It is another week and we have another Jstove Necromunda review. This time he dives into the House Orlock kit to see if they are worth it!
Jstove here, continuing a series of articles on the boxed gangs in Necromunda.
In previous articles, I looked at House Escher, House Goliath, and the Legacy Gang Roster. The purpose of these articles was to determine if you could build a campaign-ready gang out of 1 box of models, or in the case of the legacy roster if you could put together a campaign-ready gang out of a medley of Cultist and Guardsman models. Just so you don’t have to go back through the pile, I’ll give you the short version here. I gave House Escher a thumbs up due to an abundance of cheap lasguns.
I gave the Goliaths the thumbs down because they had too many gimmick weapons and not enough cheap, simple weapons. The Legacy roster I also decided was a winner, assuming you were using a standard pool of Guardsmen and a handful of special weapons.
Now it’s time to rip open the Orlocks and see how they stack up.
The Contents
Inside the box are 2 servo-claws, 2 harpoon guns, 2 heavy stubbers, and about as many combat shotguns and autoguns as you’ll ever need. There’s also a spread of autopistols and stubguns, and one of my personal favorite weapons of questionable usefulness, the sawed-off shotgun. Definitely a must-have for any Mad Max fan. The sawed-off shotgun is the only shotgun in the game with an S3 scattershot, which is pretty much a guaranteed pain train on anyone except a juiced up Goliath. Any model hit by a scattershot weapon takes D6 hits instead of just 1. Here’s the catch. it’s got a 4” short range and an 8” long range. You gotta get pretty close to pop that boomstick.
Of the 3 boxed gangs available so far, I think this one is the most effective. The Escher box was a winner because it was cheap and easy to bulk out the Gangers with lasguns and hand out pistols to the Juves, while still having your choice of fancy weapons for your heroes. The Goliath box was a loser because it had the opposite problem, too much fancy, not enough cheap. The Orlock box is legendary because it has literally everything I want in a box. It has piles of every kind of gun I want. The Orlock box hits every base throughout the price scale of the roster. 60c expensive combat shotguns, 15c autoguns, and 10c dirt cheap sawed offs, stub guns, and autopistols. You really do get everything you need.
The House Gimmicks
In Newcromunda, GW has given each house their own shortlist of gimmick weapons to add to their arsenal and give more character to each house. So far, I think they’ve gone 0 for 3. The Nightshade chemthrower in House Escher is just a more expensive flamer, and the bolter/needler is just a bolter, but more expensive. The Goliath trash is just trash. The grenade launcher is good, but the other unique weapons are all too expensive in a gang that’s strapped for cash, and most of them just aren’t as good as stimm slugs.
The Orlocks, in my opinion, are more of the same. The harpoon gun is cool, but in terms of raw effectiveness, it’s competing with the venerable heavy stubber for its spot in the gang. With the harpoon, you might hit one guy standing behind another guy, and maybe reel them in. But with the heavy stubber, you’ll just hit everyone with 2 rapid fire dice, or just turn 1 model into tomato soup. I’d put my money on the heavy stubber. The real tragedy here is that the heavy stubber isn’t that much more expensive than the harpoon gun. If the harpoon gun was cheap, I could see making a case for it and be trying to reel in enemies to shotgun range to blow the heck out of them. However, because it’s not cheap, instead of trying to get tricky, I’d rather just spend a little extra cash and shoot the suckers dead.
If you’d like to get really close and hurt a lot of people really bad, blasting charges are huge. They’ll definitely blow the everloving heck out of anything under the pie plate. There are just 2 problems. First, they’re 45 credits. Second, they’re Sx2 range, which for an average Orlock is 6”. Why do I think this is a problem? Because like the harpoon gun, if you want to get that close to kill people, you don’t have to be tricky. Orlocks have the most cost-effective, short-range firepower in the game. If you want to be in shotgun range, use a shotgun.
The final weapon on the Orlock fancy list is the Servo-Claw, and it’s pretty phenomenal. It adds +2 Strength and deals 2 damage, for 30 credits. If you want to throw sweet bionic haymakers, that claw will put you on a level that will get you respect from even House Goliath. However, like the harpoon gun and the blasting charges, the claw has the same problem. If you can get close enough to use it, chances are you can just kill the guy with something else.
In House Orlock, the fanciest weapons are the simplest ones.
Despite having unique weapons that might be interesting in a vacuum, or just devastating if they were in any other house, (imagine an unstoppable sprinting Escher with a 2+ initiative dancing around terrain hazards and swinging that claw, or a stimmed up Goliath with a 12” throw range on a blasting charge) the best part about Orlock is that their best kit is their most basic kit. With easy access to the autogun, autopistol, and heavy stubber, you could happily build a budget gang out of the box where EVERY GANG MEMBER HAS A RAPID FIRE DICE. You could also go nuts with combat shotguns and sawed-offs, close the distance with the salvo shells, and then clean up with scattershot. Orlock’s real trick is simple. They have all the most economical choices for short and long-range firepower across the price range from cheap to premium. That’s what’s truly beautiful about the gang.
Final Thought
This is the prince of the boxed gangs so far. I’m confident that there are multiple, campaign-ready 10 member pain trains in a single box, with no need to grab more. I’m also pretty certain that with easy access to the most fundamental economic and effective weapons in the game, House Orlock is the box to buy for newbies just getting into Necromunda.
This box is the gold standard that all other boxes will be judged against now.
