A hunting party of Feral Orks
A Feral Ork Boarboy
Feral Orks or Wildboyz are Orks who arise on a world that a spaceborne Ork WAAAGH! has already assaulted, though they possess only pre-industrial levels of technology and culture. Feral Orks appear after a WAAAGH! has already infested a planet and then moved on to seek new battles elsewhere. Usually Feral Orks are a new generation of Orks grown from the fungal reproductive spores released by spaceborne Orks and left behind on the world their spaceborne counterparts have abandoned. Feral Orks can also be derived from an original population of spaceborne Orks stranded on a world who effectively devolve back to a feral state, losing their access to more advanced technology. The Feral Orks, while less advanced than their fellow Greenskins, do have access to a variety of wargear in their armoury. However much of it works due to the strange effects it has on the mind and behaviour of the Ork, rather than actually producing a physical effect upon the enemy.
While most spaceborne Orks leave with their Warboss to seek out more warfare after completing a round of combat on a given planet, some of their fungal Orkoid reproductive spores are left behind on these worlds. If the spores manage to survive in the planet's environment, they will eventually produce whole tribes of Feral Orks. Often worlds will be plagued by Feral Orks for decades after the initial Ork WAAAGH! that created them has moved on. These Orks maintain a comparatively low level of pre-industrial technology, using bows, axes, clubs, and boar or Squig-pulled chariots. Feral Orks often never advance beyond a Neolithic or, at best, Iron Age level of technology. Unlike most Orks, who favour close combat, Feral Orks are better at ranged warfare. These Orks make use of crude technology and employ Warboars, traps, and massive Squiggoths in attacks. Sometimes, a standard Ork WAAAGH! will come across a band of Feral Orks on a world they have invaded, and will add them to their Greenskin horde on the way, providing them with Shootas, Power Klaws, and all manner of advanced technology to aid in the further expansion of their WAAAGH!
Forces of the Feral Orks
Commanders
Warboss
A Warboss serves just as much as the leader of a tribe or WAAAGH! of Feral Orks as he does for normal Orks. However, a Feral Warboss does not possess the advanced technology, armour or weapons of a normal Ork Warboss and uses the best pre-industrial weapons his society can provide.
Pigdok
A Pigdok is a type of Ork Oddboy and is a strange combination of Mad Dok and Mekboy, although not as skilled as either are individually. Pigdoks are found in Feral Ork tribes, tending the Warboars that are ridden to battle by the primitive Boarboyz. Their main use in battle is to increase the ferocity of the various beasts that Feral Orks take to war by doping them with various noxious concoctions, as well as some of the Orks themselves while he is at it.
Nob
Orks called Nobz are the larger Ork Boyz who are still smaller than the Warboss of a mob, but are able to exert their authority upon their peers through their sheer size and savage natures. They are essentially the Ork elite; the Ork nobles and Ork officers in any Greenskin force. Nobz exist within Feral Ork WAAAGHS! much as Warbosses do, though they have access only to pre-industrial technology and weapons.
Wyrdboy
Wyrdboyz are Feral Ork psykers, known as Weirdboyz among standard Ork tribes, who are unique in that they act as psychic sponges, absorbing and channeling the collective, gestalt psychic energies produced by groups of Orks. All Orks are innately psychic beings, much like the Eldar, though in only a few - the Wyrdboyz - are these psychic powers fully developed.
Elites
Brute
A Brute is one of the bigger and nastier Orks in a Feral Ork tribe and usually they operate in groups known as Brute Squads, though they are still not as large or powerful as the Nobz. They spend their time maintaining order within the hierarchy of the tribe, usually by means of their sheer size and domineering tendencies. They allow the other smaller Orks the privilege of hunting for them, taking the best of the food that the Huntas bring back. Whilst the ability to shoot prey is essential to a Feral Ork tribe's survival, they still relish close quarters combat. Brutes are also used as Minderz by the tribe's or WAAAGH!'s Warboss. They have special orders to keep an eye on a Wyrdboy to make sure he does his job in battle. In such circumstances a Brute's bullying nature proves to be of its greatest use.
Trappa
Trappas are Feral Orks who are specialists at gathering meat and furs from their homeworld's native fauna for the rest of the tribe. They are excellent at sneaking up on their enemies and set traps for them many days in advance. They use three different basic yet often deadly traps, known as Bang Traps, Fire Bombs and Punji Pits.
Stikk Bommas
Ork Stikk Bommas carry Stikkbombs, which are grenades of Ork manufacture, that allow them to take on opponents in cover and light vehicles much more effectively than basic Slugga Boyz. Stikk Bommas are used by Feral Ork tribes as ranged specialists, though their Stikk Bomms are obviously of much more crude construction and materials than their more advanced counterparts.
Troops
Huntas
A Hunta is the basic type of Feral Ork warrior. Squads of Huntas consist of many Orks whose weapons include both melee and ranged equivalents like axes and bows and arrows crafted from stone or crude iron materials and whose effectiveness is found solely in their sheer numbers. They often have to fight predators as well as other Feral Orks on their homeworlds, but in a large enough group they will not only survive but overwhelm their enemies. Often the strongest and most able Ork will become the leader of the squad of Huntas and dominate them sufficiently to obtain more advanced forms of weapons and armour that makes him a more effective warrior than the standard.
Wildboy
A Feral Ork raiding party will often come across a small community of Orks that spored away from the larger feral tribes present on the planet. These Orks are usually armed only with the most basic, primitive weapons like stone spears and clubs since they have not been exposed to higher levels of Ork technology or culture. The Ork raiding party will bring these wild Orks back to their tribe and place them in so-called Wildboyz Squads. Over time the other Feral Orks will teach them "da proper Orky way", which ironically, is still not equivalent to the standard technology and cultural levels attained by spacefaring Orks. Yet in a culture that respects only raw physical strength, Wildboyz must first prove their mettle and worth to their new tribe in a raid using only the primitive weapons they were first discovered using.
Gretchin
Gretchins are found among Feral Ork tribes just as they are among their spacefaring kindred, performing the same roles as menial slaves for the much larger Greenskins.
Madboy
Most Feral Orks have little to no concept of advanced technology and sometimes their introduction to even the simplest mechanical devices will be too much for their puny brain to handle. When this happens, a Feral Ork can become psychotic and lose what little of the rational thought processes he possessed to start. These Orks are known as Madboyz or Nuttaz by their fellows and are put in separate squads known as Madboyz Squads. Due to their insanity they can be either a deadly weapon or a clumsy hindrance in combat for their fellow Feral Orks. Due to their madness, other Orks keep their distance from Madboyz. In battle Madboyz sometimes start fighting amongst themselves, arguing over whether a cloud looks like Gork or Mork, fall in to a gibbering panic or decide to show the other Orks the "true meaning" of Orkyness--which can have disastrous consequences or prove to be the salvation of the tribe.
Fast Attack
Boarboy
A Boarboy serves in a Boarboyz Squad that acts as the heavy cavalry units of Feral Ork tribes. Boarboyz ride a Warboar into battle. Warboars themselves are incredibly resilient and strong beasts, and can serve as a food source for the tribe if needed. The Orks capture and train wild boars, which often inhabit areas near Feral Ork settlements. These wild boar-like beasts then become Warboars, used as powerful and often vicious steeds in battle. On rare occasions when Feral Orks gain access to some level of advanced technology, perhaps supplied by their spacefaring Ork brethren, Warboars will be modified with augmetic implants and bionics to make them faster, stronger and tougher. These boars are called "Cyboars" by the Orks. The most rare and powerful Cyboars are the "Super Cyboars," animals who have become more machine then boar. These cybernetic animals are only ridden by the tribe's Warboss.
Herda
Herdas are highly-skilled Feral Ork Trappas who decide to capture and train Squigs for their own use. They use the Squigs to attack enemies with their sharp teeth, foul natures and overwhelming numbers.
Junka
Junkas are Feral Orks who have chanced upon a wrecked or abandoned vehicle and are able to, with the technical assistance of a Feral Ork Pigdok, make it functional once more. They are often heavily armed with recovered spaceborne Ork Big Shootas, Rokkit Launchas or Burnas and may be travelling in one of these recovered vehicles which are referred to as a Junkatrukk. The mob controlling a Junkatrukk is usually quite small, consisting of between five and ten Junkas. A Junkatrukk is the preferred vehicle of the Feral Ork Junkas, usually recovered from the wreck of a spaceborne Ork or Imperial vehicle and repaired by a Pigdok. Because of the previous damage done to these converted vehicles during the battle that wrecked them in the first place, they possess only light armour and may not even run with the original engine, sometimes being powered by very crude steam engines, Gretchin-driven push pedals or even pulled by the largest Warboars of the tribe. Junkatrukks are also likely to break at any time, making them somewhat of a liability in combat if they are not well-maintained. Junkatrukks are often armed with a Big Shoota, Rokkit Launcha or Burna whilst also being a transport to get Junkas and other Feral Ork warriors to the site of combat as quickly as possible.
Heavy Support
Squiggoth
The largest of all Squigs, the Squiggoth is a massive quadrupedal beast (although it ranges in size from that of a main battle tank all the way up to the size of a small Battle Titan) bred and used by Feral Orks. There have been woolly, tusked Squiggoths seen on battlefields, but the most common type appears similar to the dinosaurs of Old Earth. The Squiggoth used by Feral Orks commonly has a howdah on its back, from which Ork Wildboyz and Huntas ride into battle, shooting mounted guns, such as the Supa-Lobba, or their more primitive ranged weapons like bows and arrows and javelins, as they go. To protect their "ride", Orks usually add some form of primitive armour plating, often salvaged from wrecked vehicles of their original spaceborne progenitors.
Lobba Battery
Some Feral Ork tribes develop their technology levels to the point that they can build crude mortars, catapults and rocket launchers after discovering (to their immense glee and satisfaction) the nature of gun powder.
Sources
- Codex: Orks (7th Edition), pp. 15-16
- Feral Ork Army List (See Games Workshop Website)