Thinking about running a medieval fantasy game in the 40k setting. Was wondering if four guys with pikes could reasonably take down an Ork? I know that Ork's in 40k are a lot more scary than they would be in a normal fantasy game and I heard they only start to develop crazy technology if there's a huge population of them in one place for the Waaaaaaagh!

You might as well just play Warhammer Fantasy then, eh?

In which case the answer is yes, 4 guys with a pike could take 1 Ork. Probably.

Depending on the level and equipment of your player characters, I would tell you to not give amour to the orks, their TB of 8 would be hard enough to pass with simple swords and axes, but it would be possible to do it.

As to why play in 40k instead of battle, it is easy; there are many worlds where there are humans but where technology is low/feral level. It could be an interesting idea to play in that kind of theme.

Darth Smeg said:

Well there's two reasons I'd rather play in a 40k setting.

#1: I was playing Dragon Age awhile back and I just couldn't believe how many tropes and themes of Warhammer got stuck in there. Especially with the circle mages. I thought it might be fun to run a game which closely followed the plot of Dragon Age but give it all 40k themes and also to throw off my players. (see how well I can keep up the ruse)

#2: One of the guys I used to play with often really likes the swords and sorcery. Many of my other friends would like some science fiction some times. I think I can get this guy to come around if I come at it from a good angle. (Warcraft did this perfectly)

HOWEVER

I might use a Warhammer Fantasy ruleset to run said game.

DH can work pretty well for fantasy, however WFB has more focus on it (of course), more weapons, more detail, more talents, etc. One idea is to simply start with DH (say you like the improved mechanics?) and then take stuff from WFB as long as they are on the same tech level, then revert to DH values when you start introducing newer tech (flak armor, lasguns, etc.)

You can pretty much use WFRP 2nd Ed. careers with Dark Heresey rules.  The talents/skills convert pretty directly with only a few minor tweaks.  Ignore the Movement characteristic and where someone has +Attacks give them the appropriate talent instead.  Magic stat is = to Psy rating.

WFRP has many of the same themes regarding chaos and the dangers of magic that DH has. I'd say the biggest differences between DH and WFRP would be

1) The Empire in WFRP is less ambiguous and more clearly a force for good. Relatively speaking.

2) Humanity is divided, so you add nationalistic conflict with Bretonnia and other nations to the man versus chaos and man versus xeno of the DH setting.

Technically I'd say four guys with Pikes would lose to the single Orc, as the Pikes are too cumbersome. Four guys with Halberds would stand a better chance :)

Four reasonably trained and armoured humans shouldn't have too much killing a single ork assuming the ork doesn't have 'modern' technology.  I suppose the humans might take a couple of casualties.