists. You have to be pretty dedicated to paint 90 Snotlings. Maybe they were targeting Epic scale gamers. At least the Shokk Attack Gun won't run out of ammunition.

Waa-Wazrokk (Evil Sunz)

Wazrokk has big planz. He wants his Boyz to be known across the galaxy as the tuffest, 'ardest, shootiest boyz there is. And once Waa-Wazrokk's on the move, nuffink's gonna get in his way.

Wazrokk is rapidly coming over to the idea of attacking his enemies hart and fast. Speed is the essence of warfare, or so the Meks keep telling him. So far, the tribe is only partly motorised but one day Wazrokk hopes to capture more vehicles and get the Meks to make some more 'specials' - a couple of kustomised Battlewagons is just what he needs. Some of the Nobz have already gone over to the speed cult and got themselves shiny new snazzy Warbikes. Wazrokk intends to use them as the spearhead of his warband to cut a swathe through the ranks of his enemies, which are many. A couple of Meks (also speed freeks) have got together and made an impressive War Buggy and Wazrokk is frantically saving up teef to get one for himself.

With this in mind, Wazrokk has let a family of Bad Moon traders into the tribal settlement so that these wheeler-dealers will bring in some more teef, which he can then get off them by charging extortionate fares for rides on his personal fun fair. Bad Moons tend to spend teef as fast as they can grow them.

If trouble starts before Wazrokk's ambitious mechanised column takes shape, he plans to use his speed freeks on their vehicles to outflank the enemy or charge straight at them (a job which speed cultists are best for), supported by the firepower of his foot-slogging infantry mobz.

Presumably the buggy is the large Battle Buggy . And we have definitive proof Orks like funfairs. It doesn't say what an Ork thinks a funfair is.

Waa-Nazgrim (Death Skulls)

Nazgrim is the Warboss of a small tribe of Death Skulls, whose reputation as looters and scavengers has attracted a small household of Blood-Axes into the tribe. Nazgrim doesn't trust them much so he's restricted them to bolt pistols just in case.

A bunch of scavengers like this lot naturally have a good-sized mob of Gretchin entrepreneurs trailing after da Boyz, although Nazgrim and his retinue Nobz have already filched the best armour in the tribe.

Another feature of Waa-Nazgrim is their large contingent of Madboyz, contributing in their own special way to the tribe's reputation for being unpredictable and dangerous.

Nazgrim's tactics are crude: he tends to trust in force and big numbers, so he has a large Big Mob and encourages other households to raise large mobz with his policy of 'fair shares' with regard to booty. Even so, Nazgrim needs a lot of Boyz in his Big Mob in order to keep the other families in the tribe under control as they are an unruly lot.

There were 20 Madboyz.

A Madmob is not controlled totally by the Ork player but instead follows the behaviour determined on the Madboy Charts.

-Bryan Ansell, Rick Priestly & Nigel Stillman, 'Ere We Go (1991)

There were eleven pages of rules for Madboyz. Fortunately, the mob all followed the same madness at the same time and the two Weirdboyz could be used to induce more favourable manias. The sculpts are charming.

Waa-Skumgrod (Blood-Axe)

Skumgrod's tribe deal with the Imperium, or as he puts it "We hates da skumbos but we likes da teef." Obviously he doesn't object to the advice of an Imperial officer or the assistance of an Imperial squad. These always fight in a uniform which corresponds to no known Imperial Guard regiment in order to avoid the risk of identification by enemy tribes.

Skumgrod cannot count on support from any other clans since he deals with 'skum' and is rightly treated with contempt and suspicion by other Orks. Skumgrod doesn't give a Gretchin's tooth for this, because he's got a mob of Ogryns with really shooty guns given to them by his 'friends'.

The last teef subsidy from these same 'friends' was used to hire Kaptin Snik's cut-throat mob of pirate Freebooterz, known to friend and foe alike as the scourge of the galaxy.

With this lot roaming the encampment, Skumgrod never feels very secure at night so he has raised the biggest Big Mob he can in order to guard him and maintain his authority of this motley crew. He also raises large mobz from the households of the clan with promises of huge amounts of teef.

Skumgrod's favourite tactic is to let the 'skum', the Ogryns and the Freebooterz do most of the hard fighting, so that he and his Boyz can follow up and grab the booty, the teef and the glory.

The Imperial Guard RTB7 miniatures were 4 torsos to a sprue so there was likely a spare. Two of the humans were armed with plasma guns which were unique to the Ork sprues.

Waa-Uzgrub (Bad Moons)

Uzgrub 'Rich Git' Narslang is one of the worst show-offs known to Orkdom. Only the best is good enough for his tribe. Mobz are small because he doesn't share out much loot, keeping most of it for his own retinue. That is why they are all done up in snazzy armour. Anyway, at least they know who is 'da Boss' which is the main thing so far as Uzgrub is concerned.

A family of Evil Sunz has been attracted into the tribe by the glamour and the gaudy gear of the warband. Not surprisingly there is a strong contingent of Gretchin entrepreneurs, since most of Uzgrub's Nobz won't lift a finger to do anything for themselves if the can pay a Gretchin to do it for them.

Uzgrub hopes to be able to blast his enemies away before they get near enough to spoil his armour but if things look a bit rough he is quite prepared to send the Gretchin to their dooom in order to hold up the enemy advance. At least Uzgrub can trust his retainers to die to the last Ork, defending their gear and their stash of teef.