Force Analysis: Da Junkyard Dogs

Junkyard Dogs – Bad Moon Horde 1

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Junkyard Dogs Lungburstas roll through the captured factory-complex in the shadow of Hades.
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Moggit gazed out of the periscope of his tank-wagon and gave a low snarl.

“Why won’t dey ‘urry up, the stinking gits? It’s roasting in 'ere”

The column had come to a stop outside something the Kommandos had called a ‘cafedrul’. Moggit didn’t care. It was yet another big pointless humie building out of a sea of other big pointless humie buildings. But, he thought, the buildings had concealed numerous Steel Legion anti-tank teams. They had taken a heavy toll on the Ork armour. After the tenth tank had gone up in flames, boss Oggruk called a full stop and sent the kommandos in to ‘stomp those sneaky tank-busting gitz flat’. A sweep took time, however, and until it was done Moggit and the rest of the Wagon crews had to sit about and wait.

Suddenly there was a rattle of gunfire in the distance, reverberating off of the buildings. Moggit felt a surge of anger, a fight was happening and he was stuck here. He was about to grab his shooter and go get stuck in himself when there was a banging on the top hatch.

“Grubber, go see what the fuss is about.”

The burn-covered gunner creaked open the hatch to be greeted with the scarred, leering face of a Kommando nob.

“Boss sez, the Humies is all stomped so you can get goin'.”

Grubber gave a nod and slid back into the steaming greasy darkness.

“Humies dead, we go now.”

“Zoggin’ finally” Moggit grunted and banged on the driver's compartment. With a throaty roar, the engines leapt to life and the tank rumbled forward. “Ain’t natural, Grubber,” grumbled Moggit, “Waiting fer some uvva git to do yer foitin’ for yuz. Iz downright humie behaviour that is.”

The column rumbled into the dusk, the horizon flickering with staccato flashes of shellfire, shining lances of laser light cut the sky. Moggit thought he’d never seen anything so beautiful.

***

Junkyard Dog Kommandos – easy access to specialist and unusual equipment had made the orks of the horde both versatile and dangerous.
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[Tactical assessment]

Believed to have been the ork force responsible for the Scouring of Granca some years prior to the Armageddon invasion, the Junkyard Dogs did not originate from Urk, and had instead joined Waa-Ghazghkull relatively late, bringing their own voidcraft to meet with the Wurld Killa (Alpha Alpha Sextus, to give it its Imperial designation) in-sector. 

Relatively (and mercifully) compact, the Junkyard Dogs were notably well-equipped – likely as a result of looting the defeated Planetary Defence Forces of the agriworld. In addition to substantial armoured forces, this Bad Moon warband was able to operate as an entirely mechanised force, with enough battlewagons, gunwagons and transports to bring even its support forces up at speed.

This made the warband a substantial concern in the early stages of invasion, and Imperial Command made special note to monitor the force, aware of its ability to exploit gaps in an already threadbare defence.

While noted for their mobility, the combined-arms nature of the first Bad Moon Horde meant that it was more than capable of holding its own in a stand up fight. 
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Imperial stratego-ikon

 

• Offensive capabilities  considerable
• Defensive capabilities  considerable
• Mobility acceptable
• Numbers estimated at ca. 75,000 primary combatants; 120,000 secondary/support.
• Precociously large amount of crossover/hybrid 'battlewagon' IFVs
• Primarily Mechanised infantry 
• Substantial armour reserves
• Integrated air support
• Threat level designation: Secondary

[Strategic Designation] – The First Bad Moon Horde

[Theatre] – Armageddon Secundus

Armageddon Secundus strategic map. The Bad Moons are located at the north west.

[Disposition] – Perhaps with a view to making the most of their skills, Grand Admiral Snazdakka, Tribeboss Warlord of the Bad Moonz, deployed the Junkyard Dogs as a second-line force, alongside his dedicated armoured and recon divisions. 

Tact-reckoners advised General Kurov that the horde would exploit any breach in Chaeron Secondary's defences following the (largely expendable) front line forces.

As slower Bad Moon forces engaged the defences across the Chaeron, the impatient ork armies behind them continued to advance, relentlessly increasing the pressure on the Palidus line. Alongside the armoured division (Battlewagons) and cavalry (bike boyz), the Junkyard Dogs proved useful in keeping supply lines running – a duty perhaps devolved directly from Ghazghkull, knowing Warboss Oggruk's particular set of skills and reputation for surprising patience. 

The presence of tankettes for the slave caste – nicknamed 'Grot Tanks' or 'Hostile Ration-packs' by the Steel Legion – goes some way to indicate the wealth and resources available to the Junkyard Dogs.

[Commanders] – Oggruk da Brainsqueeza

Something of a curiosity, Boss Oggruk ‘Da Brainsqueeza’ is old by ork standards. Like the Tribebosses directly under Ghazghkull, a warboss of Oggruk’s sheer size and physical bulk might have been expected to have started gathering together a Waaagh! of his own. That he had not done so is likely to do with Oggruk’s unusual past. 

As a mere yoof Oggruk suffered an indignity worse than death for any ork: capture. Taken to the Agri-world of Granca – part of the broader Armageddon subsector – Oggruk was placed in a butler's uniform and made to be a sort of jester and curio for a highborn imperial family. The ork suffered terribly. A combination of drugs, pain dispensers and cerebral electrodes kept him broadly in line, even if not remotely compliant. Worst of all it, this  wouldn’t let him die, as he would simply be knocked unconscious to begin his humiliation anew. 

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Oggruk endured this hell for twelve long years, an eternity for an ork. The one thing his captors didn’t count on was the fact that to an ork, the brain is also a muscle – and all Oggruk could do was think. Like all orks, his thoughts were at first impulsive and unfocused, but as the years dragged on this changed to a savage cunning and then to something disturbingly like intellect. It took Oggruk a year to plan his escape and when he had dug the last implant out of his skull with a sharpened dessert spoon, the results were nothing short of spectacular.

The family, their servants, retainers and even their pets were slaughtered to the last in a frenzy of violence – even the plants in the garden were trampled. Oggruk vanished that night, the only clue the Arbites found was a message painted in blood and viscera across the  marble floor of the main hall. It simply read:

‘WHOZE LARFIN NOW’

***

[Insignia and appearance]

Orks of the Junkyard Dogs show a marked emphasis towards the Bad Moon clan. Other clan mobs were present during the subsequent occupation of Granca (see below), but like attracts like in ork society, and many minority Bad Moon mobs from other warbands in Waa-Ghazghkull came into Uggruk's orbit following their arrival in-system; much as the internal Goffs, Deathskulls and the like emigrated to other clan Warbands.

An experienced and elite force, the Junkyard Dogs showed a weighting towards specialist forces, with a substantial proportion of their infantry strength made up of Kommandos and armoured specialists.

Junkyard Dog Kommando 'Tea-Pain'. Note natural fabrics and yellow weaponry and armour.
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Unlike some Bad Moons, the Junkyard Dogs mostly reserve yellow for their equipment, their clothing and fabrics usually remaining muted natural browns and greys. They are best identified by the use of bright yellow equipment, often supplemented by blue accents.

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Intelligence relating to Oggruk's actions after his escape are non-existent, but it appears that he escaped off-world, gathered a warband of his own, and returned to wreak vengeance on his former captors. Records of the War of Granca indicate a spirited but doomed resistance on the part of the Granca PDF – suggesting that Oggruk had been able to lay his hands on sensitive military information, perhaps gathered during his flight, or simply as result of being in the court of the late Governor – Kyng Astrid LXIV – when military matters were discussed. This resourcefulness and forward planning was a hallmark of the warboss, and served him and his forces well during the Armageddon campaign.

“Humies could be here,” he thought, “I’ze never bin to dis bit before, dere could Humies anywhere...” The stale wind of the hive felt good on his chest. “I ‘ate Humies” he thought. The yells of the boyz shook the ground, making it pulsate, even as the Grog circulated through his powerful thick veins and heightened his lust to murder all day. “Wiv a klaw, youz can krump anyone youz want” he said to himself out loud
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Some of the systems in the Armageddon Subsector, such as Semtexia and Noctan, produced their own equipment, but like many of the other worlds in the Subsector, Granca was a post-Feudal Agri-world that  imported nearly all of its equipment and support from Armageddon. Their local PDF buoyed by Imperial Guard Regiments from Pan and Minerva, the planet was able to hold against the Junkyard Dogs for nearly a year before the Governor sued for peace – with predictably messy results.

'Job's a good'un boss, we’z sooped up da engine, put a buncha big guns in and patched up da holes the lads made.’ – Mek Nutsplitta, regarding his latest creation
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Granca was subsequently sacked, its surviving populace driven into the scant few manufactoria and forced to produce arms and ammunition for the warband while Oggruk and his cronies planned their next move. Most notably, the Junkyard Dogs spent some months repurposing the numerous Armageddon-pattern wrecks and surrendered vehicles. 

Given time, orks will rebuild almost anything, and Leman Russ tanks are a favourite due to their strength and reliability. Certain scholars of the Imperium postulate that there are likely as many Imperial tanks in service to the orks as there are to the Imperial Guard – a worrying thought indeed.

The acquisition of so many of the Granca Defence Force's armoured vehicles in working order meant that their meks and spannaz were intimately familiar with the workings of the Imperial Armoured Brigades that they would later face on Armageddon.

'Lungbursta'-type enclosed Gunwagons.
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The often murky categorisation of ork vehicles is treated in their own article, so for the purposes of discussion here, we confine ourselves to the dominant type evinced by the Junkyard Dogs – the 'Lungbursta' assault or cavalry tank. 

A necessarily loose term, 'Lungbursta' is used by the orks to describe any enclosed and turreted armoured vehicle with a limited or non-existent transport capacity and with no specialist close-in enhancements. As with terms for other ork vehicles, the term seems oddly universal, perhaps suggesting some archetypical ork concept. From an Imperial perspective, the Lungbursta is most similar to a Predator assault tank – relatively fast, strongly-armoured, and with a punchy main armament: usually a low-yield battle cannon equivalent or a low rate automatic cannon.

As with the hazy distinctions between their God-Engine classes, what is a Lungbursta to one mek might be argued to be a Bonebreaka or Gunwagon to another – partially depending on whether the vehicle is judged capable of causing sufficient damage in melee, but mostly depending on how argumentative the Meks in question are feeling, and how much squigbrew has been consumed.

Kustom creations – broadly fitting the 'Morkanaut' and Deff Dread' walker-designations.
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The Junkyard Dogs boasted of being able to muster nearly 400 Lungburstas at the start of the war, and while this is likely an exaggeration, this type of vehicle certainly formed the strong, mobile armoured core of the Warband. It was supplemented by numerous other vehicles, including walker, crawler and and air-capable types.

Gorthunk ‘Killboy’. 38 missions flown, 38 replacement fighta-bommerz required. 73 kills (24 from his own side) 10 confirmed dogfight victories. Shot down 14 times. Favourite manoeuvre: Flying plane into the enemy.
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Having air-capable forces and an excellent supply train meant that the Junkyard Dogs were highly independent. While too small to realistically spearhead assault on reinforced Imperial positions, their mobility and strategic insight meant that they were able to lend support in a number of surprising assaults early on, tipping the balance and exploiting holes that opened in Imperial lines.

***

The trench was silent, save for a rapid click-clacking of needles.

“Wotcha doin' there?” growled Uglump, his beady eyes glowering at the smaller kommando.

Toof-grinda responded without looking up. “Makin a hat, so me head dunt get cold.”

“Sounds proper stoopid, that.” Uglump snarled, and a meaty paw shot out to grab the scrap of cloth. He was stopped by the barrels of Toof-grinda's shoota being jammed into his mouth.

“No it ain’t.” Toofgrinda grinned and squeezed the trigger. A roar of gunfire reduced Uglump's head to smoking ruin. The sudden noise brought several other orks loping over to see what the fuss was about.

“What did ol’ Uglump do ter get ‘is head shot off?”, asked Moggit, who gave the twitching corpse a kick.

“Tried ter steal me hat.” Toofgrinda replied. Moggit gave a shrug and ambled off. That seemed reasonable really – after all, if Uglump really wanted the hat, he should have shot Toof-grinda first.

Silence reigned once again, save for the clicking of knitting needles.

***