"Battlefleet Gothic: Armada II" - Space Orks Escorts [Advanced Ship Guide]

"Looting all the Dakka to help you get better at games to impress your Gork or your Mork."

Space Orks Escorts

The Space Orks are more of a massive, loosely organized mob in a perpetual state of riot than any real coordinated military force. This is represented by their slipshod ships, put together mostly from pieces of ships they've raided in the past or scrap they've found as they travel the stars going absolutely ham on everything within sight.

So wild is the Ork mentality that their only real maneuver is the Big Red Button which simply launches their ships forward in a nearly uncontrollable burn that can't be stopped prematurely. They are also the only faction to attach a ramming spur to a destroyer sized vessel.

While their ships may be slow and janky, they carry potent, if inaccurate, weapons and have some of the cheapest points costs in the game, supporting fleets with huge numbers of Ork ships.

Patch Status: Updated for Patch 7 (v.11218) - July 13th, 2020

Space Orks Guide Navigation

• Escorts <- You Are Here
  
  • Brute
  • Ravager
  • Savage
  • Onslaught
• Light Cruiser
• Cruiser
• Battle Cruiser
• Battleship

- Main Guide Index -
Check out this link to be taken to the main index for all of the "Battlefleet Gothic: Armada II" guides I am assembling, including ship guides for other factions and more!

Orks Escort Ships Stats

The Space Ork small craft establish the theme of "all the armor on the front" tactic of Ork naval design, combined with very slow engines and a harsh morale penalty that leads to their ships to be very prone to mutiny.

Destroyers (Brute)

Frigates (Ravager, Savage & Onslaught)

Orks Escort Vessels Attributes & Skills

As mentioned above, regarding the Orks slipshod naval design, the Looted Ship ability makes them very susceptible to fires on board, giving the Imperium an edge against the Orks with their melta torpedoes. Thanks to the bravery penalty, factions that focus on strong assault skills can quickly cause mutinies in Ork vessels.

• Ork Reactor: Grants Big Red Button and Burn Retros.
• Disorganized: -50 bravery penalty
  
• Looted Ship: +100% damage received from Fire Aboard effect
  
• Escort: No assault skills due to small ship size.
  
• Scanner: Reveals enemy ships within 13,000 units for 30 seconds.
  
• Brutal Strike: (Ravager Only) 10% chance to deal +1 troop damage.

Brute Ram Ship

Ork Ram Ship - "Brute" - [Evil Sunz Sub-Faction]

1 / 6

Brute: Weapons

• Spur
  ^{+300% ramming damage}
• [1] Light Gunz Artillery
  ^{Poor Accuracy - 90° Front - Range: 9k
  Shots: 2 | Damage: 8 | Reload: 4s | Crit: 2%}

The only ramming escort sized vessel in the game, the Brute Ram Ship is a pretty vicious tiny craft, that to the untrained eye doesn't seem nearly as threatening as it is, since most players aren't expecting a ram from something as small as the Brute to actually going to do harm to them.

Thanks to the Spur's much higher bonus to small sized vessels, the Brute hits above it's weight class with it's ram attacks, however it is still vulnerable itself to the same if it misses or comes in at a bad angle.

Ravager Attack Ship

Ork Attack Ship - "Ravager" - [Bad Moons Sub-Faction]

1 / 6

Ravager: Weapons

• [2] Torpedoes ^{*Special Weapon
  Basic (2 Uses) | Boarding (2 Uses)}
  
• [1] Light Gunz Artillery
  ^{Poor Accuracy - 90° Front - Range: 9k
  Shots: 2 | Damage: 8 | Reload: 4s | Crit: 2%}

The Ravager and it's boarding torpedo charges gives the Orks the special spot of being only one of three factions with an destroyer or frigate sized vessel that is capable of causing boarding actions, the other two being the Adeptus Astartes and the Tyranids. Thanks to the Ork's insanely cheap price, the Ravager get's to take the title of the cheapest assault capable ship in the game, with the Tyranids vessels being in the low 40s and the Astartes much higher.

Savage Gunship

Ork Gunship - "Savage" - [Ork Pirates Sub-Faction]

1 / 6

Savage: Weapons

• [2] Heavy Gunz Artillery
  ^{Miserable Accuracy - 90° Front - Range: 4.5k
  Shots: 1 | Damage: 48 | Reload: 12s | Crit: 12%}

The Savage is an interesting choice frigate wise, because it does the same raw damage and crits per minute as the Onslaught does, but with a weapon that fires slower, with considerably worse accuracy that hardly works past its point blank max range even with lock on orders. This means it's more prone to damage spikes due to firing fewer rounds per minute and having less chances to hit as a result, while just having a harder time applying damage in general due to it's worse accuracy.

Considering there seems to be no real positive to the Savage over the Onslaught, I would be interested in knowing if any Ork players out there have found good cause for Prioritizing the Savage over the other macro attack ship.

Onslaught Attack Ship

Ork Attack Ship - "Onslaught" - [Goffs Sub-Faction]

1 / 6

Onslaught: Weapons

• [2] Light Gunz Artillery
  ^{Poor Accuracy - 90° Front - Range: 9k
  Shots: 2 | Damage: 8 | Reload: 4s | Crit: 2%}

The Onslaught really seems to be the better option for a macro-packing frigate choice, since it's guns fire twice as far as the Savage, do the same on paper dps and have the same chances to crit, but does so with more rounds fired per minute, making missed shots less costly in the long run because you have plenty more likely to hit, and each round is a much smaller portion of your overall damage then with the Savage.

Paying 1 extra point for all these benefits seems to be the most minimal of cots for the benefits received. As mentioned above, I am curious to hear the thoughts of players experienced with the Ork faction and how they see the match up of the Onslaught vs the Savage.

Changelog

• 8/3/2020 - Weapon Tables 2.0
• 7/13/2020 - Updated for patch 11218.

© 2019 SOE

Comments

Artanis on April 17, 2019:

Ork Escort spam was a thing in Battlefleet Gothic Armada, but don't know how effective it is in the second game.

Onslaught to keep nibbling away at shields and Savage for tearing away chunks of hull points is how I have always used them.