[Orks] Waaaagh! Nobrot!: Meganobz

Hey again all... welcome to another Waaaagh! Nobrot! blog-fest. After last weeks blog about Ork Lootas, I brought them out to play for a game and did surprisingly well with them, thinning out the smaller Tyranid units through sheer rate of fire and high strength. They did get took down eventually thanks to a Deep Striking Doom of Malantai causing them grief and their Grot buddies not doing well to protect them.

This week however, continuing moving through the Elite slots of the Orks, I figured I'd talk about the proper 'Eavy hitters of the Ork Elites - Meganobz.

As with the rest of my army, the concept of the Meganobz is that they are Lootas to the extreme, taking Beaky Terminator armour, doing some Mek work and coming out with a 2+ armour save.

These guys were made from a kit-bash between a box of Ork Nobz and a squad of Assault on Black Reach terminators. Torso and legs were Terminator, Arms and Heads are the Orkz. Then top this off with a ton of armour plates from the Boyz and Nobz boxsets, along with some vehicle glyphs. The only let down I have with these guys is I couldn't be bothered trying to make a suitable Twin Linked shoota for each one, so copped out and gave them a Slugga so I could get them on the table faster.

Each of them is then painted in a different Marine chapter's colour - specifically the other chapters that people play at MAWS! Red for James' Blood Angels, Blue for Marcus Ultramarines, Black for Ste's Black Templars, Bone for Rob's Deathwing and a Dark Grey as a test bed for my future Marine army, Space Wolves.

Meganobz on the table however are one of my personal favourite units in the Ork codex, though not so much for rules more the concept of huge clanking Orks with piston driven weaponry.

They're often looked down upon because of the points cost when compared to Nob Bikers. For the extra 5pts you get the mobility of the Bikes, the extra toughness, a free 4+ armour save, combined with better weapons, an extra attack due to CCW and Slugga and then your 4+ exhaust cloud cover save. Hard to see the MANz fighting back from that really... but they can fight back in their own way.

What you lose in mobility and options with the MANz, you get back in sheer brute force. Everyone comes with a Twin-Linked shoota, bypassing the shoddy Ork Ballistic Skill, which can be upgraded to a Skorcha or Rokkit, meaning they can thin out a few hordes / elite troops before hitting them.

They also get a points break on the Power Klaw, compared with standard Nobz. Nob + Eavy Armour + Power Klaw = 50pts. MANz are 10pts less than this, and give you the 2+ save, in a trade-off for being Slow and Purposeful.

There are 3 significant weaknesses the MANz face though: Lack of Bosspoles, FNP & Cybork Bodies and Slow & Purposeful, which result in needing to take extra units to work around this.

The first thing to do for this unit is buy a Mega Armoured Warboss, Cybork Body, Attack Squig and most importantly - a Bosspole. Not only is this guy going to make your MANz a scoring unit, but the bosspole will prevent the clankers running off if they take a loss or two.

The alternative option, which also bypasses the Cybork body and Feel No Pain issue, is to take Mad Dok Grotsnik, adding much needed Cybork Bodies to the unit, alongside giving them Feel No Pain. However, it means using up a hefty chunk of HQ points on Grotsnik and his rage special rule is something I don't like in my lists.

The third option for a unit leader is to take the almighty Ghazgkull Thraka, but he is a hefty points cost and doesn't resolve your Cybork / FNP issue. However, he adds in sheer brute force. If you've got the points, I'd go for him personally.

So once you've chosen your appropriate leader to the Unit, be it Warboss, Grotsnik, Thraka... or even maybe a Mega Armoured Mek with KFF.... your MANz then need a ride to get across the battlefield, to negate their Slow & Purposeful rule.

The first transport is the Trukk. A bargain for the points costs and necessary upgrades (Red Paint, Armour Plates) meaning your MANz can speed across the battlefield extremely quickly. But what the Trukk offers in speed, it sacrifices for in durability, even bolters can cause the Trukk issues. For a big Hammer unit like the MANz, you don't want them to be foot slogging from turn 1 if you can avoid it.

The other, and most likely, transport option is the mighty Battlewagon - which if I am right in saying - MANz can take as a dedicated transport, leaving your Heavy Support choices free for more Wagons, Kanz and Dredz. AV14 on the front, backed up by the possibility of a KFF somewhere along the lines means this is almost guarenteed to deliver it's quarry to the fight. I'd go for Red Paint Job, 2 Big Shootas and a Deff Rolla, along with a Boarding Plank for the Warboss to maybe snip an enemy somewhere along the lines, as opposed to jumping off to attack them.

Conclusion
Despite the fact they're living in the shadow of Nob Bikers, I'm eager to give the Meganobz a few runs out. 2+ save, power klaw weilding Orks, backed up by a heavy hitter like Thraka seem like an excellent hammer unit and an excuse to buy another Battlewagon!