Sick and tired of being rushed by Razorbacks? Losing your WAAAAGGGHHH! to the Imperium? God Emperor getting all up in your face? It's time for payback; time for revenge. It's time to... take out all of your frustration on the pointy ears and get
MEKanized.
MEKanized is a Greenskin (read: fun) build for the Ork vs Eldar Match-up. Rather than fruitlessly chasing after fancy-pants guardian squads, MEKanized allows you to catch, humiliate and flat out smash the little pixies. It could be compared somewhat to a budget version of the fast Razorback, however it comes with a few bonus advantages and a bag full of sneaky tricks (not to mention a discount at your local
pile-o-gunz.)
You can theoretically use any hero for this build, however the Mek (hence the name) performs the best for reasons I'll explain. The skeleton of the build is as follows:
Hero + Initial Slugga-Slugga
-Power Node
-3xGens
-T2
-Wartruck
-Wartruck
Power Harassment Variation
Having two Wartrucks allows you to do significant damage when they roll out. If you're expecting a longer game, however, equip your Mekboy with a Deffgun before the second Wartruck and use it to take out your opponents power. You should be able to keep the Eldar occupied with your truck for long enough to rip down the farm!
This is the initial build and should serve you well no matter how your pointy-eared opponent is playing. Yes, your monitor works fine, you
are in fact fast-teching to
Wartrucks, of all things. Your only concern against an Eldar player up until this stage of the game is losing your generators to a support platform. While your two Slugga squads can cap around the map, it's important to try to keep them somewhere between your generators and your opponent. If all else fails, the Mekboy can teleport and melee a platform to buy you time. Nothing else poses a serious threat to your power income early in the game. Thankfully, it only takes 3:30 minutes (assuming Mekboy as your choice of commander) for both of your Wartrucks to arrive on the field!
With them, you'll have free reign over the map for a brief window of time. Use them to rack up kills on guardian squads, and combine them to completely finish the squads off even in their headquarters. You're doing some pretty serious damage with the two trucks combined, so the chances of you annihilating entire squads are quite significant. Speed is the name of the game here, so don't bother with the armor plating, the 25/50 power can (and will) be better spent. You'll also be facing very limited AV capabilities, so your trucks can fire away with impunity. Try to do as much damage with them as you can and retake the map with your Sluggas. The more power the Eldar spends in T1, the longer your window for damage is. This build forces them to skip battle-gear and warlocks or risk delaying their AV. You may also find that the Eldar could be going with a low generator count to avoid losing them all to Stikkbombs. Again, that just means your damage window is larger! Good for you! The beauty of this build is that against Orks, Eldar are likely to play a heavy T1 - something you've got the counter to very quickly.
I SEE YOU!
Wartrucks can see rangers. No Eldar infantry is safe.
The next move depends on your opponent. Obviously, the Eldar priority is going to be acquiring some AV to scare off your trucks. This can come in many forms.
Brightlance Platform(s) - These guys are easy to flank with two trucks. You can push them to force a tear-down, or simply manoeuvre behind them to avoid their beam. Once they're on the move, you can chase them away to the HQ and go back to joyriding around the map. Be wary of a beam scorch, as it will allow the team to re-face instantly and possibly score the killing blow on your truck. If flanking seems too difficult, your Mekboy or Kommando Nob have very easy methods of disrupting the platform (though the Mekboy's teleport is the fastest). Proceed to tech toward T3 with the possibility of a Deff Gun for gen harassment.
Haywire Grenades - On their own, haywire grenades aren't too much trouble. They won't be dealing lethal damage to your trucks (save for limited situations that I'll get to), and they set the Eldar player back a good 55 power. Ensure that you keep your trucks repaired (again, another great reason to select Mekboy) in order to protect them from unnecessarily imploding. The best part about this, is that on their own, warp spiders will die to your trucks after the haywire wears off. Be wary of unit combinations however, as a haywire gives the rest of his units a chance to throw grenades, cast immolate or just be a pain.
Wraithlord - This situation looks pretty ugly, but help is on it's way. Get a Tankbusta squad and meet up with your trucks. If you're lucky, the Wraithlord will be chasing your trucks and you can engage it quickly. If not, you can bait it by attacking guardians or simply go hunting. When actually engaging the Wraithlord, it's going to try to melee your Tankbustas. To avoid this, block the path of the Wraithlord with your trucks. If it still manages to close to melee, load into one of your trucks, back off, unload and then come back to do it again. You can also stop the Wraithlord from escaping by blocking its path with a truck!
Falcon - These are still viable in the Eldar vs Ork match up. They also seem to pose the greatest threat to this strategy with their ability to chase down Wartrucks. You'll have plenty of time to score kills before one of these pops out, so don't panic. You've got 3 options for dealing with these. If it comes out quickly, Tankbustas in a truck can hunt it down. If you're lucky enough, you can block the Falcons movement with a truck or two and punish it with the Tankbustas. Your second option is to tech towards a Looted Tank. This fits very nicely into the mechanical build and is a strong counter to the falcon. This is the best option to use if your opponent has spent excess power on upgrades or auxiliary units as you'll have the most time to tech up. The third option is the orky option (and therefore the most unreliable). It's a gamble depending on you and your opponents micro. Build a Deff Dread and attack the Falcon with it. To allow it to score hits, use your trucks to block the Falcon in. It's not always easy to do, and can cost both your trucks and a Deff Dread if you can't pull it off. Wot? I tol' yer it was risky boss!
If you're playing Mekboy, you may get a chance to use Kult of Speed. While it's not always useful, it does stack with the Rampage ability from your Deff Dread. If you need a quick burst of speed, this global may be the difference between losing a Dread and killing a Falcon as you can overtake and block the Falcon, and still keep up with your Dread!
Haywire + Doom + Guide or
Haywire + Immolate or
Entangle + Grenade Mass - These are two extremely painful combinations that don't have a quick solution. Thankfully, they cost a lot of power for the Eldar player to acquire. Each of them requires more power than your trucks, and force your opponent to utilize a combination of squads in order to be effective. You'll have a decent window of time to pour on damage with impunity, and can still fight strongly once the combination is in full swing. Just remember to bring support for your trucks (Sluggas + Mekboy can repair) and you can force the Eldar to pay for his efforts at the very least.
Floating Power
You're going to be floating power unless you get a Deff Dread. While it's very tempting to spend your resources, the outcome of the game will be heavily influenced by you correctly countering the Eldar's efforts. If it's safe to tech to T3, go for your life! As an intermediate step, you can spend a bit of power on a Deff Gun for your Mekboy and put an end to the Eldar power!
Playing the Game OutYou've got a plethora of options open before you with a strong power income and potential for a very fast T3. You're looking at a small upkeep with decent map control and enough vehicles to give your opponent a headache. Nobs are a very powerful and very viable follow up, however the game is open for you to finish in any way you like. Base harassment is quite possible if you've done enough damage to their economy through stompin', otherwise Victory-point bleeding won't take long with trucks. Keeping a looted tank around for ranged muscle is a good idea while you build a healthy T3 army!
Against stronger opponents, you may end up fighting a combination of Warp Spiders and Brightlances / Wraithlords / Falcons. Focus on tying up or minimizing your opponents anti-vehicle while your mechanical force blazes away as the initial Wartruck tricks may be too hazardous at this stage.
AdaptationsThis build has potential for use against Space Marines as well as Eldar. The Space Marine faction however, poses a difficult issue to be dealt with. I'm not advising that this build is a strong strategy given the other options available, however if you're looking for a new fun build, or just some good old fashioned payback, this may just be the ticket.
This is in some ways the ultimate revenge. After being rushed by a razorback so many times, it's good to finally get one back on these criminals. The issue is that Marines have easy access to anti-vehicle when T2 rolls around. Until then, your trucks can punish scouts badly. If you're under threat from a razorback, you can deal with it as if it was a Falcon with a broken laser. Tankbustas with the truck can fend it off, and if you're feeling lucky or just downright stupid, the Deff Dread will leave the SM fuming.
The variation of this build requires that you keep your opponents Missile Tacs tied up. In theory it's a simple task, however given Orkish survivability, you'll have your work cut out for you. To adapt to compensate, the Warboss may serve you well in keeping the Tactical Marines busy without losing all of its health. This is sketchy at best, so attempt at your own peril. If you can pull it off, you'll have some easy map control over the scout-less Space Marine, and a victory-point victory should be attainable.
I've tried using the Overcharged forcefield from the Mek to keep the Tacs from firing, but his low HP just doesn't hold up for long enough for you to do anything significant with your trucks.
So wotz dis look like den?While not a large number of replays, this pack reveals enough to showcase the build against Eldar. There are a variety of plays from my opponents in this, and this strategy deals with them all. Power harass, Wraithlords, Falcons, Banshees and anything else Eldar can throw at you are all counter-able. Sadly, the main replay demonstrating the Deff Dread block combination to deal with a Falcon was tainted by Webway Abuse and cannot be included in the pack. Hopefully you can enjoy giving Eldar players a headache as much as I did.
Download the MEKanized Replay PackDiscuss the MEKanized Strategy Guide-Credit to Teigen, Alendore and Deckadents for assistance. Your input has been invaluable in ironing out sections of this build. Thanks guys.
