Ork Shanties

[fluger]

So, I've been building up some Ork shanties.  I was inspired by a combination of the old 2nd edition look of Ork buildings (kinda like adobe forts) and also the slums of Rio and other third world countries.  

 

I built them by cutting up a bunch of styrofoam into rough blocks and then gluing them together.  I'm going to be going over them with ork glyphs and random knick knacks (mostly sprue bits and plasticard/cardstock) to make them look more interesting, but that's to give you the general idea of what it looks like.  

 

Anyway, I've been tinkering with this idea for a long time and I wanted them to work as buildings and not just ruins.  

 

The new 7th edition rules allow for some leeway in order to play these as I envision them, however, they still require a bit of house-rulesing to make them play how I envision them.  

 

How does this sound?  Too Much?  Too many special rules?  Too confusing?

 

ORK SHANTY:  AV10  HP = 6   30 MODELS

 

Tumble-down: Ork shanties are made up of whatever was on hand and stuffed with bric-a-brac.  Weapons designed to penetrate hard targets cut through them like butter, but find no critical points to strike.  The normal bonuses for AP2 and AP1 weapons for penetration rolls on the Building Damage Table are ignored.

 

Tottering:  Ork shanties are made up of dozens of individual dwellings in a haphazard manner, destroying it all takes considerable firepower, or else weapons that clear large areas at once. Building Damage Table rolls made against an Ork Shanty are at a -1 to the damage table.  Blast and template weapons ignore this penalty and add +1 to the Building Damage Table roll.  Ordnance and primary weapons add an additional +1.

 

Fire/Access Points:  All windows and doors on the model count as both a standard fire point and an access point.

 

Battlements:  All roof portions of the Ork Shanty count as battlements.

 

 

 

 

My thoughts on what I'm going for here, I want it so that it can be knocked out easily but by sustained fire.   3 Space Marines can double tap it down in one round (would take extreme luck), but I don't want it to get one-shotted by a meltagun because that doesn't make sense for what the model is.  

 

If it ends up being too cumbersome, I'll just run it as basic ruins and call it a day, but I'd like to get the flavor of them into the games.  

[Guest Mr. Bigglesworth]

Seems fine are you paying for it as fortification or just something for terrain and city fight?

 

I like it and makes sense, what about templates anything special?

[fluger]

Template is in there, it ignores the -1 to the chart rule.

 

Also, I edited it to be stronger for blasts and templates.  

[fluger]

Oh, and to be clear, this isn't for buying for my army, this is terrain that will be on the table (a themed Ork city table), and I want it to be something that any army can use in the game, not just orks.  

[Guest Mr. Bigglesworth]

Cool i dig sorry missed template. Me read bad.

[VonVilkee]

Rules seem clear enough the modifications to the damage chart are a bit clunky but feel right. Not sure how to fix at this point but intentions are well written out and clear. I think they will play well!

[fluger]

[fluger]

Now, try and picture them covered in random orky stuff and then painted.  

[scottshoemaker]

New Ork City!

[fluger]

Editted to clarify that the -1 is to the damage table rolls, not to the penetration roll.  That was unclear.  

[PourSpelur]

New Ork City!

Get a rope ;)

Fluger, looks great! I have a ton of thick plastic for bolted on metal plates I'll bring ya.

[fluger]

Final version.  Took some suggestions to heart:

 

ORK SHANTY:  AV10  HP = 6   40 MODELS Tumble-down:  Ork shanties are made up of whatever was on hand and stuffed with bric-a-brac.  Weapons designed to penetrate hard targets cut through them like butter, but find no critical points to strike.  The normal bonuses for AP2 and AP1 weapons for the Building Damage Table are ignored. Tottering:  Ork shanties are made up of dozens of individual dwellings in a haphazard manner, destroying it all takes considerable firepower, or else weapons that clear large areas at once.  Rolls on the Building Damage Table made against an Ork Shanty are at a -1.  Blast and template weapons as well as vehicles that are ramming ignore this penalty and furthermore recieve a +1 to the roll.  Ordnance and primary weapons as well as ramming vehicles equipped with dozer blades add an additional +1. Fire/Access Points:  All windows and doors on the model count as both a standard fire point and an access point. Battlements:  All roof portions of the Ork Shanty count as battlements.

[VonVilkee]

Awesome love the extra bit about ramming.

[Gravedigger]

Your Orks Shanties remind me of this little city at 34:50 min

http://youtu.be/-0aC-wuJVLU

 

I like where you are going with this.

 

David

[fluger]

Not quite what I was thinking of, but certainly evocative.  Also, cthulu is always cool.

 

This is more my muse:

 

 

Then taken to Orky extremes.  

[AbusePuppy]

The only thing I don't like, overall, is the combination of a large number of HP (normal buildings have 3-5) as well as functional immunity to the damage table (as it's impossible to score a Detonation! result and none of the other results will do anything to the building.) Either one of the above would be fine on its own, but combined I think they end up making the shanties much harder to destroy than... well, most AV12 vehicles, even. I would either drop them to 4HP (as is typical for a medium building) or remove the inability to get bonuses on the damage table (but maybe still make it so Detonation counts as Collapse?) It makes sense that a Meltagun or Lascannon could still slice through a ton of structural supports in a single blow- maybe none of them are critical individually, but the ramshackle construction means that the beam is likely going to hit multiple components at once and thus be just as likely to cause damage overall.

 

I really like the models, though, those are coming along great. The crazy towering slums of places like Kowloon Walled City have always seemed like a very 40K thing to me.

[fluger]

Ap, note that blasts, templates, and ramming vehicles both ignore the negative effects and gain a bonus.

 

While a total collapse doesn't remove the terrain, it makes it so that the models can't get inside.  This is just as bad as the explosion result for vehicles and therefore I wanted to avoid it.  I didn't want a single heavy bolter penetration to force everyone out.  Just too much IMO.  I just wanted them to be vulnerable to different things compared to most other buildings.  Since most buildings I see are AV14 or AV12 if dilapidated.  

 

Like I said, if there is too much acrimony/confusion over them, I'll just play them as ruins and call it a day.  

[generalripphook]

No i think the rules are really cool. I think they need to have e mods to the damadge table, it makes them tough, which makes sense its a block of homes. Not a single vehicle with no space unused.

[AbusePuppy]

Understandable, fluger, but as it stands they aren't really vulnerable to much of anything. I mean, how many AP2/1 blasts and templates are there? Hell, how many high-strength blasts of ANY type do you see around these days? There's the Riptide and... uh... yeah, that's pretty much it. (Yes, I know you use the Basilisk, but you have to admit that's pretty unusual.) Moreover, ramming attacks by most vehicles (bar a Leman Russ) are gonna be S6ish and thus not really doing much meaningful damage to the shanties.

 

I admit, I don't like the idea of a single Heavy Bolter blasting the entire thing to pieces, either, but that's sorta the breaks of the vehicle/building rules. If you really wanna make them more of a "collection of buildings that can't be destroyed in a fell swoop," give them the damage table bonus immunity but drop their HP to be more in line with other buildings. Or, heck, make them AV11- it means that it takes dedicated anti-tank weapons to do anything to them.

[Gravedigger]

All I can say is I want to play on this board when complete.

 

David

[fluger]

Understandable, fluger, but as it stands they aren't really vulnerable to much of anything. I mean, how many AP2/1 blasts and templates are there? Hell, how many high-strength blasts of ANY type do you see around these days? There's the Riptide and... uh... yeah, that's pretty much it. (Yes, I know you use the Basilisk, but you have to admit that's pretty unusual.) Moreover, ramming attacks by most vehicles (bar a Leman Russ) are gonna be S6ish and thus not really doing much meaningful damage to the shanties.

 

Maybe the rules I wrote aren't clear.  The AP1/2 bonuses go away, but blasts and templates not only ignore the -1, but get a boost of +1, and ordnance/primary gets a further +1 (as does ramming and ramming with a dozer blade).  So, high strength, high AP blasts/templates will shred these things.  Heldrakes hit this thing automatically and have a 11% chance of knocking it out in one shot (1/3 to pen and 1/3 to destroy) for instance.  

 

Just at the TSHFT invitational, the 6 armies I played had:

 

1.  3 Knight Titans.  3 large blast primaries with high strength.

2.  Chapter Master orbital lance and a thunderfire (can fire at S6)

3.  Melee Chaos, nothing here, but spawns and maulerfiends would obliterate these in melee.

4.  You, Knight Titan and 2 shadow weavers. 

5.  Missile Spam Wolves.  No blasts, but 21 Krak Missiles will blow a building up really easily.

6.  A single whirlwind.  Again, an Ordnance Blast with S6 if it hits has a ~17% chance of destroying the building in one shot.  

 

So, all but two of the armies had something to take advantage of this things weakness and neither of those would have a problem knocking them out.  

That's obviously a small sample size, but I think blasts of decent strength are more prevalent than you make claim.  

[fluger]

Again, I'm thinking I might just play them as ruins to avoid any confusion.  I just like the idea of destructible terrain.

[VonVilkee]

Again, I'm thinking I might just play them as ruins to avoid any confusion.  I just like the idea of destructible terrain.

I want the destructible terrain! Play test requested...

[fluger]

Manticores are fairly common and will remove the building 33.3% of the time and make it unusable 50% of the time if it just hits one.  Comparatively, a bastion hit by one has only about a 12.5% chance of getting made unusable (but still on the table).  

[fluger]

Final version after two games with them.  

 ORK SHANTY:  AV10  HP = 5   40 MODELS

 

Tumble-down: Ork shanties are made up of whatever was on hand and stuffed with bric-a-brac.  Weapons designed to penetrate hard targets cut through them like butter, but find no critical points to strike.  The normal bonuses for AP2 and AP1 weapons for rolls on the Building Damage Table are ignored.

 

Tottering: Ork shanties are made up of dozens of individual dwellings in a haphazard manner, destroying it all takes considerable firepower, or else weapons that clear large areas at once. Building Damage Table rolls made against an Ork Shanty are at a -1.  Blast and template weapons ignore this penalty and add +1 to the Building Damage Table roll.  Ordnance and primary weapons add an additional +1.

 

Fire/Access Points:  All windows and doors on the model count as both a standard fire point and an access point.

 

Battlements: All roof portions of the Ork Shanty count as battlements, but only grant a 5+ cover save instead of the usual 4+.