The Unnamed Gorkamorka Site

Going to the Doc can have its issues, but it’s not all doom and gloom (otherwise why bother going!) because you just might get something shiny, new and killy. So here is a little feature on some of the serjery that my Freebooterz have endured.

My Furst Mate (now my Kaptin) received Multiple Injuries in the very first round of combat he was in, while he suffered various injuries, going to the Doc was not as easy as I thought. At first, I thought it wouldn’t matter as he had an Old Battle Wound, a Headwound, a Legwound and got off lightly with some Impressive Scars, so receiving a serjery other than the one he went in for, would still put him in decent shape. Not much later, the Kaptin also came down with a mild case of shattered skull (Headwound) and Pink Eye (Blind in One Eye). And one of my main gunslingers now seemed to be suffering from some form of agonizing chest pains (Chestwound). While it may not be the worst conditions to cope with, I decided that I probably could do better than a bunch of seemingly arthritic greenskins and sent them off to their local Doc.

The Doc's patients ain't restin' no more!

BUILT FOR SPEED

The Furst Mate was the first to be seen to, as the mob waited patiently in the waiting room. He soon emerged with Traks for legs. To start with I thought that this wasn’t really what I wanted and shoved him to one side to deal with him later. He was wounded in both legs, so it seemed a neccessary procedure, but I was still unsure about the outcome (at first!). Similarly, the Kaptin went through a similar operation and found himself with a gyro-stabilised mono-wheel. He didn’t need it, but you know how things are in the Doc’s office.

The new Kaptin with his steel skull races some muties on his traks for legs for that scrap

It was however, a blessing in disguise as they are, from then on, treated in similar ways to vehicles…including thrusting. The ability to zip round the board with free easy I only recently discovered to be brilliant for navigating small nooks and crannies that trukks cannot, or moving around terrain that vehicles would struggle to do. Not to mention that these warriors were (obviously), smaller than vehicles and while had speed to match vehicles, they could also hide easily. This became a nice little technique when fetching scrap, as I would often run round pieces of terrain once collected.

Depiff's warrior zips to cover using his trusty kustom thrusta boosta trying to dodge enemy fire

I also soon realised that it was also ideal for rushing straight into combat, occupying the enemy instantly that would normally take turns to reach, and that extra turn might be all you need to pull out the scrap from under them (that actually happened once!). This dynamic was enhanced when one of my main gunslingers, the one suffering a Chestwound received a Kustom Thrusta Boosta, while he would seldom leave his post from firing off his six-shootas wildly from the Trukk, it would be a great relief to have him thrust over into combat or to grab some scrap if the driver took a slight ‘involuntary detour’. The Doc might as well have painted them all red!

WAAAAGH!!

The (former) Kaptin received his Steel Horns very early on, giving him a very distinct advantage as he was already equipped with a knife, a choppa and had earned a pet growler squig from the Freebooter skills. With this in mind, he became a rather worthy combatant as he could race into a charge on his mono-wheel, release his growler squig for one attack, then continue, receive his +1 dice for extra hand weapon, then plus his steel horns. I found it hard to believe that one Ork managed to down three enemy models in the same fight phase. I suppose thats why he is (err…was) The Kaptin.

The Furst Mate’s Old Battle Wound quickly healed up once the Doc fitted him with some Fungus Bref Lungs. While not as obviously ‘stabby’ as the Kaptin’s Steel Horns, I found it useful as it would reduce his opponent’s WS. This was nothing to be sniffed at as he had already acquired a WS of 5, 2 attacks basic, was wielding a slugga and choppa (two combat weapons), and with his traks could thrust into combat with ease!

The former Kaptin using all his shiny bioniks to get the best of that Dust Rat

While the Doc was stapling in various odds and sods, my Furst Mate also received a Steel Skull, which was also enough to cause a slight rumbling over leadership. While the Kaptin was constantly defending his title, he did eventually lose a pitfight to the Furst Mate. It was the third in a row between just the two of them, so it only seemed fair (as gutted as I was). While a +1 to leadership may not seem like much, it can cause some issues later on, so be wary.

LOOK AFTER THEM…

My driver was wounded later on, but I found it unnecessary to attempt to heal him, because it was merely a Legwound and he shouldn’t really be leaving the trukk anyway. It seemed pointless to even try. And even if the serjery was a success, there would be a chance that he could be armed…err.. legged with gyro-stabilised mono-wheel or wheels/traks, meaning he wouldn’t be able to drive! Call me old fashioned, but I tend to like my drivers to drive.

He soon suffered an Old Battle Wound which I was rather cautious about. In one of my first games, I lost my Badmek which meant I had to scrape together enough teef to hire another one and buy his much needed equipment. I found this bothersome, and would not risk losing any of my key mobsters ever again (mainly drivers, gunners, and meks), even if just for a game. As a result, I sent my driver in to try to fix his Old Battle Wound…it would not be very useful if the driver was unable to enter the field because it was flaring up, so this was a priority. In end, he emerged from serjery with an Iron Lung. Like his Legwound, I was not bothered about the side effects of his slow moving and was content that he was still on the payroll, rather than only sometimes showing up. And as most of you will know, the driver can win you the game!

Depiff's Bad Mek in cybork armour with steel teef being mangled by Flamkebab's Klaw Arm

In a more recent game, my (latest) Badmek was horribly mangled and he too received an Old Battle Wound*, amongst other things. This case was urgent and the Kaptin (formerly the Furst Mate) rushed him to the Doc…but it was a bit too much of a rush, and he returned with Steel Teef. In all fairness although it was not intended, it should prove useful as my mob seem rather prone to being Gobsmacked, so that ought to cut that down a bit. My Kaptin was Gobsmacked twice! I just don’t know how it keeps happening!

As the Badmek came out of serjery with his Steel Teef, he was immediately turned around to go back in. This time when he emerged, the Kaptin’s face lit up with skiny, killy joy as he saw the Badmek had been reborn in cybork form. While my Badmek was never one of the brawlers, or one of my gunslingers, or one of my distractions, or one of scrap grabbers, or one of….anything useful, he soon found a use as he took on three orks in combat at once as their weapons kept clanging off his shiny new armour. Eventually, it took a lucky swipe with a claw-arm** before he fell. But it had been so long in combat that the rest of the mob had descended upon them and avenged his fall.

(*Old Battle Wounds seem to be my signature thing. If it wasn’t for the Doc, then it’s possible that none of my mobster would be able to fight! Highly unlikely, but still possible.)

(**also a very useful bionik to have…especially as it will open up cyborks like a tin-opener)

And there you have it, an insight into my experiences with Bioniks. From strategy, to preferences, I hope you all have as much fun using them I do.

A while ago I sculpted some weapons and sent off the masters to Curtis over at Ramshackle Games. He’s planning on releasing some mutants soon in a similar scale to modern Orks. I designed these to be shotguns of different kinds; from left to right: pump-action, single shot, double-barrelled, and a drum-magazine one (styled after a Striker). I reckon they’d probably work quite well as Ork kannons…

I’m told they’ll be available in a few weeks, but we’ll keep you posted.

Is there anyone in Birmingham (UK) or the surrounding area looking for someone to play Gorkamorka with?

Ross King on the GoMo Facebook group is trying to find people to play with so if that’s you, get in touch with him or post on the group.

If there’s any other people looking for people to play with who’d like us to post something similar for them you can either post on the aforementioned group or leave a comment on our Wall.

Today we’ve got something a bit special for you, an interview with Iain Compton, a fine gentleman who worked on both Gorkamorka and Digganob.

In a moment we’ll get into the interview itself, but first let’s get Iain to introduce himself for us:

I was at the Studio from 1996 to 2000 in various capacities. When I left I was a WD staffer under the editorship of Paul ‘Fat Bloke’ Sawyer. After leaving GW, I did a few fill in jobs for a couple of years before moving to Paris to work for the European publishers of the MMO Dark Age of Camelot. I was the English co-coordinator which meant that I was responsible for all customer service, community management and the day-to-day operations on the English language servers. In 2006, shortly after the Warhammer: Age of Reckoning game had been announced, it was revealed that the company I was working for would publish that in Europe too. Naturally I was extremely interested in that and ended up as the English Community Manager for that product from 2007 until I left in early 2009. Nowadays I work for a small, independent studio in the Black Forest area of Germany as a games designer. We are making a free-to-play FPS that will be released later this year.
I still play GW games after a bit of time off the wagon – I rediscovered my love for Dwarfs while introducing the Paris office to the joys of small metal men. These days I mostly play WFB due to the availability of opponents although I have a few colleagues who are almost ready to take the plunge and start WH40K armies too.

What was your inspiration behind some of the madness in the Ork fluff? How did you come up with it?

The Ork fluff had already been laid down long before I arrived and as I understand it had been a collaboration between Andy Chambers, Gav Thorpe and Rick Priestley. The idea was to really nail down the Orks in 40k and to try and bring them back to the feral and ferocious warrior-race that they should have been. Remember that the studio style for Orks had previously veered off into a rather cartoonish, comical look so Gorkamorka was almost a reboot for the race. Brian Nelson had just joined and everyone was very excited about the stuff he was doing for the Greenskins. Andy was a huge Ork fan and really led the charge on the new ‘Orky vision’, he had very clear ideas on how they should be portrayed and this, along with Brian’s re-imagining of the greenskin miniature lines was colouring everything we did.

What kind of direction were you given?

Mostly I worked with Gav or Andy. As I said above Andy was fairly evangelical about the Orks, his desk was covered with various Orky contraptions that he’d built for 40k, BFG and other such stuff. As I was very new and extremely junior, I was mostly playtesting with the other guys in the department, modelling up things to playtest with and occasionally being given writing assignments. For the most part the writing I was given consisted of what we called ‘colour text’. This is the short fiction that is scattered around the main text to provide flavour. I wrote a lot of stuff and Andy would read it and tell me if the tone was right or not. Mostly he was trying to get away from stuff that made the Orks look overly comic or just stupid although he wasn’t opposed to humour per se. Orks don’t take anything very seriously after all, not even fighting.

What was it like working for Games Workshop?

Well there’s a question! It was simultaneously incredible and terrible. I’d come to the Studio from retail where I had been the acting manager of the Cambridge store. As it happened my full-timer (whose blog Behind the Rules you should read) moved to the Studio at the same time and we ended up living across two houses on the same street with a motley bunch of other new Studio employees. As you can imagine, we pretty much ate, slept and breathed Warhammer. At work things were about the same. My job was, within very broad limits whatever I wanted it to be that day. I didn’t have the responsibilities of the more senior guys such as Gav or Ian Pickstock who were responsible for particular products, I just helped out wherever I was needed. The first thing I ever did at the studio was to convert up a Dogs of War army for Nigel Stillman because the strict rule for playtesting was that you had to have proper figures for everything you fielded and, if the figure didn’t exist yet, you had to convert it before you could test it. Mostly I playtested stuff with the other guys in Games Dev, we were just starting work on 3rd ed 40k so that was the biggest thing we had on our plates – I converted up the very first Dark Eldar army out of old Melniboneans, discontinued High Elves and selected bits from the Craftworld Eldar range. When I wasn’t playtesting or creating things for playtesting I could largely please myself. I had writing assignments with deadlines that were easy for me to hit so a lot of my time was open for just soaking up the Studio atmosphere. I was encouraged to spend time chatting to the illustrators, sculptors, ‘Eavy Metal team and others in the Studio to get a feel for what was going on and how the rules we were working on were being portrayed in other media. All of this was of course awesome. There were a lot of very cool people at the Studio, some amazing talents and it was a great time in my life.

The flip side was that GW were pretty overt about the replaceability of almost everyone who worked there. There were several explicit reminders that if we didn’t like working for the (very low) wages we were on then there were thousands of rabid keeners who would cut body parts off to be able to do our jobs instead of us. I’d been in the Studio for about a year when I was made redundant. There had been a massive overspend in setting up the new HQ at Lenton (previously the head office, the studio and the warehouse had all been at separate locations around Nottingham) and a huge chunk of the Studio was let go as a result. 3 of us from Games Dev were axed (from a department of 7) along with a bunch of ‘Eavy Metal painters and some of the production guys. I found a job elsewhere in the company (making moulds for the metal figures) until I returned to the Studio about a year later as a WD staffer. Getting made redundant was one of the worst moments in my life up to that point. I was pretty young and I really didn’t know how to deal with that.

Was much content cut from Gorkamorka/Digganob? If so, why?

I don’t remember anything being cut specifically. Naturally a lot of material was produced for the product – illustrations, colour text and so forth – of which not all made the grade but nothing of substance was removed prior to release.

Was there any talk/plans of expanding Gorkamorka further in future if it was a commercial success?

Gorkamorka was always intended to be a limited run product. This was the new product strategy that had been in place for a couple of years; there were the core products (WFB and WH40K) which were always in production and then there would be various secondary products – stuff like Bloodbowl, Necromunda, Epic, BFG and so forth. These secondary products had a very specific lifespan, they’d be full retail for a while (long enough for the main box and the expansion to sell properly) then they’d be moved to Mail Order and after that Specialist Games. So Gorkamorka wouldn’t have remained in production for longer than it did because the next secondary system would be waiting to take over, however commercial success would certainly open the possibility of a second edition later on in the rotation of secondary games. Of course if the game continued to do well during its MO/Specialist Games phase then there may have been additional support for it in WD later on although new miniatures or boxed product would be unlikely.

If you could go back and rewrite a few bits would you make any changes?

Gorkamorka was very much a product of its time and that time was 2nd Ed. 40k. As such it was limited by the constraints of that system. I think that a new 40k skirmish game along the lines of Gorkamorka or Necromunda using the post 3rd Ed. framework would be a great game and I’d love to see it. As it is however I think that Gorkamorka stands as probably the best expression of the 2nd Ed 40k system so I wouldn’t change that.

What do you feel are the major differences between the community surrounding GW specialist games during the 90s and today? Do you feel the development of the Internet has changed things much?

The internet has changed the Specialist Games division in ways that are almost too huge to properly put into words. Simply, I think that the internet is the natural home of the Specialist Games as the traditional publishing channels that GW used prior to that simply weren’t adequate. Back then there was the Citadel Journal which had a tiny circulation compared to WD and that was pretty much it. Very occasionally you’d see a WD article covering one of the Specialist Games but they were rare and the coverage was patchy. Now, we have the living rulebooks and a collaborative effort by fans all around the world to keep their favourite systems current. I think that’s fantastic and it’s what SG always should have been.

What prompted the factions in Digganob and how involved were you in its creation?

Digganob was almost entirely Gav’s baby. As far as I recall, the main points of the expansion were thrashed out between him and Andy and then we made them. I built some prototypes of the Grot vehicles which were used as the basis for the final production miniatures and I also wrote some of the colour text. He and I did a lot of playtesting and of course I gave him my feedback and we talked a lot about the various elements such as the background and the rules but the creative direction plus the vast majority of the writing was all Gav.

Perhaps it’s a silly question, but do you have any particular favourites within the realms of greenskins; a particular unit or clan?

I really like the clans, I think they add a great deal of depth to the race which would otherwise be somewhat one dimensional. Back in 2nd Ed. I had a Freebooterz force which I loved for the super flamboyant miniatures. Nowadays I would have to say that my favourite Orks are the old metal Kommandos. I love the idea of Orky special forces with their woollen hats and demolitions gear. They have so much character and humour without being cartoonish.

Lastly, were there any particularly memorable moments during your work on Gorkamorka?

I remember playing Gorkamorka with my friends just before it was released and, between the unending stream of nob jokes that characterised our sessions, there was a point where we all just looked at each other and said ‘This game is simply brilliant, this is going to be awesome’. And we were right.

Thank you so much, Iain! if you’ve got any other questions for him post them in the comments as we may do a follow up interview.

If you’d like to see more stuff from Iain check out his website Antipwn.

As a big fan of both The Warriors and fire I couldn’t resist the urge to write something to let the Diggas wreak fiery havoc on their enemies. They may be the underdogs but they’ve got a lot of fight in them!

Firewater is both a strong liquor and an excellent weapon. Add a burning rag and you’ve got a Molotov Cocktail in a pinch.

I drew some concept art to go with the rules but it didn’t turn out so well – so I gave the doodle to Clayton and he came up with this bit of awesomeness.

Can you dig it?

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This document was written by Benjamin Fox and contains artwork created by Clayton Tait. It’s licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share-Alike license.