The Ork Great Gargant

Sorry all.  Computer hard drive crashed so off to the klocal Apple Store to get it replaced!  I am back and here is an article from Greg Patterson at Siegeworld that I think you Orc players will love.

THE ORC GREAT GARGANT

by Greg Patterson

So Orks are one of my favorites from way back, hell I miss Madboyz and their 6 pages of rules. But that is not what this is all about. This is about the Great Gargant. Much like the warlord that the Adeptus Mechanicus see as an embodiment of their god, the Great Gargant is the Orks walking Mork or maybe Gork.  So in game they should be at least of similar ability although different propose. A warlord is armed primarily to take out other titans and the occasional unit of infantry. A Great Gargant is more of a combined arms platform but can still go toe to toe with a warlord. We have seen this from the old Epic games.

So how does this translate to Apocalypse? Well awhile back the fine folks over at Bell of Lost Souls gave us a whole bunch of datasheets in the form of the Lords of Battle publication. And while I truly appreciate their effort I do feel that their datasheets are a little limited and under powered.

I played a game a few months ago with my friend Josh and he brought his Great Gargant, it was a great game but frankly I was more afraid of his Fighta bommas and tricked out Stompa than the Great Gargant.  Once the shields go down the damage really starts stacking up and it didn't take long til it was just Immobile hunk of Mork shaped metal.  One of the big issues I saw was the basic survivability as a fighting unit.  The Great Gargant only has 3 Primary Weapons meaning that there are more chances to disable it by removing all it's guns and then moving up the damage chart to strip it's Structure Points. My experience is that most Warlords keep shooting until they are destroyed because of the Primary Weapon save, I have seen exceptions to this but for the most part the Primary Weapon save goes a long way towards making Titans more effective longer on the battlefield. The other problem is there is very little variety in the weapons that are available to the Great Gargant, the BoLS datasheet was designed for the model pictured and nothing else. It leaves no room for customization which is the very meaning of being an Ork.  After reading Imperial Armour 8 and seeing the Kustom Stompa datasheet  I realized that that is how a Great Gargant datasheet should look. 

So I got to writing  a new datasheet using the BoLS sheet as a basis and several of the rules from Imperial Armour 8 I added the Repair Krew rules and tweaked it to be a little better due to the size of the Great Gargant. I also gave it the Ramshackle Monster rule to represent the crazy nature of Ork construction. I then scaled up several smaller Ork guns to allow for more variety in load-outs for your own personal Gargant. In doing this I tried to give the Gargant a few strength D options as Orks are severely lacking in strength D. My personal Favorite is the Uge Zappa which lets you roll 3d6 for strength and anything over 10 is strength D. I also setup a list of shoulder weapons that let you pick from a list of different options for your shoulders and some hull mounts that reduce your transport just like the stompa. Finally I changed the Observation Tower to give the Great Gargant Persicision Strike for its own guns. 

So this is what I came up with. What do you all think?

Points: 2500

WS: 4
BS: 2
S: 10
I: 1
A: 2

Armour
Front: 14
Side: 13
Rear: 11

UNIT: 1 Great Gargant

TYPE: Super Heavy Walker

Structure points:  10

Power Fields:  7+D3

ACCESS POINTS: One Rear

Transport: 60 Orks,  Mek boy’s Kustom Force Fields have no effect
while in a Gargant

WEAPONS AND EQUIPMENT:
2 Hull mounted Big Shootas
1 rear mounted Twin linked Big Shootas
Gut Busta

One head weapon from the following list:
Gaze of Mork
Flame Belcha
Skullhamma Kannon

Two shoulder weapons** from the following list:
Deff Kannon
Giga Shoota
Flakk Gun
Supa-Lobba
Big-Zappa
Supa-Scorcha
Shunta
Observation Tower***

Two Arm Weapons from the following list:
Uge Shoota
Supa-Lifta-Droppa*
Supa-Zappa
Supa-Bursta Kannon
Uge Lobba
Titan Close Combat Weapon*
Krusha Ball*

Special Rules:
• Repair Krew, same as rule in IA8 but each big Mek riding in the
Gargant allows an additional roll to repair up to a maximum of 3
rolls.
• Effigy
• Ramshackle Monster
•Towering Inferno: Once crippled, a Great Gargant will tend to erupt
in great gouts of flame, careening out of control as internal fires
tear it apart from within.
Catastrophic Damage Table “Wrecked” results instead move the Gargant ahead
2d6”. All normal movement rules apply. It is no longer scoring, may not fire any
weapons or change its facing. Roll again on the Catastrophic Damage Table at the
start of each ork turn until the Great Gargant explodes or leaves the table.
• Observation Tower: Grants the Precision Strike asset. This Asset
only applys to the Great Gargant’s weapons.


Options:
Add up to 9 supa-rokkits                +20pts each
Add up to 6 Big shootas                 +5pts each
Add up to 4 Grot Bomb Launchas  +10pts each

Reduce transport by 10 models and gain
-Kannon                         +10pts
-Flame Belcha                   +30pts
-Big Zappa                      +30pts
-Killkannon                     +60pts
-Giga-shoota                    +75pts

Weapon      Range  Strength     AP      Special
Gut Busta
Air Burst Shot  60"      6      3       Apocalypse Barrage (10) Primary Weapon
Solid Shot      60"      D      2       Ordnance 1, 5” Blast Destroyer, Primary Weapon
Chain Shot      60"      9      3       Ordnance 1, 7” Blast, Primary Weapon
Uge Shoota      48"      7      3       Heavy 6D6 Primary Weapon
Supa Bursta Kannon 72"  D       2       Ordinance 1 7" Blast, Primary Weapon
Uge Lobba       180"    9       3       Ordinance 3 10" Blast, Primary Weapon
Supa Zappa      96"     3D6     2       Ordinance D3 7" Blast, Primary Weapon****
Uge Lifta Droppa*       48"     D       1       Heavy1 10” Blast Primary Weapon*****

*A Great Gargant can only take a single  Supa-Lifta-Droppa, Titan Close Combat Weapon, or Krusha Ball
** All shoulder weapons count as Primary Weapons
*** A Great Gargant can only have one Observation Tower
**** Any roll for Strength that equals 11 or more is considered  Strength D
***** The Supa Lifta Droppa uses the same rules as a regular Lifta-Droppa except it’s range is 72” and it can effect Super heavies and Gargantuan Creatures.

The Armorcast Orc Gargant unpainted