On Wednesday Games Workshop announced that six new piratical detachments would be coming to Warhammer 40,000 in the upcoming narrative expansion The Maelstrom: Lair of the Tyrant. Well, those detachments are available already, added to the free faction packs for the Chaos Space Marine, Aeldari, Leagues of Votann, and Orks. And the new Warhammer 40k detachment for the Orks - the Freebooter Krew - looks like incredibly good fun. Let's dive in.
Some Orks will do anything to get their hands on the shiniest loot, shootiest guns, and flashiest vehicles, even if that means nicking it from a bigger, angrier Ork. This antisocial streak sees these 'Flash Gitz' kicked out of the rough and ready society of the clans - assuming they don't bolt with a stash of loot before they're caught. These kleptomaniacal raiders may fall under the control of a Freebooter Kaptin, a supremely avaricious Ork who has the vision to steal an entire starship. The new Freebooter Krew detachment has the rules for fielding a whole army of these space-faring plunderers in Warhammer 40k.
For a Freebooter, life is all about loot, which is reflected in the detachment's army wide rule. Each battle round, the Freebooter player gets to pick one objective to become that round's 'loot objective'. Orks Infantry, Mounted, and Walker units gain Sustained Hits 1 when either they, or the target of their attacks, is standing on the loot objective. That goes for both melee and ranged attacks. In essence, the Kaptin has declared "X marks the spot" and all the boyz are keen to grab it - though they're perfectly happy to swap where "X" is if there's a juicier target somewhere else.
Naturally, your Orks are going to fight all the harder to get their hands on the best loot, and so a couple of Stratagems are keyed off that loot objective. Bash and Grab grants one of your units re-rolls to Wound in melee against a target in range of the loot objective; Grab and Bash grants a non-Gretchin Orks unit that is within range of the loot objective the benefit of the Waaagh!, even if the Waaagh! has been called this battle.
So that's two good solid crumping stratagems. But the shooting stratagems are, if anything, a little juicier. Deck Fraggers grants a unit of Orks the Blast ability when they shoot at an Infantry unit, perfect for clearing out infantry hordes or when shooting up a fresh unit of beakies; while Rolling Loot-Heap grants a unit of Flash Gitz Anti-Vehicle 4+ on its ranged attacks. Dakka dakka dakka!
And there's a couple of movement strats. Boardin' Rush lets you ensure a unit's Advance roll is a six, while Krump and Run lets one of your units make a six inch move after an enemy unit moves out of engagement range with it.
And it's an Orks detachment, so of course there's something silly. The enhancement Bionik Workshop grants models in a Big Mek or Painboy's unit a random bonus (either extra Move, melee Strength, or Weapon Skill). Thankfully, this isn't so random that you'll be disappointed with any of the results, provided you stick it into a unit with some melee punch.
Ironically, Flash Gitz - the mainstay of any Freebooter Krew - don't get any benefit from shooting at targets sitting on the loot objective, since they already have Sustained Attacks 1. But with the two shooting stratagems they should be able to reliably clear infantry screens and take chunks out of transport vehicles, so they're a lot more flexible in this list than a standard Orks army.
It doesn't seem like a meta warping detachment, but it will be a great excuse to model pirate hats onto all your characters, and create some treasure chest objective markers. Can't ask for much more than that.
Do you have a massive collection of Flash Gitz? Were you playing back during the Rogue Trader era, and have fond memories of your first Freebooter Kaptin? Is there some grotesque synergy in this detachment that we've overlooked? Let us know in the Wargamer Discord community. And for a regular roundup of all our best stories, make sure you sign up to the Wargamer newsletter!