Armada: Orc Fleet

 Since completing the Nameless for Deadzone I've been working on expanding my Orc Armada fleet from the one ship I had to a complete force. Once again I've had these 3D printed by Bristol Independent Gaming. 

I wanted to try a fleet out with an XL ship and as I'd already bought my Orc XL it was a reasonably easy choice to expand that fleet out. The Orc's like to get in close and pack plenty of C guns which means that once they get within 8" of the enemy they can really dish the pain. They also have a decent amount of crew strength for boarding actions and lots of ships with Ram.

If we start with the XL ship it comes in two versions both of which have strong broadsides of C guns and plenty of CS. These are ships that want to get in close and mix it up, but don't necessarily need to board straight away. I think I prefer the Ripper Hulk version as you have the IDW to use whilst you get close and it's 20 points cheaper than the Maul version. One thing I can't work out is why neither version has the Ram special rule which looking at the models is surprising.

The Smasher is the Large main battle ship of the fleet and again packs some good guns on the broadsides and a decent amount of CS for boarding. The two special Orc item upgrades give you an extra broadside C gun (Morguns) or +2 CS in boarding actions (Morax) at a discount to the generic item costs of these type of items. This emphasises the get in close and mix it up playstyle of the Orc fleet.

For the new ships in the fleet I tried to make them more of a colourful spectacle by adding in some bronze guns and plating as well as some red and blue panels. 

The Orc fleet wide special rule is Let's get them! which allows the ships to try and grapple opponents going at full speed. This isn't normally allowed and going at full speed is generally a good defence for shooty fleets to evade ones that want to board.

Blood Runners are cheap support ships which you need to fill out the minimum number of ships slots if you are playing a fully kitted out XL. They aren't really fast or tough but will come in useful for some ramming action to slow down enemy ships and also for taking objectives.

Hammerfist's are the cheapest main battle ship option in the Orc list and are pretty tough with decent guns and CS. However I'm really not a fan of the model as it looks rather silly to me, so I've only got the one and it probably won't be out on the table very much.

The Bombboat has a decent amount of C weapons on the broadside but it's really going to be hanging back to start off with and trying to break up enemy formations with it's IDW. The IDW on the rear could be useful if it needs to take evasive manoeuvres or if it sails clean through the enemy fleet.

Lastly we have the rabble fleet, these are very cheap and have the nice bonus of adding an extra CS onto friendly ships within 3". Keep one of these near your XL with Morax and you having a 13 CS boarding monster to eat up enemy ships.

Mr T and myself have started playing 250 point games and I've drawn up an initial list to try out with the Orcs. They have an interesting Admiral who allows you to double fire a weapon arc once per game. Sticking him on the XL with Morguns means a damage output of up to 42 points or damage between 3"-8" and 84 points at<=3", that would mess up most ships days very easily.