+++Battlefleet Gothic+++

Ork Ships

by Quinton Woeppel

Orky technology is the least advanced and yet the most durable in known space. Few Human or Eldar technicians can deduce what makes Ork technology work at all. After the outer casing of some Ork apparatus are removed, all that is found is an odd collection of gears and wires with absolutely no connections at all. Though this baffles other races, the Orks are entirely OK with this state of affairs. Though most Ork space vessels are remnants from the Old Ones, some Ork Mechaniacs have attempted to create new designs with some minor success. After a successful Xspearamint in ship construction is completed many other Mechaniacs hasten to copy and "improve" the initial design, usually to catastrophic results.

Ork crews are a basically unreliable and rather badly trained lot. They prefer to fly strait ahead with all guns blazing and ram anything that gets in the way. The construction of their ships reflects this as does their leadership value.

Ork ships follow all standard rules for speed.

Only Ork Space Kanz are agile enough to turn any more than 45 degrees in a turn.

Ork shields behave differently than other races. Though they are generally stronger there is a chance that they will overload after each turn. On any turn that the shields don't hold (i.e. the ship takes hits) roll a d6. On a roll of 6 the shields are shorted out for the remainder of the turn and the entire next turn as well.

When a ship is fired at, the attacker must roll equal to or over the armor rating to score a hit. Ork ships are rather crudely put together but they are layered to absorb damage. Most Ork Ships have an armor rating above 5+

Ork ships abound with turrets. Every Ork on board wants to shoot something during battle so most Ship Kaptins place Turrets on every available surface. Ork Turrets are not entirely reliable. Turrets must roll for malfunction during the firing phase. See Armament for Malfunction rule.

Ork Armament follows most standard rules. Range, Hit modifiers, and Damage remain the same. However, Ork weapons technology is moderately unreliable.

Malfunction Rule:

During the firing phase(or defense phase for turrets)any 1's rolled to hit must have a malfunction roll made for them. Roll a d6. On a 1 the weapon has shorted out and will be unavailable until repaired. Treat this as a critical hit that causes no damage to the ship. This includes turrets and torpedo launchers. Only the number of dice that rolled 1's are affected. (i.e. an Ork ship has 10 turrets and three 1's are rolled when trying to hit incoming torpedoes. Those three 1's are re-rolled and if any 1's are rolled again then all three turrets malfunction. If a weapon battery of Firepower 10 is allowed to roll 8 dice and two 1's are rolled then they must roll again to test for malfunction. If either malfunctions then the weapon battery will have a firepower of 8 until the damage is repaired.)

Malfunctioning Torpedoes will cause one hit to the launching ship each and permanently lower the torpedo strength by the number of torpedoes that malfunction. (this only occurs if the torpedoes will hit the target on the turn they are launched (i.e. target within 30cm.). Otherwise they will self detonate and cause no harm)

Ork Starfighters are called Space Kanz. These Fighters have a hits value of 2 rather than the standard 1. This requires turrets to make two hits to remove each Kan. Other weapons fired at Kanz must also cause two hits. Any dice rolled for Kanz shooting also follow the Malfunction rule except that a malfunctioning Kan is destroyed by the back-blast.

Ork Ships

Ork Ships are big lumbering vessels covered with symbols of the Ork gods Gork and Mork. They are loaded down with guns, and have thick hulls, but their shields are at best unreliable and their speeds slow.

Sample ships: