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Orks Portal

Ork Kommandos

Ork Kommandos epitomize the Orky virtue of low cunning. Nothing makes a Kommando happier than creeping up on an unsuspecting enemy, his mates slithering through the undergrowth at his side. When the time is right, the Kommandos will burst from their concealment, slashing, stabbing and shooting their stunned prey before they have a chance to strike back.

Kommandos are viewed with suspicion by the majority of Ork boyz, on the rare occasions they are viewed at all. These small-unit specialists do not socialize with the other Orks, and sometimes exile themselves from the tribe for months at a time, even permanently divorcing themselves from their warband in more extreme cases. The Kommandos prize intelligence and initiative, and some of them are even able to read. Not for them the thrill of a massed charge or a turbo-powered race to the front line in a badly-made trukk. Instead a Kommando gets his kicks from slitting throats and spreading panic behind enemy lines before launching a perfectly timed ambush. The horrified look on the faces of their prey, who assumed they would be able to see the Ork attack a mile off, is tremendously rewarding to the members of a Kommando mob. These scare tactics are epitomized by Snikrot^1b of the Red Skull Kommandos, whose name is a byword for terror upon Armageddon.

On the field of battle, Kommandos will assassinate enemy sentries and destroy gun emplacements to give the rest of the ladz a better chance of reaching the enemy lines unscathed. It is common for each Kommando to have a specialist role within the mob, and have a nickname appropriate to his role, such as ‘Fireboy’ or ‘Throatslit.’ This organized and militaristic outlook means that young Stormboyz often develop into the Kommandos instead of rejoining the right-thinking Ork boyz at the heart of each warband.

The tools of the Kommando’s trade are subtle by Ork standards. They place great faith in soot-blackened blades and camouflage-style warpaint, painting their skin with stripes of blood, dirt and dung so that they blend in with their surroundings. This practice is shocking to a normal Ork, who considers the idea of covering up his greennesss unnatural. Only the Blood Axe clan truly sees the value of such a caution. Some Kommandos are even more inventive with their camouflage, attaching foliage to their uniforms or even employing cunnin’ disguises (Cunning by Orky standards, anyways). Kommandos do occasionally employ heavy weapons, revealed only when they are in a position to cripple a command tank or slaughter and enemy unit that has broken cover.

Images

An Ork Kommando miniature

Sources

• ¹: Codex: Orks (4th Edition):
• ^a: Pg. 44
• ^b: Pg. 62
• ² Games Workshop Official Site