Alright, I’ve been thinking about writing this up for a while, and I finally got down to it after reading Abuse Puppy’s article on Orks.
I’ve been hearing about “no retreat sux 4 teh orks” since I dipped my toe into the 40k blogosphere maelstrom. Really quickly, lets go over what is being talked about.
Orks have a special rule called “Mob Rule!”, which means that if the unit numbers 11 models or more, they count as having the Fearless special rule. If a unit that is Fearless loses a combat, instead of taking a morale test; they suffer a number of wounds (this is a rule called “No Retreat”, so these wounds are usually called No Retreat Wounds or Fearless Wounds) equal to the amount that they lost combat by, armor saves are allowed against these wounds. If any models remain, the fight continues.
Now, this differs from 4th edition (why do we even talk about this anymore? 4th ed was like over 3 years ago at this point…anyway…) where units that were fearless only took wounds if they were outnumbered. Obviously, the Orks typically weren’t outnumbered, so they didn’t lose any extra guys.
Why do people think that No Retreat wounds are such a detriment to Orks? Well, imagine a scenario in which the Orks get assaulted by a unit like Blood Angels Assault Marines with a Sanguinary Priest nearby. Say the Marines do about right and do 10ish wounds, recieving 1 back in return. The Orks lose by 9. They have 20 models left, so they count as fearless. They take 9 wounds. Odds are they save one, and lose 8 more models. Essentially, you can double you pleasure almost against Orks as you can sometimes do more damage than the number of attacks you have.
Taking this a step further is the dreaded sandbagging maneouver that can get pulled where the antagonist to the Orks is able to hit TWO mobs at once, beating both by a large amount, and then both mobs take wounds equivalent to the loss; nearly tripling the amount of damage done to the Orks.
Yes, these are ways in which being fearless can be a detriment in combat, and a wily foe can use your special rule to do more damage to you; but, in reality, its not that much of a disadvantage. Reason being, if you weren’t fearless, you’d probably lose the whole unit anyway!
Take the first example of the Blood Angels assaulting again, only make the Orks not fearless, merely Ld10 or something. Losing the combat by 9 means that they need snake eyes to stick around. That’s fairly unlikely, and then you have I2, and odds are when you break, you’re going to get wiped out due to sweeping advance. So, in one scenario, the unit is still alive with 12 models and is stuck in combat and now ready to get some counter-assault help; and in the other scenario, the Orks are just plain ol’ dead. Why is fearless bad again? And the sandbagging scenario is similar; now you have two dead units instead of two heavily damaged units. Why is fearless worse?
The other thing that people rarely factor in is that, invariably, when an Ork unit is getting assaulted and being beaten into the ground, odds are that you won’t be fearless anyway, as you’ll probably be under 11 models at the time anyway. For instance, a canny foe will shoot up the Ork mob he’s about to assault, so that when the assault is done, there are 10 or less Orks remaining; meaning they almost always run away and are cut down.
And what about the times where you get beat by only 2 or 3? If you’re Fearless, its almost meaningless; if you aren’t fearless and working off of the Orks’ leadership of 7; or even if you were working off of Ld9 like a Space Marine; your odds of passing that test aren’t awesome; and you risk being wiped out entirely again!
And, even if you DON’T get sweeping advanced immediately, the unit falling back would probably be under half strength anyway; so it wouldn’t be able to rally anyway. Wouldn’t you rather stick it out a bit longer, lose some models in the fight (which actually opens up more opportunities to counter-assault the units assaulting you), and then outlast your foe?
On top of that, I’m shocked people don’t give fearless more credit outside of melee. Being able to ignore things like pinning or tank shocks are incredibly useful, and go a long way towards making Orks more survivable in the game. The fewer morale and leadership test you have to take, the fewer you’ll fail.
I’ve heard people moan that Mob Rule should confer Stubborn instead. Admittedly, this would be pretty sweet for combat; but you wouldn’t get all the advantages outside of combat that Fearless gives you.
Basically, I think people are too used to playing Space Marines and thinking with ATSKNF in mind. But, news flash!, Orks aren’t Space Marines, they are cheap, horde units; and they have a few exploitable weaknesses. No Retreat wounds are one of them; but is it really that bad compared to standard Morale tests and Sweeping advances? I don’t think so. I think its better.