Speed Freeks is Games Workshops new Ork boxed game of fast-paced, deadly racing combat. Players put together their motorized wheeled forces and take to the track in an attempt to destroy each other. Games Workshop are currently running Orktober, with a promised release of the Ork Codex for Warhammer 40,000 this month. All of the vehicles in Speed Freeks are useable in Warhammer 40,000 and the rules for them are included in the assembly instructions.
In this preview we will unbox Speed Freeks, take a quick look at the rules and the assembled miniatures.
Are you ready? Let's roll! Waaaagh!
Speed Freeks Unboxing
[gallery size="large" ids="257311,257312,257313,257314,257315,257316,257317,257318,257319,257320,257321,257322,257323,257324"]The Speed Freeks Miniatures
[gallery size="large" ids="257301,257302,257303"]The Ork vehicle miniatures in Speed Freeks are fantastic and a joy to put together. They're full of variety and with several customisation options. The set includes 6 warbikes in total (3 yellow and 3 red) of which 2 can be built as Nobs armed with a Power Klaw or a Big Choppa (we built one of each). Including the Nob options there are four torso choices, 5 heads, and 5 weapon combinations for each set of 3 warbikes. There are also a couple of different front options for the warbikes and the Nob has a choice of either a banner or a banner with a Grot hanging off it.
The Kustom Boosta-Blasta and Shokkjump Dragsta are great looking miniatures as can be seen in the images above. They fit together well, but in order to paint them properly, they will need to be put together in stages as they are painted, because once the roofs are on, getting to the detail inside is a lot more difficult.
Speed Freeks!
Games of Speed Freeks take place over a series of rounds divided into four phases:
- Kunnin' Phase - Each player, in secret, divides 10 dice between initiative, movement and shooting which dictates how many they'll roll each round. It's an interesting way of playing and adds a gamble in terms of reading what your opponent will do against what you want to do. If you put all of your dice in Shootin' and your opponent isn't in your firing arcs because they've put it all in movement, or because they put all their dice in Kunnin' and get to act first. It adds a deep level of strategy and round commitment.
- Speedin' Phase - Players assign the dice they've allocated to movement to their vehicles and then roll them. Each roll dictates how many movement pieces can be allocated to each vehicle and players draw out a track to show their vehicles movement, ramming any vehicles that get in their way.
- Shootin' Phase - Players use the assigned shooting dice to fire their weapons at their enemies, using weapon arc templates to check firing arcs from their vehicles.
- Fightin' Phase - Any vehicles within 2 inches of an enemy can fight in the fight phase and attempt to batter their way to victory.
In Speed Freeks there are three different types of movement tracks, known as Gubbinz. Basic gubbinz can be used once by each vehicle but as many times in the turn, Speshul gubbinz can be used once per turn among all your vehicles and Snazzy gubbinz can be used once per game. If a player uses any Speshul or Snazzy gubbinz, a driving roll is required on a D8 modified by the amount of Speshul or Snazzy gubbinz used to avoid spinning.
We initially felt that using the gubbinz for movement slowed down the game as players tactically planned their movement and in early games its very noticeable. The phase gets quicker as players learn the gubbinz choices, but on high roll Speedin' phase with lots of options, players can sometimes take a while working out what they want to do, which feels less Speed Freeks and more 40K tournament. We'd like to see a timer for the Speedin' phase, just to stop the longer planning that sometimes occurs. The gubbinz do look great though, and it adds an interesting movement element to games.
Keeping track of which gubbinz have been used is also interesting in games using all the miniatures in the box and it's easy to forget if you've used your Speshul gubbinz for the game, or which Snazzy Gubbinz have been used that round. We started keeping track on a notepad with images of the gubbinz, ticking the boxes if we'd used them that round.
We do really enjoy the movement in Speed Freeks, especially when you throw in driftin' and rammin', but it feels at odds with the chaotic Ork nature of smashing vehicles around as it can become a tactical masterpiece of illustrated movement.
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Shootin' in Speed Freeks is a simple matter of rolling the amount of dice that the weapon has in its shots rating and looking for the target or lightning bolt symbol on them. Those symbols are countered by the target's armour value, and that player rolls dice equal to the armour value, looking for the shield or lightning bolt symbol which cancel out attack symbols for each one rolled. If any attack symbols remain, the weapon does its damage to the target. Damage is done by drawing damage cards and carrying out the instructions on the card. Melee attacks work the same way but use the attackers melee value instead.
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Speed Freeks includes datacards for all the vehicles included, as well as four more wagons, the Deffkilla Wartrike, Rukkatrukk Squigbuggy, Doomdakka Snazzwagon and the Megatrack Scrapjet. The rulebook also includes the details for 4 missions (or Rukks) as well as details for a campaign and how to use the Kustom Jobz cards and rules for different Ork clanz.
Speed Freeks is fun, very easy to learn and the miniatures are fantastic. we're not sold on the movement phase, which is very interesting and adds real depth to the game, but doesn't feel Ork-ish enough. The movement phase can be slow and tactical, and we wanted chaotic and fast. It's still an incredible amount of fun and the set is great value. Many Ork players will pick this up for the vehicles alone and end up with a bonus game to play. We're looking forward to adding more Ork vehicles to our collection and testing them out on the Speed Freeks track.
See you in our dust you gitz!
Are you excited for Speed Freeks? What do you think of the miniatures? How's Orktober going for you? Let us know in the comments below.
This copy of Speed Freeks was provided by Warhammer Community.
You can pre-order Speed Freeks now at Goblin Gaming.
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