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Tactica: Speed Freaks - Koppo | |
I have gamed with a speed freak army for about 3 or 4 years with both success and failure. What I have learned maybe of use to others and possibly my mistakes will serve just as well as a warning. This article contains a critique of three tactics that can be used with a speed freak force, one of which is very common the other two quite uncommon. Aside form that it is just a random ramble on speed freak tactics and how I think it should be done.
The Ork Skate Board BrigadeOne prevalent tactic used with the freaks is the Ork skate boards of doom. This entails maxing out on truck boyz, not forgetting a burna boy mob with a mek holding a kustom force field, a big mek with a kustom force field and using all remaining points on elites in trucks and power klaws all round for the nobz.The tactic employed with this type of force goes thusly: 1. Line up all trucks ensuring the burna boyz and big mek are covering as many of your trucks as possible. 2. Pray like mad for the first turn. 3. Move all truks 24" towards your opponent. 4. Next turn all the orks jump out of their trucks (if they have not already fallen out) and charge the opponent. 5. Lots of HtH, next turn those orks whose rides got shot up charge into combat. 6. Throw lots of dice until all the orks are dead or you win. Now this is a legitimate tactic and does work quite often but it has some flaws. If you face a firepower heavy army and you don't get the first turn you will get all your transports blown out from under you and you'll face the long walk to the other side of the board, and without the benefit of a footslogging forces numbers very few orks will get there. Against armies like 'nids this force again has problems, the 'nids are fast enough to pounce on orks that get blown out of their trucks and will tend to chew orks up in HtH. Lacking as it is any real firepower the orks are left with no choice other than to assault and promptly get their backsides handed to them on a plate. Personally I feel the biggest flaw with this tactic is that it provides very little enjoyment, its predictable, involves very little thought and ultimately quite boring. Waaaagh! Dakka! Dakka!Speed freaks can actually muster a healthy dose of firepower, both anti-infantry and anti-tank. This does tend to surprise most opponents, a BS of 2 is one of the worst in the entire game but there is a trade off, ork heavy weapons are cheap and plentiful. A 1500 point force can cram in 20 rokkits, each one capable of an effective range of 30" or 36" (24" range plus 6" move or 12" truck move).Speed freaks also get access to guntrukks, mounted with a zapp gun these are pricy and fragile but hit automatically and on average get 14 on armour penetration rolls and their mobility conteracts the short range of the Zapps. The best however in my opinion is the fact that speed freaks can get access to multiple battlewagons. Under 40k v4 they get even better and a battle wagon armed with big shooters and the full complement of bolt-on big shooters gives it 24 Str 5 shots at 36" (42" including movement), of which nine get re-rolls to hit. Using a battle wagon of similar loadout (swapping one twin linked big shoota for a zapp gun) I have wiped out entire space marine tactical squads. True I have also missed with every single shot once but still, that's luck for you. The obvious problem for anybody considering taking this approach is the fact that you will miss, a lot. In fact you will miss a hell of a lot, but that does not matter, done right you will hit with something every turn and be killing things. The important thing to remember is to bring along some orks to apply the coupe de grace. After all, when all the shooting's over you still have to give the enemy a taste of choppa and boot leather, oh and to take objectives. Of course these boyz should bring along a rokkit or two, just to help. "'Old it ladz, 'old it.. Now!"My personal favourite tactic is one that I feel uses the freaks in a manner that befits their mobility. It uses the hard edged assaults of the skate boarding brigade but also the surprising firepower of the Waaaagh! Dakka dakka approach. Basically you use the mobility of the freaks to manoeuvre move around your enemy while all the time pounding him with rokkits and big shootas. At the right moment you move your biggest and baddest assault squads in to (hopefully) smash an already weakened opponent.Army Composition This tactic requires two things, two or three rock hard assult units, personally I use a warboss and retinue and a 14 strong unit of skarboyz, and plenty of guns. In my force the guns are supplied by two battlewagons, three buggies, three bikes and two trukks. All these guns should be highly mobile although many will opt for a looted basilisk or Leman Russ. Personally I think the Bassie and Russ don't fit this tactic, its all about fluidity and movement, stopping to fire ordinance kind of breaks that down and gives your opponent something static to nail you down with. You may well find you mobile army just ends up protecting your looted ordinance and so entirely removing their mobility. You might as well just collect a footslogger force and get loads of big gunz. Secondary to this is the fact that main battle tanks and artillery just does not fit with the freaks background, any artillery would be left miles behind by a real speed freak. I suggest using either battle wagons, buggies or gun trucks to supply the anti-tank fire and bikes to provide the anti-infantry. Battle wagons may only be a little more mobile than a Russ but carry loads of guns and under v4 can get to shoot loads of them each turn. Troops wise the aforementioned Warboss and retinue and Skarboyz are a good start but 'Ardboyz should be considered as their 4+ save is a real bonus when falling out of trucks. I would suggest mounting a retinue in a trukk for speed but mount your elites in wagons so you can up the mob size, remember, freaks cannot mob up. You should also invest in a fast unit of truck boyz to attack any indirect firing ordinance, give the nob a power klaw and get busy. Burna boyz are a must, they can bring along a mek who can carry the all important Kustom Force Field. Also they get one of the best tank killers in the game, the supa stick bomb, give him one of these, they're great. Setting Up Using this tactic it can sometimes be to your advantage to go second. You have a highly mobile army and it should be you dictating the action, not the die roll. With this in mind hug cover like it was your bestest friend in all the world, remember all your vehicles have grot riggers, don't be afraid of the long grass, you can even set up in difficult terrain if needed. Because all your guns can move and fire you don't even have to worry about LOS for your boyz as you can just move to get the shot in your turn. There have been numerous times when I have gone second and my opponent just wasted his first turn because he could not see anything. Setting Up Example  This example shows both how to and how not to do it. The main force is quite safe from the Leman Russ and squads indicated with the green circles but in serious danger from those marked in red. In this particular case I got shot up real bad in turn one and most of my army was walking. On the other hand what was still functioning did wipe out that flank (if memory serves I did lose this game, but not too badly).  "Mount up boyz!" The first turn can be very important. First you must decide what you must kill first. The highest priority should go to indirect ordinance followed by transports and heavy weapon squads. Use your truck boyz to advance on any indirect ordinance and use as much of you 24" as possible but ensure you are hidden behind some terrain. Any bikes in the army should be considered expendable ablative armour for your assault elements. Use them to engage any infiltrating units that have strayed too close and failing that zoom off in front of your army and hope they attract the krak missile meant for your battlewagons and gun trucks. The gunz element of your force should also advance. If you are using buggies and no wagons the buggies should zoom off like loons, some going for a frontal attack hoping to pop a tank or too and others going for the flanks at full speed. These will be in position for a shot up the enemy's backside next turn. If battlewagons have been taken I suggest that they don't zoom off at full tilt but move 6" and lay down as much fire as possible. Under v4 a wagon can get to fire its Zappgun (really the only worthwhile option) and both twin-linked big shooters. In addition it can mount five bolt-on big shooters and these have the benefit of being able to target a different unit to the wagon itself (this is because they are being fired by the unit inside the wagon, not the wagon). Any remaining units should advance, but you must decide whether to use a unit's weapons and try to pick off some opportune targets or move your full distance and position for later. Burna boyz with a mek holding a KFF should be positioned to cover your important trucks/battlewagons. "Wait for it ladz" Further turns should be used to position your force, don't rush in on the 2nd or 3rd turn just because you can. This will result in your assault being destroyed piecemeal and you will not get anywhere. Of course the longer you hold back to more chance your opponent has of disabling your vehicles. You should use these turns to get some units behind our opponents lines and behind cover while all the time keep sniping with rokkits at vehicles and heavy infantry and blasting away with bolt-on big shooters at everything they can hurt. As far as possible you should concentrate fire on a single target and make sure that it gets disabled or badly mauled. "Now Ladz, Waaaaaaagh! Dakka Dakka" The moment to strike is very difficult to judge but is essentially when your assault units are all within range of the same area of the table at the same time and when that area of table contains plenty of the enemy and that enemy have been weakened to the point where you can kill them all in one or two rounds of combat. When you do strike do so with everything that can reach, shoot everything possible at your targets and get as many boyz as possible to put the boot in. Remember if you kill them all you can consolidate back into your trucks and then zoom off to attack the next section of your opponents force. Example Below is an example of how to do it. Admittedly my opponent seems to have most obligingly set up his force in a manner best suited to this tactic but I assure you this is what happened.  The thin red arrows indicate the paths the visible units took; the fatter red lines show where my battlewagons and trukks went. As can be seen what I did not do was charge straight at his force. The Bikes did, but then they always do. What that achieved was to reduce the amount of firepower going at my buggies and force my opponent to make a decision, "do I stand still this turn to shoot or move to better positions and possibly get shot up/assaulted?" Now if he had moved and failed to kill my bikes I would have assaulted him anyway, possibly locking a unit or two in place for a further turn. This action of keeping the opponent still is very important. In this case he stayed static and blew my bikes and a couple of buggies away. Unfortunately for him this meant that he failed to make use of the cover to slow down an assault and also failed to manoeuvre his heavy weapons to get a good LoS to my assault elements when they emerged from the cover on both sides. I also did not rush in my two trukks at the first opportunity but they waited, in this case out of sight, until the battlewagons were within striking distance. And in a perfect "Wait for it….Now!" moment I assaulted with everything at once and obliterated the opposing force entirely. Of course it never usually works that well but you get the idea. What this tactic has problems with This tactic does have its limits and it works best against elite armies like Marines, certain varieties of Chaos, Necrons and to some extent, Eldar. This is because the speed and flexibility of the tactic and force outlined allows you to literally run rings around them, they need to nail you down to bring their strength to bear but you can just act like smoke and dissipate to attack elsewhere. It tends to fail badly against Tyranids and massed infantry imperial guard as 'nid are very fast, the guard can field a lot of guns as can just blow away your transports with ease and both 'nid and guard bring along loads of bodies and will just grind down the limited number of Orks in assault and are far too numerous to shoot at. Against other Orks this tactic seems to fair quite well but why I have not figured out why yet. So far I have quite failed to beat the Tau with this approach and am still a little fuzzy as to why, I think it may be something to do with the str5 gun they get given. | |
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