Looted
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Looted items are equipment or vehicles that Orks have "appropriated" and "refurbished". They acquire this technology either as battlefield salvage or outright theft. Since other races' tech isn't very orky, the Orks make it so, welding and bolting pointy metal bits and pieces onto it.
Looting takes many forms, since any ork that sees something he likes in the hands of his foes (or friends) is liable to make him jealous, and a jealous ork has notoriously sticky fingers. This is so prevalent that an entire ork clan, the Deathskulls, are dedicated to looting (and jointly, engineering). Orks make constant use of looted guns, looted armor, looted ammunition, looted food, looted buildings, looted fuel, looted wealth, looted people, and of course looted vehicles. The Lootas are in fact just a bunch of thieving gits who managed to nick the best guns off of dead enemies, and bring them back to their Mek buddies to be rebuilt into shoulder-mounted gun platforms.
Orks being Orks have in the most extreme examples been known to loot more than an opposing factions armor. Indeed, the cooperation of Mekz and Painboyz has yielded virtually enslaved carnifexes. The results of which are quite spectacular, though like many Orkish endeavors, the chance for catastrophic failure is high. The limit to Ork looting lies only in the Orks creativity. Orks when given the ability will loot and convert technology and biology they have absolutely no understanding of (were talking lower than 'put da gun ova here!' low) and will cherish their maddening contraptions.
Looting also fills a very practical and functional portion of general Orkoid operations. With their battle planz typically being little more than overwhelming frontal assaults, successful attacks will provide vast amounts of easily accessible imperial material. This serves as a genuine means of stocking an army. Orks will turn to looting in anticipation of larger campaigns, often combining whatever they can acquire in hopes of creating the feared gargants.
Once an item or items have been looted, they must be orkified. This is essential. Ranged weaponry will typically be valued on the amount of noise it can generate, or perhaps the size of an explosion from a missile or energy bolt. Doubling rate of fire and bore diameter are universal upgrades to all weapons. Close combat weapons will be valued on their size; big and choppy is far more favorable than small and pokey. Unless it glows white hot and melts 'umies, that is certainly appropriate. Vehicles and other gear will be promptly painted red and festooned with oversized teef and all manner of spikes, boarding planks, gun buttresses, hooks, mean faces, and anything else that declares the vehicle the meanest thing in the damn galaxy, regardless of function. If an item has been looted from another Ork, the previous owners clan insignia must be immediately removed and the new owners brandishment applied. Then more red paint. Then more spikes.
Looted tanks used to be represented on the tabletop by allowing you to purchase vehicles from the Space Marines and Imperial Guard codices to use in your Ork army as long as you made the vehicle look like it had been modified by orks. From 3rd to 5th edition of Warhammer 40,000, the Looted Wagon was a staple part of any Ork army, able to bring armour and firepower to the table that other Ork units weren't able to provide. But since 7th edition, they have all but been removed, as GeeDubs becomes (somehow) even more hellbent on removing all ways in which players can enjoy their tabletop game.
The Looted Wagon[edit]
Looted Wagons are, in short, vehicles that have been stolen by Orks from people who actually know how to make them and subsequently been kitted out with all sorts of flashy bitz and gizmos.
This wasn't just a principle thing; the rulebook literally said that you had to make the vehicle look orky, so no Proxies allowed. However, the vehicle always had to make use of the Orks' Ballistic Skill 2 - no matter what codex the vehicle came from - at exactly the same price, so unless you had good luck, an ork-looted vehicle would lose to its non-looted equivalent in a firefight. You also had to deal with the risk of the vehicle breaking down at the beginning of the game on a D6 roll of 1.
Suffice to say, this was a ridiculously popular option, lowered the barrier of entry for army newcomers (because they could convert existing vehicles, leading to a lot of Imperial Guard or Marine players gradually building some token Ork forces), and made it way easier for Ork players to cover holes in the army they'd otherwise have, such as a general lack of heavy armor and stronger firepower - taking a Leman Russ Battle Tank or two was a good way to get heavy armor and firepower on the battlefield. It was so popular, in fact, that Dawn of War made Looted Leman Russes the dedicated Ork heavy vehicle, and Dawn of War 2 gave them looted Predator Tanks.
Unfortunately, like anything remotely popular in Warhammer 40,000's playerbase, it was inevitably ruined by GeeDubs. This particular rule change was especially loathed by players, as the very codex update that heralded this change (5th Edition) prominently featured a looted Basilisk in the Cityfight showcase in the same book. The upcoming ork Codex would remove the Looted vehicle rules entirely, with the only surviving example of it being the Looted Wagon, an overglorified Leman Russ with a more forgiving rule to represent it not being made by orks.
In the case of other vehicles, you would either have to have them count as a different vehicle in the ork codex, or more commonly be considered an allied unit, which opens up its own can of worms because the Ork ally list features only Chaos as a remotely viable ally - good news for that one maniac who made an orky Defiler; terrible news for pretty much everyone else.
The Looted Wagon Golden Days[edit]
In 3rd edition, the Looted Wagon was in its prime. Players could choose from any vehicle they liked from the list given, use its point value and all of its weapons just so long as they "converted it appropriately to show it is being used by orks" and played it using BS2. This was one of the very few times that GW has actually encouraged custom minis and creative approach, instead of the usual pay-to-win system. For more details on how it worked, see right.
The Death of the Looted Wagon[edit]
7th Edition is considered by many to be the death of the Looted Wagon. It was in this edition that the Wagon was removed from the Ork Codex, replaced instead by a two-page spread in an issue of White Dwarf as well as, for the first time, a picture of an actual miniature with it.
The rules it was given are as follows:
| Pts | BS | F | S | R | HP | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Looted Wagon | 37 | 2 | 11 | 11 | 10 | 3 |
Unit Type:
- Vehicle (Tank, Open-topped, Transport)
Unit Composition:
- 1 Looted Wagon
Special Rules:
- Don't Press Dat: Roll 1D6 for each looted wagon at the start of their Shooting phase. On the roll of a one, the Looted Wagon must move Flat Out, even if it performed a Tank Shock earlier in the turn.
Transport:
- Transport Capacity: Twelve Models
- Fire Points: If a Looted Wagon has the 'ard case upgrade it has three fire points, one on either side of the hull and one at the rear.
- Access Points: If a Looted Wagon has the 'ard case upgrade it has one access point at the rear.
Options:
- May take one of the following:
- May take up to three of the following:
- May take any of the following:
- Deff Rolla
- 'Ard case
- Grabbin' Klaw
- May take items from the Orks Vehicle Equipment list.
This very boring and regular approach to the Looted Wagon ruined the fun of it. There was nothing to indicate how to make it work for custom miniatures. Good ol' GeeDubs just assumed everyone with a looted wagon made it out of a fucking Leman Russ.
The Death of the Looted Wagon II: Electric Boogaloo[edit]
The shitheap that was the 7th edition Looted Wagon is universally hated. But at least we had one. As of 8th edition, the Looted Wagon is officially no longer in the game. GeeDubs reps on facebook have said you need to run your old models as Battlewagons.
Huzzah! Chapter Approved 2018 has been confirmed to re-add rules for making Looted Wagons. Granted, they're only valid in Open Play but at least they're actually in the game. With Gunwagons making a long-awaited re-appearance, it may be the case that old Looted Wagons may be see the "official" battlefields once again, by proxying in for the Battlewagon's shootier cousin.
Dawn of War[edit]
Dawn of War saw the Looted Leman Russ as the Orks' primary artillery piece and high-tier battle tank, providing fire support to your other units, much the Basilisk does for the Guard. The only difference here being that Orks can have 4 Looted Leman Russes and Guard could only have 3 Basilisks. There's also the looted Predator in game 2 which acts as a normal tank but isn't as goofy looking and often forgotten.
Looted Everything[edit]
Due to how orks make technology work, there's nothing they can't loot. Orks players are known take any extra bits from any other faction and glue them onto their models (with varying degrees of success) in order to create the Orkiest miniatures they can. Any and every combination of armament and platform has been thought of at some point by Ork players, and probably kitbashed into existence as well. Orks with bolters? Easy. Orks with Tau Plasma Rifles? Too small, glue two together then we'll talk. Orks dual-wielding chain-axes? Already done, but don't tell your Khorne-player friend where you got them. Orks with Assault Cannons? They're called Lootas. Orks holding a Battle Cannon shell above their heads? Tankbustas. Orks with weapons from Fantasy? That's how life was in 2nd Edition! Orks with actual Battle Cannons? Maybe stick that one on a Wagon.
Orks have, in canon, looted entire Forge Worlds (like the infamous world of Tigrus) and turning them into giant factories producing everything from shoddy copies of Imperial gear and tanks to completely new weapons of wholly orkish design.
Gallery[edit]
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Looted Monolith
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Looted Carnifex
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Looted Ghost Ark
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Looted Tarrasque
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WE'Z GOT DA BEST BOX ON DA FIELD
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Ok, how did this happen?!
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WE'S TAKIN' DA GUNDAM FOIGHT TA DEM HUMIES!
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Looted Macha
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Looted Optimus Prime
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Oh, bugger me ragged - a looted Ordinatus
External Links[edit]
Potentiam Gigantio Volume 4: A 40k RPG homebrew book by anon that includes rules for Looted vehicles, inspired by the classic vehicles of 3rd edition.