Ork Fleets
Orks are not the best spacefarers around, and their ships reflect this, being crude and brutish hunks of steel plating, big guns, even more guns, all of which were attached to a massive and noisy starship engine. Held together by welding as much as the collective belief of their Ork crews, such ships are often solitary raiders, striking out from hidden asteroid bases or forlorn planetoids to loot and plunder undefended Imperial settlements.
Ork pirates are a scourge on planetary shipping, but are relatively lesser concerns compared to a full-blown Waagh! fleet. Formed from a massive number of ships, mobile and fortified Roks, and sometimes even Space Hulks, this ramshackle fleet accompanies a powerful Warboss as its forces invade one planet after another in a campaign of terror.
An Ork ship will reflect the race's typical preference for big, killy things that can quickly get stuck in, and can put out as much dakka as realistically possible. A typical Ork "tactic" will be to try and get as close as possible, open up with all those weapons batteries, and get a ram if possible.
The best Ork vessels and crews tend to those of the Freebooterz on account of their singular focus on space piracy. Roks in particular are beneath Freebooterz as not "proppa kroosers".
Ork Vessels
Battleship
Not a unified category per se, an Ork Battleship is the end result of a Kroozer being customized so extensively that it's gained the size and firepower of one. No "Battleship" is armed the same way as a result, but every single one is big, heavily armored, and armed to the teef.
Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 1 & 2 add the following variants for use:
Drednot
The base Battleship available, this massive hunk of steel and violence is armed with eight front-mounted Torpedo Tubes, a front-facing long-ranged Zap Kannon, front-mounted mid-ranged Gunz Artillery, short-ranged and really short-ranged Gunz Battery broadsides.
OrdzGargDaka
The Dakka variant, the OrdzGargDaka carries adds a front-facing short-ranged Mega Kannon battery and mid-ranged front Gunz battery to the default weaponry of the Drednot. Capable of gratuitous amounts of damage, but has to be fairly stuck-in to do so.
Urd Unki
A Carrier variant of the Drednot, the Urd Unki swaps the super short-ranged Gunz Battery broadsides for Launch Bays, while retaining the Torpedoes, long-ranged Zap Kannon, mid-ranged forward Gunz Battery, and short-ranged Gunz Battery broadsides.
Battlekroozer
A step up from a regular Kroozer, the Battlekroozer is simply a heavily-customized Kroozer that hasn't quite gotten the mass or dakka of a Battleship. Yet.
Hammer
Built off the wrecks of Imperial ships, specifically those that were armed with Nova Cannons, encounters with what is now designated as the Hammer-class is on the rise. Favored by Ork warlords, the Hammers are usually equipped by the best weapons and krews in the fleet as a result.
Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 1 & 2 adds the following two variants for the Hammer: the Stompa, and the Smacka; the Stompa gets Torpedo launchers, while the Smacka gets Mega Zap Kannons.
Kroozer
The basic Battle Kroozer design, armed with short-ranged heavy weapons and other assorted batteries on the prow. The core of this type is usually built around the frames of abandoned ships of any type.
Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 1 & 2 gives the Kill Kroozer a Stompa variant, which adds Torpedo Launchers as a special weapon.
A Carrier Type, this particular kroozer class was made infamous by its use by the pirates of the Cyclops Cluster. It comes armed with a pair of Launch Bays, which are supported by a front-mounted heavy gun batteries and broadsides.
Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 1 & 2 gives the Terror Ship a Stompa variant, which replaces the front-mounted Gunz with Torpedo tubes instead.
Light Kroozer
Gouga
A rare vessel, the Gouga makes up for its relatively weak armament with a pair of klaws and a prow-mounted boarding drill mounted. Said drill is used to punch through the hides of enemy vessels, after which the ship disgorges its hordes of Boyz into its hapless victim.
Basha
Introduced in Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 1 & 2, this Kroozer comes in three flavors: the Ordzdaka, which mounts Torpedo Launchers and Gunz Batteries; the Ordzgardaka, which replaces the Torpedoes with a Mega Kannon battery; and finally the Urd Unki, which carries Torpedoes and a pair of Launch Bays instead.
Escorts
Crewed by more rowdy and speed-hungry Boyz, Escorts are the smallest and least armored ships in an Ork fleet, but are also the fastest. Swarms of these are a danger to even to larger ships.
Ork Escorts normally come in two types: the Attack Ship, and the Gunship. The Attack Ship is bigger and has better weaponry, while the Gunship is faster and (relatively, for an Ork ship) much more maneuverable.
Onslaught
Ugly and ungainly, the Onslaught Attack Ship features a heavily-armored prow mounted with short-ranged heavy gunz.
Ravager
Much more specialized compared to the Onslaught, the Ravager Attack Ship comes equipped with forward Torpedo tubes on top of the front-mounted Gunz Battery. Due to the unreliable nature of Ork Torpedoes, Orks prefer capturing and using Imperial Torpedoes instead.
Savage
A possible modification of the Onslaught, the Ravager Gunship mounts even moreshort-ranged Gunz in front. Though they can be easily picked off from range, in an ambush with limited space to maneuver the gunships are deadly.
Featuring an armored beak as well as rotary blades and drills, the Brute Gunship was built with ramming in mind. Moving at full speed, they can be a danger even to Capital ships.
Others
A Space Hulk, except armed and repurposed for the Ork Waaagh! Fleet. Massive and powerful, each quadrant alone is capable of putting out more dakka than a Battleship. Entire fleets are often required to make sure these are stopped, and sometimes even those aren't enough.
Hollowed-out asteroids that are fitted with rudimentary engines, quarters, and lots of Gunz. Slow and clumsy, Roks are nonetheless the equivalent of Cruisers with the amount of punishment they can absorb.
During an invasion these will be dropped onto a hapless world as makeshift transports, and if they survive the impact, become ready-made forts for the Greenskins.
Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 1 & 2 adds the Mega and Big Rok as Battleship and Cruiser-class units. These are capable of putting out the same firepower of either a Battleship or Cruiser, on each quadrant. Due to their size, they're immune to Critical Hits, but in return they're slow and are clumsy to maneuver.
In Battlefleet Gothic
Not the prettiest to look at, Ork ships are brawlers through and through. All have good armor up front, to help weather incoming fire and help with Ramming, but to do damage with its weapons an Ork ship has to get up really close and personal.
Speaking of which, Ork weaponry by and large is either short-ranged, or really short ranged. Not only that but these Gunz have variable Firepower values. Now this randomness wouldn't be too much of an issue in regular 40k, as Orks would just have more numbers to even things out, but that's not the case in BFG, which limits the amount of ships one can take in a list.
That said, Ork ships are somewhat cheaper compared to other ships in their weight class, but not by much.
Due to the general rowdy nature of Greenskins, Ork ships have a Leadership penalty to whatever result was rolled. On the flipside, it doesn't take a lot of urging for Orks to push that Big Red Button, so don't have to roll Command checks.
Finally because of their fighty natures, Ork get a bonus to Boarding Actions.
In Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 1 & 2
Due to not having many in-lore ships to fill out the Ork ship list, Tindalos had to be... creative, to say the least. As a result, the Orks in the games have fieldable units in almost all size classes barring Grand Cruisers, something that they didn't have on the tabletop. At least they capture the ramshackle look of Ork vessels.
Ork ships have universally more hull points than any equivalent ship of their size class, while keeping the same good Frontal armor from the tabletop game. Likewise the Orks still have the Leadership penalty they had, though an Ork crew still has an advantage during Boarding Actions.
Due to the makeshift natures of Ork vessels, they're much more vulnerable to the Fire Aboard effect (care of Melta torpedoes). Makes sense, as fire safety (or safety, period) isn't exactly something that a Mek keeps in mind when putting together these things.
Finally, Ork ships have rather pitiful Accuracy in general, but this is offset by being comparatively cheap compared to what the other races use. This cheap cost means that, unlike the tabletop, one can easily just swamp opponents with huge numbers of Ork ships, which in turn offsets the pathetic accuracy of the weapons.
| Vessels of the Orks | ||
|---|---|---|
| Spaceships | ||
| Space Station | Attack Moon | |
| Battleships | Ork Battleship - Space Hulk | |
| Cruisers | Light Kroozer - Kroozer - Battlekroozer | |
| Escorts | Escort | |
| Logistics | Ork Transporter | |
| Roks | Rok | |
| Combat Spacecraft | Ork Assault Boat | |
| Landships | ||
| Armored Trains | Locomotive Battering Ram | |
| Titans | Stompa - Supa Stompa - Gargant Great Gargant - Mega Gargant Temple Gargant | |
| Superheavy Tanks | Battlefortress - Gunfortress | |
| Airships | ||
| Flying Fortress | Heavy Bommer - Mega Bommer Bommer Fortress | |
| Aerospace Vessels | Landa | |
| Seaships | ||
| Oceanic Battleships | Nautical Kroozer | |
| Maritime Escorts | Maritime Escort | |
| Submarines | Ork Submersible | |