Flash Gitz
"I am Heavy Weapons Guy... and this is my weapon. She weighs one hundred fifty kilograms and fires two hundred dollar, custom-tooled cartridges at ten thousand rounds per minute. It costs four hundred thousand dollars to fire this weapon... for twelve seconds."
- – Meet the Heavy, Team Fortress 2
Whereas the typical Ork Boy prefers to smash things up with his Choppa, some Orks get more satisfaction out of riddling an enemy full of holes with their Shoota. These are the Flash Gitz, Orks who fixate upon having the biggest, fanciest, most dead-killy guns they can get ahold of.
Overview[edit]
Unlike Lootas, who will happily pinch suitably killy guns from other races, Flash Gitz focus their attention on getting enough Teef to pay the Mekboyz for the fanciest kustom Shootas they can manage. The requirement of wealth is one of the reasons why most Flash Gitz initially tend to belong to the Bad Moonz. Needless to say, other Orks think of them as big show-offs who waste time maintaining and polishing their guns (hence the name), whilst Mekboyz are quite fond of them. Flash Gitz tend to be pretty arrogant, but also quite deadly... at least, when they manage to hit something. The oversized guns they lug around are called Snazzguns, because while these weapons may vary in appearance and function they are all uniformly deadly. In part because of the sheer volume of fire they can send downrange, Flash Gitz are actually known to be able to occasionally hit a target. This amazing level of accuracy is further aided by the use of Gitfindas and/or Targeting Squigs. Despite their expensive equipment, Flash Gitz seem to pour all their Teef into offense and barely anything on defense; wearing only Studded Armour, albeit highly decorated. Their Nobz on the other hand, are rich enough to also afford 'Eavy Armour.
Because of their extravagant lifestyle, Flash Git mobs will often take their place among bands of Freebooterz. Fighting as mercenaries allows successful Gitz to accumulate vast sums of wealth in a short space of time. Even better, they can gleefully spend it all on themselves without a Warboss around to take his cut. With teef galore flowing into their coffers, successful mobs of Flash Gitz will soon be riding through the void in their very own Kill Kroozer while wielding the kind of firearms that Deathskulls Lootas can only dream of stealing. Flash Gitz sport profusions of piercings, jewelry, furs, glyph-plates, brightly colored pirate garb and outlandish hats. Even their Grot minions traipse around with gold-buttoned frock coats while bragging loudly of their masters' wealth. All of this showy nonsense does absolutely nothing to hide the hulking, muscular bulk and bestial lethality of the Flash Gitz themselves.
Tabletop[edit]
Flash Gitz aren't a very popular choice, almost always losing out to Lootas for a player's Heavy Support slot. And up until 7th Edition, it wasn't hard to see why; Lootas reliably put out more Dakka from further away at a higher S value than a Flash Git for fewer points. 7th Ed gave the Gits a much needed buff, taking them from "assault 1, buy an upgrade for assault 2" to just "assault 3 at all times". The most interesting thing that Flash Gits have always had was the fact that Snazzguns change their AP value each time they shoot by the roll of a d6; this means half the time they rip MEQs apart like so many 'roided-up pinatas. Now in 8th they lost Assault weapons for Heavy 3 and have BS 4+ (3+ on the Kaptin). That's honestly pretty amazing, because it means if they stay put they’re actually as good at shooting as Grots. Unfortunately they’re still hampered by relatively short range.
If you’re dead set on bringing them, bring a unit of 5 in a Trukk with Badrukk and an Ammo Runt. You get 5 re-rolls to hit in addition to Badrukk allowing re-rolls of 1 to hit. And then on a 6 they have a chance to shoot again at the nearest unit. Note that this is subject to 8E’s weird perceptions and assumptions about “nearest unit." In other words, you have to shoot at the nearest unit, but if you can’t actually see them (Genestealers on the other side of a building) the shot is wasted; it doesn’t just go to the nearest unit within LOS.
Happily, in 9th Edition Flash Gitz have received a point reduction and they can also now benefit from the Clan keyword, which was definitely one of the biggest things holding them back.