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Warhammer 40K: Ork Kommandos – Kunnin’ And Sneaky Gits

3 Minute Read
Jul 30 2022
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The Ork Kommandos are the both kunnin’ and sneaky. These aren’t your typical greenskins.

Ork Kommandos are distrusted among other orks. But why? Perhaps it’s their use of things like “tactics” and the fact they are sneaky AND smart. We’re going to explore the Ork Kommandos and their role in the Ork Army today!

Kommandos are Orks fond of sneaky type of warfare, experts in laying ambushes and unsuspected attacks.

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.

 

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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 of the Red Skull Kommandos, whose name is a byword for terror upon Armageddon.

 

Snikrot, Legendary Ork Kommando

Likewise, the Imperium, on first being told of these “specialist” orks, was disbelieving, taking it as dogma that Orks are completely incapable of such subtlety, and that none of that species could ever enter combat except in a large mob, with ostentatious armament and bellowing noise.

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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.’ Their 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.

Stormboyz? More like Kommando recruits!

Kommandos are most often found among members of the Blood Axes Clan who also prize planning and kunning plans above headlong charges.

Kommandos are usually looked down upon by most of the orkish society, believing that “all dat sneaky round stuff just aint what da orks do”. But no warboss in his right mind would refuse their services. Kommandos put on camouflage and hide around in cover, using stealth, espionage, guerrilla warfare, and other methods of stealth combat to kill their foes.

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 thus playing important role in any warband.

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For more on the Ork Kommandos check out the Lexicanum!

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Author: Adam Harrison
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