Deff Dread
Deff Dreads (Death Dreadnoughts) are large Orkish walkers. They are loud, stompy and shooty, three things that symbolize Ork warfare and culture. They typically weigh 4 tons and have a speed of 10kph on-road and 10kph off-road.[4]
Contents
Overview
Belching smoke as they charge across the battlefield, Deff Dreads are deadly Ork walkers. In a similar way to Space Marine Dreadnoughts, a Deff Dread's pilot must be permanently wired into the machine, Deff Dreads require the skills of both a Mekboy and a Painboy to construct. Aside from basic design elements, Deff Dreads are decorated, armed, and configured in countless ways, each one reflecting the tastes and vision of the Mek who designed it. As for the pilot of a Deff Dread, as is the case with Killa Kans, the Ork volunteers are permanently hard-wired directly into the walker itself. Installing a pilot into a Deff Dread involves surgically implanting numerous tubes, nerve probes, cranial jacks, and other, more esoteric bits of mechanical devices plugged directly into his brain and spinal column.[2]
This is a painful and disorienting experience, which requires an Ork to trade away much of his natural Orkiness, and spend the rest of his days trapped in a claustrophobic, incredibly loud, hot, and uncomfortable metal can, with only a small slit provided to see through, in exchange for raw killing power.[2] Deff Dread pilots quickly regret their decision, and will over time go a little bit crazy, something which other Orks call 'runnin' in'. Its unpredictable pilots will often kill the closest thing they can find during this period, but in battle can direct this fury towards the enemy and revel in their destruction.[5]
The integration of an Ork into a Deff Dread makes the machine very deadly, for these orky machines can move as if they were the pilot's own body, allowing the Ork to personally experience the carnage he is causing (which was one of the initial appeals for him volunteering in the first place). Deff Dreads are normally armed with two huge pincers or saws and two big shootas, rokkit launchas, skorchas or Kustom Mega-Blastas.[1]
In battle, Deff Dreads act as support units and mobile weapons platforms, working in concert with ork mobs or backing up a Warboss and his Nobz. Even a single Deff Dread brings enough firepower and ferocity to an engagement to tip the scales of even the most fearsome battle in the Orks’ favour. Extremely expensive, Deff Dreads are used sparingly by those Warbosses who can afford them. This irritates none more than the pilots locked within, whose only release from the tedium of being welded inside these machines comes in slaughtering their foes on the battlefield.[2]
Big Mek Dread
Big Mek Dreads are controlled by Big Meks and lead Killa Kans and Deff Dreads into battle. Unlike other Ork walkers, though, Big Meks are not permanently installed within their Dreads and can freely move out of their walkers' top hatches. Big Mek Dreads, however, are exclusively used by the Bad Moons, as only their Ork Clan have enough teef to buy such an impressive Dread. This includes the Big Mek Dreads' Kustom-built Shokk Attack Guns.[3]
Images
Deff Dread (5th Edition)
Deff Dread (5th Edition)
Ork Dreadnought (3rd Edition)
Ork Dreadnought (2nd Ed.)
Ork Dreadnought (1st Ed.)
Sources
- 1: Codex: Orks (4th Edition), pg. 52
- 2: Only War: Enemies of the Imperium pg.56
- 3: White Dwarf April 2013, pgs. 106-107 - Kit Bash
- 4: The Battle for Armageddon (Background Book), pg. 84
- 5: Codex: Orks (8th Edition), pg. 59
