Games Workshop LTD. Table Top Combat System. £40.00.

By Marc Farrimond.

Gorkamorka is the latest offering from Games Workshop. Its as expected a table top combat game, and utilizes the system that made Necromundia such a hit with the Workshop crowd. It’s a game of conflict and driven by the desire to build the best Mob on the barren planet of Angelis. The story of the game is simple. Centuries ago a huge Space Hulk crashed onto this remote planet. It left in its wake a ravine almost the size of the Grand Canyon and through up so much dust that the planets Ecosystem was changed forever, turning a lush green paradise into a harsh barren rock.

Once the dust settled ten years later, the occupants of the Hulk made their first steps onto the planets surface and began the task of rebuilding a ship that would take them back to the stars and to the great Waggh that they had originally hitched a lift on the Hulk for in the first place. Wreckage of the huge vessel was spread all over the planets surface and very soon the parts become highly sort after. Trapped all alone on this back water world the Orks began to evolve slightly different than their normal brothers. They elected Mek-Boys as the leaders of the settlements and soon a thriving township was built, Mektown! The other thing that happened was that the Orks began to change due to the restricted gene pool and instead of the normal practices of the race they began to turn more and more to the Mek- Boyz for leadership.

Gone were the clans and tribes and soon all knowledge of the past was a distant memory. Instead the Orks began to split into two separate factions, one worshiping the Ork god Mork and the other his brother Gork. Now with the Mek-Boyz promising them a way back to the stars the Orks fight to get a place on board the huge craft to carry them Gorkamorka.

That’s just a toned down version of the in-depth background of the game and what a gem it is. If you have played Necromundia then I am sure that you will go nuts over this. The systems are almost the same and with little effort you could use rules in either game. Based around a toned down version of the highly successful Warhammer 40,000, the system uses a standard D6 system and players take turns to move, shoot, close combat and rally their troops as in the parent system.

Unlike Necromundia the game isn't always dominated by the player who wins the initiative and the systems slight changes from its predecessor make play smoother and more fun.

Rules for creating your Mobz are very similar to those in Necromundia for creating gangs with you being given an allocation of 100 Teff, instead of 100 credits. Once you have chosen your Mob and bought some vehicles its time to get down to business and kick some. Now the system really comes into being. I am not going to touch upon basics as they are almost identical to Necromundia, however the rules for vehicles are perhaps the best that Games Workshop have ever come up with.

All events are covered here, from ramming and sideswiping to boarding moving vehicles and pulling off crazy stunts. The rules are very simple and easy to learn and even the most inexperienced gamer should get the hang of things in a couple of turns. Vehicle design allows the player to make some of the coolest looking vehicles this side of the Mad Max movies (which was a major influence on the games design as is very easy to tell) and you too can lead your Mob into the arms of Gorkamorka and leave this forsaken planet.

As is usual with all of Games Workshops games, there are hints and glimpses of the future and products that may come out in a while. The basic game tells the story of the Red Gobbo, a famed Goblin who through off the shackles of his larger oppressors and went rouge. He now leads an ever growing gang of Goblins in lightning raids against his former masters and steals what ever they can get. The Orks cant seem to catch him and he’s become something of a Robin Hood type figure to other Gobbo’s.

Also in the rules on page 17 in fact is a picture of an Ork warbuggy crossing the desert. If you look in the lower left hand corner you will notice a pile of skulls, among them is a skull that looks as if it belongs to a robot or cyborg of some kind. My contacts at GW have told me that this is another glimpse of the Necron, a fabled race who are rumored to be the main bad guys in the next edition of 40K when its released next year(origanly called the Katan!).

So what do you get! Well the game comes with two large soft bound rules books, titled imaginatively enough Da Roolz and Da Uvver Book. Plus two plastic Wartraks, two Ork Truks and twelve Ork Boyz. You also get loads of counters, dice, templates, and the usual range rulers that appear in all of GW’s games nowadays. As for terrain you get one very large Ork Fort and a couple of smaller buildings to place on your table and two sprues of Gubbinz, (plastic barrels and barricades.) complete the set.

If you like me love the Mad Max movies then I strongly suggest that you grab yourself a copy of Gorkamorka and check it out. The vehicle combat is by far the best since the late lamented Battlecars (also from Games Workshop) and with the Diggas supplement (covering humans in the game) due out at the end of the year and a full range of plastic and metal models and vehicles, the future looks rosy for Gorkamorka.

Complexity 5 out of 10

Value for Money: 7 out of 10

Design: 8 out of 10

Overall: 8 out of 10

All images © Games Workshop LTD 1997. All rights reserved.

Reviewed by Marc Farrimond.