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Every competitive tournament list I've seen has them. Are they mandatory?

You don't HAVE to... but they're the closest thing to reliable, powerful, dedicated shooting that Orks get, so they're kinda a gimme in army design.

theyre not mandatory in that you wont have an illegal list if you dont field them. however, they are so good that you really should be taking them unless you have a very good reason.

I agree with what both people above said, however, a ork player at my club has a nasty ork list , and he has no lootas, his list is very competative, and it's full of boys, and death copta's, thats about it, but his list plays very strongly to his playing style.

Lootas are scary. They are one of the best anti tank (bar AV 14 vehicles) in the game. I'd take 2 mobz of 10 Lootas.

They're not mandatory, and now that they've been around long enough they're becoming passe in the next wave of fashionable units such as Battlewagons, Land Raiders, Drop-Pod/Chaos Daemon units, and so on.

Remember, every unit of Lootas you take means one less unit of Nobz or Kommandos, Burnas or Tankbustas. Which is fine, until you need a unit to take out Plague Marines and the like, bugger backfield artillery, burn enemy hordes out of cover, or manage an avalanche of heavy armour.

I have not built any lootas and am working my way through the codex using other units. I certainly don't think they are a must have choice. That said, I can see a lot of situations where they would succeed.

Has anyone found the d3 too random? IE, roll few shots at the beginning of a game and then have losses take your number of shots way down in later rounds...It's interesting that in other codexes, the units with "random" elements are usually derided.

Not mandatory.
Lootas aint all that. They can be effective, but more often than not, enemy shooting whittles them down fast and sends them packing.

They are alright. I have one painted squad of 15, and I would advise taking 15 whenever you can. If you take 10, they do 3 kills, you now have to take a leadership test at 7 and have a good chance of running. I like to use them in a mixture gun line/assault force. Current ork list is

HQ: Warboss, bike, squigg, combiskocha, cybork
HQ: Big Mek, Shokk Attack Gun
Troops: Nobz (8), Bikes, PK (4), Pain Boy, Bosspole, Waagh, Cybork
Troops: Shoota Boyz (29), Rokkits (3), Nob, PK, Bosspole
Troops: Shoota Boyz (29), Rokkits (3), Nob, PK, Bosspole
Elites: Lootas (15)
Fast Attack: Deff Koptas (5), TWL Rokkits (5)

I use the Nobz and warboss as a big smack you unit, 4+ cover, 5+ Inv, 4+ Feel no Pain with lots of attacks and a big hit can help out and smack things around. And all the rokkits are there for the increased use of rhinos, drop pods, and other small vehicles that can be a pain. As well as put a hurt on Marines and other light vehicles that the Eldar possess.

The Lootas are great for taking out Falcons and other armor 12 annoyances, just due to the fact of the amount of shooting you can pour into it.

But you don't need Lootas, and versus LR heavy armies, they are pretty much worthless. It just depends on what you want your play style to be. I like them, but I have a lot of threats to deal with, plus I like to throw boyz in front of the lootas, to give them a 4+ cover save. Yeah, if you shoot other units, you can give them a 4+, but versus marines/chaos that doesn't matter since they have a 3+. Versus Orks, you will most likely be shooting trukks, kans, etc. And versus Nids, or Daemons you are just throwing the fire into the MC's that are too close for comfort etc.

If you are speed freaking it, any model that doesn't keep up is unnecessary. So a list that is all truck and battle wagon mounted boyz, bikes, and stormboyz has no need of 15 non scoring guys holding a back table egde.

I run 3 squads of 12 in truks, a squad of 19 + big mek in battlewagon, 8 bikes + wrbike boss, snikrot and 14 kommandos in 1500, add stormboyz to go to 1750.

They rock against certtain armies, but in my experience are not necessary. 3 units of 15 is REALLY scary for some opponents though.

Meph

biztheclown wrote:I have not built any lootas and am working my way through the codex using other units. I certainly don't think they are a must have choice. That said, I can see a lot of situations where they would succeed.

Has anyone found the d3 too random? IE, roll few shots at the beginning of a game and then have losses take your number of shots way down in later rounds...It's interesting that in other codexes, the units with "random" elements are usually derided.

I was playing Tau this past saturday, I rolled a for my looats, I only have 8 in my current squad(though going up to 12+) and I took out a 12 man sqaud down to just 2.

Going off that, it has been said that Looata's are not "mandatory" but I have yet to encounter a situtation where there would be anything better to take. Especially for the points and what you get for them. Kommandos are really nice against Shooty bases armies, IE: Tau, tankbustas are just crap, meganobz are too pricey for what you get(since you don't get an Invunerable save) Nobz are REALLY nice, and burna's, well yeah, I don't see them being any good in a comptetive army.

So IMO, Yes, Loota's are extremeley mandatory in any good Orc army. Though, if you run 150 +++ boys, you won't need them, though they are still nice. In a speed freeks army, I would say maybe. There are certain armies that you wouldn't play them, but like I stated before they are just too damn good for the price you pay, and what you get for that price. Loota's very easily can pay for them selfs in almost every game you play. 15 Loota's for 225pts, with STR 7 AP 4 guns, with D6 shots a turn. Very good.

@ therandom007: You DO know lootas have got "only" d3 shots each with their wonderful deffgun, and NOT d6 shots as you write?! (big difference after all!)

Well other than that i have to say they are scary as hell!! (and i dont play orks, but Mech Eldar....)

I play eldar, orks and nids. i have found that i can scare the opponent with sheer volume of troops rather than Lootas, i have found deploying 45 burna boyz makes even the battle-harderned games sweat as burnas are super lethal, or a 15 strong squad of kommandos with snikrot in it coming from behind as me boyz and trukks rush the front.

Lootas arnt as good as everyone says, yes they do a fair bit of damage even now and then but to be honest you can get much scarier

IE: Tau, tankbustas are just crap, meganobz are too pricey for what you get(since you don't get an Invunerable save) Nobz are REALLY nice, and burna's, well yeah, I don't see them being any good in a comptetive army.

and by the sounds of it you have never played a single game using any of these units.
tankbustas are great units, who dislikes multiple rokkits, let alone 2 tankhammers per unit, which on the charge will kill most things, including landraiders an monolith's.

meganobz: too pricey as they have no inv. save? a standard nob with klaw is 45 points, here you get that for 40, with a 2+ save, ok, the have slow and purp. but they are very effective.

burnas: no good in a competative army? were you born stupid?, a unit all with template weapons, this means no cover savs from it, and in combat count as having power weapons, so no armour saves in combat.
you call that no good?
point out another unit that is the same price, and has both a flame template in shooting and power weapon in CC.


as for lootas now im done with that, amazing unit for killing light vehicles, dont bother with the meks, just losing extra shots.
15 are a great ammount due to the mob rule, and a unit that can put out a possible 45 S7 shots is pretty much unheard of, and at 15 a piece, just makes them worth taking in large numbers.

I think Lootas went down a lot in my estimation when they stopped being scoring and outflank entered the game.
They are still great, but I think Burnas compete pretty well with them now, since battlewagons are a lot more survivable.
I think they are most useful against eldar of both flavours, tau and other ork armies. Against marines, they're good for popping rhinos and chipping off the odd marine, but more boyz would probably be better, or burnas maybe. Nid monstrous creatures tend to shrug off loota fire, and the broods are too numerous to make a dent.
The ork codexes only auto includes are boyz. Which is why it is a pretty damn good codex.

For what it is worth...

I faced two Orc armies in the 'Ard Boys first round...

Neither one of them fielded Lootas.

Lootas are great, but I have no plans to use them.

However, I do fear them...