House Orlock

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House Orlock is one of the six Hive City Houses of Necromunda, making it one of the six original playable factions for the game when it was debuted.

Known as the House of Iron for their foundational industry of recycling ferrous slag into workable metal, House Orlock was best defined by its rivalry with House Delaque, a result of sabotaging House Delaque and stealing the lucrative contract that it once had with Noble House Ulanti.

The second edition expanded a bit on this and also made them the most sane gang to date with members looking out for each other and displaying a loyalty and unity lacking in most of the other outfits. This makes them either very dull or fairly bro tier with a sort of equal opportunities one for all, all for one outlook depending on your take. They are also fractionally less grimdark than their rivals as even though their house is built on cruelly oppressed masses worked to within an inch of their lives by brutal overseers, any who have what it takes can rise to the coveted position of ganger. The gangers themselves are hugely respected by the masses as they'd probably been worked just like them and now have the power to elevate those worthy from the life of drudgery.

In the first edition of the game, House Orlock was one of the two "default" gangs, alongside House Goliath. In the relaunch, they lost that position to House Escher, under the arguments that Orlock & Goliath gangs looked pretty similar; both hulking, warlike bands of male raiders. Now, they are noticably less hulking, many of them sporting hipster haircuts and goatees, as well as goggles.

Unique Mechanics

In first edition, Orlocks try to be jacks of all trades. They're... not very good at it. Every member of a House Orlock gang can learn Shooting skills, but so can every member of a House Delaque or House Van Saar gang. And unlike the latter, they have no secondary skillset they specialize in. Only gang leaders can learn Agility and Stealth skills, only heavies can learn Muscle skills. Juves are stuck with Ferocity and Shooting, whilst gangers add Combat to that. Heavies have Combat, Muscle, Shooting and Techno skills, with gang leaders the only other individuals that can learn Techno skill.

In the 2nd edition the jack of all trades approach has been replaced by a focus on stubborn resilience from their Ferocity primary skill tree, a post-battle advantage from the Savant primary tree, and mesh armour and massive short range fire power in the form of cheap access to the formidable blasting charges, combat shotguns and the even cheaper (if fairly rubbish) sawn off shotgun (a basic weapon with the range of a pistol but with a fair amount of power behind it). They also have a better than usual access to heavy weapons from the start, with access to the heavy stubber and the harpoon launcher; the latter can hit multiple fighters with a single shot, then drag them out of cover for good measure (and as an added bonus, it's not Unwieldy like most other heavy weapons). While they're not particularly suited for melee, their servo-claws give them a strength bonus on par with House Goliath's Renderizer axes and deal more damage than most melee weapons. Still, they are best off staying shooty since they get Shooting as a secondary skill tree and in a single round they can lay down a truly ridiculous amount of hurt, especially if they skewer several people at once with a single harpoon.