Ork Unit Analysis: Boss Zagstruk

Boss Zagstruk

Boss Zagtruk, commonly known as simply "Da Boss" is the leader of the stormboyz and is described as "One of the most shockingly violent Orks in the Galaxy". He is basically the commissar of the Orks, one of the very few leaders who is a disciplinarian. He does not tolerate stupidity and incompetence, and it is not uncommon to see him killing one of the grots under his command for the slightest step out of line (or just because he wanted to) and such is feared by many Orks, not to mention their enemies. 

Coming in at 65 points, Zagstruk looks good on paper, though he fails in practice. His staline is that of a nobz with strength 5, 4 attacks and Ld 8. He has no special rules of note but his warlord trait allows all Ork units within 12" of him reroll morale and pinning tests, incredibly useful for Orks. 

His wargear is pretty standard stuff; slugga, choppa, 'Eavy armour, cybork body and a rokkit pack. The cybork body is a nice addition, giving Zagstruk a 6+ FnP. The Rokkit Pack is more of a hindrance than a help as it turns him into a Jump Infantry unit type, meaning the only unit he can join is Stormboyz, I will explain later why this is such a bad thing. Before I get to that, an interesting piece of wargear Zagstruk gets is his legs, Da Vulcha's Klaws. He got this set of augments after being torn in half by a dreadnought. These give him a strength 8 ap 2 Hammer of Wrath which can be used to surgically remove certain models from units. 

The only way you can possibly use Zagstruk is with a unit of stormboyz, this sucks as stormboyz aren't all that impressive... Their upgradeable 6+ armor makes them super squishy especially as it is hard to get them in a transport. (unless you use open topped battlewagons) While Zagstruk and his boyz can make good use of cover, any weapons that ignore cover (cough, Tau, cough) will decimate these units and so unless Zagstruk is lucky, chances are he will be dead before reaching combat. 

Another potential tactic is to deep strike Zagstruk and his unit, though this is not really advisable as it means you cannot charge and you are in close proximity of their guns, the 2D6 run can alleviate this as you can spread out far easier than a D6 run. Especially in a mixed list, I would never deep strike a stormboyz unit, though this tactic can be considered if you run a stormboyz based list.   

Unfortunately Zagstruk is probably the least versatile of the entire Ork HQ because of his unit type. In a stormboyz based list, he would be a fine addition, and these lists are actually quite practicable as they can run 2D6 and if a Waagh! is called they can still charge.

For his unit type alone, I would not recommend anyone take Zagstruk, I have brought him on a few occasions to fill up points etc and he has let me down every single time.

- Christian (The bossiest boss that ever was boss)