Stompa
A Stompa is what happens when an Ork Mek decides that his biggest Deff Dreads aren't stompy enough and that they need sumfing bigga. Essentially, the Stompa is a smaller version of an Ork Gargant and is an equivalent of an Imperial Warhound or Imperial Knight. Like most Orkish machinery, each Stompa is a unique effigy to their gods Gork and Mork, with each having a different layout and appearance to be distinguishable from one another. Like most Ork titans the Stompa is usually equipped with one of several close combat weapons for extra killy (such as an oversized chainsaw or a giant hammer to smash sum gitz!), an oversized main gun of some description, and various assortments of guns situated everywhere else, for maximum Dakka.
Variants
So far there are numerous variants of Stompa afoot in the Orkish Hordes across the galaxy. Only five confirmed sub-classes of the Stompa have been studied by the Imperium, the Digga Stompa, the -Orkanauts, the Goff Stompas, the Mek's Stompa, and the Supa Stompa.
Digga Stompa
An old stompa variant that never saw the light of day in Warhammer 40,000 proper, the Digga Stompa is the tiniest Stompa. Often built by Grots during a huge Waaagh! under the nose of a busy Big Mek, or by a group of ambitious Boyz without a Mek in sight, the Digga Stompa is generally considered kind of crap. Armed with close combat weapons and a few man-portable heavy guns, maybe a real Big Gun if they are lucky, these pot-bellied walkers aren't even considered titans. They stand taller than a Mega-Dread, and can most likely take more hits before going down, but they couldn't go toe-to-toe with one. Most of their combat effectiveness, if you could call it that, came from their sheer size, lesser vehicles would be smashed by their ham-fisted claws, and infantry would be crushed under their waddling feet.
These were led by the dozen into the teeth of the enemy, essentially fodder for infantry or tanks to shoot at while the real Stompas and Gargants closed in for the kill. The name comes from the Ork word for Human Ork-wannabes that join up with an Ork warband, paint themselves green, and fight beside the proper Boyz: Digganobz.
Gorkanaut and Morkanaut
Despite what anyone will tell you, -Orkanaut walkers are Stompas. They fit perfectly in the size and power classification for a Stompa, as defined by the old Epic games. Go check them out.
Goff Stompa
The Goff Stompa is essentially what happens when the Orks really wants to get in close and personal. Removing the main gun arm with an extra close combat weapon for extra killiness, the Goff Stompa was popularized by the Goffs (who would've thought!). Usually a Goff Stompa can be equipped with giant claws that can grab and throw a tank like a toy car while others are equipped with a giant steam roller to turn enemy infantry into a red paste.
Since these Stompas forgo any kind of main ranged weapons, they often come equipped with enhanced legs and larger engines to propel themselves toward enemy lines faster. They also tend to favor using flame weapons as a defense against boarders.
Mek's Stompa
The Mek's Stompa, as its name suggests, are built by an overly ambitious Big Mek (or even a group of them) and are often seen as a direct opposite to the Goff Stompa. Most Mek's Stompas are a kind of gift from a Warboss to a Big Mek, if the Mek made the Warboss a Supa-Stompa or a Gargant, he can look the other way whilst the Mek siphons off resources to make a walker of his own. That, or the Mek is drumming up his own Waaagh!, and his Stompa is the first best titan he can throw together. The Mek's Stompa switches its close combat weaponry for even more Dakka, usually armed with massive cannons, rapid-firing gatling guns that spew out tank shells, an assortment of lesser guns, and sometimes a plethora of different rokkits, some piloted by Grots (willing or otherwise). For defense, a Mek's Stompa can be protected by a force field, a rarity for Ork walkers of this size, but knowing the Orks the chances of it protecting the stompa against other titans is slim.
Supa Stompa
These are essentially suped-up Stompas which straddle the border between a regular Stompa and a Gargant. These machines rank somewhere between a Reaver Titan and a Warhound Scout Titan in terms of overall fighting strength, though every Ork walker is different in it's own special ways. As expected, these larger Stompas are big enough to carry truly super-heavy ordinance, often wielding looted Earthshakers or Volcano Cannons on one arm, and Titan-scale close combat weapons in the other. These Stompas exist as a go-between for Big Meks that can't scrape together the manpower or resources for a true city-leveling Gargant, but want to mount yet-larger (or simply more) weapons on a Stompa, without risking it toppling over when all the guns fire at once. Some in the Imperium have considered calling it the deadliest weapons in the Ork Horde, despite the fact that there are larger Gargants with even more powerful weapons lurking around.
Gallery
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STOMPA GUBBINS.
