Stompa

An Ork Stompa advances through the ruins of an Imperial city.

The Stompa is a small Ork Gargant, the Greenskin equivalent of an Imperial Battle Titan of the Warhound or Reaver-class. In true Ork fashion, every Stompa is uniquely different, but equally deadly.

Stompas are enormous walking fortresses. Clad in layer upon layer of scrap-iron armour, bristling with dakka and massive motorised combat weapons, they live up to their name by stomping across the battlefield and annihilating everything in their path.

Every Stompa is a unique creation, usually the product of several Mekaniaks' fevered brains and countless solar hours of grot slave labour. However, as they rise up within their teetering scaffolds and approach a state of completion, certain key similarities manifest in nearly all Stompas.

First and foremost, these super-heavy walkers are all built as fat-bellied and belligerent Orkoid figures, effigies of the Ork gods Gork and Mork that stand as tall as a hab-block. They are usually powered by massive internal boilers and furnaces that link to a forest of enormous smokestacks and vents, which bristle from the Stompa's back.

An Ork Stompa stands tall in the face of an assault by the forces of the Imperium.

One arm is a gangling hydraulic affair the size of a docking crane, which ends in a monstrous chainsaw known as a Mega-choppa. This weapon can obliterate entire squads of infantry with a single swing, or carve super-heavy battletanks apart with a sustained assault.

As they lumber into battle with black smoke billowing from their stacks, Stompas carry mobs of Orks aboard their cramped transport decks. Once amongst the enemy lines, they disgorge their bellowing passengers to wreak havoc before stomping towards the biggest enemy they can see and barging into it with the force of an avalanche. Few are the foes who can survive such a crushing charge, and even these will soon be torn apart by the combined fury of the Stompa and the frenzied Greenskins who boil around its feet. So do Stompas vent the wrath of Gork and Mork upon the battlefield.

Armament

A Goffs Klan Ork Stompa

The Stompa's weapon arm usually has an intimidating artillery cannon mounted upon it. The largest of these weapons is the Deffkannon, a breathtakingly huge ballistic weapon that launches armour-piercing high-explosive shells with a devastating yield. So destructive is a blast from this weapon that even the Ork gunners' questionable accuracy is unlikely to spare any unfortunates caught beneath its sights.

Every bit as terrifying is the Supa-gatler, a preposterously huge Gatling cannon that spits streams of high-calibre shells at an astonishing rate. When a Supa-gatler cuts loose it can rapidly annihilate swathes of enemy infantry and light vehicles. The slaughter often only stops when the cannon's ammunition runs dry. Supported by a battery of long-range Supa-rokkits and an array of other hull-mounted heavy weaponry, these ranged armaments allow a single Stompa to unleash the firepower of a small army.

Wargear

• Deffkannon
• Supa-gatler
• 3 Big Shootas
• Twin-linked Big Shoota
• 3 Supa-rokkits
• Skorcha
• Mega-Choppa
• 2 Supa-rokkits (Optional)

Variants

The internal anatomy of a "typical" Ork Stompa, if such a thing can be said to exist!

Two generally encountered variants of the standard Stompa are the Goff Klawstompa, and the Big Mek's Stompa.

Goff Klawstompa

The Goff Klawstompa was popularised by the Goffs klan, although it is found among other klanz, and replaces the Stompa's Deth Kannon and standard close-combat weapon arm with two piston-driven "Big Klaws." Such is the Ork way that each close combat weapon is deadly in a new and often unexpected way.

Some have massive claws that toss tanks aside, or stack them up like a macabre house of cards. Others connect the two arms together with a massive rolling-pin type device, capable of clearing paths through even the most well-armoured gun line. They are also armed with the Flamebelcha, an extremely powerful Titan-grade flamethrower. The Klawstompa is a Stompa variation rarely seen on the battlefield, unless a huge Goff WAAAGH! ensues, because they are built by Goff Meks, who normally prefer more infantry-centric war engines.

Big Mek's Stompa

The Big Mek's Stompa does the precise opposite, replacing the close combat weapon with even more guns. Massive cannons, insane rapid-fire gatlings, a veritable plethora of lesser guns, occasionally a rokkit piloted by Grots (willing or otherwise), and not so occasionally six of such rokkits. Some Meks feeling over-protective of their creations customise a force field to try and deflect the incoming fire, which generally is not relied upon too much as they generally break down and the Stompa does a good amount of damage deflection on its own. Some Mek Stompas have Titan-grade weapons mounted on their arms; looted from a fallen Imperial war machine.

Stompa creation is regarded as the pinnacle of a Mek's work, since, after all, Stompas aren't cheap. However, once a Stompa is built, many Orks will flock towards its banner, bringing with them more Meks, more teef and in a circuitous way, more Stompas, and once two or three Stompas are on a rampage, woe betide any who try to stop them. Ork Meks have been known to customize their Stompa's with colours, banners, skulls and spikes.

Sources

• Codex: Orks (8th Edition), pp. 61, 117
• Apocalypse (4th Edition)
• Apocalypse Reload (5th Edition)
• Sanctus Reach: Evil Sun Rising (Novella) by Guy Haley, Chs. 1,2,9
• Warhammer 40,000: Epic (2nd Edition)
• White Dwarf 350 (US), "Anatomy of a Stompa Poster
• White Dwarf 351 (AUS)
• Iron Devil (Short Story) by C.L. Werner (Cover Image)